Chapters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
It's You
Chapter 1
It was a beautiful day. Aaron Birkhalt lifted his face to the sun as he walked along, enjoying its warmth. He was glad that he’d decided to walk home today, even though it was several miles. He was in good shape physically, and this way he got to take in the sights and smell the fresh air. He had his book bag slung over his shoulder, carrying its weight easily. It wasn’t often that a busy college student got a chance to just relax and enjoy himself like this. So he was going to take his time about getting home.
Suddenly there was a blur of movement off to his left, and someone darted out in front of him. Aaron stopped in sheer surprise, staring down at a slender boy of maybe eleven or twelve who stood with his arms flung wide to the sides. This child looked up at him out of the most astonishing pair of eyes he’d ever seen. They were intense, a sort of pale grey with flecks of gold and green. Like rocks that had been washed in a stream, Aaron thought in bemusement. The hair on the boy’s head were like ink-soaked wood shavings, and his skin was that very pale that only those with Irish blood in them could pull off without looking pasty. “Umm…”
“It’s you,” the boy said softly. His voice was as intense as his eyes.
“Me?” Aaron questioned in perplexity.
A nod of the black head. “You,” the boy repeated firmly. “The one in my dreams.”
“Err…” Aaron said uncertainly, wondering if there was something mentally wrong with this kid.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the boy went on. “Ever since I was a little kid.”
Aaron didn’t point out that the boy was STILL a little kid. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” he began, “But I don’t know you. And I’m pretty sure that we’ve never met before this.”
“Not in this lifetime,” the boy replied sharply. “We knew each other BEFORE. And now we’re meeting again.”
“Uhh, kid, no offense but have you ever been to a psychiatrist?” Aaron asked as gently as he could.
The boy snorted. “I’m not crazy,” he growled. “I’m just right. I’ve seen your face in my dreams forever. I knew I’d meet you eventually.”
“OOkkkaaayy. Whatever you say. Listen, I have to go…” Aaron said, trying to edge past the boy.
But he kept pace with Aaron, refusing to let him pass. “We belong together,” the boy rasped, still staring up at him.
“What? What do you mean?” Aaron demanded in growing alarm.
“You and me. We belong together. You’re like the missing piece of my heart,” he set a slim hand on his own chest.
“Kid, you are really freaking me out,” Aaron said, starting to get upset now. “Even if I was into guys, which I’m NOT – you’re a KID! What are you, twelve or so? I’m neither gay nor a pedophile. So I’ll just be going now,” he brushed past the boy, using his superior strength to push past the weird kid.
“I’ll see you again,” the boy called from behind him. “I know it. We’re meant to be together!”
Aaron hurried away, not looking back. Man, that had been extremely creepy. Some twelve year old accosting him and blabbering on about how they were meant to be together? Too weird for words. His peaceful day had been shot to hell by that boy’s strange behavior. He shook his head, deciding to shrug the whole thing off. Whatever strange interlude that had been, it was over. He very much doubted that he’d ever see that strange kid again, since he vowed to never take that route walking home again.
Five Years Later:
“So how does it feel to be on this side of the desk, Aaron?” an older man’s amused voice asked.
He blinked, looking up from his leather bag at the other man. “Pretty good,” he replied. “This is what I’ve been working and studying toward all these years. It’s nice to finally get there.”
Professor Barnes grinned. “Indeed. I remember MY first year – well, vaguely anyway,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ll do fine, though, Aaron. You were an excellent assistant during your graduate studies. This isn’t much different than that. Except that this time you’re getting paid for it.”
Aaron smiled. “Yeah, that makes a huge difference,” he agreed dryly. “Especially since I have all of those student loans to pay off. Anyway, thanks for coming to wish me luck.”
“No problem. Don’t tell anybody else this, but you were always one of my favorite students. I know I’m not supposed to indulge in nepotism, but there you are…”
Aaron cleared his throat a little, feeling moved. “Thanks, Professor. You were sort of like a father figure to me, especially after my dad died,” he said huskily.
Professor Barnes cleared his throat. “You’re going to make me cry here, Aragorn. I’d better go before I get all teary…”
He laughed a little as he escorted the older man to the door of his classroom. “I’ll see you later, Professor. My first class is due in about five minutes. I’m a little nervous, but…”
“You can handle it. You’ll do fine,” the other man patted his arm. “Good luck, Aaron. Tell me how it went later.”
He promised to do so, watching as his mentor departed for his own class. Then he turned back to the desk at the front of the classroom to make sure that he had everything he needed. He was satisfied that he was ready as the door opened and the first students of his teaching career began to file into the classroom. Aaron took a deep breath to soothe his nerves as he turned to face them. When everybody had taken a seat, he spoke: “Hello, welcome to World History 101. I’m Professor Birkhalt. This is my first class, so we might all have to figure this out together,” he smiled wryly at all the watching faces. “The first thing we’ll do is something that you’re all used to now – roll call. This is the first and last time I’ll be taking roll, though; after this it’s up to you to come to class or not. But since you’re all paying for it I hope that you’ll try to come. Okay, I’ve got the roster here. When I call your name please stand up briefly and tell us all a little bit about yourself. It doesn’t have to be anything big – maybe just what major you’re thinking of pursuing. Just say what you’re comfortable telling us, then sit back down. Okay…Rachel Dean.” He began to read the roll, and the students stood up one-by-one and gave their majors and sometimes a few personal facts about themselves. He acknowledged each one, trying to make them feel at ease. Since they were freshman they’d be very nervous about starting college.
“Connor Herlihy,” he called out.
A slim young man stood up slowly from his chair on one of the higher tiers and stood looking down at Aaron. There was something…familiar about him. He tried to think what, but failed miserably. “I’m Connor,” the boy said in a slightly husky voice.
“Hi, Connor. Welcome to World History 101. What’s your major?” Aaron asked.
“Philosophy with an emphasis on metaphysics,” the boy replied promptly.
Aaron blinked. That was an odd major. Studying philosophy generally meant the only job you could get was teaching philosophy yourself later on; and metaphysics?
Apparently this kid still thought that it was still the Sixties. “Okay,” he replied. “That’s interesting. Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself, Connor?”
“No, not now,” the younger man replied enigmatically.
“All right. Then please sit down,” Aaron said. The student did so, and he went on taking roll until he’d gotten everybody marked down and all of them had stood up and spoken.
Class went smoothly after that. He outlined what they’d be studying this semester, what texts they’d be using, what his office hours were, etc. This first class wasn’t to get a whole lot of work done. But he did assign them reading material, and told them that there would be a short quiz on what they’d read next class. Finally the hour was over, and the students stood up and began to shuffle out. Aaron let out a breath he’d been holding for the whole class, glad that the hurdle of his first teaching experience (as a professor and not an aide) was out of the way.
One of the students halted in front of his desk. Aaron looked up from putting his papers away in his bag. “May I help you?” he asked.
“You don’t remember me, do you Professor Birkhalt?” the student asked quietly. Startled, he found himself looking into a pair of half-narrowed eyes. They were a peculiar color, a light grey with flecks of green and gold…
“I told you I’d see you again,” the younger man said.
His mouth opened. That boy! The weird one who’d stopped him on the street one day. “It’s you,” he said, dumb-founded, unconsciously echoing the words the boy had spoken to him that day.
“Yes,” the student replied. “It’s me.”
He felt a chill go down his spine. Was this boy stalking him? Seeing his expression, the student shook his head. “I didn’t have to come looking for you,” he said confidently. “I knew I’d see you again, one way or another. I knew that if I waited I’d find you again. And now I have. It’s good to see you again.”
“Look, I don’t know what is going on with you, but if you don’t stay away from me I’ll call campus security,” Aaron said sharply.
“I would never hurt you,” the student protested, clearly taken aback. “I couldn’t! You’re the one…”
“From your dreams, I remember,” Aaron said.
“Yes. That’s right. Ever since I was like four or five I’ve dreamed about you. Sometimes they were elaborate dreams –we’d be walking along a beach together holding hands – but sometimes you were just sitting there smiling at me. They were the best dreams I ever had. I couldn’t wait to meet you.”
Aaron sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “This is crazy,” he muttered.
“Is it?” the boy who he realized was Connor Herlihy replied. “I can tell you some things about yourself, things I couldn’t know – for example, you have a mole on your right inner thigh. Explain how I could know that when we’ve only met once?”
His mouth hit the desktop this time. “W-What?” he stuttered, disbelieving. Even if this kid had somehow been stalking him, how could he know about that mole? Aaron didn’t sleep with guys, and besides he would have remembered someone like Connor anyway. While he wasn’t a total teetotaler, he didn’t drink enough that he could have gotten falling down drunk and have been taken advantage of by someone. So there was no way in hell that Connor Herlihy could have known about a mole in a very private place.
“I told you I have dreams about you. In some of them you’ve been naked. I know all about what you look like with no clothes on,” Connor said quietly.
He didn’t know what to say. Either this boy was an uber-stalker, or he really had been dreaming about Aaron. But how could that be? “I…don’t understand,” he began in utter bafflement. “How could you have dreams about me? I’ve never had any about you.”
“I know,” Connor replied. “I knew that day when I talked to you. I thought you’d know me too, but you didn’t. I figured that I’d have my work cut out for me when I realized that. You wouldn’t believe a word I said, and even if you did you wouldn’t buy the idea that we were meant to be together.”
“How am I supposed to believe that? I told you then I don’t like men. And that you were too young…”
“I’m legal now,” Connor pointed out relentlessly, still looking him in the eye. Those intense eyes sent another shiver down his spine, a different kind this time. “And it doesn’t matter whether you’re straight or gay. It’s our souls that belong together; it doesn’t matter what bodies that they’re in.”
“Souls? Do you mean like soul mates or something?” a bewildered Aaron asked.
A nod. “We were together before in another life. But something horrible happened. You died – you were executed as a witch. They made me watch. I can still hear your screams sometimes in my dreams…”
“A witch? Don’t you mean a warlock?”
The student shook his head. “You were a woman then,” he explained.
“I was a …woman?” he couldn’t believe it.
“We go through the karmic cycles as different people – and that includes races and both sexes,” Connor said. “I’ve been a woman before too, although just not in that life. We made a pact, before they dragged you off, to find one another again. I’m sure that we meant in the afterlife, but as it turns out we waited for a long time before these lifetimes to meet again. But now it’s happened, and we can be together.”
Aaron shook his head. “Listen, Connor, I don’t know what to make of all this, but it’s definitely too weird to take in all at once. I’d say that you were crazier than a bedbug if you hadn’t known about my mole. But I still don’t think that I’m ready to jump into a homosexual affair with one of my students, no matter how much you believe that we were destined to be together. I’m sorry.”
Connor took in a deep breath. “I’ll wait,” he replied simply. “I’ve waited this long, what’s a little bit more? But please, Professor, just think about it. Why else would a five-year-old boy dream about you? What other explanation could there be? Except that I’m actually crazy or psychic, but I’ve never dreamed about anyone or anything else. Just you. It’s always been you. It always will be. That’ll never change,” he said before he left the classroom, while Aaron watched him go and felt like a man who’s just taken drugs accidentally. Shocked and dizzy and completely disoriented.
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It's You
Chapter 1
It was a beautiful day. Aaron Birkhalt lifted his face to the sun as he walked along, enjoying its warmth. He was glad that he’d decided to walk home today, even though it was several miles. He was in good shape physically, and this way he got to take in the sights and smell the fresh air. He had his book bag slung over his shoulder, carrying its weight easily. It wasn’t often that a busy college student got a chance to just relax and enjoy himself like this. So he was going to take his time about getting home.
Suddenly there was a blur of movement off to his left, and someone darted out in front of him. Aaron stopped in sheer surprise, staring down at a slender boy of maybe eleven or twelve who stood with his arms flung wide to the sides. This child looked up at him out of the most astonishing pair of eyes he’d ever seen. They were intense, a sort of pale grey with flecks of gold and green. Like rocks that had been washed in a stream, Aaron thought in bemusement. The hair on the boy’s head were like ink-soaked wood shavings, and his skin was that very pale that only those with Irish blood in them could pull off without looking pasty. “Umm…”
“It’s you,” the boy said softly. His voice was as intense as his eyes.
“Me?” Aaron questioned in perplexity.
A nod of the black head. “You,” the boy repeated firmly. “The one in my dreams.”
“Err…” Aaron said uncertainly, wondering if there was something mentally wrong with this kid.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the boy went on. “Ever since I was a little kid.”
Aaron didn’t point out that the boy was STILL a little kid. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” he began, “But I don’t know you. And I’m pretty sure that we’ve never met before this.”
“Not in this lifetime,” the boy replied sharply. “We knew each other BEFORE. And now we’re meeting again.”
“Uhh, kid, no offense but have you ever been to a psychiatrist?” Aaron asked as gently as he could.
The boy snorted. “I’m not crazy,” he growled. “I’m just right. I’ve seen your face in my dreams forever. I knew I’d meet you eventually.”
“OOkkkaaayy. Whatever you say. Listen, I have to go…” Aaron said, trying to edge past the boy.
But he kept pace with Aaron, refusing to let him pass. “We belong together,” the boy rasped, still staring up at him.
“What? What do you mean?” Aaron demanded in growing alarm.
“You and me. We belong together. You’re like the missing piece of my heart,” he set a slim hand on his own chest.
“Kid, you are really freaking me out,” Aaron said, starting to get upset now. “Even if I was into guys, which I’m NOT – you’re a KID! What are you, twelve or so? I’m neither gay nor a pedophile. So I’ll just be going now,” he brushed past the boy, using his superior strength to push past the weird kid.
“I’ll see you again,” the boy called from behind him. “I know it. We’re meant to be together!”
Aaron hurried away, not looking back. Man, that had been extremely creepy. Some twelve year old accosting him and blabbering on about how they were meant to be together? Too weird for words. His peaceful day had been shot to hell by that boy’s strange behavior. He shook his head, deciding to shrug the whole thing off. Whatever strange interlude that had been, it was over. He very much doubted that he’d ever see that strange kid again, since he vowed to never take that route walking home again.
Five Years Later:
“So how does it feel to be on this side of the desk, Aaron?” an older man’s amused voice asked.
He blinked, looking up from his leather bag at the other man. “Pretty good,” he replied. “This is what I’ve been working and studying toward all these years. It’s nice to finally get there.”
Professor Barnes grinned. “Indeed. I remember MY first year – well, vaguely anyway,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ll do fine, though, Aaron. You were an excellent assistant during your graduate studies. This isn’t much different than that. Except that this time you’re getting paid for it.”
Aaron smiled. “Yeah, that makes a huge difference,” he agreed dryly. “Especially since I have all of those student loans to pay off. Anyway, thanks for coming to wish me luck.”
“No problem. Don’t tell anybody else this, but you were always one of my favorite students. I know I’m not supposed to indulge in nepotism, but there you are…”
Aaron cleared his throat a little, feeling moved. “Thanks, Professor. You were sort of like a father figure to me, especially after my dad died,” he said huskily.
Professor Barnes cleared his throat. “You’re going to make me cry here, Aragorn. I’d better go before I get all teary…”
He laughed a little as he escorted the older man to the door of his classroom. “I’ll see you later, Professor. My first class is due in about five minutes. I’m a little nervous, but…”
“You can handle it. You’ll do fine,” the other man patted his arm. “Good luck, Aaron. Tell me how it went later.”
He promised to do so, watching as his mentor departed for his own class. Then he turned back to the desk at the front of the classroom to make sure that he had everything he needed. He was satisfied that he was ready as the door opened and the first students of his teaching career began to file into the classroom. Aaron took a deep breath to soothe his nerves as he turned to face them. When everybody had taken a seat, he spoke: “Hello, welcome to World History 101. I’m Professor Birkhalt. This is my first class, so we might all have to figure this out together,” he smiled wryly at all the watching faces. “The first thing we’ll do is something that you’re all used to now – roll call. This is the first and last time I’ll be taking roll, though; after this it’s up to you to come to class or not. But since you’re all paying for it I hope that you’ll try to come. Okay, I’ve got the roster here. When I call your name please stand up briefly and tell us all a little bit about yourself. It doesn’t have to be anything big – maybe just what major you’re thinking of pursuing. Just say what you’re comfortable telling us, then sit back down. Okay…Rachel Dean.” He began to read the roll, and the students stood up one-by-one and gave their majors and sometimes a few personal facts about themselves. He acknowledged each one, trying to make them feel at ease. Since they were freshman they’d be very nervous about starting college.
“Connor Herlihy,” he called out.
A slim young man stood up slowly from his chair on one of the higher tiers and stood looking down at Aaron. There was something…familiar about him. He tried to think what, but failed miserably. “I’m Connor,” the boy said in a slightly husky voice.
“Hi, Connor. Welcome to World History 101. What’s your major?” Aaron asked.
“Philosophy with an emphasis on metaphysics,” the boy replied promptly.
Aaron blinked. That was an odd major. Studying philosophy generally meant the only job you could get was teaching philosophy yourself later on; and metaphysics?
Apparently this kid still thought that it was still the Sixties. “Okay,” he replied. “That’s interesting. Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself, Connor?”
“No, not now,” the younger man replied enigmatically.
“All right. Then please sit down,” Aaron said. The student did so, and he went on taking roll until he’d gotten everybody marked down and all of them had stood up and spoken.
Class went smoothly after that. He outlined what they’d be studying this semester, what texts they’d be using, what his office hours were, etc. This first class wasn’t to get a whole lot of work done. But he did assign them reading material, and told them that there would be a short quiz on what they’d read next class. Finally the hour was over, and the students stood up and began to shuffle out. Aaron let out a breath he’d been holding for the whole class, glad that the hurdle of his first teaching experience (as a professor and not an aide) was out of the way.
One of the students halted in front of his desk. Aaron looked up from putting his papers away in his bag. “May I help you?” he asked.
“You don’t remember me, do you Professor Birkhalt?” the student asked quietly. Startled, he found himself looking into a pair of half-narrowed eyes. They were a peculiar color, a light grey with flecks of green and gold…
“I told you I’d see you again,” the younger man said.
His mouth opened. That boy! The weird one who’d stopped him on the street one day. “It’s you,” he said, dumb-founded, unconsciously echoing the words the boy had spoken to him that day.
“Yes,” the student replied. “It’s me.”
He felt a chill go down his spine. Was this boy stalking him? Seeing his expression, the student shook his head. “I didn’t have to come looking for you,” he said confidently. “I knew I’d see you again, one way or another. I knew that if I waited I’d find you again. And now I have. It’s good to see you again.”
“Look, I don’t know what is going on with you, but if you don’t stay away from me I’ll call campus security,” Aaron said sharply.
“I would never hurt you,” the student protested, clearly taken aback. “I couldn’t! You’re the one…”
“From your dreams, I remember,” Aaron said.
“Yes. That’s right. Ever since I was like four or five I’ve dreamed about you. Sometimes they were elaborate dreams –we’d be walking along a beach together holding hands – but sometimes you were just sitting there smiling at me. They were the best dreams I ever had. I couldn’t wait to meet you.”
Aaron sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “This is crazy,” he muttered.
“Is it?” the boy who he realized was Connor Herlihy replied. “I can tell you some things about yourself, things I couldn’t know – for example, you have a mole on your right inner thigh. Explain how I could know that when we’ve only met once?”
His mouth hit the desktop this time. “W-What?” he stuttered, disbelieving. Even if this kid had somehow been stalking him, how could he know about that mole? Aaron didn’t sleep with guys, and besides he would have remembered someone like Connor anyway. While he wasn’t a total teetotaler, he didn’t drink enough that he could have gotten falling down drunk and have been taken advantage of by someone. So there was no way in hell that Connor Herlihy could have known about a mole in a very private place.
“I told you I have dreams about you. In some of them you’ve been naked. I know all about what you look like with no clothes on,” Connor said quietly.
He didn’t know what to say. Either this boy was an uber-stalker, or he really had been dreaming about Aaron. But how could that be? “I…don’t understand,” he began in utter bafflement. “How could you have dreams about me? I’ve never had any about you.”
“I know,” Connor replied. “I knew that day when I talked to you. I thought you’d know me too, but you didn’t. I figured that I’d have my work cut out for me when I realized that. You wouldn’t believe a word I said, and even if you did you wouldn’t buy the idea that we were meant to be together.”
“How am I supposed to believe that? I told you then I don’t like men. And that you were too young…”
“I’m legal now,” Connor pointed out relentlessly, still looking him in the eye. Those intense eyes sent another shiver down his spine, a different kind this time. “And it doesn’t matter whether you’re straight or gay. It’s our souls that belong together; it doesn’t matter what bodies that they’re in.”
“Souls? Do you mean like soul mates or something?” a bewildered Aaron asked.
A nod. “We were together before in another life. But something horrible happened. You died – you were executed as a witch. They made me watch. I can still hear your screams sometimes in my dreams…”
“A witch? Don’t you mean a warlock?”
The student shook his head. “You were a woman then,” he explained.
“I was a …woman?” he couldn’t believe it.
“We go through the karmic cycles as different people – and that includes races and both sexes,” Connor said. “I’ve been a woman before too, although just not in that life. We made a pact, before they dragged you off, to find one another again. I’m sure that we meant in the afterlife, but as it turns out we waited for a long time before these lifetimes to meet again. But now it’s happened, and we can be together.”
Aaron shook his head. “Listen, Connor, I don’t know what to make of all this, but it’s definitely too weird to take in all at once. I’d say that you were crazier than a bedbug if you hadn’t known about my mole. But I still don’t think that I’m ready to jump into a homosexual affair with one of my students, no matter how much you believe that we were destined to be together. I’m sorry.”
Connor took in a deep breath. “I’ll wait,” he replied simply. “I’ve waited this long, what’s a little bit more? But please, Professor, just think about it. Why else would a five-year-old boy dream about you? What other explanation could there be? Except that I’m actually crazy or psychic, but I’ve never dreamed about anyone or anything else. Just you. It’s always been you. It always will be. That’ll never change,” he said before he left the classroom, while Aaron watched him go and felt like a man who’s just taken drugs accidentally. Shocked and dizzy and completely disoriented.
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