A Girl and her red notebook by D.A. Sanford - HTML preview

Lost companions

I sit here reading my old red notebooks and reminiscing of past adventures. At my age they are all I have left of loved ones that have gone on their final jump into an unknown and unreachable universe. Believe me, as the current holder of the watch, even in my old age, I have tried. Many settings, many rumors, many jumps. I never have found their universe.

I know now that my final jump is close.

Like my mentor, the elderly man, I had found a young boy that was about my age when the tales were first being written for me. Like I resembled his first wife when she was a child, the lad looks almost like my late husband when he was young. With my written tales for him, I left mementoes in my possession that were left to verify the tales. He is now around the same age that I was when the elderly man’s sons came to tell me of his last jump.

That’s when I met his youngest son who I later married. I have asked my son’s and my youngest daughter to wait until I have jumped and my remains are put to rest to deliver the package that contains the watch and the instructions.

He already has the whip and other necessities I have passed to him over the years with the tales and tell my daughter, who is the same age, that she will be traveling with the boy

I’m tired now and look forward to my last jump. Still the memories flood in. the most frequent are the loss of my dear companions.

I lost my mother due to massive strokes but she was in her late seventies and really had a wonderful life. I was on a jump, but my goblin brothers were with her until the end. My

husband and I returned just after she arrived at the funeral home. It was a shock but I was thankful that she was no longer in pain. I had told her many times,

“One morning, you’re going to wake up. You’ll be thirty again. You will stretch and tell yourself, Damn that was a weird dream.”

I hope she had just that.

It was around thirty years after Hero became my ‘protector’ when we noticed that he was on his way to his jump. My husband thought it would be nice for him to visit his home planet one more time. I agreed and opened the jump point. Hero looked like he was happy, tired but happy.

As we walked at his pace, a pack came out. This time no cursory growling. I put the jerky down but this time it was the leader that picked up the bag and placed it in front of Hero, then backed off slowly with his head bowed in respect. The whole pack was bowing to him. Then they slowly turned and left.

This happened with the other packs. We realized that they were bowing to show respect to my protector. Like they were telling him “Job well done, now rest old one.”

The three of us returned to our home. Later that night, Hero died in my arms. Peacefully without as much as a whimper. His cremains are in his urn, ready to go with my remains.

Life sometimes is a mean task master. Months after Hero’s death, my husband and I were on a shopping trip. He said that we needed to stop by the bank. He needed some documents from our safe deposit box. Little did I know that he had earlier put a gift for me in the box. This was a surprise he did for me.

We got the box and were in the private room. He had me open it. There was a neckless that he had a jeweler hand craft for me. It was an exquisitely made pendent in the likeness of Hero. He had given the jeweler a photo. My husband must have paid a fortune because it was so intricate that it looked like a photo in metal.

He told me that he wanted Hero to continue to protect me. I thanked him and gave him a big hug. We closed the box and it was returned to the vault. Then we walked out of the back right into a very nervous bank robber.

The noise of us coming into the lobby caused him to turn and fire. His nervous reaction cause the round to blow off the top of my husband’s head. Dead instantly. The bank guard used that instant to kill the robber.

Joy instantly went to sorrow. I still feel his hand slipping from mine and feel the blood splatter. The scene plays out in my mind over and over. He is buried in the family plot. In his hands is a neckless with a pendant of a large dog. When I placed it in his hands I told him to give it to me when we meet again.

I sit here reading and my daughter comes in to check on me. I talk to her for a while and tell her that I’m going to take a nap here in my chair. I remind her about the package and my wishes. She has tears in her eyes as she tells me that she will stay with me.

The last words I hear her say is

“I love you mom. Have a nice jump.”

I wake up in my bed. It’s morning and I’m feeling very good. Hero is on my bed. My husband walks in and hands me the pendent with a smile. I say to him,

“You won’t believe the weird dream I just had.”

He tells me that an all new great adventure begins today. I put on the pendent, get up and take my husband’s hand.

“Come on Hero. Time to go on an adventure”