THE TROUBLE WITH DECEIT

Epilogue

The next day at a special gathering of the newly returned BGT group, now numbering only 17 students plus Mr. and Mrs. Howard, and a military man, a Major, no less, addressing them.  Telling them how grateful their country was to them, and in fact, the entire world. Then he went to say how saddened they all were that Karl had lost his life, along with a native of that era while bravely risking their lives to make possible a new vaccine, that would pull the world back from the brink of extinction.  He informed them all that Kip would be receiving a posthumous medal for outstanding service to humanity as also would Reece Harper, the native of the time who had also given his life for the same cause.

A week later a small funeral service was held for Kip in the little church nearby, and although she and Kip had in reality broken up she still loved him and felt inconsolable. Afterward, she trudged to the little gated park that she and Kip had so many times visited and sat together on an old bench to eat their lunch or just talk.  She knew she was never going to be free of Kip's ghost until the day she died.

Eight months after attending Kip's funeral, Fey was still withdrawn and depressed, she had lost a lot of weight and nothing that Dev and Rani could do or say seemed to help to her.  On May 14th, her birthday, she found herself for the first time since that day, back at the little park.  She made her way inside and sat on what she liked to think of as Kips and hers bench, she remembered when they had all been propelled over one hundred years into the past and had walked across this exact spot, although in those days it had been part of a huge open space.  Somehow, miraculously this little patch had survived the builder's hunger, she felt immensely grateful for that, and here, at least she felt closest to his memory, far more so than at the little church where they had buried, merely for the significance of it, and an empty coffin.

Sighing, she got to her feet and walked slowly back to the old park gates, and was about to leave when she looked back, there seemed to be something different, although she couldn't place what it was.  Strange! she thought to herself I don't ever remember seeing that ancient old bronze plaque set into the old stone wall.  She stopped to study it closer, the writing was dull and the grooves of the lettering almost filled with ages of dust and grime.  She read the old inscription. It said.

                                  this paRK was donated to the people on may 14th 2019

                                 For     Everyones   joY      

  Suddenly she was more alert than she had been in nearly a year.  May 14 was her own birthday, wait! the weird capital letters RK FEY, it was a message to her from Reece and Kip over one hundred years ago to tell her the biggest secret. It was all a huge whitewash.  Kip never died, he got the life he desired, a fresh start, to be with the love of his life.  But he loved her too much to leave her believing him to be dead, so he found this way to break the rules once more to give her peace of mind.

Dev and Rani were at her parents home in their tiny garden when Fey buzzed the door.  Answering it Rani was amazed to see it was Fey, these days she couldn't rouse herself to do anything, even though it was her birthday. flinging her arms around her friend she kissed Rani on the cheek.  "Hi," she said breezily, "it's time to live, how are you guys going to entertain me on my birthday!"   Almost speechless Rani said, "what's gotten into you?"  beaming broadly Fey said, "time to let the past live in the past!"