I choose me.

Part 46: ...

"Ah, there you are." A shrill Irish voice said happily. Olivia looked around, she was on a bench, it was a hot day, and she was in her black maxi dress at the dog park...again. But it wasn't just her on the bench this time, a very tiny, very, very old woman in a bright baggy dress with a colorful rag tied around her white hair sat beside her.

"Did you say something?" She rubbed her spinning head.

"I said there you are." The tones of her voice wavered as she spoke.

"Do I know you?" Olivia asked, the woman turned her small face toward her, she had no teeth and looked so frail that Olivia wondered how she was even alive, but her eyes, they were large and green, bright green, like a set of eyes she knew very well.

"You're a Hagen." She stated the fact. The old woman nodded and rubbed her knobby hands together.

"I'm a great-great-great something or other, how were your trips?" She smiled wildly, deepening the plentiful lines on her face.

"What trips?"

Great-Great-Great Hagen clicked her tongue. "I'm the meddler in your memory—the shifter of time."

Olivia's heart rate jumped and she turned her whole body toward the ancient woman.

"How?"

"I have a little gypsy magic still left in me—and I saw you and my grandson—I try and watch all the children from my lineage, and you needed a shakeup."

Olivia pinched herself, slapped her face and rubbed her eyes, but the lady didn't go away. "I don't get it, why?"

"I had to show you how things could go, either way."

This was a joke right? "But, I remembered, they all remembered."

"Eh, eh, the memory part ain't me strong suit." She shrugged and chuckled like they were exchanging little jokes. All the times the walls of the Earth had shaken and shimmered, when it felt like she would spin out of control, it was all making sense now. "I have a choice now to offer you, so listen close."

Olivia leaned in, "Okay."

"You choose Benjamin or Crawford. You choose Crawford and you'll be married—you'll meet your daughter, all same as before. Choose Benjamin and you'll be here after that fight that started it all. Either way you choose, the other will cease to be, no memory of the shadow life. Life is short Granger, you and him got a damned hard start." She waved her bony arm around.

"Why me? Not Benny?" She asked, truly curious.

"He doesn't dream like you dream. His mind doesn't wander, he's happy where he's at. You, though, it was easy to get into your heart. Now choose, I'm not long for this world."

Olivia stood and paced in front of the gypsy for a minute, running the scenarios through her head over and over, thinking of her two great loves in life. Always with one of them, never on her own, so much heartache and malice. In her life there had been so much love, and so much pain and regret.

Another clean slate to start with, she wondered if this time around she could really save Benny and Crawford from all the hard stuff, the sadness, if she removed herself from their equation they could have a chance at a better life. She could save them without them knowing, have another chance to do things better.

Olivia rubbed her throbbing head, then she sat and took the crooked, wrinkled hand of this Grandmother gypsy, at peace with it all and said...
"I choose me. I don't want to choose one of them, I choose myself for once, and I'll deal the cards this time."

She let out a loud, shrill cackle, her eyes nearly shut she smiled so big. "You are sure young Granger?"

Olivia nodded, "I choose me."

THE END