Winds of Change: Part Three

Previously on Winds of Change:

"Marin, whatever happens, it's God's will," I tell her. "We can't change what God has set in stone. You and I have both learned that from our travels. When it is someone's time, it's someone's time. You need to be brave for me, okay?"

Marin slightly nodded. "I love you, táta."

My heart wrenched. I knew what that meant.

I nodded to Dominik. "Take care of her." I then looked over at Ilene, that helpless feeling coming over me again. She searched my eyes, trying to understand. She couldn't understand. She couldn't understand how long I'd wanted to talk to her. How even now I wanted to hear her voice. "Watch over them both, Dominik," I found myself saying, then turned towards Mykola. "Let's go."

I couldn't believe how calm I was. Mykola and I hiked over the hill and towards an even more secluded spot, far away into the forest. Neither one of us spoke. I couldn't speak. All I could think about was Marin's reaction. What she'd called me. She'd called me Papa in Czech. Me. Trevor Trekker. She'd called me her Papa. It was almost enough to make me forget about my present situation.
"This will do," Mykola announced, whipping out his gun.
Almost. Not quite, though.
Mykola turned to me, his blue eyes cold. He wasn't smiling. All of his sarcastic, cruel taunting had been replaced by a coldness that I couldn't explain.
I stood where I was in silence. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do, really. I looked at the sky and figured it was about three in the afternoon.
"I don't know what to say to you, Trevor."
I glanced at Mykola. "I don't either, Mykola."
"You were the first friend I had in a very long time." His tone was flat. He almost looked panicked, but I couldn't tell. "But you betrayed me. You ruined my life. And you refused to help me."
I sighed. "I think I've stated where I am on this matter."
"Can't you see what I've been through!" Mykola demanded, his blue eyes flashing. "Don't you know the pain you've caused me? Or are you too selfish to know what you've done to me? You've ruined my life!"
"I wanted to help you, Mykola. But there's nothing more I can say on this. I tried. I really tried."
He shook his head. "You didn't try hard enough."
"I did my best. There was nothing I could do."
He snapped his head up and looked me in the eye. "You do realize I'm going to kill you?"
Something was off about him. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He wasn't acting right. I wasn't sure what his problem was. What on earth, Trevor! He's about to kill you and all you can think about it how strange he's acting. Well duh, if he was going to kill me of course he was acting strange.
But that wasn't it. There was something else...
"Why aren't you begging for your life? Why aren't you begging me not to kill you? I am going to kill you, Trevor. I'm going to end this problem once and for all. I'm going to take from you what you've refused to give to me- my life back."
I frowned. "If you're going to kill me, Mykola, there's nothing I can say to stop you."
"But you always whine!" he exploded. "You always try to slither your way out of something. Say something!"
"Mykola, if it's my time to die, than I accept it." A small light of understanding was beginning to dawn in my mind. I began to put the pieces together. "I believe in God, Mykola. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe he has a set timeline for everyone. If I die I'm going to spend the rest of eternity with him." I gazed into his eyes. I didn't speak for a minute. Then, before I even realized what I was saying, the words were out of my mouth. "I forgive you, Mykola."
He stared at me. His own eyes begin to well up with tears. He brushed them away. "No!" he shouted. "No, no, no! You can't forgive me! I can't stand you! I should forgive you before you forgive me! You're the one who's done this to me- augh!"
Without warning Mykola threw the gun down onto the ground and sunk to his knees. I stepped back, alarmed, as he began to sob. "You can't forgive me. I don't forgive you. What's wrong with you? Why do I feel this way? I wanted to kill you, but I can't. I can't do it. My life is ruined. I have nothing left."
I wasn't sure what to do. I realized Mykola had reached the point of brokenness. He was at a point in life where there was nothing left for him. He had lost his family. For years he'd run on revenge, but now he couldn't even do that. He was empty.
I found myself coming forward and sitting down next to him. I put my hand on his shoulder as he sobbed. I had never in my life seen him cry, not even when his family died. "Mykola," I said gently, "Jesus loves you."
"He can't love me. I was going to kill you. I'm no better than the man who blew up the apartments in Moscow."
"But Mykola, Jesus loves you anyways. He loves you so much. He forgives you of everything you've done."
I could only see his blond hair. He had his face near the ground. He shook his head violently. "No, no."
What should I say? What should I do? I didn't know what I should tell him. I hesitated, then pressed on. "Mykola, if you could only see how much God loves you, and how much he wants you to come to Him. He wants you, Mykola. He wants you to come to him so he can fix your brokenness-"
The next instant I was on the ground and Mykola had his hands around my throat. I gulped as I looked into his eyes, the previous sadness and fear gone. In it's place was sheer rage.
"You stupid liar," he hissed. "You horrid Scotsman. You tried to use kindness to stop me!"
"Uhhh..." I managed.
"You are the reason I've lived my life alone these years. You are the reason my family didn't survive. And I will make you pay!"
He squeezed as hard as he could. I choked, clawed, and tried to get him off of me, but my world was spinning. I was falling, I was disappearing, everything was getting black...

~oOo~

I sat on the stretcher, holding a cloth to my neck as I coughed again. Marin sat next to me, while Dominik and Ilene sat in chairs across from us. Standing next to me was Past Trevor, a grin the size of a banana.

"He was so out of it," Trevor was telling the others, "and I appeared like wham! And saw Mykola choking him, so I hit him on the head like bang! And knocked him out. He didn't see what was coming. I saved myself from certain death, I did. Oui! What an adventure!" Exhausted from his monologue, Past Trevor flopped onto a stretcher. "I'm tired." He got back up and started to head out the tent door. "I'll be back."

"I thought you said you were tired!" I called after him.

"I am. So I'm going to go eat dinner."

Past Trevor disappeared out the tent flap.

Dominik snorted. "I can see why Mykola couldn't stand you."

I gave him a sideways glance. "I don't want to talk about that, Dominik."

We were in the makeshift hospital that the British and French soldiers had assigned to them. Mykola had been taken off to a guard post used to keep runaway soldiers under lock and key. He had been unconscious when they'd taken him, but I was pretty sure he would be swearing when he woke up.

Past Trevor had done exactly what he'd proclaimed he'd done. He'd been returning from the mission I sent him on to get 4T from Mykola back when Mykola went to steal it from Audrey. How he came to show up exactly when I needed him, I don't know. But now that he'd done everything I did recall doing something like that. I still didn't know the answer. Getting the past and the present together can be very confusing.

"What now, Trevor?" Dominik asked.

"Huh?" I looked up at him, still massaging my neck. It was pretty bruised.

"Mykola's in jail. We're here. We don't need to hide from him anymore. What are we to do next?"

I glanced over at Ilene, who still had not said a word since I'd arrived back ten minutes ago. She had remained silent when Marin and leapt into my arms, crying. Though I wished she'd say something. I was dying to know what Mykola told her about me- good or bad.

"Well, first things first, we need to get Ilene to her own time period," I mumbled.

Ilene eyed me, her green eyes locking with mine. "You're going to take me back to my era?" she asked, her beautiful British accent ringing like church bells.

I was speechless.

"Don't you want to go to your time period?" Marin asked.

A small, coy smile crossed Ilene's face. "I haven't even gotten to know the man who's rescued me yet." She glanced once more at me. "You gave yourself up for me and I don't know a thing about you."

"Wh- why would you want to- to talk to me?" I managed.

"Because you're a time traveler." A mischievous grin began to grow on her face. "And I hear you know quite a bit more about me than I do about you."

Marin began to laugh. I chuckled nervously and wiped my brow. Dominik snickered.

"Uhhh... that is somewhat true..."

 Marin put her arm around mine and hugged it tightly. "Ilene, I would like you to meet Mr. Trevor Trekker," she said, looking up into my eyes with adoration. "He is the most wonderful Dad I've ever had. And I never want to leave him. Ever."

She'd said it. She'd said it right then, the words I'd wondered and hoped to hear but never dreamed I would. She didn't want to leave. Marin still wanted to be my little girl. I wasn't sure how Dominik felt about that, but for now I was happy to know she did care about me. I did my best to keep the tears away, but they began to fall anyways. "Darn allergies," I grumbled.

Marin giggled. "Also, he has a crush on you."

"Marin!"

Ilene met my gaze and smiled again. "Really?"

I shrugged helplessly, Dominik sneering at my sheepishness. "Where to begin?"

"How about the beginning?" Ilene suggested. "Like how you come to know about me but I never saw you before."

In that room during the first World War I began to tell my story to the woman I'd loved from afar for more than five years. In that same tent, I sat with my precious adopted daughter and a man who I hoped would become a brother to me.

We had gone through a lot together. Ilene had gone through a lot, even if she didn't know how she was connected. But now we were together. The three most important people in my life.

Perhaps someday Mykola could join our group as well. At least now we didn't have to worry about him.

Yes, life looked like it was about to settle down again. And, it looked like it was about to get a lot more interesting.

After all, I'm a time traveler. And a time traveler always has a lot more adventure on his hands than he should!

The End

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