Cousin's in Time: Part I

Ch 6

November 5, 1955

5:00 p.m.

Marty's POV

I awoke to see a shadowy figure in the darkness.

I asked, groggily, "Mom? Mom, is that you?"

The voice answered, "There, there now. You've been asleep for the past eight hours."

I stammered, "I had a nightmare that Annie and I went back in time. It was awful."

The voice said, "Well, you're safe and sound now back in good old 1955."

I opened my eyes with a start and blurted out, "1955?!" The lights went on and I got up with a start. My mom was there alright...but she was a teenager! I stammered, "You're...you're...my...."

She perked up and responded, "My name is Lorraine. Lorraine Baines. You sure got a big bump on your head, Calvin."

Calvin? What the hell? I got up and noticed my pants were gone. I quickly covered myself with the blankets and blushed out of embarrassment.

"Where are my pants," I asked, rather dryly.

Mom answered, "Over there, on my hope chest. I have never seen purple underwear before, Calvin."

"Calvin? Why do you keep calling me Calvin," I asked.

Mom smirked and responded, "Well, that's your name isn't it? Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear." She tried to pull away the blankets but I was too fast for her. She said, "I guess people call you Cal."

I shook my head and responded, "Actually, people call me Marty...." I quickly became uncomfortable and asked, "Where's Annie?"

Mom looked curious and asked, "Who is Annie? Oh, you probably mean Amie Berns, your cousin."

Amie Berns? What the hell? Then it dawned on me. While I was out, Annie created an alias for herself. After all, she did have a father and aunt in this household.

She added, "She explained that you always call her Annie ever since you were young."

Just then, a voice called her, "Lorraine, are you up there?"

Mom's face fell and she said, "Oh, my God. It's my mother." She threw my pants at me and demanded, "Put your pants back on."

She left and did quickly as I was told. This was super weird. I got out of the bedroom and saw Annie, alone.

She hugged me and said, "Thank God, Marty. You're alright!"

I hugged her back and whispered, "You better address me as Calvin 'Marty' Klein, Annie."

She let go of me and responded, with a small blush and jokingly, "I don't think you could be a fashion designer, you know."

I nodded, ignoring her blush, and responded, "Got that right. I love my music too much."

'And I love you too much,' I thought. I wanted to add that, badly, but we had other problems to deal with. Like getting back to 1985. We went down the stairs and met up with our grandmother-to-be.

Stella smiled and said, "Well, I'm glad to see that you're okay, Marty. Annie was pretty worried about you."

I smiled at Annie and said, "Well, she has every right to be. After all, she is not only my cousin, she's my best friend."

Which was true, Annie and I have been best friends since the day of her birth. I was very young when she was born on March 1, 1968. I had to be at least a few weeks old since my birthday was February 15, 1968. We were told when we first met, we would let go of each other's hands. I couldn't help but wonder if that meant anything. My mind went back to our grandmother-to-be who was introducing us to everyone.