Chapter 5

Saturday Sep 16, 1978

In the early morning dawn while it was too dark to see, a shadow crept through the streets down by the docks and entered a warehouse. It went up the stairs to the upper floor without making a sound almost as if it had been levitating and not actually walking. A hand clamped itself over Doortje’s mouth and her eyes popped wide open in terror.

She heard a familiar shushing sound which helped drain the adrenaline out of her system.

“Psst, it’s me, Janneke” the voice said, “I’m here, what’s the status?”

Doortje took a moment to collect her wits and sat up in bed. “Well ... The boy you wanted us to watch was involved in a boating accident not long after we arrived and is currently paralyzed in the hospital.”

Janneke cursed a blue streak and then added “Take me to him!”

Doortje wagged her index finger at her older sister, “Not so fast, we have to get you signed up for school!”

Janneke’s shoulders slumped. “Augh! I hate that part. I’m tired of these human schools, they are so archaic!”

Tiffany rushed to the hospital immediately after receiving the phone call and hurried to Billy’s room to see him sitting up with his legs dangling off the bed and no cast on his arm. She stopped dead in her tracks as her brain tried to process what her eyes were seeing. Nurse Ellie stood next to his left arm trying to extract his blood pressure but the machine did not seem to be cooperating with her.

“MOM! I can move my legs! See?” he proceeded to kick both legs back and forth. “Not only that, my arm seems to be back to normal, too. Talk about a miracle!”

Tiffany exploded with happiness and rushed across the room to her son to give him a hug unfettered by bulky equipment. The nurse looked up: “We have him scheduled for some X-rays and other tests later. The doctor doesn’t understand what happened nor does he believe in miracles but wants all the data he can get. I’ll let you know when the orders are issued” and then walked out.

Billy gave his mother a nervous look. “Mom, get me out of here as soon as possible. They told me I was kicking my legs while I slept. Had I known, I probably wouldn’t let them in on it so soon lest they dissect me like a guinea pig. Please, I beg of you, get me out.”

“This is very irregular, everyone thought you were paralyzed for good despite what they were telling you, things like this don’t happen every day. They need to gather the information so maybe other patients can be helped.”

Bill shook his head. “They won’t find anything, an angel or something came in last night and healed me. If I told them that, I’d be moved straight to the psycho ward. There is nothing they’ll find that will help anyone else, because they didn’t do anything.”

“OH Billy, you were just having a dream, don’t be silly.”

“No mother, I was not.”

“Well, sorry but I have to leave to take care of some last minute arrangements for tonight. I’ll stop by the nurses station to see if I need to sign anything for the tests. Can I bring you anything when I come back?”

“Sure, a bus ticket home if you aren’t gonna drive me, but if I can’t have that, an acoustic guitar would be nice if I have one.”

“Not a problem, see you later. Love you!”

Janneke couldn’t keep the comments to herself anymore as the three sisters walked home. “Geez, that Cindy girl is a real teef, is she always that way?”

Doortje laughed out loud, “Oh yeah. She’s a real piece of work and is going to be your competition, too! Although... “ she continued to tease her older sister, “I hear Billy doesn’t like her very much so all you have to do is turn the charm on and he’ll be yours!”

Beth smirked, “You might need to do more than that” she said wagging her eyebrows in a provocative manner. “I hear she puts out, so you’re gonna have to do something unforgettable to overcome those choice tata’s of hers!”

Doortje gasped and hip-checked her sister, “I hate it when you talk like that! Not all boys are that way!”

Beth chuffed and replied “Yeah, only the dead ones!”

Janneke rebuked her sisters “OK girls, we have to focus and come up with a plan.”

Just as she said, Tiffany showed up at 4pm dressed to the nines in a very form fitting white dress that was not very motherly at all. In her hand was a ratty guitar case with fading stickers but within the case was a slightly worn, but otherwise good acoustic guitar.

“The guy at the guitar store said this was the best one they had in stock. I sure hope so because I know nothing about them!”

Having the use of both hands in his new body was still a bit of a novelty for Billy. He looked over the guitar and spun it around a few times to get a good feeling of the shape it was in. It was a 1964 Gibson J-45ADJ dreadnaught with a cherry sunburst finish and a very low serial number.

“Geez mom, how much did you pay for this?”

“I don’t know ... maybe a few thousand dollars? He said it was signed by one of the Beatles but I forget who.”

Billy’s brain was stuck on the price and laughed at thought that only the wife of a Billionaire would buy something for a few thousand dollars as if she were buying a loaf of bread. He idly heard the words “signed” and “Beatles” but hadn’t paid full attention when he saw the signature ... JOHN LENNON!!!” ‘Holy Crap!’ he thought, ‘this thing should be worth a small fortune in the not too distant future when John is murdered.’ It was that thought which nearly seized his brain.

“Billy? Are you OK? You haven’t answered my question” his mom asked.

“Oh, sorry. I zoned out for a moment. This was, was so thoughtful.”

“Did I get ripped off? I’ll go give him a piece of my mind if I was.”

“No, mom. You couldn’t have gotten me a better guitar. This thing is gonna...” he paused for a moment thinking he should give this a bit more thought before saying anything. “ ... Help me pass the time in here. It was a great price mom. Did you happen to get a pick or two?”

She lifted her small handbag and started fumbling through it which you’d think wouldn’t take too long since it was so small but it took too much time nonetheless. He first noticed how attractive Tiffany was as she fumbled about with her purse. She reminded him of an Eastern European track athlete only with the wider hips gained from childbirth. Sixteen years prior she was probably second to none in the beauty department especially if she was toned from playing tennis. No wonder she was pursued so aggressively by the man who was apparently his biological father. He was also curious as to what attracted her to him since she didn’t appear to be a gold digger.

With his attention back to the guitar, Billy strummed it a few times and found his mind drifting back to the John Lennon issue. What should I do with his knowledge of the future? Maybe I could save a few people but how will that change of history affect my future or that of everyone else? Is death like Final Destination where if you avoid it one way, it will come back around to claim you one way or another? There is also the issue of having to explain how he knows said events will happen so as to not implicate himself. While this debate was going on in his mind, his fingers and ears were working on autopilot to tune the guitar. Having done it for so many years, it required little conscious effort to play it. Dory taught him how to distinguish the open string tones from each other so he could tune it by ear and get close enough to not need a tuner.

He fingered a D-chord and strummed the strings and listened until the dissonant sounds faded away. The tonal quality was top notch, not too bright or dark sounding while the action of the strings almost perfect. Not too high or too low which would cause a buzzing on the frets. A few more chords were played and then he put a simple song together. His fingers struggled to do what they were told and he soon grew frustrated enough he had to put it down. With nowhere to put it, it laid on his lap while he waited for the nurse to come by and help him out of bed. After thinking about it for awhile, he concluded the muscle memory of the body was fighting the instructions the brain was giving it. The more he thought about it, the more positive his attitude became as he relaxed his head in the pillow and closed his eyes for a power nap. Later, after dinner, he picked it up again and things were a little easier once he relaxed and let things flow. The harder driving songs didn’t sound right on an acoustic so he moved to slower stuff and even tried some picking. Before he knew it, Annie’s Song from John Denver was playing on the strings so he gave singing a try. At first the sound croaked out but like the fingers, it finally began to sound slightly better than a screeching cat in its final death throes. On the third try, there was a presence at the door and he looked up to see a tall strawberry blonde standing there with a friendly smile. There was something very familiar about her but he couldn’t place it, maybe she had been by when he was on meds and didn’t remember it. There had been a lot of familiar people that he couldn’t place, lately. That niggled in the back of his mind, too.

“Why’d you stop? I enjoyed your playing. I’m sure it must be hard to do something so complicated right after your accident. I’ll bet your neurons are experiencing a Chinese Fire Drill in there” she said letting loose a schoolgirl giggle.

The sound of her voice, like her presence, was soothing in a near supernatural way. Her demeanor was sweet although it appeared she was a little outside her comfort zone. Her clothes were on the worn side and her hair that went down to the small of her back had seen better days yet still seemed to have a radiance about it. She stood there looking him in the eyes and the silence became a pause which seemed to take on a life all its own. The silence caused her to turn and leave but the sound of his voice stopped her.

“Wait, don’t leave. Thank you very much for your kind words. Why don’t you come in? I don’t get many visitors and would love to have some company. They tell me my name is Billy, so you can call me that. What is yours? I noticed an accent, where do you come from?”

Timidly she entered the room, not quite sure why she was so nervous. Then she remembered she never really met him before, he was unconscious the whole time she was around around him before. Their eyes stayed fixed on each other as if having a conversation neither were aware of. It took a good bit of concentration but she made it gracefully across the room and pulled up a seat.

“Janneke. My name is Janneke. So, they call you Billy? That implies you weren’t Billy to begin with or you just don’t remember? Or should I call you something like, hmm, Adam? Which is it?” She had no idea where that comment came from or the smirk that followed. Mentally, she kicked herself and vowed to use more restraint in the future.

Billy sat there stunned by her words and tried not to show it. The guitar began to slide off the bed but Janneke was faster and saved it from hitting the floor. She stepped back a few steps when he had it secured.

“Nice catch, you should place baseball! As far as the other, if I told you, you’d think I was crazy so take your pick. There are only two explanations, you have a fifty percent chance of being correct” said Billy.

“I see” she said with an equally flirty twinkle in her eyes. “I’m new in town and was up here inquiring about a Candy Striper job. The administrators always seem to be away when I’m here. You’re quite the celebrity I hear.”

“Really? You still haven’t answered my question, where’d you come from? I detect a bit of a European accent, we don’t seem to get many from that part of the world down here.”

“I’m from Holland which is a part of The Netherlands, but half of my family is from Norway. My sisters moved here over the summer but I wasn’t able to join them until just recently. Do you go to school nearby?”

Billy gave her a big smile, “Please forgive my lack of manners for not introducing myself earlier, nice to meet you, Janneke. I’d shake your hand but my arm isn’t long enough.”

“That’s a shame” she said while moving within arms reach, “one can always hope, can’t they?”

Billy extended his arm to shake Janneke’s hand and there was literally an electric spark as their hands touched causing both parties to flinch yet not let go. It was at that moment she experienced the trauma he suffered from being hit by the truck as she mentally relived his memories. She also picked up what Doortje and the Fire Lady had done. Her legs became rubbery and she grabbed the bed rail while scanning for the nearest chair to fall into.

“I’m so sorry” Billy said while sitting a little more upright in concern, “I don’t know where that shock came from, maybe it’s a static buildup from the machines they have me hooked up to or maybe something isn’t grounded properly?”

It took a minute to clear her head and recover her composure while she looked him over. With her hand still over her heart, she responded “No, it’s not your fault. I don’t know what happened but I guess you could say we had quite the connection, huh?” She looked at him with her blue eyes and began to giggle as the joke became evident to Billy.

Her mind was racing as she wondered if what she just experienced was the imprinting her mother had talked about. Her mother explained it could happen but did not volunteer any details.

“So, are you a student or have you graduated?” Billy asked.

“I’m in my third year of Voorbereidend Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs” she said matter-of-factly.

Billy just looked at her with a blank face and after several blinks of the eye, he responded “Uh, what is that?”

Janneke giggled, “They told me I’d be a junior when I came to America.”

“Well, why didn’t you say that the first time?”

“I did, but I wanted to see you squirm! Anyways, back to your song, please play it again from the beginning.”

Now that he had an audience, his fingers developed a case of stage fright and became stiff and unresponsive. The bloody, no good ungrateful appendages! He fumbled thru a few chords when she stood up and extended her arms.

“Give me your hands” she said.

Hesitantly, he placed the guitar down between his knees and extended his hands towards her. As her hands sandwiched his, he felt a strange vibration along with an icy hot feeling. It started out as a tickle and then she leaned over and breathed heavily on them and rubbed.

“They are just a little cold and need to warm up. Try again” she said as she sat back down into her chair and maintaining a straight poker face.

Billy was confused and cocked his head. “I thought you were going to use some kind of ancient Chinese magic and all you did was breathe on my hand like anyone could do.”

“Anyone? Who goes around breathing on other peoples hands? As far as the ancient Chinese go, I’m sure they did the same thing when their hands were cold, so it looks like you were right! Maybe we should be speaking Mandarin instead of English? Xiàng zhèyàng?”

“What in the world did you just say?”

“I said ‘like this?’ in Mandarin.” By this time, her poker face was starting to break down and a few snickers were escaping. It wasn’t long before she was belly laughing which resulted in Billy joining along with her.

“You’re something else, Janneke. I’m not sure what to believe anymore.”

“Go ahead and play it again, I’ll bet that laugh did you a wonder of good!”

Miraculously, his fingers worked better than they ever had and there was no trace of rebelliousness or reluctance on their part to obey his brain. After the intro was finished, she smiled and said “See? You just needed to warm them up a bit. You play very nicely, I really enjoy listening.”

In the middle of the song, he looked over at Janneke and her eyes were closed and body was swaying with the music as if each note was energizing her soul which propelled him to carry on with renewed confidence. A nurse appeared in the doorway promptly at 7pm and announced visiting hours were over and shooed Janneke away after giving them a few moments for goodbyes. Janneke left with an extra spring in her step and a promise to return the next day. Billy’s spirits were lifted as high as they’d been in a really long time, she was the first person other than his mother he’d felt a connection with and it felt good.

Janneke turned the corner and when out of sight, she stopped and leaned against the wall whispering to herself What was that Doortje doing in there to begin with?

Janneke --

I slammed the door as I entered our abode and immediately sought out my little conniving sister, Doortje.

“What were you doing in Adam’s mind?”

“Adam? Who’s Adam” she replied.

Dang it, I slipped. She doesn’t know about Karina and I and it’s best she never know. “I mean, Billy. What were you doing in his mind?”

“I was told to keep an eye out for him and wanted to see what his injuries were in case we needed to do anything. You weren’t here like you were supposed to be, where were you?”

Seriously? She thought she could do something? “Your training in the Ancient Arts is rudimentary at best, you’d probably turn him into a toad before you could help him. Stay in your lane!”

“Stay in my lane? Where’d you pick that up?”

Oh crap, I did it again. I picked that up from time in 2019, I’ll bet Adam has all kinds of problems with this. “I pick things up from my travels, you will too. Now, please, I appreciate you trying to help but please don’t attempt anything like that again. OK?” I could tell Doortje would have a problem with this because she hated being the youngest sister and thought she was all grown up.

“I’ll keep it under advisement, and you still haven’t answered my other questions.”

That little ... I oughtta ... Next time I’ll have Karina deal with her, she always listens to her. “Karina needed my help and the portal to this year was not lined up properly.”

“Karina never needs anyone’s help. She’s the most badass person I’ve ever seen. I don’t believe you. Something is up and I’ll find out sooner or later.”

Oh geez, this kid is something else! “Well, you can ask Karina when she arrives.”

Doortje became excited and started jumping up and down. “She’s coming here? Really? I’m not too fond of her, but there’s always plenty of action when she’s around!”

I just shook my head and walked off, the less I had to say, the better.

Monday Sep 18, 1978

Janneke showed up in hospital the next two evenings where she and Billy got to know each other a little better each night. The one constant they had was music. She never left without making him play a few songs for her.

“It sounds like you are struggling to hit that note” she said one night in response to his singing. “Here” she said slipping behind him as her finger tips moved across his throat. While softly massaging his throat, she explained about head voice, forward projection and other technical aspects of singing. “Now, try it again and let’s see how it goes.”

Billy took a deep breath and cleared his throat before proceeding. The singing was easy in the early parts of the song but when the time came for the note he had trouble with, there was none. “Wow, I can’t believe I hit that note, it seemed so easy as if it just slid right out.” She giggled at the picture she developed in her head.

“See? You just need a little instruction, some massage therapy and you’re good to go. You’re very talented you know I really enjoy your singing.”

“OK, what are you hiding?”

She turned red and fought to regain her composure. “A ham sandwich!” she said trying to keep the mood light. “I’m not hiding anything, it’s ... uh ... I come from a family of really good singers and was passing on a few tidbits I learned, that’s all.”

So many weird things had been happening around him so Billy was suspicious of everyone but she had not been around for all the craziness ... or had she and just stayed out of the way? “Am I starting to conjure things up where they had not previously been? Her voice seems so familiar, I know I’ve heard it before. Whatever she might be hiding can’t be that bad, it’s just singing” Billy thought to himself.