Parallel: The Secret Life of Jordan McKay Read Online Free Page A

done anything like it before, but my father didn’t care. He had threatened to kill it himself if they didn’t, and they believed him. I had felt horrible about his death everyday since because it hadn’t been the dog’s fault. If I hadn’t poked it in the eye, it would have never cared and it would have never died. I had loved that dog because I could relate to it, trapped inside a fence all of its life, never able to reach the world beyond.
    A deep pain welled in my heart, and I felt a tear form in my eye as the feeling of guilt overcame me. I opened my mouth and took a deep breath, pressing down the feeling and concentrating on it. It was then that the ground began to shake like an earthquake and I felt my heart begin to beat faster, as though beating in reverse. The blood in my veins began to rush toward my head and the ground left me, as though God had grabbed my sides and thrown me like a baseball, thrown me back to that day.
     
     
     
     
    Formulated from the journals
    of Patient #32185
    August 18, 1986
    10:53 a.m.
     
    I winced as loose gravel dug into the palms of my hands, landing on the hot pavement of my driveway. Forcing my eyes open as they watered with pain, I looked at my palms, now burning from the gravel wedged deep inside. I bit my lip, forcing back tears as I saw and felt more like a child, younger and less able to handle the pain. The urge to have my mommy overwhelmed me.
    I focused on the blood dripping toward my elbows, my arms now tiny. The world around me was spinning as it had in the park, but it took less time to calm as my body grew used to the changes. The blood in my veins felt hot and furious, alive in a way that reminded me I was still human. I looked around and saw my tricycle had been pushed onto its side just to my left, the wheels still spinning, telling me I had been riding it.
    I wanted to smile but found I couldn’t, the excitement of the whole situation too overwhelming. It felt like déjà vu, only in reverse, my memories and intelligence from the future remaining with me. It was as though I was hovering above myself, watching my life as a four year old run in my head like a movie I’d seen a hundred times. I was fascinated by what was happening, fascinated that I had defied science in a way that had changed my whole life.
    A sharp bark came from my left, and I craned my head to look as I wiped the blood from my arms on my overalls. Rover continued to bark at me through the fence, his tongue wagging between each howl in the same way I remembered. I pushed myself off the ground and brushed off my pants, assessing the new scars one last time, and realizing they would be with me for the rest of my life.
    I walked toward the fence, noting that my legs weren’t as long as I had been used to, and making sure to take the right number of steps. Rover’s tail began to wag, excited that I was coming to say hello. Placing one hand on the fence to steady myself, I pushed my other through the gate and patted him on the head.
    “Its okay bud. I won’t hurt you.” My voice sounded like an infant, though my words were now well articulated, absent of the lisp I once had.
    Rover licked my hand and began to whine, almost as if happy that I hadn’t poked him in the eye like before. I laughed, allowing his cool tongue to ease the stinging that still remained on the palms of my hands, his nose sniffing the blood and his eyes watching me as though sorry. I smiled, finding that I had done all I needed, I had forced change and the future would surely reflect that. It was then that I heard the voice of an angel behind me, and I jumped, feeling as though I’d heard a ghost.
    “Jordan honey, are you all right?”
    It was the same line she had said in the past, except this time it was because of the bike accident and not the dog. A cold chill rolled over me as I turned and swallowed, my mother rushing toward me, plucking me from the ground like a sack of potatoes. I wrapped my arms around her neck