Blending Timeline Jumping – Jack and Steph Touch Base

“Jack Ritenqueen” and “Stephanie ‘Steph’ Knack” are two characters I’ve been building on for almost 3 years now.  This entry is meant to help bridge some previous entries that until recently, it was not revealed until recently that Knack and Ritenqueen had been married and divorced in such a short period of time.   This draft starts with Stephanie first.

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“Stay away.  You owe me nothing.”

“That’s not true.”

“Sure it is.  The damage had been done long before you and I began interacting.”

“You have no idea.”

“I don’t have every piece to everyone else’s pictures, if that’s what you’re implying, but too many people had too much invested into both our futures to ever let us grow without major and minor relative interference.  I think they saw our ideals conflicted too greatly and we would become nothing but further sources of grief and misery due to an absence of additional inner circle influence. “

“You make no damn sense!”

“You knew how to find me ever since we last talked, but even your instincts told you not to do anything until I made it as easy as a shout out and a hello across a street and your luck of still recognizing you and wanting to reach out again.  Why didn’t you try sooner?”

“I didn’t know if you were still having problems with your Grandfather.”

“Oh please.  You were afraid of having problems with him.  You knew my Granddad didn’t approve of your choice to opt out of the marriage so fast and you didn’t want to face the music and explain why, which you still haven’t explained to me and I actually don’t want to know.  It’s over.  I’m fine.  You’re fine.  There is nothing due between us because of what happened so long ago.”

“You wouldn’t be living this way.”

“In some ways, I most certainly would be trying to.  You remember what I went through back then and the answer always was and has been to just leave them behind and then no longer registering on their radars.  You remember the drill.  Stay low, don’t go out in public except for work and basics for a while.  Portray the basic, happy lifestyle should they find me and those kinds of choices aren’t because of what happened between you and I.”

“You don’t understand.  I could have done more.”

“More what?  Stretching of my loyalties?  You know what path I wanted to travel.”

“So what?”

“So you may not care, but your friends sure cared about it for quite a while after you and I went our separate ways after the divorce.  They also had just seemed to settle down and now you’re trying to quick-step your way around the barriers I have erected for the right reasons?  I don’t fit into your world any more than you fit in mine other than this type of sporadic, once every 5 or 10 years conversation”

“It didn’t need to be that way.  I was willing to walk away from everything, but it had to be for an all or nothing chance at life together.”

“Right…and when I rejected it and walked away, apparently I took on the reputation of being this wedge between you and others and a ‘good bye and good riddance’ sort of sigh of relief?  You weren’t willing to do anything of the sort unless I was willing to do the same kind of all or nothing move away from my own legacy and you never understood that was an impossible fantasy.”

“I understand that you still won’t give me the chance to believe in you while you apparently still let others provide encouragement and support.”

“I’m not a statue and so what if I am cold about the idea of where you want to go with this compared to where I don’t think I can go with anyone anymore.  As I told you, it’s been over for a while now.  Drop the idea of owing me anything and instead explain to me why the alert went out to report back if anyone sees you.”

“I can’t.  Do you still have feelings for me?”

“Don’t you dare ask me such a broad-based question after what we just talked about!  How the hell am I supposed to know what I feel right now because you haven’t given me anything to measure your search with?  Sure I still have feelings, but they aren’t always the warm fuzzies I’m sure you’re hoping for me to claim in possession of with the idea of letting you go yet again.  What if I ask you to stay?  What if right now is an all or nothing moment.  Don’t go.  Don’t do whatever it is you believe you have to keep hidden from me.