It was another golden envelope, just like the one before. Ali's palms got very sweaty. She kept praying as she wiped her palms on her pants. With her whole body trembling, she slowly opened the envelope.
"My Dearest Ali,
I miss you so much. I got your letter, and I was overcome with joy and relief that we found each other.... even though we are still 100 years apart and living in different centuries. I have been drilling down into our history, to find out what happen to us and to our family, but nothing is straight forward. You should be happy to know that life expectancy will increase significantly over your next hundred years, and you have a long life ahead of you Ali. But what happens to me? I still don't know.
There is an elderly woman here, she has to be 125 years old and I believe she is you; who else named Ali could be living in our house a hundred years into the future? We call her Miss Ali. There is no one left of her family but for some reason she is holding on. There is only one family portrait in the entire house and it's of her, I think as a young woman with her young son...the child is about three...and a man who I don't recognize except for the eyes...he has green eyes just like mine. I ask her who the man is and she keeps saying Jake, but I can clearly see that he is not me, unless I have changed physically somehow. This all feels like a dream. If it is, I just wish I would wake the hell up.
They claim that she is suffering from dementia, and I should not believe anything she says. At hearing my voice, her eyes lit up and she beckoned me to her. She felt my face and lips. With tears running down her wrinkled face, she hugged me tight with her frail arms and said she knew that the real Jake would come back to her. What does that even mean?
Did we have children Ali? It looks like we have a son who would have been born about when I left, he would be about a year old in your time. I don't remember you being pregnant, and you did not mention him so I don't know if that bit of information is even correct. The history is just a hodgepodge of information that makes little sense. I don't know what to think and memory of my past is slowly fading. Sometimes I don't know what is a dream vs what is real anymore, or if I am living in a parallel universe.
There is a young lady here that looks exactly like you. When I first saw her I thought that you got pulled forward to the future too, but I quickly realized that she was not you; she had no idea who I was and, I could not see the warmth in her eyes that I always saw in yours. But physically Ali, she is you in everyway I can see. She is one of the scientists I am working with on a special project. And she even answers to the name Ali. The information on her is not clear. Who is this girl that looks so much like my Ali but is not?
The gold coins you gave me came in very handy. They are worth a fortune Ali. It was a good call giving them to me; cash is not accepted anywhere anymore. My Mom, please check on her for me; I can barely remember her face. Who is this professor Wright? Be careful; I don't remember a Mr. Wright heading up any department at the school but then again my memory is not what it use to be. And yes Ali you were right, life is much better for people like me in this time but I still want to come back to you.
My greatest fear is not to be stuck here for the rest of my life; my greatest fear is that I will return to my time and not remember who you are and what we had together. I am so afraid that I will forget you Ali; I don't ever want to forget you or us. I love you. Please don't give up on me.
Forever Jake."
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YOU ARE READING
The Case Of Ali
RomanceJake left on a trip to South America with his History class from college on an humanitarian effort - this was something he always wanted to do as his way of giving back or paying it forward. Because phone reception was bad in the area Jake promise...
