Timelines Collide

Chapter 19: Familiar Bond (Part 2)

Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. For what reason, I can't tell. She blows the hat through the neighborhood as my legs desperately try to keep up. At some points we are close enough for Lana to try and grab it, however, the wind will kick it up high, just to bring it back down again keeping it away from our hands. If Mother Nature wants to keep up this wild goose chase, she has another thing coming.

As we continue chasing it down, I can't help but remember glimpses of the time I and Lana first met.

Back then I, a stubborn mule wanted to die for my mistakes, while she, the naive little scavenger saw something more in me. She lived inside the garbage and let me stay. I didn't bat two eyes until scum lower than any acolyte took her away from me. Back then at that moment, I set my guilt aside to save her, so maybe I could be that man she saw underneath the garbage. After that, she never left my side.

We continue to chase it for about a few miles until a tree branch catches it like an outfielder eagerly waiting for that ball to drop into their glove. I put Lana down to get a good look at what we are dealing with.

It's one of the tallest trees I've ever seen. Trunks of wood are that of a skyscraper, and nothing around could compare to its likeness. Sadly, Lana explains how this is the biggest tree in their quadrant of the valley.

Her eyes sink as we both watch her cap sitting idling along the top of the leaves. The tears from her eyes soon followed. I'm not going to watch her cry and let a tree be the reason for that.

There are many branches along the tree, perfect enough to climb to the top and reach the prize. I usher her to follow as we stomp through the mud that acts as the tree's molt. When I tell her how I'm going to climb it, her body jumps, and her voice explodes with fury. Claiming that she can't do it. Immediately, my eyebrow stands up a little following the words.

"Is that so?"

She throws her eyes into the mud while twisting her shoe, drowning it in the brown. Her mouth hesitatingly utters out "Joseph, can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course," I say to her, while my eyes make sure the cap doesn't pull a fast one. Like many others have tried.

She pauses for a moment then tells me what her mouth is trying to hide from my ears.

"I'm...I'm afraid of heights." She almost starts tearing up in the process. Her cheeks even flare hints of red.

Not going to lie, I must keep my jaw from flying open as she continues,

"I know what you're thinking, someone of my caliber, afraid? The nerve, but I... just can't explain it. Once I'm up high, it gives me the hebee gebees. Especially the idea of miss-stepping and falling downwards. Though I always wanted to learn to climb a tree, I never...got to it. Does that make me seem like a coward?"

"Oh no no, of course not." I blurt out immediately after she finished. That got her to look directly at me instead of the mud. Her tears were gone, not even a hint of a cloud. They only glow of whitening black. "In time you'll be ready, for now, you can watch my moves."

She bobbles her head, and I can see the slightest extension of her pupils grow. I smile and then begin my climb.

Passing the first few branches, even with the broken pinky, I knew this wouldn't be too bad. I've climbed on the side of buildings on missions more heart-wrenching than this, in worse conditions. The only thing worrying me is the fact that back then I had both my normal hands.

Now, I got this metal one that could shatter these branches like bones inside a grinder, and then on the other, a broken pinky that Luana insisted I kept in place. The world reminds me as I snap a branch into pieces. It does this to me once, luckily another branch is on its side for me to catch in its place.