MacKenzie and I approach my house bopping along to music holding hands.
"Wow, nice house!" MacKenzie says sounding impressed.
I look at the brown and beige ranch-style boring suburban home i've lived in for the past 9 years.
"Uh... it's cool I guess." I say shrugging.
"It's just you and your sister that live here? What does your sister do for work?" MacKenzie asks as I unlock the door.
"Uhhhhh she does... um modeling I guess?" I say hesitantly.
"What is she like a camgirl?" MacKenzie jokes and off of my downtrodden look she goes wide-eyed. "Wait really!?"
"Yeah she's sort of a shut-in. She only leaves the house for her mid day dog or to like get groceries... which i'm hoping she's out doing now..." I say as I open the door and lead MacKenzie inside.
It's quiet so I think i'm probably right that she's not home. MacKenzie is like a kid in a candy store looking around at the pictures on the walls and the knickknacks on the shelves.
"This was your grandmas house huh? I can tell - it has a certain 'old lady je ne sais qua'..." She says with a grin.
"Yeah my granddad bought this house for her when he got back from Korea." I say as I toss my bag down.
"Thats wild. Did you ever know him?" She asks looking at a collage of pictures of me with my grandma as a little kid. "Oh my god you were soooo cute!"
I blush, embarrassed and try to go hide in the kitchen.
"Nah, he died before I was born. Do you want anything to drink? Water, purple stuff, Sunny D?" I call out, opening the fridge.
"Waters cool... how come your sister isn't in any of these?" MacKenzie calls back.
"Oh uh... she wasn't around then, I guess." I say pouring us some waters.
"I have a small family too. It's pretty much just me and my mom." She says looking through the books on the shelf.
"Well at least you have her right?" I say, not really sure what the proper response to that would be.
"Yeah... so does your sister know about your crazy time powers?" MacKenzie asks excitedly peaking into the master bedroom to see a bunch of dusty older photos hanging on the wall and a bunch of young womens clothing strewn across the bed and a computer with a webcam set up at the foot of it.
"Yeah. She does." I say simply as I walk up behind her with her glass of water.
MacKenzie jumps, startled. "Oh! Thanks!" She says as she takes a big sip of water.
The screensaver comes up on the computer. A photo-montage of pictures of me and Sadie taken more recently.
"Oh is that your sister? I see the family resemblance! You're both so skinny!" She says walking into the room for a closer look.
Her eye is briefly caught by a wedding ring sitting in a box on the nightstand but she turns her attention back to the pictures.
"Uh we shouldn't really be in here... Sadie could come home any minute and she get's kind of cranky about being in her room without permission..." I say nervously.
That's when MacKenzie looks up at the wedding portrait of my grandparents hanging on the wall opposite the bed. The thin waifish young woman in the wedding gown with the short cropped brown hair is a far cry from the large wrinkled, gray-haired old woman bouncing me on her dimpled thunder thigh she saw on the wall in the living room.
"You gave her her youth back." She said quietly, putting it all together.
"I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" I blurt out defensively.
"I wasn't judging you love. I mean of course anyone with your powers would do that for an elderly relative wouldn't they? I bet your grandma... or sister... or whatever is over-the-moon about it!" She says, her eyes darting back from the girl on the wall to the girl on the computer.
"Yeah you'd lose that bet. She acts like I ruined her life." I say looking down at my sneakers. "Can we get out of here? I really don't want her to catch me in her room."
MacKenzie nods, with a look of sympathy and concern and follows me out of Sadie's room and into my own.
"But I thought you said that the changes like wear off after a little time... I mean everything we did today went back to normal eventually..." She says trying to understand.
"Yeah, not everything evidently. Which is why I don't really like to use them to just fuck around... " I respond and MacKenzie frowns, looking like she suddenly feels a bit guilty.
"How long? I mean how long has Sadie been your 'sister'?" She asks kicking off her shoes.
"About five years." I say with a shrug and plop down in my desk chair.
"Huh, so now I get why she's kind of a shut-in. Hard to get a job or do things when you're constantly having to explain to people why your birthdate says the 1930s but you look like you're 21." She offers.
"Right." I say, appreciating that she gets it.
"Does she ever worry that your powers will wear off on her like when she's in the middle of doing a show? Like all these guys are enjoying a svelte young coed doing a strip tease and then *pop* fat granny in her underwear." She says with a giggle.
I give a disgusted look and her holds her hands up defensively. "Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help imagining it! Ooo! Records!" She squeals and kneels down to flip through my ever growing record collection.
"Some of these are..." She says looking amazed.
"Yep." I say proudly as she holds up a pristine first edition of the Who's Tommy.
"The perks of dating a time traveler..." She says to herself and I nearly fall out of my chair.
She settles on The Smith's 1986 album 'The Queen is Dead' by the Smiths.
"I love this album... I think if I could pick a time to be a teen in besides now, i'd totally pick the early to mid 80s." She says siding the record out of it's sleeve and reverently placing it on the player. She puts the needle down and the song '
There is a Light the Never Goes Out' begins to play.
"There's some hairspray in the bathroom I think... if you want to..." I mime making her hair something out of a Madonna video.
"Haha... hey my pants are really dirty from our misadventures today. I don't want to get your bed dirty. Would it be weird if I take them off?" She asks with a smirk.
"No!" I say quickly and my voice cracks. My cheeks from red and I try to lean back looking casual. "Uh no, it wouldn't be weird. Uh we're cool. You're cool." I try to recover.
She giggles as she's already unbuttoning her jeans and sliding them down her creamy legs. She's wearing lavender cotton panties. I'm not sure where to look. MacKenzie climbs up onto my bed and crosses her long bare legs so that she's sitting Indian style. She tugs her shirt down to give her a little bit of modesty but seems cool with being half naked in my room.
"What period would you want to be a teen in? You're obviously way more informed on this question than I am." She says leaning forward to indicate interest.
"I don't know... honestly all time periods seem to have some things that are cool and other parts that make it shit to be a teen..." I say honestly.
"And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die" MacKenzie sings along with the record. She has a really beautiful voice.
"So..." I find myself saying as I try not to stare at her on my bed.
"... Do you want to make out?" She asks non-nonchalantly.
"Yes! Yeah... I mean... if you do..." I say as I practically leap to my bed.
She wraps her hands around my neck and head and leans toward me.
"Now if all my teeth fall out while we do this - it's not my fault... it's yours." She says with a giggle and a wink.
She closes her eyes and purses her lips as I lean forward as well and we kiss. Soon I feel her tongue in my mouth and her soft velvety lips against mine and I'm in absolute heaven. My hand slowly finds it way to her bare thigh as she moans softly and presses herself against me, running her hands through my hair.
She breaks away briefly between making out to say "So I think we should figure out good ways to practice your powers so that you're really in control of them. Then think of the awesome things we could do!" She geeks out and begins kissing me more passionately.
"Yeah! That sounds great!" I say as she pulls my shirt off and then her own revealing her bare breasts once more.
"Ah you get the young perky boobs! Lucky you!" She giggles.
Soon we are rolling around mostly naked on my bed engulfing each others faces. MacKenzie straddles me with her arm covering her tits.
"You're the most beautiful thing i've ever seen." I whisper and MacKenzie's hard outer shell of care-free irreverence and complete self-confidence melts. She blushes and then leans down and kisses me intensely. I feel her hand reaching down to unbuckle my hands and slide them down.
"I want you Reed." She whispers as she tugs her own panties down.
I reach up to put my hands on her trim waist and my hands swat through the air as she's suddenly gone.
"No! No no no no no. Come on!!!" I say as my powers cock block me once again.
I'm still sitting on my bed in my room... or maybe not? The bed i'm in is waaaay more comfortable than the beat up twin and box spring I normally sleep on. I look around and all my posters and stuff are gone off the wall. The walls look like they've been redone... they almost look like touch screens or something?
Shit! I'm probably in my house but like after it's not my house anymore! I pull up my pants and buckle my belt again. My shirts back in my room... with MacKenzie. I'm going to have to explain to whatever family lives here now that I actually used to live here with my sister/grandmother probably before all of you were born! You're probably wondering why i'm shirtless... well it was nice meeting you!
I turn to try and hop out the window but find that it doesn't open. I put my hand to it and feel air coming through the glass... like it's a screen but it's like solid. The future is always so bizarre.
I quietly tip-toe toward the door, hoping I can get the hell out of here without any awkward interactions while I wait to get shunted back to my present.
I exit the room and stop cold. In the living room, also satisfyingly futuristic with computerized walls and ceilings and lots of plants that look real but don't seem to need water or soil, there's framed digital photo of me. I look a little older but... not much. Maybe college age? I'm like doing some kind of heroic pose. I look like a total tool. But this is clearly still my family's house.
"Sen....? Is that you?" I hear a shrill, shaky voice call out from from Sadie's room. Maybe grandma's back to her old self... just the long way. I can't decide if she'll be pleased or pissed to see a teenage version of me.
I turn and push the door which silently slides open. I take a step in and stop. The frail ancient woman laying in the bed with long scraggly white hair draped about her pillow is definitely NOT elderly Sadie.
She's clearly naked under her sheet. It outlines her decrepit bony body that is hooked up to some devices and tubes. Her breathing is shallow. I can see on her paper thin arms the faded colors or tattoos and her eyes, even sunken and covered in a milky-white film are unmistakable.
She looks at me silently as I stare at her body laying there and her shriveled breasts raising and lowering with her labored breathes. She wheezes and a smile creeps up on her thin wrinkled mouth.
I open my mouth to say something but a woman comes in behind me. Much younger than the aged crone laying in the bed but old enough to be my mother. She has Asian features and she's looking at me surprised and alarmed.
"Who are you!? What are you doing here! You can't be in here!" She yells at me and begins tapping her temple as if she's pressing a button.
"It's okay Senny... he's fine where he is. It's my husband. Give us a moment please." The old woman in the bed wheezes.
The younger woman looks at me with a mix of confusion and other emotions. "Grandpa?" She whispers as she leaves the room.
I'm equally swirling with a lot of different feelings right now. But the old woman seems to only be experiencing joy. Despite her frailty and age she still exudes an impressive amount of self confidence.
"Well... how awesome is this?" She croaks with a wrinkly grin.
"I- I'm not sure-" I begin to babble trying to think of the right thing to say in this moment.
She waives a gnarled veiny hand as if to dismiss my concern.
"Don't worry, you don't have to say anything. You've already said it all. This is for me, not you... though i'm figuring I just dropped some pretty big bombshells on you a minute ago. Here... come closer, I want to see that baby-face." The old woman rattles excitedly waving me over.
I come closer and reach out and hold her clammy old hand. She squeezes it as tightly as she can which isn't very hard.
"I won't tell you how old I am, so you have at least SOME mystery in your life but i'm old... very OLD... I don't mind though. Being with you all these years you get used to looking like this." She wheezes with a smirk.
"But I got this old on my own accord this time... would you be especially grossed out if I asked for a kiss?" She asks with a hopefully look in her ancient eyes.
I shake my head 'no' silently and give her a sad smile before leaning down and kissing her as passionately as I dare at her advanced age.
"Just like I remember." She says with a big smile. "At the risk of sounding like a dirty lecherous old woman i'd take more if my body was up for the task. But I'll just have to settle for the kiss." She says tiredly, still clutching my hand.
"I can fix you..." I begin to blurt out taking her frail body in my arms.
She giggles and wheezes. "You sound like that old Coldplay song. 'Lights will guuuuuuide you home...'" She begins to sing closing her eyes.
"Why didn't I fix this already! You shouldn't be like this! With my powers - we can be young forever!" I say in frustration at my future self.
She snickers, opening her eyes a crack. "It doesn't work like that baby. You'll learn that eventually... Reed, there are a lot of things ahead that will be tough and scary and heartbreaking... I just want you to know that there's only one that I regret..." She rattles slowly and softly as she drifts asleep.
The beeping of the machines fades away and my heart stops for a moment only to realize that i'm standing in Sadie's room and my 'sister' is sitting in her underwear on her bed. She shuts off her computer abruptly.
"Reed!" She says startled and annoyed.
"Sorry I- it was an accident." I says averting my eyes.
"Yeah, it always is... your 'girlfriend' is waiting for you in your room. I made her some hot cocoa and pop-overs. Nice kid, a little traumatized but I can tell she likes you." Sadie says with a sympathetic frown.
I nod and exit her room and rush into my own. MacKenzie is curled up in my bed. Her shirt is back on and she's holding a mug between her two hands listening to
Keep Yourself Warm by Frightened Rabbit.
"The drawbacks of dating a time traveler huh?" She says softly as I enter the room.
I lower my head in guilt and walk over to pick up my shirt.
"I'm really sorry." I say simply and honestly.
She gives me a disappointed smile.
"It's okay. I got to meet your grand-sis and listen to your favorite band while you were gone." She says raising her mug in cheers.
"I usually come back around the same moment... I guess I was gone kind of long this time?" I ask though I already know the answer.
She shrugs. "So where did you go? Who did you see?" She asks making small talk.
"I... I saw you." I say honestly climbing into bed next to MacKenzie.
Her look of disappointment and frustration gave way to surprise and intrigue. She thinks it through in her head and looks at me wide-eyed. "...Oh!"