The Gift

“What?” Bethany shakes her head, her strawberry blonde hair moves against her face, “what kind of joke is this?”

“No joke ma’am.” The man who stands in front of her smiles, revealing unusually straight teeth, shiny white.

“Oh,” her aqua blue eyes show her amusement, “it is some sort of television show. Hidden cameras?”

They stand in the park where she has been taking her lunch break. The sound of the children playing in the playground fills the silence before he answers.

“I assure you madam that isn't the case.” 

In her defense, his bearing and English accent would be a perfect cover for an undercover TV host. That plus the strange thing he told her, who could blame her for thinking that.

“Alright, say again?” He doesn't seem like a nut but she still needs to be wary.

“You have been selected to be one of the first time travelers.”

“Yes. Okay. This has been fun but I really have to go. Back to work.”

The stranger takes her hand and before she can scream or do anything, they are gone.

The first thing she is aware of is that she can no longer hear the children. 

“Wait. What?” Dazed, she looks around. It is dark but she makes out that they are still in the park.

“So sorry about that. I just brought us back to early morning. It is thirty of six now. Plenty of time before you have to go to work.”

Nausea rises up in her and she gets cold and clammy. The world goes even blacker.

“Ma’am? Madame?” His strange velvet black eyes slowly come into focus. 

“Oh my. What happened?”

“My fault entirely. They have warned me how disorienting it can be to even move a little in time if one isn't prepared.”

“In time. Right. I must have passed out.” She looks past him to the dark playground where just a moment before children were playing. Is she having a stroke? In a coma? Either, as scary as they are, would make more sense than time travel.

She pinches the inside of her arm. Alright, I'm awake, she thinks.

“Swooned, yes madam, you did. Not the first time. Hezekiah isn't going to like this one bit. You aren't harmed, are you?” His nervous hands dance around her.

“No, I don't seem to be. Who is Hezekiah?”

“That is good, at least. He is the head of our organization. My boss, you Americans would say.”

“If I say I believe you,” how could she not, unless she really is in the hospital? what's next?”

“It is time to meet Hezekiah.”

He helps her stand up on shaky legs. When he is sure she is steady, he lets her go. 

She blinks and there is a third person there. It takes all that is in her, not to faint again. 

The new man is quite tall, so tall that she has to look up at him. His hair is stark white and hangs to the center of his back. He is the most striking person she has ever seen.

“Hello Bethany. I am Hezekiah.”

The fear and dread, the confusion she has felt since the first man had come up to her, disappeared as soon as Hezekiah started speaking. 

Calm and peace overwhelmed her. It is extraordinary.

“Hezekiah, what is going on? I don't understand any of this?”

“My dear Bethany, I understand your confusion. This isn't something that happens everyday, after all.”

She laughs. “That is the truth.”

“You have been badly hurt,” he states, “wrong men, wrong choices.” 

She is startled but doesn't deny it. A nod is her answer.

“It has affected your life in a major way. If not resolved, it will affect your future children in a major way.” 

Her hands drift to her abdomen and he smiles before chuckling. “Not yet, child.”

She smiles too and removes her hands, letting them fall to her side.

“How do I resolve something that has already happened?”

“Ah, that's the question. That is where time travel comes in.”

She gets it. Her eyes grow wide. He waits, hands behind his back and a soft smile on his face.

“Ahh, a second chance to live my life, that's what you are offering. That's the gift?”

He nods. “To make better decisions knowing all you know now.”

As she stands in the park, the sun rising behind her, it all goes through her mind. The first boyfriend in highschool, the one who took her innocence and then told everyone about it. The boy in college, someone who she thought of as a friend until one drunken night when he took by force what she refused to offer. 

Her first serious boyfriend, the one she thought was the one, who hit her. A series of boys ( she can't call them men) who did the same.

Her first husband, in a marriage that lasted less than a year, after she found him cheating. Her second whom she divorced after he abused his own children. She tried to get custody of them but as just the stepmom, she couldn't.

He watches as the memories run across her face. 

“It would all go away?”

“Yes. If you accept the offer.”

She frowns. “I have a choice?”

“Of course. You humans always do.”

“Humans? What?” 

“We are celestial beings,” he waits as she processes it. When it seems she isn't going to freak out, he continues, “will you accept the gift?”

“Angels. Real life angels?” She looks from one to the other, “wild.”

“Yes.” He grins.

“The gift, right. Living my life from highschool all over again. That would be a major thing. If I just change how I choose men, would that fix it?”

“My child, one change can make a difference. You would just have to make one different choice.”

“I wouldn't have to live it all over again?”

“No.”

“Okay. Let's do this.”

She is sixteen again. Joe asks her out. She says no. 

She is twenty -three, in a bed cradling her newborn son. 

“Hezekiah.” She announces his name.

An unseen presence smiles.