Josie ran down her street, Lewis leading the way. He held her hand clutched in his, an urgent pace set in his stride. Josie kept up easily—she was a runner with legs built for endurance. She let Lewis pull her along simply because she didn’t know where she was going, though she could have just as easily followed behind him. Most substantially, she couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of his hand on hers.

Being around Lewis often made her feel like she’d been picked up by a tornado, but at this point, riding the winds was becoming second nature. At school, Josie was mostly ignored by her peers and she preferred it that way. Middle school was a special kind of hell, especially as a Native American amongst a ninety percent white population. Being a minority already made her stand out, and one should not forget that the phrase kids can be cruel was coined specifically in reference to the ‘tween years of which Josie was currently plagued.

The matter of the fact was that Josie, riddled with teenage hormones, had not yet been exposed to any form of positive male attention by her peers. She was currently known around College Place Middle School as the girl who killed her parents. In hindsight, sharing a version of her story with a girl she thought was her friend had been a mistake. She no longer trusted so easily.

But she trusted Lewis. It was instinctual. Her hand was snug in his. It was so easy to be led along. Lewis had protected her every step of the way so far. She hoped he wouldn’t let her down.

Lewis’s posture grew tense as he approached a white house on an immaculately landscaped property.

“Stay close,” said Lewis.

He stepped up onto the porch and rang the doorbell. After an uncomfortably long moment an older man came to the door. “Hello?” he greeted them.

“Hi, Mr. Mathews, is Landon home?” Lewis asked, anxiety already bubbling up in his voice.

Landon’s father blinked several times then lowered his eyebrows into a frown. “I’m sorry, who are you looking for?”

“Landon,” said Lewis. “Your son… we’re friends.”

“I think you have the wrong house,” said Mr. Mathews. “I don’t have any children.”

Lewis’s eyes grew wide. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Mr. Mathews began to close the door, but hesitated for a moment. “Wait… how do you know my name? You seem familiar….”

“I really must be going,” said Lewis. He pulled Josie with him as he backed away from the door.

Mr. Mathews watched them as they hurried back down the driveway and across the road.

“What’s going on?” asked Josie.

Lewis’s face bore a deep scowl. “We’re too late,” he said. “The Agares must have Erased Landon already. His own father doesn’t remember him….” Lewis began breathing heavily. “This is horrible! How can we be too late!? Without Landon we’re all doomed….”

“Ahem…” Mr. Gray cleared his throat. The tiny imp was leaning against a telephone pole just off to their left. “Took you long enough to get here. The Agares came and went nearly an hour ago.”

Lewis bounded over to the Parca and scooped him up in his arms. “An hour? An hour ago we were barely off the ferry. There’s no humanly possible way I could have made it here in time.”

Mr. Gray smiled a big toothy grin. “No worries, all is still going to plan.”

“I guess that means I’m going back in time again?” Lewis asked. “But if Landon was Erased, he wouldn’t be in any time, no matter how far back I go….”

“That is true,” said Mr. Gray. “Once they burn you out of existence, it’s retroactive. They are also watching this time period carefully from within the Beyond. No, I cannot take you through time right now, but there is still a way.”

“Just tell us,” said Josie.

Mr. Gray climbed up Lewis’s arm to his shoulder. He stood up tall, gripping onto Lewis’s hair for stability. He placed one hand on his hip as he directed a sassy look at Josie. “No patience. You need to learn to take your time when you have time available for the taking. Not all moments contain a big reveal, and the ones that do should be savored when possible.”

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“What are you getting at?” asked Lewis.

Mr. Gray slid back down into Lewis’s arms. “Do you know where your journal is right now?”

Lewis narrowed his eyes. “I left it at the creepy house before you sent me back in time.”

Mr. Gray nodded. “And before it was in your possession?”

Lewis shook his head and shrugged slightly. “I got it out of a time pocket.”

“And who put it in the time pocket?”

Lewis looked to be putting the puzzle pieces together. “Landon stashed it there for me to find. And a past version of me left it for him to find. Where is this all leading?”

“I’ll just jump to the chase,” said Mr. Gray. “Landon has the journal stored in the same time pocket you retrieved it from in Yost Park—where an older version of you placed it for him. At this time, it’s still there.”

Josie blinked in confusion. She didn’t understand the point of anything Mr. Gray was saying. “What journal?” she asked.

Mr. Gray and Lewis both turned to look at her.

“You tell her the story,” said Mr. Gray, “the abridged version please, I’m growing hungry.” His face drooped slightly, already looking bored before Lewis opened his mouth to explain.

“A long time ago, another version of me began to keep a journal of instructions—”

“—Actually…” Mr. Gray interrupted, “technically speaking, all versions of you occupy the same period of time, so this didn’t happen a long time ago. You are merely on top of the pile, so-to-speak, at the moment, from your perspective.”

“Are you going to tell the story, or are you going to let me do it?” Lewis retorted.

Mr. Gray waved his hand dismissively.

“A long time ago,” Lewis repeated, “some version of me that no longer exists wrote down instructions on how to get through his life better and then placed the instructions into a time pocket to be rediscovered back in time by himself. Myself… anyway, by reading the journal, the version of me that did the writing ceased to exist, or really just never came to pass because the version of me reading the journal at a younger age was then able to avoid the mishaps that led to the journal needing to be written in the first place. Are you following this?”

Josie’s eyes had gone slightly unfocused as she concentrated. “I think so.”

“You looked a little glazed over, there,” said Lewis, laughing. “Ok, so what happened was a version of me replaced myself with another version of me which then ran into different problems and amended the instructions and sent them back again, replacing myself over and over again countless times until a journal came into my possession about a year from now for you, which was a few months ago for me.” Lewis gestured broadly with one arm.

Mr. Gray was still clutched under his other arm, struggling not to be choked.

Lewis took no notice as he continued on. “I followed the journal to the best of my ability and in doing so have been led here, on top of the stack. All the Lewis’s that came before tried to escape the Agares but failed in that journey in some way or another. The Agares always won. But now, through pure brute force trial and error over uncountable lifetimes we find ourselves amidst an unlikely Hail Mary of a final, radical tweak to the timeline. Landon was always my best friend. But for me, he was my worst enemy growing up. Somewhere along the line of Lewis’s, one of me came up with the bright idea of radically changing my psyche by leaving a young Landon the journal. He was instructed to torment me for most of the past decade.”

“It’s made Lewis bitter and less fun,” said Mr. Gray, finally pulling himself up higher on Lewis’s chest, “but it has also forced him to overcome more adversity in his life. It has hardened him.”

“I’ve already figured out your plan little man,” said Lewis. “You want me to write a warning to Landon in the journal he discovers as a kid. That way instead of being retroactively Erased out of this timeline he will suddenly be uno-reversed back into existence.”

“Bingo!” exclaimed Mr. Gray. “Wildcard! And the only reason you even remember Landon to write this warning is because I’ve taken you out of your native time stream. So, you’re welcome.”

“Okay,” said Lewis, “let’s get to it, then. Lead the way.”

Mr. Gray pointed down the street, away from Josie’s house. “I should warn you, though,” he said. “As soon as the shift happens, the Agares won’t have left an hour ago. They will still be desperately searching this day to discover how Landon managed to slip through their net.”

“My coil broke,” said Lewis. “I won’t be able to shoot back at them.”

Mr. Gray’s eyes flashed with excitement. “Well, then, it’s finally time to see how well your childhood of adversity pays off!”

I got a real kick out of this part of the journey! Knowing more than everyone around you is a position of power us Parcae take very seriously, but that is not to say we don’t have fun with it! I can say with the utmost certainty that Lewis (and all the Lewis’s that came before) have single-handedly lived the most complicated life of any organism I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. That journal and the notes that came before it have confused the Agares to no end by constantly shifting both the board and the game pieces right out from under them. It’s a truly beautiful and convoluted-ly tragic tapestry Lewis, Landon, and all the others have managed to weave with my help. They say the real gifts in life are the friends we meet along the way, which I suppose would make the true tragedy all those who were permanently Erased and lost from memory. At least I’ll always remember. Here’s to you, Josh. Your sacrifice was forgotten, but if the Agares are defeated, it will not have been in vain.

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray