TIME AFTER TIME

She stands fifty feet from the main entrance of a maternity hospital and watches the comings and goings as they happen. Close to her own eighteenth birthday and a long way from it both at once, she knows her time is near. A building phase is almost up, and she knows what she must do for he is with her and always has been, guiding her, moulding her.

'You know what to do' a voice speaks from within the darkness behind her.

'Yes father' she simply says while keeping her eyes focused forwards.

And off into the hospital she goes indeed focused and determined. Eager to prove her worth, eager to show what she is capable of, this is a proper beginning of her own greatness. From having had a moment within the tent of a faraway fortune teller she knows exactly who she needs to see in the moments ahead of her and it is not long before a waiting area is approached where an emotional young lady stands. Curiosity took her to that tent, following orders has brought her to a hospital.

'Don't come looking' she says to a twenty-year-old lady by the name Hazel. 'Stay where you belong, live out your life. Any attempt to find your friend's child will cost you more than you are willing to give. Do you understand?'

Thirty-nine years pass before these two individuals come into close proximity for a second time. Yeah, for one thirty-nine years has passed while the other has hardly aged a day for it has yet to happen. It will be only a matter of days before that prior contact will come for her, days until she will walk the halls of the maternity hospital on the day her own mother was born, the day her grandmother died.

1.

'You, more than anyone else, need to consider the implications and ramifications of your actions prior to taking any kind of action against anyone or anything. All things are connected. The slightest change can upset or derail all I have been working towards. Do you understand?'

'Yes father' she replies.

Darkness does not expect an eight-year-old to understand though the sooner his lessons begin, the more control both he and the girl will eventually have. She stands in the living room of the home she lives in, staring at a shadow of a figure upon the wall, a shadow which is not her own. Out of all nine of his daughters, this girl will need the most attention to ensure his current endeavours remain intact.

Neither biological parent are in this room so this conversation, this lesson is free to continue without detection or interruption.

'Look outside the window' he says.

She does as she is instructed. It is a beautiful warm summer's day, and the sun is shining bright. Down the end of the garden beyond the gate there stands a ten-year-old girl waving back up towards the girl looking out the window. The eight-year-old waves back before asking her question.

'Is that me out there?'

'Yes, it is, she is you two years from now and she too is learning a valuable lesson. Under no circumstance are you to repeat this lesson unsupervised. Do you understand?

She turns to look back at the wall she had been standing in front of. 'What does ... unsupervised mean?'

'It means that you do not try anything like this while I am not around ...'

'OK, I understand', when she looks back outside, she can no longer see the other girl. 'Hey, where did I go?'

'Who are you talking to honey?' mum speaks as she enters the room with a basket full of laundry she had taken in off the line from out in the back garden and funny, or not so funny perhaps, that she heard her daughter say what she had just said.

Mum had looked away for an instant and when she looks back towards the living room window; her daughter is no longer there.

'Honey ...?' she asks looking around and seeing that no one else is present in the room.

Eight-year-old Lexi Hansen had been standing by the window with her head past the white lace curtain so she could clearly see whatever may be outside. Mum had seen this when she entered the room, and she heard her daughter ask a question in that moment. Having looked away for the briefest of moments then back, it was clear to see that Lexi was no longer by the window, in fact she was no longer in the room at all.

Mum begins calling out for Lexi and there is no reply. She moves into the kitchen and Lexi is not there. She moves out into the back yard and Lexi is not there. Back in the house she moves into the hallway and then upstairs still calling out for her daughter without receiving a reply. Lexi is not within her own bedroom; she is not within her parents' bedroom and neither is she in the spare bedroom.

Now the panic really sets in, where did an eight-year-old girl go? Out front is where Lexi had been looking, mum considers the thought that her daughter must have seen something outside and gone out to it but how could she have done such a thing so quickly and without mum herself hearing so much as a footstep, never mind not hearing the front door opening and closing.

Up the street, down the street and across the street, there is absolutely no sign of Lexi. Into the neighbours on the left-hand side, they have not seen Lexi and have no idea as to where she may be. Into the neighbours on the right-hand side, the neighbour there, an older lady swears she had seen what looked like Lexi standing by the gates to her home a few moments of so ago though at that she cannot be sure. The girl had been waving at someone either by or within the Hansen household and in doing so she looked positively different, as if she were older perhaps than what she really is.

Older? How could Lexi look ... older?

***

'Mom?' Lexi calls out, though mom is not what she sees.

There are people, many people going about their business as if the many people here are too busy to take notice of a lost little girl.

'Mom' Lexi calls out once again.

She has come to be in a busy place and does not fully understand how she has done this. She was at home one minute and here the next. There is a corridor up ahead and a corridor back behind her and turn offs at both ends and along either way, many turns offs including one really close by which also extends into corridors either side.

One woman had been sitting alone; she has taken notice of this girl and gotten up to approach her.

'What is it honey? Are you lost?'

Freaked out partly by this approaching stranger and partly by not knowing where she is or how she got here, Lexi takes off down the corridor closest to her and soon runs into a room on the right. Mum and dad are in this room. How can that be? Here in this place, mum is in bed holding a baby and dad is at her side and they look so very different. Why are they different? Why have they got a baby?

Lexi stands there a moment stunned it silenced by it. A newly crowned mother and father stare at this child who has come to stand before them. They do not recognize her, how could they? They do not know that this girl is their daughter, for, how could they? They have only just become parents for the first time and mum has their daughter in her arms.

How odd this is and how odd a moment this is which is there one moment and gone the next, vanished into oblivion. This place is a hospital; her parents look so different as eight-year-old Lexi has arrived here to a maternity hospital on the very day she is born. As quickly as she got there, she is gone again.

Standing once more by the living room window, Lexi can see that her mother is outside looking around rather frantically. Soon Lexi is out in the garden and mother and daughter are in each other's arms, both more than a little relieved.