Chapter 3

Mom greeted us as we came in the back door.

"How did everything go today Anne, I was a little worried about you? Do you feel all right?"

"Mom, I feel fine don't worry. School was good today; I think I aced a quiz in Algebra today."

"Really, that's wonderful."

"How about you Jack. How was your day?"

"Fine"

He was already heading up the stairs to his room.

I sat at the kitchen table and looked at mom. She was really pretty, thirty three, a little over weight, but it was all in the right places. She had met my Dad in high school and fell in love. I was conceived on the night of the senior prom. Neither of them went on to college. Dad got a job at the local hardware store; Mom stayed home and took care of us. They lived in this very house with my grandparents until a couple of years ago. My grandfather died of lung cancer and my grandmother died of a broken heart shortly thereafter. Mom, being an only child, inherited the house. Because there was no mortgage, dad's pay from the hardware store was enough to live on, but there wasn't a lot left over for extras. My dad was a hard worker, it was just that he was an average student, and had no skills. It was either work in a factory or work in retail. He was a friendly person, good humored, kind and pretty good looking. He was the same age as my mom, of average height and weight, but was beginning to get a little bit of a gut.

Growing up as Jack, I never really paid much attention to them. They were there, I listened to them, did what they asked most of the time, but never really interacted with them. Dad was always at work, mom always had housework to do, and I had other interests entirely. It was 1968, we had just gone through the" summer of love", the Vietnam War was tearing the country in two, and even here in a small town in Nebraska, drugs were taking their toll on kids looking for an escape. I was a little over a year away from falling in with the wrong crowd, throwing away any chance I had of getting into college, and ultimately ruining my life.

This was why I was sent back, to help Jack make the proper choices, to steer Anne away from a life of mediocrity and help my parents deal with it all, give them a chance at a long, happy and healthy life. I was sure of it. Now all I had to do was figure out how.