Chapter 2 - Trust starts with truth and ends with truth.

The next few hours were uneventful. I got dressed, packed and we got on the flight and headed to Florida. The flight was boring, and while my sisters talked, my mother read her book, and I sat there making my plans. I had to be careful, but at the same time, I had to get some changes made.

First there was my mother. Oh boy was that going to be a mess. I knew that she’d run out of burnable money in just over a year, and be living on food stamps and not working. That part was easy to deal with. I’d just let her suffer in her own stupidity. But, with my sisters, I wanted to make sure they saw her for the monster she was. Problem was, she didn’t treat them as bad as she treated me. I’d have to gather evidence to prove otherwise. A recording device could help, but something that was small, portable, and usable wasn’t common place in the 1990s. I’d have to get crafty with audio tapes and recording devices. Easy to do, but I would have to plan things out carefully.

Then there were my five sisters. Chloe and Shirley would be easy enough. I remembered what I had seen from my first life. Chloe, though abusive towards me, had wanted to find a male role model in her life, and ended up going off the rails when she kept on rejecting them. She ended up with 4 kids by 4 different fathers. It was the same as Elysa. They were, in my general labeling, a couple of bar whores. They’d go out, pick up guys, have sex with them unprotected unless the guy thought ahead, and then blame the guy for not using protection when they got pregnant. They refused birth control in their later years, and would milk the system for government help even if they had jobs. As for Shirley she was different. She was the one who vanished with the family friend that she would later marry and have kids with. He was the father figure she needed, and had zero, and I mean ZERO, faith in herself or confidence in what she could become.

As I stated, Elysa was the same as Chloe, except that instead of having an aptitude for office work, she had an aptitude for hands on physical labor. Fawn was easier, as long as I kept her close, and understanding, she wouldn’t turn out like she had in my first life, and as for Meagan, she would be difficult. She had the ability to read things the right way. She was already seeing thru who I was, and I wouldn’t have things easy with her with my planning.

The plane itself felt like a sardine can, and I cursed that I was still claustrophobic at a time like this. I grabbed by backpack and pulled out the pad of paper that I had brought along and began just sketching. I wasn’t drawing anything in particular, when I felt a head on my shoulder. I looked over to see Meagan leaning against me.

“You’re different. You keep denying it, but you are. I can tell.” She so no one else would hear.

“What makes you keep saying that?” I asked.

“You think I haven’t been picking up on what’s going on? How you’re acting?” She whispered.

I figured what the hell. I opted to keep my voice quiet and moved towards her so she could hear.

“Yeah. I’m different.” I said.

“Okay, so why?” She asked.

“I’d ask if you could keep a secret, but I already know you can.” I explained.

“Oh really?” She said.

“Yeah, and I’ll tell you when we can be alone, but you must keep quiet on it.” I said.

“Deal.” She said.

She watched me drawing after I shifted back in my seat. To be honest, the feeling of relief I was getting from knowing I was about to spill the beans about my situation, it was awesome. Meagan kept leaning against me as she watched me just drawing anything that came to mind. Soon the plane landed, and Meagan seemed to want to keep me close by. She stayed by my side all the way to the rental car area, and when we got into the van, she sat next to me.

My mother drove us to the rental property and the seven of us got out of the van and carried our stuff inside.

“Joshua, you will be in the living rooms. The girls will have the bedrooms.” She said before carrying her stuff to a bedroom.

I carried my stuff into the living room from the front door, which was like 5 feet, as my sisters went to their respective rooms. I walked up to the sliding glass door on the back of the small house after tossing my backpack on the couch. I looked out the glass to see the pool as I had all those years ago. I thought about my next course of action. I could take Meagan on a walk and explain things, or I could...

“So, can we talk now?” Meagan asked from behind me, interrupting my thought process.

“Um...” I started as I turned to face her.

I looked at her again, for the first time in what felt like years. There she was my eight year old little sister again. I couldn’t think of her like this when I knew what her life would end up like. I sighed at this thought and then directed her to join me by the pool outside. I closed the door behind us.

“First off, I know you’re good at keeping secret, but I need you to swear to not tell a soul about this. No matter what. If you do, who knows what consequences we could all face.” I said.

“Sure, Josh. You’ve got my word.” Meagan said.

“Okay.” I sighed. “The reason I’m different to you, is because I’ve done this all before.” I said.

She looked at me with disbelief.

“I died on Christmas night of the year two thousand eighteen while going to get a sandwich from Pop’s in Las Vegas, NV. I had lost my wife and father in law in a car accident just eleven days before, on my birthday.” I told her. “I saw how you all turned out. I saw what made things the way they were in my time, and they gave me a second chance. A new shot at life. The one who gave it to me was a being that was ascended in a fashion. He wanted to see what I would do, given the second chance, and wanted to know if the second chance was worth living thru everything again.” I explained