Chapter 10

The next morning, after taking a shower together, I opened my closet for the first time and all of the clothes were real new looking. There were tracksuits for working out, dress clothes for going out and I opened a drawer and found some man bling. I put on some boxers, then some nice clothes. I looked through the mail and noticed something from PepsiCo.

I opened it and it was a residual check for $200,000 – looking at the detail, I remembered the day I got asked, ‘Martin McTavish, you just won the Wimbledon Tennis Championship; What are you going to do next?” – My response, in one take was, “I’m going to Disneyworld!” with my entire family in the background, including Linda.

I also noticed I had an appointment next month for a commercial for Gatorade.

Wow, thank you Butterfly Effect!

Linda and I went over to Mom and Dad’s for a quick trip to see if anything interesting had happened over there. Driving up I saw David’s car there, so we knocked, and Mom let us in.

“Hello, you two – you know for a minute you guys reminded me of Daniel and his sister Jennifer, isn’t that odd?” mom said.

Linda broke out in a loud giggle at that, causing David and Julia to come see who it was.

“Hello, to my favorite brother and sister, come on in. Welcome back to McTavish Manor,” Davey said closing the door after Linda.

“Hey guys,” I said. Linda had regained her sanity. “Mom just said that we looked like Danny and Jennifer Hilts – ain’t that a hoot?”

“Well, now that you say that out loud, I see it a little, around the eyes. I think Danny was better looking than you bro,” Davey said as we walked in to the living room.

I leaned into Davey and said, “Be careful, I could go back and have you living in Haight Ashbury, where the hippies all lived.”

“And you Linda, you are much prettier than Jennifer Hilts. I even had a crush on my older sister for a while,” Davey said looking at me.

Julia gave Linda a feeble smile as she said, “What are you two doing here?”

“A couple of things actually ... Mom – you got some leftover noodles, from last night?”

“I thought that’s what brought you here. It’s the same reason David and Julia are here,” mom stated.

“Did I ever tell anybody about a girl I met back in high school, Jennifer Romano?”

They all shook their heads no, but Davey had an interesting look on his face.

“Do you want to take some with you, or just have me heat up a plate for you all?” mom said walking in.

Linda replied, “Let me help heat some up Mom, please? Marty is going to help me make some in a couple of days. You boys wash up, while us girls get some food ready for our men.”

I had started upstairs, hearing her goof.

Julia jumped at it saying, “Oh, is Marty ‘yours’ now, Linda?”

I decided to stay out, Linda could get herself out of this, I’m quite certain.

Davey and I went to wash our hands.

“That’s kind of close, bro – I think Julia is a little jealous of Linda since I talked about having a crush.”

“I hope that’s all, I thought maybe you told her something about us,” I said a little relieved.

“Why are you really here, Marty?”

“Last night - I was married to Jennifer Romano, today none of you even remember her. I was checking to find who remembered what.”

“Wow, you just wiped her off the face of the planet?” Davey asked.

“I thought I used to be stupid, bro – of course not, she just met someone else, that’s all,” I said as we dried our hands.

“It’s impractical to do anything not actually within 100 miles of here, Davey. The Time Machine has a kind of a ‘use by’ date, based on how much it’s been used.”

“BOYS!”

“We’ll talk some more, later,” I said as we hurriedly got down the stairs.

Mom had her hands on her hips, which told me she was really pissed at something. Julia had a very satisfied look on her face as I saw and heard Linda crying.

I went over to Linda and held her.

“So, it’s true – my son and daughter are living together ... in sin?” our mother said crying her eyes out.

“What happened, Linda?”

“You heard Julia ask me ... about what I said. Well, I went blank for some reason, and I just started saying that I was in love with my big brother, Martin.”

I saw Davey just about slap his wife, but I went to him and said, “We never expected what happened and for some reason, we - we didn’t know how to bring up the subject. How do you tell your Mom and Dad, or anyone ... that you’ve fallen in love with your sister? Let’s go Linda – we’re not wanted here.”

Davey said, “Wait a minute, Marty – Don’t go? Mom, is this what you want? Julia, are you so petty?”

He started to follow us out of the house.

“I’M SORRY?” We turned to see Julia weeping into her hands. Davey rushed to her.

I said, “It was going to be found out eventually, Julia – Mom, can you still love a son, who happens to be doing the nasty with his own sister?”

I looked at my mother, and she was vacillating between the horrors of what she had just heard, with the silliness of the way I had said it.

“The food’s getting cold, come in - you bunch of miscreants,” mom said always having a way to settle an argument amongst us all. I walked up to her and gave her a great big hug.

We sat down and wolfed down these remarkable leftovers very quickly.

“So, are you living separately or are one of you moving in with the other?” Julia asked.

Linda put her hand over Julia’s and said, “We haven’t gotten that far, we usually just end up in bed together, enjoying each other - satisfying one another.”

“Linda, I will not have that kind of talk around my dinner table!” mom said.

“Sorry, Mom – what happens in our bedrooms, will stay in our bedrooms, OK?” Linda said.

Davey started the laughter that came after Linda’s remark; even Mom couldn’t help but titter a little bit.

“Her place is bigger than mine, so maybe we will end up there,” I casually said.

“Martin Randolph McTavish, how dare you assume that I want you to move in with me? We haven’t discussed this even for a second. Maybe I want a whole new place, a place big enough for the two of us to spread out a little. What do you think of that, Martin?” my formerly quiet, strait-laced sister said.

I went over to Mom, quietly asking to borrow her wedding ring, hiding this from everyone. Mom smiled and handed it to me, kissing me on the cheek. I rounded the corner and got on a knee in front of my little sister.

“I’m 58, you’re 55 – Linda Cecelia McTavish, will you live with me as husband and wife until we get tired of one another, or one of us dies?”

Not your usual proposal?

I had clearly taken her by surprise – she started bubbling up, Davey had reached over and rubbed her back, calming her down a little.

No words had been said for way too long, but I stayed on my knee, holding her left hand. I took my mother’s ring and put it on my little sister’s ring finger.

“We’ll find a brand-new place to buy together and to live together, how’s that sound to you?”

Mom and Julia were both in tears, while Davey was trying to be strong.

“What the hell is going on in here?”

Not sure how long Dad had been there before he had said anything.

“Dad, just a minute, I’m waiting to find our if my sister wants to move in with me,” I turned back to Linda and said, “SO?”

“Oh, you dear wonderful, formerly stupid boy; of course, I will. Now get up and give me a kiss and give your mother back her wedding ring. I plan to get one of those from you very soon.”

I gave her what she asked for, causing Davey to slap his knee, Julia to bring a hand to her face; while Mom rolled her eyes as Dad couldn’t grasp the concept, apparently.

“Daddy, Marty and I are going to live together, how’s that sound to you?” Linda said.

Sitting down, taking a bite of the still wonderful smelling chicken and noodles, Dad said, “Lorraine, I don’t completely understand all of this, but could you heat this up for me please? Your cooking may be the death of me someday, but I can’t think of a better way to die.”

“I could, Dad,” I said causing Davey and Julia to chuckle a little.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone had been brought up to date on my and Linda’s situation. With Davey’s help, we avoided bringing up any other touchy subjects.

“Dad, tell me about the day you first met Mom, please?” I said giving Linda a kiss and Davey a wink.

Leaning back, in ‘his’ chair, Dad responded, “Sure, Marty. It was 1951, the middle of March. The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg was still in the news. The high school that your mother and I attended was having a semi-parallel mock trial to it; I was 15 and a defense witness, and your mother was 16 and one of the prosecuting attorneys.”

Mom had come out and wriggled down into Dad’s lap.

“She called me to the stand, and after I was sworn in, she started to question me. She was so pretty, in her mother’s suit, wearing the glasses that she used to wear all of the time back then.”

“I was pretending to be an employee at the same firm as Julius Rosenberg had been, where he’d worked as an electrical engineer. I don’t remember any of those specific details any more, but that day I met, and fell hard for Lorraine Angelica Smithson.”

Mom gave Dad a kiss on the cheek, quickly wiping it off with her apron.

He continued, “She wouldn’t date me until the trial was over, the mock trial. We stayed close, going to Harvard, technically she was at Radcliffe, but many of the ladies from there went on to Harvard.”

“I had graduated, your mother got a certificate from Radcliffe, we came back to get married and I got a job, and we found the apartment in North Fond Du Lac, where you were born.”

“Wow,” I said as we got up to leave. “What a story, and a good memory, pop!”

“Are you still going to live in Milwaukee?” Julia asked. “I ... never had an older sister.”

She and Linda exchanged glances.

“Sure,” Linda responded. “That would be nice.”

They walked up to each other and hugged, as I shook hands with my father and my little brother.

As we got in the car, I leaned over and said, “That went well, don’t ya think?”

Linda looked into my eyes and said, “I didn’t know what we were walking into today, but I’m sure glad it all happened. Now what? Go back and sneak a peek at history, or go find out who becomes our next president, or just back to my place so you can plow a few acres inside my broiling womanhood?”

“Broiling Womanhood, are you too good to say, ‘hot snatch’ or something,” I said.

She slapped me, but we drove back to my place anyway, laughing and holding hands.

This time it was going to be slow and loving.

After another impressive sexual decathlon between the two of us, I got a call from Doc Huckabee.

“What’s up, Doc?”

“Marty, if I had a nickel...”

“Sorry, what can I do for you?”

“Looking at the Time Machine Log, I can see you haven’t been anywhere for a couple of days, have you worked everything out you wanted?”

“I do have a question, Doc but not over the phone; when can we come to see you?”

“How about 3pm today?”

“Perfect, See you then, Doc?” I said hanging up.

“You have a sparkle in your eye, Lover – what’s up?” Linda said.

“I’m waiting until after I talk with the Doc, OK with you?” I asked.

We got up from bed and got dressed. I fixed us a quick snack then we headed to Docs.

After going downstairs, I started my idea.

“Doc, what is the chance of a 55-year-old woman, giving birth to a baby, naturally?”

Linda looked over to me and just shook her head, as we held hands awaiting Doc’s thought process. I didn’t shock him, as much as I did my sister.