Epilogue

01:55 August 22, 2023 My 55th Birthday

My little pink haired bartender looked at me, her eyes shining with excitement. “I want to hear more of your story, Harrison Parker, but it’s last call. Why don’t you come back tomorrow and tell me what happened at school, with the gang of five and what you’ve been doing since we last met?”

I nodded and yawned. “I can do that. Do you have time to answer one question of mine? What’s your name?”

She smiled and giggled. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, Harrison? You’ve thought about it often enough. Haven’t you figured out who I am? I’ll give you a hint. I’m one of three sisters. We’ve been called weird all our lives.”

“You’re one of the Wyrd sisters? One of the Fates that my Pap-pap used to talk about?”

“Yes, but do you know which one? Can’t you guess?”

“Well, it has to be Seline, Phoebe or Luna, doesn’t it?”

“Unless you go by the older names given us by the Norse or the Greeks or the Romans. You can call me Phoebe. I liked the name Phoebe the most out of all the names I was given. Now let me ask you a question. Was it worth it? Going back and saving Amaryllis? Did that change bring with it the result you wanted? Or would you like another chance? Maybe go back and stop Tabby’s attack or Patty’s now that you know about them?”

I looked at her and thought for a moment. “If I did that, what would happen to Amaryllis? To the relationship and friendship I formed with her and Julie?”

Phoebe looked me dead in the eye. “To answer your question, Amaryllis would still have been your next-door neighbor, but that was all she would have been. Without the attack, she would have had no reason to fall in love with her hero. Julie, you would have seen around school, but that’s all. She would have been that girl with the funky hair who was smaller than you.”

I watched as she poured me another one of those milky, glowing drinks. “Just drink it down and tell me which attack to send you back before. Save one of the others and live yet another life. Which girl, Harrison? Which one do you save this time?”

I looked at the drink and thought about this life that I’ve lived. I reached out my hand and picked up the glass. Then I set it in front of Phoebe. “No thanks. As much as I’m tempted, I wouldn’t trade this lifetime for another. Rule number eleven. ‘Live with the choices you’ve made because they help make you the man you are. The grass may look greener on the other side of the fence, but the truth is it’s all the same grass. Kentucky Bluegrass’.”

With those words, I get up from the bar stool I’ve been sitting on. Time to go home to the wife and my grandchildren. I’ll come back another time and tell Phoebe more of my story. Explain that I’m happy with this, my second chance. I have everything I want and I wouldn’t change a single thing...