All The Things That Could Go Wrong

8

I scurried into the living room, making sure to make as little sound as possible; everyone was still asleep. I lied down on the couch and stared at the half-dark ceiling.

"I need a plan," I whispered, because I had a habit of thinking out loud. The house remained intact around me; not a living human stirred. A blob of something moved at the edge of my vision. Heart thumping, I turned toward it, only to find the cat.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Hey, Charlie." The creature reluctantly let me put it on my lap. I petted him slowly. Charlie eventually relaxed and began to purr.

"Ok, Charles," I said, finding solace in the fact that I was talking to someone other than myself, "Mr. Maplton leaves tomorrow morning. If he's not going to get in that car accident, I need to stop him from traveling in the first place. But how?"

Absentmindedly, my fingers swept through Charlie's gray fur. The clock ticked, the sun rose at a steady pace, and my brain searched for an answer to no avail.

"Vic, have you packed everything?" My mother's voice allowed me to notice that half the household was awake, and made me aware of the cat snoozing on my lap. I looked at the clock and saw that I had been sitting there for forty five minutes. "You're still in your pajamas? Hurry up, we're leaving in half an hour!"

I got up and hastened to change my clothes in the now deserted bedroom. I saw the pockets on my jeans and instantly recalled the Butterfly, causing a thought to occur to me: I might not know any ideas, but I knew someone who did.

Fully clothed, I darted into the kitchen and closed the door, praying that the chaos of getting ready would keep me hidden. I dialed Cora's number with cold, shaking fingers, and waited impatiently. "Come on, come on," I breathed as it rung.

"Hello?"

"Cora?!"

"Abby."

"Can you please get Cora? I need to talk to her."

"Sure, give me a second."

I fidgeted endlessly in the seconds it took Cora to get to the phone. "Hello?" her voice finally greeted, calming an ounce of my stress.

"Cora, listen. You're gonna think I'm crazy, but just do this, okay? I need you and Leo to meet me at the park, at around two this afternoon. And please, think of a way to stop someone from getting on a plane."

"Stop someone- what?!"

"Just trust me! I'll explain everything, okay, I'm just trying to save his life, we won't be doing anything wrong-"

"Vic, seriously, what are you-"

"I have to go, just be there and I'll tell you everything."

"Alright. Fine. But you're freaking me out, and this better not be some joke."

"It isn't." I hung up. I sighed as I remembered everything that happened because of these visions, and wondered if I could get it right this time. If I could change things. I thought about how nobody else had to deal with such things, and how they did nothing positive to me at all. Right then, staring at the closed kitchen door and hearing the commotion behind it, I wished so bad that Cora had been right; that it was all some stupid joke.

***

The sun was high in the sky when we pulled into our familiar, gravelly driveway. Sylvia had one again muted us out with her Walkman, and Alicia was asleep in the middle seat. "What time is it?" I asked, trying to hide my impatience.

"Two fifteen," said my mother.

"Oh," I said, trying again not to sound like I was in a hurry, "Can I go ride my bike?"