By Rachel Dib
There was a girl… in my bed.
Great, another “weary traveler” Dex decided to help. Huffing, I tossed my purse onto the bucket chair beside my door. “Guess I’m not getting a nap anytime soon,” I grumbled as I tiptoed to my closet. After wrenching a neon purple jumpsuit off its hanger, I glanced at the sleeping girl and froze. With a click of my tongue, I leaned out into the narrow hallway connecting the bedrooms to our living room.
“Dex!” Peering through the doorway, I eyed the sleeping girl.
She looked too young to be galivanting around the galaxy on her own. But more importantly, a normal voyager would be the same caramel brown as everyone else on Gamma II. Once humanity had found its way to the stars, everyone intermingled to the point of indiscernible homogeny.
This girl, however, was clearly Japanese.
I recognized her distinguishing features from the history books Dex had been perusing recently. Which meant my brother had not only gone time traveling again, but he’d brought someone back—from about six hundred years ago!
“Dex!”
My brother appeared at the end of the hallway, sporting an impish grin. “Oh, Givnie. I see you’ve met our guest, Sadako Sasaki.”
“Guest.” I narrowed my eyes. “Does she know that?”
He shrugged as he joined me in my doorway. “I mean, she will eventually.”
“Dex!”
“Mind keeping your voice down?” He scowled. “She’s sleeping.”
I crossed my arms. “What did you do?”
“I saved her life is what I did. Something I’m sure she’ll be thankful for once she wakes.”
He tried to lead me down the hall, but I refused to budge. A moment later, Sadako’s eyes fluttered open. After a quick glance around, she sat up. Then she took one look at us… and screamed.
It took a bit to calm her down—a process that may have been simpler if Dex had inserted a translation device in her ear before she’d woken up. Or maybe not. Because, once we could comprehend one another, I discovered the real problem.
“I don’t understand.” She held a hand in front of her face and shook her head. “What happened to me?”
I let out a slow breath, wondering how to explain her being kidnapped through time and space, but Dex spoke first.
“I’m afraid I needed to age you slightly.”
While Sadako stared blankly at Dex, I turned slowly to face him.
“You did what?”
“In order to save Sadako, I had to rescue her before the atomic bomb detonated in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. She was two years old, so I blipped her forward a bit.” He slipped our grandfather’s Blipometer from his pocket.
Now, I’d used the aging contraption on occasion—fast forwarding something to a future date without affecting my own timeline. But I’d only aged wine or cheese, not people.
My mouth worked silently for a moment before I finally managed to shriek, “You aged her! How is she even cognizant right now?”
He nodded toward the living room. “Easy. I modified my Study-omatic to stimulate brain development. She should have a rudimentary understanding of everything we learned from birth to elementary school.”
When I lowered my head in a glower, he threw out his hands. “What? Would you have wanted a two-year-old running around? I only blipped her to twelve. That’s when she would’ve died.”
Sadako paled. “Died?”
“Yes. If I hadn’t saved you, you would’ve died from leukemia. Part of the effects from the bomb’s radiation, unfortunately.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as Sadako brought her knees up to her chest and whimpered.
Well, this situation just gets better and better.
As if sensing my frustration and Sadako’s fear, my brother flung out his hands. “Don’t you see? None of that bad stuff will happen now. Sure, she won’t remember, like, ten years of her life, but she’ll live. Isn’t that great?”
“No.” I hesitated. “I mean yes… technically. But Dex, you kidnapped her. What about her family? Their two-year-old went missing, and they have no idea where she went or why.”
While I’d expected Dex to gain some perspective, he only shook his head. Before he attempted to defend his actions further, Sadako broke in.
“Why me?”
Face bright, Dex stepped toward Sadako. “Because you’re a hero! Books and songs were written to tell your story. You spent your last days trying to fold a thousand origami cranes in hopes of gaining a wish. I believe you learned about it from a legend. Your determination encouraged a lot of people. In fact…” He held up a finger and sprinted down the hallway. When he returned, he carried an old history book titled The Rise and Fall of Earth’s Societies.
“It’s all in here,” he said, flipping rapidly through the pages. When he reached the end of the book, his brow furrowed. “At least I thought it was.”
He searched again, slower this time, but to no avail. He chewed his lip. “Maybe this is the wrong book. Just a second.”
Before he could dash away again, I grabbed his arm. “Or maybe, her story isn’t there anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” Dex asked, wrenching his arm from my grasp. Even as the question left his mouth, realization dawned on his face. His shoulders slumped. “I erased her.”
Sadako looked up with solemn eyes. “Everything heroic I did vanished once you rescued me?”
“If she never did it, it didn’t happen,” Dex muttered, disappointment etched in his features.
“So everyone I encouraged—anyone I helped—all that went away?”
“Seems so, yes,” I replied.
“Then I’d rather not be saved.” Sadako exhaled slowly and met my eyes. “I’d rather die knowing I helped someone than live and have my story erased. Is there a way to undo this?”
“Um.” I glanced at Dex.
A proud smile lifted his lips. “A true hero,” he said softly. Then meeting Sadako’s gaze, he added, “I’m sure I can figure out something.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Inspiring!
Thank you!
Having finished the story:
The title made me cry so haaard!! What a good story! I hope this one makes the anthology. :’)
Aww thank you 😊 I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I laughed, I was sad, I pondered. That’s a lot of emotions for one story! Sometimes the pain in our lives is a necessary pain so we can help others. Great story!
Unfortunately true… I’m glad you liked it!
I love this story. I shows the problem of unintended consequences and the ethical problem of knowing what’s ‘best’ for someone else.
Yep even the best intentions can have unintended consequences…
Glad you enjoyed it!
Ohhh, I remember reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes as a kid!! This made me cry. <3 I love this spin on her story. Great job, Rachel!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it 😊
Sometimes it sounds like it would be great to go back in history and change things but as you showed this person was going to do something in her life which people could learn from. I sort of wish you could have ended it with her being sent back. I did like the story has there was a lot of creativity in it.