A Familiar Voice
'I don't know you.'
'I don't know you.'
'I don't know you.'
His voice echoed in my head.
'How could this have happened...'
It suddenly dawned on me.
'We never met. In this reality, we never met.'
The thought was like an anchor, pulling down my heavy heart to the depths of nothingness.
"Andy! We played together as kids! At the Boire Orphanage! We grew up together! You were a jokester and always told me cheesy jokes that no one laughed at, but we'd laugh together for hours and hours!" Tears started forming in my eyes, and my eyelids were too weak to hold them back by that point, so I just let them spill. My whole body was too weak to do anything, so I just rambled on with words and stories that meant nothing to him at all. And I cried. I cried until my face was soaked.
"Listen-Marcy, I-"
"It's Marie," I corrected him. 'God, this is the worst.' I had to take a second to look away from him.
"Marie," he paused and gave me a look as if to get approval for his next words.
"I'm sorry, but I really think you have the wrong person, there's no way I'm engaged to you. I'm getting married to the love of my life just next week! Plus, I was never in an orphanage. Now maybe if you go to the police, I-I'm sure they'd be able to track this guy down for you-"
My voice was still trembling as I sorrowfully pulled out the necklace he had given me- well, the Andy I knew before time travelling.
"You gave me this," I displayed the necklace that had our 1 month old engagement ring hooked on, "exactly 1 month ago. That's when you proposed to me. Inside of Reaton Park, in the rose maze. You even had our intitials printed on it, see?" I showed him the backside of the ring.
'He's not going to remember you idiot. He never met you!' said a voice inside my head.
'I don't care. I want to show him anyways. Will it change anything? Probably not. But at least I showed him...At least I tried.'
"We were best friends. Every Saturday, we'd go to Ellie's Icecream Shop, and I'd get strawberry and you'd always get pumpkin. Everyday we played soccer in the streets, you weren't very athletic so you'd always managed to fall right before making a shot... You called it your lucky move. We even got matching tattoos when we turned eighteen!" I pulled out my wrist that had the words: "to the fullest" on an infinity sign.
"We made a pact to stay together until the end of our lives when we got those tattoos... it was the week after you'd been diagnosed and a week after my grandfather had passed away." I tucked the tattoo back inside my jacket sleeve.
I felt like I was pleading for nothing. It was just emptiness. He wasn't going to magically understand and be aware of everything. How could I possibly make him believe me? I felt pathetic. This was pathetic.
He was just standing there. Politely listening to all of this, looking confused. Probably trying to decide whether he should call the psychiatric hospital nearby.
"Andy, I know you don't know any of this because- because..."
I stumbled. Should I tell him? Should I tell him about everything? How I time travelled to save his parents from that horrible fire. And how I didn't think about how it would change his life...particularly with me. He needed family. He was going insane, begging for a relative to be with him. I did it for him. It was all for him. Because of that, he now has a mother and a father, and even a younger brother! He's a doctor now, no longer a musician and an artist. No longer ill, and longer aqcuainted with any Marie's.
"Because... you are living well. You have a good life now." I took in a deep breath to calm myself as I decided to leave. "Live it to the fullest my friend." Where my final words came from that day, I will never know. But as sad as they were to me, to this day, I am happy I said them.
I stood for moment and stared at him. Trying to get a picture of him in my mind, so that maybe in the future, I'll be able to forget my Andy. So to forget Andy as a whole. It was better this way anyway. He is happy now. I let out a sigh and turned to leave.
As I was about to exit the park, I heared his familiar yet so distant voice, "Thank you," he paused hesitantly, "Thank you, Marie."
I stood frozen for a few seconds, embracing the lone ring around my neck. Wiped my final tear, and continued on my way out of the park, and out of his life.