Changing The Past
By Krazy Sam
The campfire was blazing, and everyone was asleep, except for Lucca. She tossed and turned restlessly, thinking about what Marle had said to her earlier.
“If you could go back and change something in your life, what would you change?” Those were her words, and now, as a result, Lucca was kept awake, lest she dream the horrible dream that haunted her for months after the accident.
The accident.
It seemed to her that those words were hardly the words for the tragedy that struck ten years ago. Even now, she could still hear her mother’s pained cries, as her father’s machine mangled her legs. Luckily, her mom survived, but she could no longer walk, and Lucca has blamed herself ever since.
“If only I knew the password… my mom would be able to walk.” Her thoughts cut through the sound of soft snoring coming from Crono and Ayla, the soft breeze rushing through the trees, and the barely audible croaking emanating from Frog.
Lucca lay awake for a few minutes, put the fire out, and then fell asleep.
An hour passed, and everyone was sleeping peacefully.
“MOMMY!”
Lucca sat upright with a start. She looked around to see who had screamed. It took her a while to figure out that she was the one who had screamed. Embarrassed, she prepared for the taunts from Crono that would surely come any second. She waited, but no sound came from anyone. They were all out cold.
“I won’t let these nightmares haunt me any longer!” she exclaimed, to no one. She looked around again. Nothing stirred. The breeze had even gone away, as if to go to sleep for the night.
“Walk. Go for a walk.” She babbled as she stood up. She wandered through the forest, until she saw a bright flash of light. She turned, and gasped. A gate! Lucca hesitated, and then decided that she had nothing to lose, and ran into it.
She found herself dumped into her room seconds later.
“Wha…?” She gasped in amazement.
It was her room all right, but everything was different. More… childish. No machines, any books cluttering the floor- everything was immaculate, except for a piece of paper laying on the floor. Lucca bent down and started to read.
“July Second, 990… My dad promised that he would go hiking with me, but he couldn’t because he had some work to do. I hate science! I loathe it!” Lucca knew those words well, as she should. She wrote it, after all, when she was seven.
“Oh my god…” She whispered. “This was the day my mom…” Lucca forgot about the paper, and dashed downstairs, and into the kitchen. There was another paper greeting her as she entered.
“The password is… the name of my lovely wife, Lara. Use only in emergencies!” The password! Now, Lucca could change history, and erase any guilt! She strode out of the kitchen, and into the living room, where she saw her mom tugging at her skirt, which was caught on a very large and shiny machine.
“Lucca, I…I’m STUCK!” She cried out.
Lucca moved a step forward, just as a little girl, completely hidden from view from the machine, rushed to help her mother. The little girl tugged and tugged, but the skirt remained fastened to the machine.
“I can’t pull it out, Mommy.” Lucca then recognized herself, ten years younger. She stopped and thought about how cute she was back then, when all of a sudden; the girl fell over, onto a giant switch. The machine started to move its large conveyer belt, very slowly.
Lucca panicked. “I need to save my mom… but if I do, won’t history be changed drastically?” She thought aloud, just barely a murmur. She started toward the main console, but then hesitated again, sweat beginning to glisten on her brow. She watched her mother head slowly to what would be the beginning of the life as a crippled person. Her mother was inches away, when Lucca finally came to her senses and raced toward the console. She began typing furiously, but no luck. She forgot the password.
Suddenly, the machine stopped. Lucca’s mom was almost inside the machine, and her younger self was sobbing hysterically. Lucca, herself, was crying tears of relief. She decided to exit quietly as everyone started to calm down.
She raced toward the gate, and jumped through.
.
“Ow!”
Lucca soon found herself twisted at an odd angle, sprawled in the dirt of the forest. She pulled herself up and brushed some of the dirt off of her clothes.
“Lucca, are you all right?” She recognized that mechanical, monotone voice as Robo. “I noticed that you were missing, and when I was searching, I found this gate. What did you discover?”
“How long were you here?” Lucca asked, completely ignoring him.
“My time gyro says that I have been here for ten minutes. You did not answer my question. What did you discover?” Robo responded.
“I…I…I discovered…” She hesitated. “Nothing. I didn’t discover anything.” She figured that if she really did change history, then no one would know that she did, except for herself.
Robo seemed satisfied for the moment, and Lucca brushed past him.
“I gotta go to sleep.” She mumbled, realizing how tired she was.
“Lucca, wait.” Robo started to block her path.
“What?” Lucca asked, becoming annoyed.
“I want to give you this.” He held out his arm and revealed an unusually sparkly piece of amber. “It took 400 years and a lot of pressure to make. I hope you find it useful.”
Lucca’s face softened. “Thanks, Robo. You’re so sweet.”
He only replied with a series of robotic beeps.
Robo went back to the campsite, and Lucca stayed for a while, thinking about what she might’ve done. Soon, she went to the campsite, and fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
.
“Wake up!!!”
Lucca groaned. “Is it morning already?” She asked sleepily. She opened her eyes and found herself staring into the eyes of Magus.
“AIEEEEEEEE!” She shrieked.
Magus jerked back startled. “You fool! It is only I!”
“You have a terrible morning face,” she joked.
“At least I wasn’t asleep for hours after we all woke up!” He shot back.
Crono stepped between them. “Lucca, he was trying to wake you up because the rest of us couldn’t. Magus, you gotta learn how to tell when she is joking.”
Lucca quickly sat up. “My house! We have to go to my house right now.”
Crono looked surprised. “Why?”
“I…have…to…check on…something,” she stammered.
“Well, get ready, and we’ll go. Hurry up, though!”
.
Lucca raced through the doors of her house, and was surprised to find a cat greeting her.
“I don’t have a cat…” She uttered. The cat mewed and rubbed itself around her legs. “It is kinda cute, though.” She said affectionately.
She forgot about the cat and ran up the stairs to her mother’s bedroom. She had run all the way from the forest to her house, and the others haven’t caught up yet.
“Mom? Where are you?” Lucca called.
“Upstairs!” Was the reply.
She burst into her mother’s room, and immediately felt depressed. Her mom was sitting in the chair as always, and she looked like she didn’t get her legs back. Suddenly, her mom set her feet down, and got up.
“Mom?” Lucca cried in bewilderment.
“Sitting cross-legged sure puts my feet to sleep quickly,” Her mom laughed. Her expression turned serious. “Lucca, I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but when you were seven, I almost got my legs cut off by one of your father’s inventions. I don’t know what happened, but I thought I saw you at that moment, looking the way you do now. It was so strange! I saw you tapping away at the controls, and you were very scared.”
Lucca turned pale. “You…did?”
“I thought so, but I guess I was going mad with fear! You had disappeared without a trace, and then the real you started to study science to prevent any more accidents, and then you loved science! You made your father so happy!”
Lucca heaved a sigh of relief. So she was just a vision to her mom. At least nothing else was changed.
“Mom…?” She asked timidly.
“Yes, dear?”
“I…don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you so much.” Her voice broke at the end, and she burst into tears, with her face buried in her mother’s shoulder, and mother and daughter stood there, for a long time, in that embrace.