The Case Of Ali

Chapter 11. Letting Go?

Ali was already in her 8th month of pregnancy and was trying to accept that Jake was never coming back.  Ali understood that he was concern about the 125 year old Ali and didn't want to leave her.  She had to constantly remind herself that  the old woman was indeed her  a hundred years into the future.  But why hadn't  Jake responded to her letter with the ultrasound? Didn't he care about his own son? Ali was constantly checking the mailbox and driving herself insane. Everyone except Alex thought that she was crazy.  Ali just couldn't let go of Jake.  Each month that passed, she wondered if he was one year older. 

 He had been gone six months and Ali wondered if he was now twenty nine.  If one month in her time was one year in his then he was gone six years and not six months.  Alex kept telling her that she could not look at it in that way because nothing with the universe is as simple as it it looks.  Alex believes that when and if Jake comes back, everything that pertains to his time will fall right back into place.  If he was to come back the same same year he left,  he would be  twenty three even if he was thirty in the future.  Ali hoped he was right and she was wrong.

"So what are you saying? You would be  fifty in your time in the future?" Ali asked.  

Alex laughed.   "Ali, Ali, why don't you believe that I am not a time traveler?" Alex asked.

"You know too much; I don't  see how you could know so much if you have not experience it," Ali told him. 

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Ali felt bad for herself but she felt even worst for Jakes's mother who had lost a husband and now a son in basically the same way....they both left for South America and never return.  Ali wondered if Jake's father also  ended up in the future like Jake.  Cynthia was handling her loss much better than Ali. She was resigned to the fact Jake had met the same fate as his father....they were both murdered.   Ali wished that she could share what she knew about Jake with his mother but she was afraid that would only confirm Cynthia's suspicion that Ali was losing  touch with reality.  Cynthia had never said it  out loud but Ali knew that  she thought  about it.

After finding Ali outside in the rain one night screaming at the mail box, Cynthia talked her into putting the house up for sale. Ali was obsessed with the mailbox. Cynthia was convinced that there was bad energy in the house that was driving Ali crazy. Cynthia burnt sage and all kind of incense to rid the home of the negative energy she felt was driving Ali crazy but that didn't seem to work because Ali was not crazy.

Ali had to admit that living there in that house with Jake's memory....and that damn mail box was not healthy for her mentally; she wanted to make a new start for her and her baby and so she listened to Cynthia and decided to put the house up for sale, but she couldn't follow through with it. The house was her only connection left to Jake. Each time a buyer put in an offer Ali refused to accept it.  She was driving her agent and everyone around her crazy, not to mention herself.

Ali had very little interaction with her parents and they were convinced that she was having a breakdown.  Ali refused to see them. Her mother wanted to put her into an institution where she claimed Ali would get the help she needed. But Cynthia was suspicious of that move and told them that she would take care of Ali. "There is nothing wrong with her that some loving care wont fix; she is grieving over Jake; she loved him and she misses him that's all," Cynthia told them and the judge.

Ali was thankful that Cynthia had given up her life to come stay with her. She was convinced that if it wasn't for Cynthia and Alex   her parents would have moved ahead with putting her in an institution. They took her to court trying to get control of her finances saying that she was in no condition to make financial decisions for herself; Alex testified on her behalf that there was nothing wrong with Ali mentally and listening to Ali defended herself,  the judge agreed. But her parents would  not give up; they continued to fight her for her money that her grandfather left her.