Carnelian (25 page)

“No, that’s never the case. The man Seti did
exist over three thousand years ago. He saved his people. He
married. He had children, and he lived out his life. He was real.
He was a great man. Don’t ever think someone didn’t exist if you
can’t see them here now,” Mr. Sangre replied. I nodded. It was
actually a bit horrifying to think of Seth grown and with a family
of his own, but at the same time, to know he lived out his life
made me feel a bit more reassured that he didn’t just go back to
his war and die.

“And what of me?” I asked. “Can’t I go back
in time as much as he went forward?” I was just saying whatever
thoughts were coming, but the statement I made hit me. Couldn’t I
go back to him? I know Seth didn’t want me to try to live in his
world, but at the same time, he survived mine. It didn’t matter
what his father wanted. I could go back and be with him for however
long was possible. Maybe together we could find a way to bring him
back to the future. Maybe we could run away from his life and start
over.

Mr. Sangre watched me as I thought, but he
did not reply.

“I can, can’t I?” I asked, sitting up
straighter at his lack of reply.

“It’s possible,” he started slowly. “But I
do not advise it.”

Possible
. The word rung in my ears. I barely even heard the second
part of what he said. It was possible to go back and be with Seth.
I didn’t have to move on with my life without him. I didn’t have to
wait for him to make it back to me. I could be with him.

“Why not?” I finally asked. Mr. Sangre was
watching me.

“The goddess has told me about you. I’d
suggest you do as Seth asked and move on with your life here,” Mr.
Sangre replied. “If you were meant to be together, he will find his
way to you.”

“What if I don’t want to move on with life
if Seth isn’t in it?” I couldn’t help but let a bit of a defiant
streak come out in me.

Mr. Sangre sighed. “Then you find yourself a
piece of the goddess and pray that she will understand. But think
carefully about it. Maybe there was someone here you were meant to
be with all along, and Seth threw off the course of your life. Have
you considered your destiny could be to be with someone else?” It
wasn’t possible. No one could make me feel like Seth did.

“I don’t think I could ever love someone the
way I love Seth. What is a piece of the goddess?” I asked. I needed
to know. I needed to make a plan. I couldn’t accept life would just
go on without him.

“This is your fault. You know how upset he
will be with me,” Mr. Sangre mumbled into the air, just like Seth
had when he had talked to the goddess. Mr. Sangre mopped his
forehead and returned to looking at me.

“The goddess stone is what the ancients
called it, but now the type of stone is called chalcedony. It is
crystalline quartz that comes in practically every color you can
imagine. Some pieces very long ago were blessed by the goddess and
made to be a way to contact her. Seti, Nadim, and Taraq each found
a piece of chalcedony that allowed them to travel here.” Mr. Sangre
continued to stand in the doorway.

“That red stone Seth showed me?” I
asked.

“Yes, he had a carnelian stone,” Mr. Sangre
answered, looking to his watch. “Only those blessed can contact
her. Once you contact her, you’ll be on your own to convince her.
First the blessed stone, and then the goddess.”

I nodded. Find a stone. That couldn’t be too
hard.

“How do you know the stone is blessed?” I
asked.

Mr. Sangre checked his watch again. “The
writing on it will say so.” I remembered the scratched script on
the back of Seth’s stone. I couldn’t actually read it, but if that
was what I had to find, I’d find it. Mr. Sangre looked again at his
watch.

“I wish I could explain more, but I have to
be going. The keys to the house are in the kitchen. Take them if
you want. You can come back here any time,” Mr. Sangre pulled on a
shirt over the one he was wearing.

“Thank you,” I said as he suddenly faded
from sight. Mr. Sangre had just disappeared before my eyes. It was
the strangest thing, and I stared a few moments longer. He vanished
into thin air. The house was completely empty now. I would have
stayed around to snoop a bit, but I was now on a mission. I was
going to find Seth no matter how much I had to search.

After class the
next day, and the following days all week, I left
for town. I first checked out all the jewelry stores for chalcedony
jewelry. I soon found the selection was not that wide in the new
stores, so the next week I went to the antique stores. By the time
I had been through the new jewelers and antique stores, it was
becoming clear: chalcedony came in many colors, and most were not
marked by the goddess or probably even real chalcedony. I made
plans the following week to go to the Twin Cities to look some
more. Each day was the same: class, homework, search for
stone.

By the time Thanksgiving came around, I was
shocked to find that so much time had passed. Seth had been gone
for three weeks now, but I could feel him every day around me.
Everything began to remind me of him, and I often caught myself
daydreaming about him. How three weeks had passed was beyond
me.

I traveled back to Chicago for Thanksgiving
and was glad that by going to a private school, I had the whole
week off. With a stop to drop Sim off in Minneapolis, I made the
second half of the trip, six hours, all alone. It was a quiet drive
and gave me plenty of time to think. My quest to find Seth and go
back in time to be with him sounded crazy when I put that way, but
all the positives outweighed the negative. The only negatives to
stepping back into a time where I didn’t know where I was going,
how they lived life, or what I was even going to do once I got
there, was outweighed by the fact that I could come back to my own
time precisely when I left. I wouldn’t miss a thing at home if I
could come back to the exact same day, I’d be with Seth—so I’d be
able to take anything history could throw at me, and the gut
feeling I got when I thought about going back to meet him just felt
right. Seth just felt right.

As I drove on, I formulated another plan. I
wasn’t just going to go back and be with Seth. I would go back and
bring Seth back to the present. He was sure his father would never
let him be with me and my questionable parentage. I needed to find
a way to bring him home with me. In reality, I needed to find two
blessed pieces of the goddess. One for me to get there and back,
and one for Seth to use to come back with me.

After six hours in the car, I was glad to
come back to an empty house and just crash. My early-to-rise
grandfather would be up by the crack of dawn, and my mother not too
much later. I didn’t even unpack, just jumped into my childhood bed
fully clothed.

It was easy to fall back into the routine I
had before I went off to college. All I had to do was show up for
meals and lounge around the house. My family didn’t expect much of
me now, since I was to fulfill all their hopes after college. It
was a nice break from the college life where I studied all the
time. I did have a few homework assignments to do over break, but
finding a piece of chalcedony took precedent over everything. When
my grandfather and mother worked, I took a ride into the city to
see if I could find anything. My first day was a bust, but I wasn’t
giving up. If there was a piece somewhere, Chicago was big enough
for me to search through.

By the second day, my quest abruptly stopped
when I decided to eat breakfast with my grandfather in his office.
The answer to my quest had been waiting for me there all along.
Above his desk held a framed piece of jewelry. It was the same size
and shape of Seth’s stone. It was even cut the same as his stone,
four grooves on the upper half of his stone.

“It’s a beauty, isn’t it?” my grandfather
asked as he joined me and noticed me admiring it, or so he thought.
“Nineteenth dynasty, Egyptian,” he explained. “I found it years and
years ago when I was over there for something else. The previous
owner swore it was authentic, from a Pharaoh’s tomb. The owner said
it was cursed because it was from the lover of the Pharaoh. He
wasn’t allowed to be with the one he loved because he was Pharaoh,
but he never stopped wishing for her. That stone was all he had
left to remember her. Don’t know if I believe the bloke, but it was
pretty. I doubted it was real as they keep those within the country
now, but not at this time. Once I got it authenticated, I found it
was genuine. Nice piece to have in my collection, don’t you
think?”

“Chalcedony?” I asked. My grandfather nodded
his approval of my knowledge, glad that college education was
paying off. How little, he didn’t realize.

“Carnelian,” he answered. My heart skipped a
beat.

I nodded to my grandfather, pretending to
appreciate the beauty of it. It was authentic. It was old. It was
carnelian. It was identical to Seth’s stone. I only needed to see
the back side. I was sure my grandfather wouldn’t take it out of
the case. I didn’t ask him. This would have to be a covert
operation to check out the stone. Now all I needed was a moment
when I could examine it. Grandfather took it down from the wall and
handed the closed case to me, allowing me to appraise it more. I
looked closer at it. It had to be Seth’s stone. I could feel the
heat pulsate through the glass, even. I had no doubts what I’d find
on that stone.

I let the next few days pass in a blur. I
spent most of my time planning how to convince the goddess to let
me have Seth and waiting for the best opportunity to get the stone.
Unfortunately for me, my grandfather was in his study most of the
time. He didn’t currently have any clients to go off to and see as
he usually planned around the holiday. As a child, I loved having
him around for Thanksgiving. It was one of the only few times a
year I could guarantee he was home. Right now I wished otherwise as
I anxiously waited for access to the stone.

The week passed by and soon it was the night
before Thanksgiving. I felt my nerves picking up as the week was
halfway done. I needed a time to examine the stone. I was sure it
was what I was looking for, but I didn’t know how to read the back.
How did I contact the goddess once I had the stone? Tomorrow would
be busy with the celebrating, but I needed to make plans soon. I
only had a few days left before I had to go back to college. It was
the perfect time to go to the past.

Luck was on my side that night as my
grandfather and mother were both called away for a client in
town.

“Supper is in the fridge, and we will start
baking at six-sharp tomorrow morning,” my mother explained. I
stared at her. It was going to be a while to me before I saw her
again. I didn’t know how long it would take for me to get Seth
back. I tried to memorize everything about her.

As a child, I idolized my mother. She was
grand and beautiful. Her shoulder-length, deep red hair was almost
black, just like Seth’s. The red highlights made it shimmer in the
sun. Her pale skin was perfectly blemish free. She wasn’t too tall
or too short, and just perfectly proportioned. I always wanted to
grow up to be like her. She was a fairy princess in all of my
dreams and the best mom. Even as perfect as she always seemed, she
never once let that stop her from being just a mom. She would take
me to the park and play in the sand, or bake a cake with me when
she knew more batter would end up on the walls and counters than in
the cake. She never once was mad at me or discouraged me from
anything, and she loved me more than anything in the world.

As I looked at her now, I saw the faint
lines of age around her face. She had loved my father like I loved
Seth, and she never got to go back and see him. She had grown older
and raised a child without him. I never asked about my father
because it caused her pain. She probably suffered the same pain I
was feeling now without Seth. As I looked at her, I really wish she
had told me more, but I knew how painful it was to be without the
one you loved. I was getting to rewrite my past, and now I felt bad
that she never got to.

“I love you sweetie. Have a fun night
without us old folks around,” she said before kissing my head. I
took a quick and discreet breath of her lavender scent. I’d miss
her for however long I was gone. College was one thing, moving away
and all, but traveling to another time was completely different. At
college I could call her if I had a bad day or needed advice. Now I
wouldn’t have that lifeline.

“I love you too, Mom,” I replied, and hugged
her a little longer than normal. She was saying goodnight, but I
was saying goodbye for who knew how long.

“You feeling okay?” she asked as she pulled
back and eyed me over. It would have been easy to just spill it and
tell her everything. The more I thought about it, the easier it
would be, but I couldn’t. I needed to do this on my own. I needed
to go back and find Seth. I needed to be with him whether it was in
his time or my own. She would understand, but I didn’t want to
worry her. In reality, I would return someday, and she would never
know the difference.

“I’m fine, Mom. Excited for tomorrow,” I
told her, and she smiled. Thanksgiving was always a fun time.

“It’s nice to have you home.” She hugged me
again and then finally got into the car with my grandfather.

“Stay out of the liquor cabinet if you plan
to drive anywhere,” my grandfather called from the car. “And leave
the cigars alone. Those are just mine.” He winked at me.

“Sure thing, Pappy,” I replied. He hated to
be called Pappy.

I watched them drive away before sneaking
back into my grandfather’s office. I didn’t need to sneak since I
was the only one home, but I just couldn’t help it. I felt like a
kid raiding the cookie jar. There had to be an adult somewhere that
was going to catch me. I stopped just inside the door and looked at
the display. I didn’t know how I didn’t notice it over the years.
Even now I felt the stone pull me from across the room. I took the
framed necklace and hurried back to my room. I’d have to bring back
the whole thing anyways when I returned, and I’d rather have it in
my own room than his office when trying the time travel thing. What
if I showed up without clothes or something? I had no clue how the
time travel worked.