The Mine

She may never be someone ANYONE can understand. But she will always be worth the wait.

Joel placed the photo in the water and let the surf do the rest. The picture bobbed, twisted, and curled before finally sinking from sight. Joel gave the image one last thought before turning his back on the ocean and starting for town. He had made his peace with God and the girl. It was time to move on.

Joel did not doubt that Grace would follow him. She would follow him to the ends of the earth. But did he have the right to take her there? Did he have the right to deprive Edith Tomlinson of a niece or Virginia Gillette and Katie Kobayashi of a friend or future children of a chance to exist? Grace had been prepared, after all, to marry someone else. Perhaps that was her destiny. Joel considered her professional interests as well. Did he have the right to deny Grace the life she was meant to lead? Or deny countless students in the forties, fifties, and sixties an inspiring teacher? An instructor who might push their lives in important and even critical directions? He wondered if Grace had an Einstein or Edison or Salk in her future.

Sitting in a window seat three rows back, Tom waved to his family, blew a kiss to Ginny, and gave Joel a half-hearted salute. His family and friends waved back. They never saw him again.

Joel wasn't one to get caught up in the moment, in any moment, but this farewell hit him hard. He was not only saying goodbye to a dear friend but also allowing fate and history to take their course. For weeks he had considered pushing Tom into enlisting in the Coast Guard or even the Navy to shake things up. But he knew it wasn't his place to play God and knew that he had already overstepped his bounds with Grace. So he sent Tom on his way with the only words that made sense. "Come back to us," Joel said. "Make your family proud. Don't be a hero.

He wanted to tell Grace that he knew what was coming and that it was time for them to escape to a place where they could ride out the ugliness and not think about Hitler or Tojo or catastrophic loss. But he knew things had already reached a point where even a prescient time traveler could do little more than make the best of a bad situation.

Grace may never be someone you can read or understand. She may never be someone anyone can understand. But she will always be worth the effort and the wait. Beneath that delicate exterior is a strong, resolute woman who does nothing halfway. Never take her for granted and never underestimate her. She will amaze.

Joel looked at Katie and thought about the fate that awaited her. More than four hundred Japanese American students had been forced to leave the university after Pearl Harbor and live in internment camps. Joel was certain Katie would be among them.

The same thing is going on right now at a thousand other games in a thousand other towns. It's what baseball is all about.

Joel could not help but ponder the possibilities should that fiancé turn out to be Tom Carter. If he saved Tom's life by steering him away from the Army, or even the war itself, he might meddle with his own existence. If Grandma Ginny does not meet and marry Grandpa Joe, there is no daughter Cindy or grandson Joel. Would he vanish into thin air like Marty McFly? Or continue on his merry way in a parallel universe? Joel knew now why people passed up philosophy classes. This stuff could fry your circuits. The grandfather paradox took on new relevance.

He did not know what he would do or where he would go, but he would not dwell on things he could not change.

As blunders went, this topped the charts. Joel couldn't believe his luck, or the injustice of it all. A good night's sleep, a decent breakfast, and a leisurely stroll through Helena, Montana, had cost him his world.

He entered his strange new world with angst, disbelief, and wonder.

Joel?" "Yeah?" "I have a question." "Shoot," Joel said. "How is your English progressing?" "What?" "Well, I was just wondering what part of KEEP OUT and NO TRESPASSING and DANGER you don't understand.

He had an encyclopedic mind, the curiosity of an inventor, and the judgment and discipline of a three-year-old.

I couldn't make it in a chicken world, sir, so I hit the road in search of something better.