Sorry. For some reason not everything that was shown in the preview ended up in what actually got posted. Here's the ending. Please comment at the end of this and not at the end of the bulk of the story.
... SHE came out! Inside his mind, all Hell broke loose as an emotionally overloaded Rose surged forward, forgetting all about Sanndee's advice to stay in the background, eclipsing the Russ personality. THOSE WERE HER KIDS! Frank and Francine stood by the fire place. She could see the little scar on Frank's left cheek from when he had fallen out of the backyard maple tree when he was six. She watched as Francine flipped her hair back in the unusual way she had seen only HER Francine ever do. Those were her kids - and the mother smiling fondly at them wasn't her! Her life was GONE! She couldn't take it! Oblivious to the shocked looks appearing on the three faces, Rose whirled Russ's body around and ran for the car. They were in Chicago before Rose's breathing slowed and Russ was able to pull himself from under Rose's emotional debris:
*OHMYGAWD!*
*I agree; OHMYGAWD! What the hell are you and I going to do.*
*My life! It was MY life! You stole it! You bastard; you stole it! ............... I know, it wasn't you're fault; but I can't hate Sanndee. She raised me. I don't KNOW you!*
*I can't hate her either. Jeez, she was only sixteen! If I'd only made more effort to understand her... never did understand women; didn't understand her mother either.*
*Wouldn't have worked. She was a teenager; no one understands them.*
*I think the guilt she feels is killing her though. I think we need to get back to her and take this whole thing up then. You be in charge; I've got some private thinking to do.
*OK, and I guess I need some time to mourn my husband and my children.*
Separate in their thoughts, united in their love for Sanndee, the two personalities inside the body of Russ Lawrence made there way back to Sanndee's apartment.
Sanndee was dead. Somehow they knew she was somewhere on a beach, forever now sixteen in an endless summer. The cousin deferred to the father and it was Russ/Rose who pulled the Afghan up over her lifeless body. Jez refused to move. The paramedics came but it was a formality. Heart attack was listed as the cause of death. Russ/Rose knew better. They found the letter an hour and a half later, after Sanndee's body had been taken to the mortuary:
Dear Daddy and/or Cousin Rose,
Do not cry for me. I love you both so much! I screwed up both
your lives, but maybe this can make up for it.
Love, Sanndee
The rest of the letter was directions. The card was a lifetime pass to Bikini Beach.
July 28, 2008: sunset (Pacific time): Russ/Rose stood on the deck of the small boat and, as per her wishes, scattered Sanndee's ashes out over the Pacific. The next day, they caught a flight to the East coast.
August 3, 2008, 9:30am: The old woman looked up from her account book, at the man framed by her ticket window. "Mr. Lawrence - or is it Mrs. Lawrence - I've been expecting you.
August 3, 2008; 10:00am: When Russ/Rose had presented the lifetime pass to the old woman, she had made it clear to Russ that while he would not disappear, he would become a set of what she called "pre-memories" in Rose's mind. Did he still agree to the use of the pass? Russ had explained to the old woman that neither of them wanted to remain in this body. Russell Lawrence's time had passed. All his friends were either senile or dead, and the world of 2008 was too different from that of 1968 for him to really want to adjust even if he could. His one anchor to this world, his daughter Sanndee, was dead. (While she didn't say so, the old woman had expected this. With the need for Rose/Russ to reach a decision, Sanndee's time was up. Had she lived, she would have been torn apart as realities changed once again. She simply offered her condolences.)
Rose Lawrence, on the other hand, had a life. They both hoped that by changing this body back to her body, reality would snap back to her reality. She wanted her husband, her kids, her home, and her life. The old woman had assured Russ that to the best of
her knowledge that was what would happen. Russ Lawrence looked in the mirror of the mens' locker room and said goodbye ... to himself. For the second time in his life, with a smile on his face, turning the knob, Russ Lawrence stepped under the shower at Bikini Beach.
------------------------------------------------------------------
EPILOGUE
August 3, 2008; 10:30am: The old woman watched the attractive middle aged woman get into the car (a Mercury) and drive away. With a sigh, she went into her office and opened the back closet. Reaching into the back, she pulled out a dusty leather bound Journal with "1968 - 1973" written on the cover. Taking the book to her desk, she opened it to the page for July 5, 1968. There was one blank space on the page, following the name "Lawrence" She stared at it for several minutes, letting 40+ years of memory roll. *I'll show this to Anya* she thought; *She needs to know.* Then she wrote "Completed successfully" in the blank and closed the book.
August 5, 2008: 4:30pm: Rose Lawrence put down her suitcase just inside the door of her home in Niles, Illinois, at the same moment that her husband, Jeff, came around the corner from the living room. She straightened up into his embrace, and without waiting for him to take the lead, gave him a more heartfelt kiss and hug than she had ever done before. After a minute or two, a happily surprised Jeff stood back. "Honey, go away more often; it's so great when you come home!" was his comment. "Come into the living room for your surprise." Given the last month or so, Rose didn't know if she could deal with many more surprises, but she followed him anyway. Entering the living room, she didn't see anything, but was suddenly attacked from behind as two pairs of arms wrapped her in a hug. "Welcome home, mom!" Frank and Francine back from Honduras early! Tears rolled down Rose's cheeks as Jeff joined in the hug. A few minutes later as the four broke apart, Jeff looked at his wife. "You look like you could use a drink, hon." he said. "Your usual chardoney?"
"No," she replied thoughtfully, "I believe I'll have a scotch: Johnny Walker Red."
THE END
c2000, Jezzi Belle Stewart