Jenna's Journey

Jenna’s Journey
By John Stuart

It’s nighttime and rain slowly begins to pour down on a dark and lonely highway. In the ditch, on the right-hand side of the road, is a car. The car is badly damaged, and the driver badly hurt. She is wearing a dark blue blouse, with a floral print, and a simple pair of blue jeans, with a pair of white sneakers. She lifts her bloody head one last time, and then tenderly slips into unconsciousness. As her soul gently leaves her body, a lone figure, dressed in a simple black robe covering his face, stands beside the car watching. Jenna looks at the car, and then notices the man standing next to her.
“Who are you?” Jenna asks.
“I am Kane. It is time to go.” He tells her.
“Go? Go where?”
“To the place you now belong.”
“Home? You’re taking me home?”
“It will be now.”
“What do you mean?”
Kane says nothing. He simply motions with his head to the car behind Jenna. She looks back at the damaged wreck and then stares in horror as she sees her own body inside.
“I’m dead?”
Kane slowly nods his head. Jenna stares solemnly at the car.
“So I guess that’s it huh?” she says.
“Yes. It is time.”
“Right. Well, I can’t say I’ll miss this world much. It’s not like anyone even knew I was here.”
Kane looks at Jenna. There aren’t many emotions he feels anymore, but for some reason, on this night, he feels empathy for this young girl.
“Is that what you truly believe?” he asks.
“Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it?”
“Come with me.”
On the ground, a dark mystical circle appears under their feet. It pulses with magical energy, and then rises. As the circle ascends into the air, Kane and Jenna disappear into it. Outside Jenna’s house, the circle does the reverse of what it did before, appearing in the air, and then descending to the ground. Kane and Jenna appear out of it. They are standing in her front yard, and in the driveway there is a police car with the lights slowly flashing in the dark, depressing rain. Kane and Jenna both stare at the house.
“Do you know where you are?” Kane asks.
Jenna slowly and sadly nods her head.
“It’s my house.”
Jenna looks inside and sees the policeman talking to her parents. Her mother cries uncontrollably as her father holds her. Jenna glares at the house, filled with sorrow as the rain gently passes through her.
“How did they get here so fast?” she asks.
“We are four hours in the future. Your body has been discovered, and the authorities now break the news to your parents.
Jenna coldly turns around.
“Good to know they care about me now that I’m dead. They never did when I was alive.”
“There is more.”
Kane waves his hand and once again the two of them disappear into the night through Kane’s dark teleportation circle. When they reappear, they are outside another house.
“Do you recognize where we are?” Kane asks.
Jenna nods her head.
“This is Christine’s house.”
“You know her?”
“She’s….she was my friend.”
“Come.”
Kane walks to the house and Jenna follows. Kane passes through the door, and Jenna does the same. Christine’s parents have just told her about Jenna.
Christine: Good. I’m glad she’s dead. She was always too stupid for her own good. Christine then turns and goes up the stairs to her room while Jenna looks on with horror.
“Bitch!”
Then Jenna looks down sadly.
“I thought she was my friend.”
“She was.”
Jenna looks up at Kane inquisitively as he continues to speak.
“People grieve in different ways. She loved you very much. In order to protect herself from the pain, she’s pushing your memory away.”
“Oh.”
“There’s more. Come.”
Not giving Jenna a choice, he summons another circle and they disappear into it and teleport to yet another location.
“I don’t recognize this house.” she says.
“You’ve never been here.”
They go inside and watch as a young girl reads the paper.
“She’s reading about your death.”
“They put that in the paper after only four hours?
“We are now 24 hours in the future.”
“I see. Time doesn’t mean anything to you, does it?
“No. It will no longer mean anything to you now either.
A car pulls up outside and honks. The girl drops the paper and rushes outside. It’s her boyfriend. She gets in the car and the two of them drive off.
“Where are they going?
“Someplace private. They will have sex tonight.”
“Oh. Good for them.”
“That wasn’t her plan, but upon reading about your death, it reminded her that life is short.”
“Yeah, it is that.”
“She will get pregnant tonight. Her parents will become upset. They will abandon her. She will have to raise the baby alone.”
“What about her boyfriend?”
“When he finds out, he will run away.”
Jenna stares at Kane for a moment.
“Hey, that’s not my fault. You can’t pin that on me.”
“You’re missing the point. Your life mattered. You had the ability to affect other people; even ones you didn’t know.
“Yeah….well….so far all I’ve seen is how my death has affected people. I haven’t seen how my life did.”
“Very well.”
Kane waves his hand, and the two of them disappear and reappear in a supermarket. Jenna looks around and sees herself.
“Hey, I remember this. This was about a week ago. Will I be able to go back and forth through time?”
“No. Watch.”
Jenna pushes her cart around a corner. As she does, a man watches her. After Jenna goes down the aisle and out of sight, the man turns around to find his wife staring at him.
“Was that cute? Did you like that?”
“What? I wasn’t looking at anything.”
“Liar! I saw you checking out that bitch’s ass!”
“Bitch?” Jenna says.
“No, honey, I was just….”
“Save it!”
The woman storms out, with the man quick to follow.
“Who the hell are you calling a bitch?” Jenna says.
“She can’t hear you.”
“Oh. So what will happen?”
“They will argue, and she will end up leaving him.”
“Oh, great, so I had the ability to negatively impact people’s lives. Swell.”
“Negativity is in the eye of the beholder. You were not the first girl he noticed, nor was that the first time she caught him.”
“Hmmm, still, their marriage is over, and I had something to do with it.”
“True, but she will go on to marry someone else, and she will be happy; happier than she was with him.”
“Oh. Good. Freakin’ jerk.”
“Do not fault a man for being a man. Come, there is one last thing I have to show you.”
Again they disappear, and again they reappear. They are once again outside, but this time it is day. The rain is gone, and many people have gathered.
“Is this….my funeral?”
Kane nods and the pastor reads scripture out of the Bible while many people dressed in black look on. Kane points and Jenna looks at her friend who is sitting in a chair with her head down scribbling in a notebook.
“Ah! She’s not even paying attention. Some friend!”
“She’s writing about your death, and how it affected her. In the years to come, she will write much more. They will get published, and she will become a famous poet.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of you.”
Jenna stares at her funeral for a moment.
“I guess I never understood how one life can affect so many others.”
“Every life touches other lives. People you know, people you don’t know. No one is ever truly alone.”
“Like a spider-web, with each strand touching several others.”
“Precisely.”
Jenna stares for a moment, and then turns to Kane.
“I don’t want to be dead. I want to live.”
“I know. But dead you are, and now it is time to go.”
“No! Please! I’ll do better, I promise! Just give me another chance!”
“That is beyond even my abilities.”
“Then….what was the point of all this?”
“Who we were in this life encompasses who we become in the next one. Knowing what you know now, you will be a better person.”
“But, I can do this life better.”
“I’m sure you could, but it doesn’t work like that. One chance, one shot, that’s all you get. And in the end, you will be remembered by the things you said, and the things you did. If only more people would remember that, and choose their words and their actions more carefully.”
“I know I should have.” Jenna says.
“None of that matters now.”
“So, what will become of me?”
“That is up to you. Much like this life, your fate in the next life will be determined by the things you say, and the things you do.”
“So this isn’t the end?”
“Far from it. It’s just the beginning.”
The End.