The P. P. A. Project

Chapter Seventeen - Flogging Molly

Chapter Seventeen - Flogging Molly

I watched my parents from the other side of their living room. It had been so long since I'd seen a 20's décor outside of a museum but it was bringing me back to my childhood. It was hard to think about the depression and troubles that were about to hit the country. I somehow felt obligated to make them aware but in the same thought, it was probably for the best not to.

This felt too surreal. Imagining robots shooting lasers out of their stomachs was so much less odd than looking my parents in their eyes under the cozy light and warmth of their home. I felt bad but I also couldn't stop staring at her stomach knowing that her baby... or I... was in there.

"It's hard for us to process the idea of not raising you. While you have only been a part of our lives for a short while, in our hearts you have been a wish since we got together." My father said rubbing my mother's stomach. I bowed my head and coughed.

Mother had black makeup down her face from crying in the hideout beneath their home. I felt bad. It was my fault for spilling the beans but how was I supposed to know? They have a secret treasure chest of miracle contraptions under the Chicago streets, and high speed car chases above them. Wouldn't you have just assumed?

I bit my thumb nail down so low that it started to hurt. Time to stop and talk.

"I wish I knew why, myself. When I was much younger I would dwell on it but as the years passed I just became accustomed from moving from one set of parents to the next."

In between sniffles, my mother now spoke. She was so beautiful with her light, golden hair and cute little flapper style attire, "It must be so scary for you to not have aged all these years. Do you hold us accountable?"

I stood up and turned to face the window. The cars, the buildings... it was all so familiar to me. I felt homesick looking at it. It was because of this scene that I avoided old movies and films about my original era. It was like a hometown I couldn't visit again. My eyes burned. I couldn't control wanting to cry.

Why was I in the past? Why was I here now? Everything before this could be explained but now fate was just torturing me with this.

"How could I? I didn't even know you." I turned to look them both in the eyes. They were so young and curious. They were a couple who had fallen in love and was ready to start a family. What if I told them and they feared me? I didn't want to but I knew I had to, "I am going to be 96 in a few weeks."

My mother placed a handkerchief over her mouth to withhold a gasp. Father stood and walked near me slowly. His eyes traveled over my face and exposed hands curiously to see if I had been hiding my wrinkles or liver spots under costume makeup but he found no sign of treachery.

A moment between them as they turned back and then he looked at me again, eyes red now as he was about to burst into tears as well.

"I am so sorry I did this to you. I know it has to be my experiments. They are affecting your mother." He took me into his arms and held me. My father was holding me close, comforting me. He was sorry for his absence and the things he had done... or not done.