Jude

On my kitchen floor, I sat with my knees to my chest, staring down at my disgustingly dirty, bloody feet. Last night I thought I'd never get home. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. In real time, I hadn't been gone long, but in 1693 Salem I lived through hell for four and a half days. I'd never traveled so far back in time, and I hoped to never go back again. I'd only heard of the Salem Witch trials but didn't know the specifics... as usual... I naively assumed people only accused women of being witches; however, I found out I was wrong.

Only I wished to forget it.

The preferred method of execution for almost all convicted witches was hanging. Within ten minutes of my arrival, I witnessed it for myself.

I tried to get away, running until my feet bled, but I still got caught. It was impossible not to notice a running naked man. The fuckers nearly hanged me, accusing me of working for the devil. After days of chronic sleep deprivation and starvation, I caved and confessed, even though I'd never practiced witchcraft. I wasn't even sure I believed in it. The total experience proved that torture didn't work. People made false confessions just so the torture would end. For me, I just wanted to sleep. I got what I wanted after the confession.

Sleep.

Back home in my clean apartment, I was afraid to move, still living as if I was in the cold, dark, dirty jail cell. My arms and shoulders still ached from the stockade, my back burning from the whip. I can't do this... I can't do this... More and more, I considered putting an end to it once and for all, which meant putting an end to my life. If I was going to die, it would be by my own hands and no one else's. My phone buzzing in my bedroom jolted me back to reality. I expected a call from Percy. On all fours, I crawled to my bedroom, the floor creaking beneath me, to answer it.

"'Morning," Percy said. "I found your mother. I figure we can call her and get some answers." Percy was excited to share this information.

My mother abandoned me one too many times. I wanted nothing to do with her. Besides, I was thirsty and hungry, in excruciating pain, and wishing I had the guts to end my hellish life. Fuck my mother.

But did I really want to die?

"I can't do this," I said, my hand trembling as I gripped my phone. I broke down in tears, sobbing hysterically.

"Hold on, Jude, I'm coming over. I'll be there in a half an hour, okay? Just hang in there."

There was nothing else I could do but 'hang in there.'

Percy got here in record time, less than a half an hour. I hadn't moved from the floor.

"Open up, Jude," he said behind the door. "It's me. The door's locked."

I stumbled to the door, my legs unsteady and my vision blurred. My feet were on fire, the constant pressure making it feel like I was walking on shards of glass. As soon as I opened the door, I fell into Percy's arms.

"Oh, my God, Jude, what happened to you?"

I couldn't find my voice. In Salem, I begged for my life, crying and telling lies to save myself from hanging. I wore my voice out. Percy draped my arm over his shoulder, guiding me towards the bathroom.

"I'm so hungry and thirsty," I groaned as he helped me into the shower. I always wished I had a bathtub. Instead, I had a shitty shower stall. Dirt mixed with blood circled the drain as water beat down on me.

"I'll be right back," Percy said, hurrying to the kitchen to fetch some water. I accepted the glass, gulping it down. "What happened? Who did this?" he asked, examining my back where the whip struck me. "Where'd you go?" He rinsed a washcloth with soap and water and dabbed my back with it, cleaning the cuts.

"I can't do this anymore, Percy. I need to kill myself. How much do guns cost?"

"You're not buying a gun," he said. "I won't let you kill yourself. Tell me what happened."

"Salem, 1600s. I was gone for days, but not in real time. They were gonna hang me. I have so much work to do. I can barely pay my bills." My thoughts ran wild, and I didn't know how to tame them. "I'm gonna get fired, and then what'll I do?"

"You went to Salem during the Salem witch trials?"

"Yep. They thought I worked for the devil. I feel like I'm already in Hell. I really wished I'd paid attention in history class."

"I'm gonna help you figure this out. You and I are connected somehow, and I'm gonna find out how. Don't give up."

"Your optimism makes me want to throw up. Where'd you say you found my mother?"

"She's in Malibu. Maybe she got a rich husband or won the lottery. You had a rough childhood, huh? I saw your mother's court records."

A rough childhood was an understatement. I could have ended up a drug addict like my mother or an alcoholic like my father, but my life turned out differently. I tried marijuana once and hated it and I stayed away from alcohol. I promised I'd never end up like my parents. Leaning against the tiled wall, I let Percy wash my hair. No one had ever taken care of me before.

"I don't know what's happening, but I started to remember a lot of things," Percy said. "I think I'm remembering more than you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Us."

"What about us?"

"You seem to only remember what happened between us in 2018. What about the other times?"

I let out a weary shrug, my stomach growling. "I need to eat something," I said, attempting to get out of the shower. Before I slipped and fell, Percy wrapped his arms around my waist, helping me out.

"I'll make you something," he said, taking a towel to my hair. He dried off the rest of my body and walked me to my bedroom. I collapsed on the bed as Percy searched my laundry basket for clothes. He placed them beside me on the bed and left the bedroom to get me something to eat. I wasn't even sure I had food in the house. As I got dressed, my stomach growled to the scent of toast.

If I didn't get some work done, I expected a termination email any day now. As Percy prepared the toast, I left my bedroom and sat on the couch with my laptop open, scanning my emails. No termination, only emails from my boss asking the status of my assignment. I'd just started it and it was due tomorrow. I didn't have time to deal with my mother.

"I found peanut butter," Percy said, sitting beside me with four pieces of toast with peanut butter on it.

"You didn't deserve to be treated like shit," I said, taking a bite of the toast. "I mean, Lyndsay was a fucking bitch, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, she almost ruined my life. I'd rather not talk about her." He quickly changed the subject. "Since it's nine in the morning here, that means it's only six in the morning in California. We better wait a bit before calling your mother. Do you think she'll answer her phone?"

"I don't know. Don't you have to work in the clinic today?"

"I called out. It's okay. I never call out."

"So, what are you gonna do while I work?"

"I dunno... watch you work? I'm not leaving you alone."

"Relax. I'm not gonna kill myself. I don't want to fucking die. That's my problem. It'd be easier to die. If I wanted to die, I would have done it already."

"We're gonna figure this out," he said, opening a notebook. "I've been taking notes."

"That's a lot of notes."

As I worked, Percy continued to sit there, examining his notebook, biting the tip of his pen. He abruptly got up. "I need coffee. Do you have any?"

"I always have coffee," I said.

"I'll make some." Without me telling him where I stored the keurig pods, he found them and popped one in the machine. "I feel like I have constant deja vu."

With two cups of coffee, he returned to the couch.

"It's weird," he said. "You've come in and out of my life for years and we've never spent more than a few days together, but it feels like more, doesn't it? Am I too old for you now?"

"No. I prefer older men, anyway."

"Where are your journals?"

"Huh?" I replied, focusing on my work.

"You told me you had journals of your travels. Would you mind if I read some of them?"

Placing my laptop on the worn-out coffee table, I went to my bedroom to fetch two notebooks. I handed them to him and sat back down on the couch to resume working. It'd been a year since my first trip. The accident was a blur and I remembered nothing about my hospitalization. I found out most information from the police report.

According to the police report, the accident occurred in a busy intersection in the city. There were two hospitals in the city, yet the ambulance didn't take me to either. It was also weird that they blacked out the name of the hospital. I called both Lowell hospitals, seeking hospital records and neither hospital had any record of me being in the hospital from January 7, 2023 through February 8, 2023. I then called Lahey Hospital in Burlington, the closest hospital to Lowell, and still nothing. Since I was seriously injured, I then wondered if I ended up in a hospital in Boston. I called every hospital in and still no records. It was a mystery, and Percy was determined to solve it.

Not only did I have no recollection of my hospitalization, I couldn't even remember how I got home. The traveling started a week later. In what I thought was a dream, I woke up naked among a crowd of destitute Cambodians or Vietnamese. I soon realized I was in a refugee camp. They were Cambodian refugees, mostly starving women and children. Naked, I trudged through the mud, not understanding a word anyone said to me. My nudity was no big deal as if they'd seen this sort of thing before. A humanitarian worker gave me rags to wear and fed me water and bread. Unbeknownst to me, I traveled back in time to 1979, right after the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge. During the reign of Pol Pot, his regime murdered millions of innocent Cambodians. I wondered if my grandparents were victims. My dad came to the States in the eighties as a young adult. I wasn't exactly sure how old, and I couldn't ask him because his mind was mush. When I re-awakened, I assumed I sleepwalked outside because of my dirty feet.

Percy sat there quietly, his eyes fixed on the page as he absorbed every word I wrote. I wrote so much, I couldn't remember everything.

"Did you ever believe me when I told you I was from 2024?" I asked.

"I didn't know what to believe. You never aged."

"I wouldn't have believed me. I wouldn't have been as nice as you. In fact, I probably would have completely ignored you."

"I didn't have any friends, no girlfriend, no boyfriend. You made my life interesting, I guess." Gazing into my eyes, he ran his fingers through my hair. His eyes hadn't changed over the years. I closed my eyes briefly as he leaned over and kissed my forehead. Holding the side of my face, he kissed my cheek. My breath grew more and more shallow, my heart racing in a good way.

"I have to work," I said, not so convincingly as he kissed the corner of my mouth.

"I know," he said, kissing my chin. "Just let me kiss you for a little while."

"A little while?" I laughed.

"Yeah," he said, taking me in his arms, ignoring my laptop. I caught it just in time. He cupped my chin in his palms, bringing his lips to mine. I inhaled and exhaled in his mouth, savoring this moment.

Fuck work.

Words: 2033

Total words: 14,616