Not The Only One - A Winter Soldier Story

Chapter 23

June 28, 2016

     "Are you ready to go, Doll?" Bucky asked with a smile.

     I smiled back. "Ready as I'll ever be."

     We walked out of the apartment together.

     "Close your eyes," he instructed.

     "You know, this isn't a very fail-safe plan, Bucky. I could just open my eyes and peek whenever I want to," I teased him.

     He replied, "I know. That's why I brought along this."

     I felt him pull some type of blindfold over my eyes. Opening my eyes showed nothing but darkness. Bucky gave me his hand and I followed him.

     We walked for a long time until he removed my blindfold. There was a swing set in front of us and we were in the middle of the woods.

     This swing set seemed familiar, but I dismissed this thought by telling myself that most swing sets look similar to each other.

     "Wait here." Bucky motioned towards one of the swings. "There's someone I want you to meet. I'll be right back."

     I humored him and sat on the swing. As Bucky walked off, I began pumping my legs and swinging. I closed my eyes as I enjoyed the swing's steady motion.

     When I opened my eyes again, the man in the red beret was there with me.

     "Ты!" I hissed at him.

     Before I could get out another word, he came behind me and wrapped the swing's chain around my neck.

     I coughed and tried to fight against him, but it was no use.

     I wondered where Bucky was. Would he come back and rescue me or had he been the one to set me up?

     Whispering into my ear, the man in the red beret said, "Пришло время доставить и выполнить свою цель."

     Puzzled by his words, I watched my stomach quickly grow until I had given birth to a little girl.

     She grew up almost instantly before my eyes to the age of six or seven.

     "Убей ее," the man in the red beret ordered and I had no choice but to obey him.

     I wrapped the chain of the other swing around her little neck and killed my own daughter.

     The man in the red beret touched her and brought her back to life, but she was not the same anymore. Now the man in the red beret had control of her, just as he had control of me.

     Then the chain around my neck tightened and the man in the red beret choked me to death.

~

     I woke up gasping for air and fighting the urge to scream.

     I knew that the man in the red beret was real. I knew that I had killed a little girl with a swing's chain.

     But the scariest part of the dream was not what was real, but rather not knowing what was not real.

     Obviously there were gaps in my memory since I did not remember Steve rescuing me or myself almost murdering Bucky.

     Had I really been pregnant? Did I actually give birth to a child, my child? Where was she now? What was her name? Who was the father? Or was this all a vision of my future?

     These questions had no answers and they only made it harder for me to breathe.

     Needing a change in my thoughts, I remembered the movie we had watched earlier.

     Steve had told us that he thought that Bucky and I would like this movie.

     "Cast Away?" I asked after reading the title screen.

     Steve said that it came out in 2000, got nominated for an Oscar, and that Tom Hanks was in it.

     Bucky groaned, "It's about packages?"

     "Just wait and see," promised Steve.

     Time in the film felt familiar, much unlike the strange future time I now lived in.

     I love the parts in Russia. Hearing the beautiful Slavic words soothed me.

     "I don't like him," I declared after having met the main character.

     Steve admitted, "He is a bit of a hard ass."

     "A bit?" Bucky asked in disbelief.

     I chimed in, "He abandoned his girlfriend on Christmas Day!"

     Bucky and I breathed a collective "oh no" when the plane started going down.

     I had to turn away when the pilot's dead body washed up because I was afraid I was going to vomit.

     "Well, at least he's finally being resourceful," I conceded once Chuck started opening up the packages that he had collected.

     Bucky smiled at me.

     I raised an eyebrow at him and mouthed "What?"

     He just shook his head and turned his attention back to the movie.

     A second later I exclaimed, "Gillian's Island! I know that show!"

     "What's Gilligan's Island?" Bucky asked, confused.

     Steve explained, "It's a classic comedy tv show from the '60's. We can watch it later if you guys want."

     "Aww! He made himself a friend," Bucky commented after Chuck had created Wilson.

     I found myself smiling at how comforting and precious Bucky was.

     It was impossible to not notice Bucky's grimace when Chuck knocked his own tooth out. The Super Soldier's reaction made me wonder if he had violently lost one of his teeth too.

     I thought about how sad it was that Chuck lost four years of his life to that island. Four years of being all alone and everyone probably counting you for dead.

     It was inspiring to see Chuck work so hard and finally make it off the island.

     As the beloved volleyball companion floated away, Bucky whispered, "No. Not Wilson."

     Even though Chuck had been welcomed home, he still was not really there. I felt like he and I had this in common.

     Hearing Chuck's confession of his suicide attempt struck me deep in my core in ways I did not care to admit even to myself.

     But the saddest part of all was that Chuck had made his way back to Kelly, yet he had lost her all over again. She was his greatest joy and his greatest sorrow.

     In the end, I chose to believe that Chuck went after Bettina and they fell in love and got married and had a bunch of kids and lived happily ever after on the ranch.

     I kept repeating a line from the movie over and over "What will the tide bring in?"

     What will the tide bring in for me?

     I thought about how Steve had been the only superhero ever when I had gone into the ice.

     My mind was overwhelmed with all of the many people and events I had learned about in the past few days.

     I lay there wondering how I would ever remember them all...