Echoes of the Past

Echoes of the Past: Ch.20

"Sorry to barge in on you," Nixon said holding up the piece of tape. "But this is important."

"What's wrong?" Jack asked. He wasn't worried.

"Marilyn Monroe is threatening to go public."

"What?" Jack looked up quickly. This had caught his attention. His parents watched from the sidelines, stunned to see both time travelers so close.

"She's threatening that if you don't break up with Jackie; she'll go public and say you're from the future."

Jack was angry. It showed on his face. "She never loved me. She just wanted attention. We'll deal with her later. What's on that clip?"

Nixon replied, "Something Jackie of 1994 gave me."

"What?" Jack asked.

"She gave me this. Now come on." He inserted in the slot and turned it on.

"What are you doing?" Rose demanded, wary of the man that was her son's enemy.

"Nothing, Mrs. Kennedy. Just showing my friend here some videos." Nixon bit his lip.

Jack watched. He quickly realized it was a documentary of the Kennedy brothers. It portrayed him, Joe, Bobby, and Ted.

Jack was stunned at the amount of blood in the video. There was images of his presidency. The Cubans slaughtering the American soldiers during the Cuban Crisis. The Freedom Riders; the killing in Dallas...

The images in Dallas were pretty at first. The sun shining and the clouds brewing just like Jack remembered. He saw himself standing at the podium in Fort Worth, smiling at the crowd assembled before him. The speaker, a female voice, narrated the events. She spoke that the day had been peaceful.

Jack couldn't help himself from smirking as they watched his TV self board Air Force 1 with Jackie. No one knew what he had done to Jackie.

The flight to Dallas was 13 minutes, Jack remembered. He watched the plane land and the crowds shrieking with delight. Jack only spotted one negative sign in spot. He cringed slightly.

That man had something to do with it, a voice whispered in Jack's head. Watch him.

Jack obliged to the voice. He heard many names he hadn't heard before. Maybe because this all happened during the time before and after his death.

Lee Oswald, Abarham Zapruder, Chief Curry. Jack named the names off one by one. He figured quickly that Oswald had been framed guilty for the crime but there was no real evidence of him behind it. Jack watched as Oswald's neighbor spoke of the gun the man had hidden in some curtain rods. A feeling of anger begin to spark in Jack's soul. He began to crush the cookie he'd been eating.

Jack saw himself with Jackie, boarding a limo. Jackie wore the pink suit she had been wearing. Jack tried to picture it stained with his blood and brains.

At that moment, the real Jackie came downstairs. "Jack, I-" she froze when she saw what they were watching. "Oh my..."

Jackie sat beside him, her eyes glued on the screen. She and Jack watched horrified and stunned as the car headed toward Dealey Plaza to the building Jack had seen before everything went black.

Jackie snuggled into Jack for protection as if she wanted to shield herself from the blood she would see in just a few seconds. Abarham Zapruder was talking, being the narrator but Jack's gaze was fixed on the screen, not caring what he was talking about.

There was a small video, Jack wasn't sure what it was first but then he knew what it was.

Jackie did not realize it till it was too late. She saw her husband grab at her throat and her photo form turned to look at him as he leaned across to her. There was a puzzlement on his face. His last expression, Jack thought, before he saw his own head get blown off on live TV.

Jackie was transfixed as she saw her husband's head get blown off. She watched the next 10 minutes in utter silence; hoping he would live or for a miracle. She watched the nurses and doctors at Parkland speak about what they had seen.

A few minutes after that; Walter Cronkite's face was on the screen. Jack watched the TV reporter struggle to say his script while trying not to cry. Jackie began to sob. She was a wreck as she saw other people crying as well.

Jackie sat up, going back to her room in silence. There was a slam as she went inside followed by her chucking a glass plate at the wall.

Jack couldn't stop thinking about Cronkite's last words of his death.

"From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: 'President Kennedy died at 1 P.M. (CST),2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some thirty-eight minutes ago."