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"You remembered."

"How could I forget?"

How
could
he forget? Joel thought as he laughed to himself. She had worn the blue gingham dress on an incredible night that was permanently etched in his mind – a night just five weeks distant, or at least five weeks distant as the crow flied through time.

They had stopped at his place to get money for a movie but never made it out of the house. Responding to Joel's depression over losing a fight to three thugs and losing a roommate to the Army, Grace had turned on some music, turned off the lights, and taken their relationship to a much higher level. The prim and proper orphan of prim and proper missionaries had given him her unconditional love at a time when unconditional love really meant something.

"I had hoped that would be the case," Grace said. "I was so afraid that you would turn me down. I was sick with worry all day. I knew all I had to offer you were memories and my love."

Joel stopped when he heard the innocent admission, leaned on the concrete railing that separated the Prom from the beach, and pulled Grace in. What a fool he had been to abandon this amazing woman, now dressed in blue jeans and a pink sweatshirt she had picked up in Portland. He smiled as he ran his hands through her long, thick hair.

"I'm so sorry, Grace. I can't imagine the pain I put you through."

"You did what you felt you had to do, and I did what I knew I had to do," she said. "What matters now is that we are together."

Joel dropped his hands to her waist as he pondered the statement. They
were
together. In fact, they hadn't been apart since they had left the Oceanfront Inn for the Sea Mist Motel and an evening of intense love that had cemented a union that even time and distance could not deny.

"There is one thing I don't understand, though," he said. "Why would you think that I would turn you down? I know I lied about my past, Grace. I lied about a lot of things. But my love for you was always real. You have to believe that."

"I do. I would have never followed you if I didn't. But I knew that what we had was in the past, a past you had left. I also knew that you had a life here. You had a family. You had friends. You had a
girlfriend
."

Joel sighed and closed his eyes. No wonder she'd been a wreck.

"Katie told me that you had been dating a smart, beautiful girl, one bound for law school, for a couple of years. I didn't know anything more, but I knew I couldn't compete with that."

"Her name's Jana. We've dated for two years. She is smart. She is beautiful. She's one of the most amazing people I've ever known. But she's no longer my girlfriend. I broke up with her last week. I couldn't continue dating her with you constantly on my mind."

"Did you say her name is Jana?"

"I did. Why?"

Grace smiled sadly.

"I met her."

"You did what?"

"I met her. I met her at the Mad Dog Monday night. I went on a walk around the neighborhood and decided to stop at a place that reminded me of you. I sat at a table, ordered a glass of wine, and saw a woman in tears."

"So you just walked up and introduced yourself?"

"I did. She looked like she needed a friend. She'd been crying. She told me that her boyfriend had just left her. Imagine that," Grace said. She looked at Joel with serious eyes, eyes that conveyed a clear message.
Don't you ever do this again
. "Her boyfriend had apparently just left the bar. I must have missed you by minutes."

Joel looked at Grace and then the ground. He wondered how long it would take to inventory the messes he had created in only six months. He would make it his life's mission to do better in the future. He would honor his new commitment to Grace Vandenberg; he would give her the love and respect she deserved; and he would make damn sure that she never ran into the green-eyed history major he knew as Jana Lamoreaux.

"Well, you found me – and I'm not running away."

Grace leaned forward and gave him a tender kiss. It was shorter and softer than the one she had given him in August 1941, when they had come here with Tom and Ginny on a weekend escape that changed their lives, but it was no less meaningful.

Joel vowed to bring her back to Seaside every year, if necessary, to remind himself of what they had once had, what they had now, and what they must never lose. He would learn from his mistakes and make a better life for both of them.

"We should probably head back to the Inn," he said. "I promised Katie and Walter that I would buy them brunch."

Joel moved away from the railing, grabbed Grace's hand, and began to lead her back toward town, where their friends and a meal awaited. But she didn't budge and gently pulled him back.

"What is it?" he asked.

Grace again looked at him with earnest eyes.

"I know that we still have a lot to discuss and that we will eventually work things out, but there is one thing that has been nagging at me all morning," she said.

"What's that?"

Grace grabbed both of his hands. She clearly wanted his undivided attention.

"Your family knows nothing about me. What will we tell them? It won't be enough to tell them that you picked me up in a different time zone."

Joel laughed at her play on words. He could not imagine loving anyone more than the beautiful, kind, incredible woman standing in front of him.

"I've thought about that too. We're going back to Seattle tomorrow and we'll definitely have to have a decent story. My father, in particular, is going to be a challenge. Fortunately for us, Miss Vandenberg, I have it all worked out."

"You do?"

"I do. I'm going to do something I've wanted to do for a long time."

"What's that?"

"I'm going to tell my folks the only story that makes sense," Joel said. He smiled broadly and put a hand to her face. "I'm going to tell them the truth."

CHAPTER 21: JOEL

Seattle, Washington – Monday, June 19, 2000

The Navy commander paced back and forth as he digested news as apparently distressing and unbelievable as a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. He looked at his son and shook his head.

"You're a time traveler?"

"That's right," Joel said. "I'm a time traveler, and so is Grace."

"I think I've heard enough."

"Hear him out, Frank," Cynthia Smith said. Sitting on a living room sofa next to Grace, she moved her head back and forth like a spectator at a tennis match, dividing her attention between her no-nonsense husband and her all-nonsense son. "It's a dreary day. I could use a good story."

"It's not a story, Mom. It's the truth."

Joel looked at his parents and immediately questioned his decision to tell them the truth, or at least the whole truth. He should have simply introduced Grace as someone he had met in a Seaside hotel, someone who had rocked his world, someone he could not live without.

On second thought, I'd better stick with time travel.

"You don't need to lie to us, son," Frank said. "We like your new friend. If you've been dating her for a while, behind Jana's back, that's your business. But don't insult us by telling us a whopper to cover your tracks."

"It's not a whopper, Commander. Joel is telling the truth," Katherine Saito said. "I will vouch for everything he has told you."

Francis H. Smith, U.S. Navy (Retired), turned to face the octogenarian sitting next to his son on the room's other sofa. He shook his head and chuckled.

"You will, huh?"

"I will."

Joel watched Katie reach over the side of their couch, lift a large purse from the floor, and retrieve a manila envelope that he had already designated Exhibit A. His admiration for his elderly friend and current defense attorney continued to grow.

Katie pulled five photographs from the envelope and spread them across a coffee table that stood between the sofas. She retrieved one of the pictures and gave it to Frank.

"Take a good look at that picture. Tell me what you see."

"I see two women. One looks like a younger version of my mother-in-law."

"Who does the other resemble?"

Frank looked at Katie, furrowed his brows, and turned his attention to the other couch.

"She resembles the young lady in this room. But that doesn't mean she's the young lady in this room. She could be anyone."

"Take a look at the others," Katie said.

She handed Frank the remaining photos. They showed Grace with Katie, Linda, Aunt Edith, and Paul McEwan, respectively. Paul was dressed in his Navy blues.

"What do you see?"

"I see four people standing next to a blonde. That doesn't necessarily mean a thing. All it proves is that you and Virginia knew someone who looked a lot like Grace."

"Look at the young man's uniform, Commander. Would you agree that his uniform is consistent with Navy attire in 1941?"

Frank examined the fifth snapshot more closely.

"I would."

"Good. Good," Katie said. "So are you convinced that these photographs are authentic and that they were probably taken around 1941?"

"I have no reason to believe otherwise."

Joel laughed to himself. He didn't know where Katie was headed but he loved her theatrics. If she managed to win over Frank Smith, he would recommend her for a guest spot on
Law & Order
.

Katie did not squander her momentum. Before Frank could utter another word, she reached into the envelope and retrieved three more snapshots. She handed them to Frank one by one.

"I took these photographs in the summer of 1941. Ginny is in the first picture. Linda McEwan, our housemate, is in the second. Grace is in the third. I trust you recognize the man standing next to each of them."

Frank studied the photos closely, glanced at Joel, and then looked away. He wore the face of a man who had seen a ghost.

"What is it? Can I see the pictures?" Cindy asked.

Frank handed the snapshots to his wife. When she saw the first, she gasped and brought a hand to her mouth. The other photos tumbled to the floor.

"It can't be."

"It is, Mom," Joel said. "It's me in all three."

"I'm still not buying it," Frank said. "These pictures could have been manipulated. I've seen it done. I'm sorry, kids, but I'm a little old fashioned. I believe that we go through time just once, one way, and always forward. This makes no sense."

Joel looked to his mother for a more sympathetic response. He didn't find it.

Cindy Smith seemed lost. She stared across the room at a massive grandfather clock, as if seeking answers from a device that had measured time, in one direction, for five generations of Smiths. When she finally returned to Joel, she did so with eyes that betrayed confusion.

"It does look like you, honey," she said, "but I have to agree with your father. This is too much. You're asking us to believe something that just isn't possible."

Joel cringed. He knew his folks would be tough sells, but he thought they would eventually come around. If he could believe in magic mines and time travel, why couldn't they? He turned to Grace in hopes that she had something better to offer and, as it turned out, she did.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a folded letter-sized photocopy that amounted to Exhibit B. She opened and flattened the high-quality reproduction and placed it on the table, where each of Joel's parents could see it clearly.

"Perhaps this will persuade you," she said.

"What is it?" Cindy asked.

"It's a feature story, published in the
Seattle Sun
on May 21, 1938. I made a copy of the article two weeks ago when I visited the university library."

"It's you!" Cindy said, pointing to a young woman in a photo above the story.

"I received a scholarship to the university shortly after my parents died."

Frank lifted the article from the table and gave it a closer inspection.

"I assure you that the girl in the photograph is me."

Grace sighed. She looked at Cindy and then Frank.

"If necessary, I can also show you a birth certificate, a baptismal certificate, and footprints of a girl born on June 2, 1920, in Mankato, Minnesota. The footprints are on a very old piece of paper, Mr. Smith. I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to prove that they are mine."

Frank stared at Grace for several seconds, as if waiting for her to burst out laughing and say she was a prop in a prank, but he couldn't maintain the stare. After a moment of awkward silence, he looked away, shook his head, and chuckled. He placed the article back on the table, turned to Miss Minnesota, and stuck out a hand.

"Welcome to the twenty-first century, Grace. Welcome to our family."

CHAPTER 22: JOEL

Saturday, July 1, 2000

Joel paused for a waiter to pass with a tray of entrees as he slowly worked his way through a narrow aisle to his table for four. When he arrived, he saw his best friend Adam, Adam's girlfriend Rachel, and Grace stare out a window at the Cascade Range.

"Enjoying the view?" Joel asked.

"I am," Grace said. "It's beautiful."

"It gets better. In twenty minutes we'll see the Olympics."

"I don't understand."

"The Space Needle spins," Rachel Jakubowski said. "The whole restaurant rotates 360 degrees every forty-seven minutes. Mount Rainier is coming up."

"Then I should go to the restroom now. I don't want to miss anything."

Grace smiled at Rachel, put her napkin on the table, and got up from her seat. She glanced at Adam and then slowly stepped around the man she had followed into the future.

"Say hi to the ladies in the ladies' room for me," Joel said.

Grace returned a stern glance.

"I'll give them your regards."

Joel laughed. He allowed the feisty time traveler to make her way to the restroom without further irritation and then rejoined the others.

"She's adorable, Joel. Where'd you find her?" Rachel asked.

"I met her in Portland. She manned the registration desk at the 10K I ran in April."