"I'll see you in the next life." Those were her final words before she shut her eyes and never opened them again. Those were the words that haunted me echoing endlessly; leaving me to realize that sometimes loneliness can be loud.

I remembered saying to her, “I wish I had a time machine because if I did I'd spend my entire life with you." Not even caring that it just emphasized what a silly romantic fool I could be at times.

"Time in a bottle," was the dream, but, "Time won't let me," was the reality or so it seemed.

I always spoke openly about my emotions. She kept most of hers tucked underneath a surface that I couldn't always breach even though she was probably the most open person I had met in my entire life further adding to the mystery that was Maude.

She'd laugh and shake her head, “Then there would be a whole different battle for us to face," but in my mind time was the only thing standing between us.

When we first met we were just two lonely souls who found comfort in each other’s friendship. It was warm and comfy as a favourite hoodie on a crisp fall day. 

For once in my life, I had someone who needed me as much as I need her and because of that, I found myself looking forward to every waking moment. When I slept I'd always make sure to look for her in my dreams.

How quickly things can change though. I don't know who fell in love first, probably me. I was never someone for conventional ideals and she certainly wasn't my first older woman. To me, the only thing that mattered was that the love was real but the thing that left me a muddled mess was that just because something is real doesn't mean it’s obtainable.

Perhaps she was just that much wiser than me. I tried repeating that line from Now, Voyager In my head in order to keep myself grounded and realistic: "Don't let us ask for the moon, we have the stars." But I wasn't Bette Davis and the stars were never enough. Now that she's gone I'd take the stars over the nothingness she left behind.

Though maybe nothingness isn't the right word as I had learned more from her in our short time about how to live and love than most people can hope to learn in a lifetime. 

Maude was a series of constant lessons, some that left me smiling, and some that left me crying.

The candle of time burned away the days and months and now years. It changed me in some ways for the better and in other ways for the worse.

I was thirty now and the only thing that remained the same while everything else about me constantly changed was that I still fucking loved Maude. I missed her laugh and all her crazy bullshit that always left a silly grin on my face. I'd be doing something and I'd remember something she said and start laughing only to end up a sobbing mess in the end. Just like the stars had never been enough nor were the memories.

Some people accept things and move forward but I wasn't one of those people. I held on to her words and looked forward to the day when I would die and meet her in that other life. Only then would I be happy, only then would the missing piece of my jigsaw heart be found to complete it.

It was one day in August that I found myself looking at old books in the reference section of the library. I had been mindlessly flipping pages looking at various local historic happenings surrounding my town. 'Two Boys' eaten by a panther, civil war caves, smugglers, unsolved murders; then something caught my eye. The article was dated June 1920:

‘DEAD LOVED ONES BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE AND EASY MONEY!!’

Reading the headline, I nearly scoffed but still felt drawn in anyway.

"All is made possible by Old Man Byrd’s Wishing Well at the unbeatable cost of 25 cents."

"Mr. Byrd is currently charging 25 cents a wish and is now doing quite well for himself. The man who had previously been stealing chickens and hardly scraping by is now the richest man in the county. He claims he tossed his Granddad's pocket watch into his well and made a wish to be rich and the next thing he knew HE WAS! Hardy Sawyer, a skeptic of the well, wanted to prove Byrd wrong so he took off his wedding band and tossed it into the well and the next thing he knew his wife who had been dead 5 years was knocking on his door and is now back to making her famous apple cobbler and it's better than ever!!"

This had to be just a bunch of old-timey nonsense but even still it had successfully aroused my interest but how come no one ever talked about a cobbler baking zombie? Surely that was not something that could be forgotten?

It took a bit more digging to find Old Man Byrd’s address. I searched through reference book after reference book and dug through worn newspaper clippings, and then finally I asked one of the librarians who snorted loudly in response to my inquiry but showed me to yet another binder full of clippings. "You are just wasting your time though, nothing magical about that old well," she added before walking away.

I wished I'd have asked her to elaborate on why she thought I was wasting my time. I was surprised that she knew what I was talking about.

The address was rather vague but vague addresses were something I was used to. Everyone in my county gave directions like, "It's over by the ghost bag," the ghost bag being part of a plastic bag that had become stuck in a tree and stayed there for years until it became torn to shreds and somehow even when the wind wasn't blowing you'd swear it was moving. So I got the gist of it. I also learned that this Old Man Byrd was quite infamous at one time.

I discovered dozens of articles about him prior to the success of the well. The entire town decided once to tar and feather him because they were tired of his shenanigans. At one point he even set fire to the prison just so he could escape. I also pondered the meaning of the items tossed in the well. I decided it couldn't just be any item it had to be something special to you. Hardy Sawyer probably cherished his wedding ring and he got his wife back. Old Man Byrd probably had few possessions and he tossed his grandfather's pocket watch and wished for money; the very thing he never had but longed for and he got it.

Either way, I actually liked this Old Man Byrd. What a fucking character and if this wasn't a bunch of fiction I would like him even more.

It was getting late when I got back home. My mind was whirling with thoughts and possibilities. I really shouldn't be getting my hopes up but I couldn't help myself.

Hope is a dangerous thing for someone like me to have but without hope what does one really have? 

If I could have one thing in this world it would be to have Maude by my side getting to do all the things that only dreams allowed.

I could hardly sleep that night. I tossed and turned and finally, I gave up sleeping. I got up and made myself a cup of Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee and hastily drank it then set out on my way.

It was a long walk into the woods and even with the sun up it was dark and the atmosphere felt tense and foreboding.

I wondered if the well was still there. It could have been filled in or had become lost in overgrowth. Nature is quick to reclaim.

In my pocket, I felt the old locket and ran my fingers over it, something I found myself doing so often. The locket was a vintage one that Maude and I had found at one of our many trips to various antique stores. It was the first thing she ever got me and it had a picture of her on one side and on the other a picture of me. I still remember her putting it around my neck and clasping it. “So long as you wear this, we’ll never be apart." I think back on that and I realize that Maude tried to prepare me for this eventuality.

I was so consumed in my thoughts and memories that I had lost track of how long I had been walking but when I snapped back to reality I was there standing at the remnants of an old stone house. Not much was left but part of a chimney and various pieces of a stone structure.

This had to be it but now I'd have to locate the well itself and now that I was here my nerves were going crazy.

My mind was a whirling mess of what-ifs. "This is dumb. Life isn't Grimm’s Fairy Tales. There is no such thing as magic. People make up stories all the time. Hardy Sawyer was probably not a skeptic but in on some plot to con the entire town into making wishes."  

Call me a dramatic over reactor if you wish, but I suddenly found myself screaming, "NOOOO, YOU FUCKING TWAT WAFFLE OF A WORLD YOU DON'T GET TO GIVE ME MOMENTARY HOPE THEN FUCKING DASH IT!" into the trees like the crazy woman I was.

I was flipping out, like really fucking flipping out, and throwing rocks and kicking brush away. This was the breakdown that I had been waiting for, or at least it would have been if I didn't almost find myself falling face-first into a well, just catching myself in the knick of time.

It didn't look like anything special. Just your run of the mill every day well that once upon a time someone dropped a bucket into and brought up water. So many unimportant questions nearly overwhelmed my mind but most importantly now that I was standing here I found myself wondering exactly which year I should wish to transport myself to. 1972? Maude was certainly there and so was the Chevy Nova in all its glory.

I did the math in my head the best I could (math was never my best subject so I would have to guesstimate the best I could.) I continued doing mathing for a while longer before I decided the answer was 1979. It was The year of "Heart of Glass", "Bad Case of Loving You", and in my unpopular opinion best Kiss song "I Was Made For Loving You." That should also make us around the same age. What year could be more perfect?

I took the locket reluctantly out of my pocket. "This better work or I'll be climbing in to retrieve it." I opened it up to take one last final look at it.

"I love you, Maude."

Alright, here goes. After my screaming fit moments ago throwing a locket in didn't seem quite as silly.

"I wish I could be in 1979 with Maude." 

I closed my eyes tightly and threw the locket in. It landed with a small clankity thud.

What was I supposed to do now, tap my heels together? What if its magic had dried up along with the water?

I didn't have to wonder long because soon a radiant blinding light appeared from within. I looked down and saw no bottom just a swirling green glow that practically screamed jump into me and before I could give it a second thought I did just that. I cannonballed in screaming, "NINETEEN FUCKING SEVENTY-NINE HERE I COMEEEEEE! P.S. FUCK TWENTY TWENTY!"

Everything felt slow and then fast. It was like being on a never-ending rollercoaster as it shifted me through different years before tossing me to my change of destiny, spitting me out head first.

"Ouch." I landed with a hard thud hitting my head on the rocky ground. "Fuck, that really hurt." I never thought time travel was possible much less painful.

Slowly I picked myself up off the ground. I was once again standing by the well but everything was different. This time the house was in slightly better shape. But it wasn't so much the surroundings but the colour. Everything looked like an old sepia-tinted polaroid in one of my parents' albums.

The woods had changed so much it took a bit to figure out how to navigate my way back out of it and once I did I had no idea where to go to find Maude, which wasn't something I had thought of.

I decided to go to the house I had known as Maude's back when she was alive although I wasn't certain how long she had even owned it. It seemed to me to be the most logical starting point.

I walked away admiring how much nicer ‘79 was in comparison to the world I had been unaccustomedly accustomed to for the entirety of my existence.

Which I guess wasn't a huge surprise since for most of my life I had been spent living in the past I had never been to.

After reaching her house I told myself I would play it completely Fonzie Cool. Then I began knocking.

"HOLD ON, HOLD ON," I heard along with the sounds of dogs barking excitedly.

There she was. Although younger there was no mistaking her. Those damn eyes were burnt into my soul.

I stood there quiet for a moment, my mouth completely dry; unable to swallow. This was the moment I had been waiting for. The other life.

"Are you a Jehovah’s Witness?" 

Her question hit like the joke it was, right in my heart.

That was when I began blubbering, "Maude, I'm from the future."

For a moment though she looked completely unamused before she burst into laughter.

“From the future, that’s a good one!”

"Right then. Who's the president in whatever year it is that you’re from?" she said then quickly began chuckling again.

I cringed a little before answering. 

"The year 2020, it’s Donald Trump." 

Her eyes practically rolled out of their sockets. 

"Yeah okay, nice joke."

"I wish! Seriously though I'm from the future. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me." I found myself suddenly wishing I still had the locket with me although I wondered if my picture would even be in it anymore. Technically I shouldn't exist at this moment, my parents weren't even together yet.

"So what are you selling future girl?" she asked.

I felt my bottom lip trembling and my eyes beginning to tear up.

It was pretty clear I had completely fucked up my only chance.

I was debating walking away and had started to turn, not wanting her to see that I was starting to cry when she surprised me by reaching out and touching my shoulder. "Want to come in and have a cup of tea or coffee?" 

I nodded my head as she opened the door wider and let me, a complete stranger, into her house. In the world I had known, no one would ever have thought about letting a stranger in, much less one who just blubbered like a lunatic about being from the future.

I looked around. Honestly, it wasn't much different than it was in the past, err... future. Instead of black and white tiles, it had some pretty tacky but weirdly loveable orange shag carpet.

She motioned to a chair in the kitchen and I sat down. "So what would you like. I have Maxwell House. They say 'it's good till the last drop' and Earl Grey."

I happened to know for a fact that Maxwell House has never once been good to the last drop. It tasted like ass and the only thing better in the future was probably the insane amount of coffee options, but that didn't really matter.

"What do you like?" I asked softly.

"Not Maxwell House. That’s more my husband’s thing." She said the last part without a hint of a smile.

I felt a sudden sting in my heart, which was one more thing I hadn't even thought of when I picked the year.

Which made me realize that there was a lot one could take for granted whilst time traveling.

"I'll take Earl Grey then."

This brought a smile to her face. “My kind of girl," instantly turning the sting into butterflies fluttering around in my chest. She was probably just being nice but something in the way she said that reignited a flame of hope.

We sat sipping our tea and just talking. It was amazing how easy it was to talk with her. Just like before there was that instant click, the feeling of two hearts that completed a puzzle.

"Before I forget, do you have a name future girl?" 

"It’s Olivia," I murmured softly.

"I like that," she smiled. "So, Olivia, where do you live when you’re not living in 2020?"

I found myself blushing. She really did think I was a lunatic.

"Erm... uh, here and there and a bit of everywhere. Right now nowhere though." 

"Then you are staying right here with me," she said firmly.

This made my heart leap into my throat surprising me.

"Okay," I said nodding. 

"Well that was certainly easy," she said smiling happily

"Won't your husband mind though?" I found myself inquiring.

"Him? No, he never minds much. Besides he is away on a long business trip and I need the company," she said.

Leaving me to realize loneliness was perhaps the never-ending theme in Maude's life. I'd have to change that.

The days rolled by and with each one I found myself growing closer to her. She had given me the guest bedroom next to hers and which left me with a deep longing to fall asleep next to her and wake up looking deep into her gorgeous eyes.

Every day felt like a beautiful dream. We did all the things (or almost) that I had always wanted to do with her.

One night we went to the carnival and after dragging her onto several rides I stopped to win her a plushie using my best dart-throwing skills, She pointed at a green penguin wearing a bow. "That one, I think I'll name him Oliver." This made my heart pound loudly in my chest.

We took long walks in the day and then sometimes ended the night watching Laverne & Shirley, singing along with the intro every time. Each time I had to pretend they were new to me and not re-runs which was actually difficult to do at times considering it had been my favourite Nick at Nite show growing up.

And then one night it finally happened. The intensity bubble inside me burst, to leave me reeling in my own personal emotional blender and for a moment I felt the world was going to collapse around me.

We had gone to the movies to watch one of my all-time favourite classics, The Children's Hour. Maybe I had gotten swept up in the emotions playing out in black and white. The unrequited love of two women who didn't stand a chance at happiness or maybe the timing finally felt right.

I had spent a good deal of the movie playing out in Maude's eyes watching her tears silently pour down, when finally I reached over and ran a finger over her tears, before taking her hand in mine.

That was when she finally turned and stared at me, our eyes locking, lost in the moment as our lips met, only softly grazing at first before turning into a long passionate kiss, our tongues twirling and dancing together with hot wet need.

To my dismay, she broke it off and turned and ran out of the theatre. I sat still completely stunned by the sudden change.

Finally running after her by the time I had caught up she was already halfway home.

"Maude, what's wrong? Wait!" I called out

Finally grabbing her and pulling her to me and holding her tight.

"We can't. It's wrong," she murmured sadly.

"Love is never wrong." Even here in the past, I was still just that hopeless romantic who thought she could change something by diving into a fucking wishing well.

"It is wrong and I'm married," she said breaking free of my embrace.

"You aren't happy with him and you just think it’s wrong because it's 1979. In 2020 plenty of women are married to women and plenty of men are married to men. They still have to fight every day for true love, but they do it because that's what you do when you really love someone, nothing else matters but that."

"Stop with the future shit. You aren't from the future. Just because we love each other doesn't make it right."

I had to stop myself from saying something cliché like, 'if it's wrong I don't want to be right.'

"Go jump in your spaceship and go back to wherever and just leave me alone," she said before running the rest of the way back to her house and locking the door leaving me to murmur after her, "It’s not a spaceship. It's a magical wishing well, jeez!"

I didn't know what to do or where to go. I ended up sleeping on her porch and feeling like a beaten down loser.

But just as the sun was coming up and the birds began their dreadful singing I had an idea. It was probably the lamest cheesiest romantic idea yet and it wasn't even my own original idea but it had worked in the movies.

Near the movie theatre, I had noticed a music shop and had meant to visit it but hadn't. But now I would. I ran to the shop my Converses slapping against the pavement and I got there just as the owner was unlocking it.

"Here for the new Kiss album?" he said. 

I paused for a moment then replied, "Actually, yes." (After all, I couldn't very well play it to her if it hadn't been released yet.) ”I need a boom box also, but... um, there's a problem. I don't have any money but I just want to borrow it.'

"Now look kid if you want something you’re going to have to pay for it." 

I almost corrected him to tell him I was thirty but thought better of it.

"It’s an emergency. I promise I'll bring it right back."

"What kind of emergency needs music... erm, humph, never mind that. Everything is fixed with music. What happened, your boyfriend dump you?"

"Something like that, Pretty please, I swear I won't have it long and this means the world to me, You can change history!" I gave him my best pleading eyes.

"Alright, some history deserves to be changed. Have at it." 

He took me over to the boom boxes. "Latest model. Just got her in. It’s a Stag RR-1048," he said puffing up his chest with store merchant pride.

The thing looked huge but it would have to work. After all, John Cusack could do it so why couldn't I. I picked up Kiss's latest release Dynasty. I knew exactly what song I would play. He wished me good luck and I hurried back to her house struggling to lug something huge. I had been used to an MP3 then later I had switched to just using my phone.

I got to her house and slid in the cassette and found the song and hit play. Turning it on full then slowly lifting the monstrosity above my head, it was not as easy as Cusack had made it look. "I Was Made for Lovin' You" boomed loudly and it was probably going to wake up the neighbours, just like I was hoping it would wake Maude up, both out of sleep and metaphorically speaking.

Moments later Maude opened the window and peeked out and for a second she looked pissed until she saw me and her face softened.

"What are you doing, Olivia?" she shouted down. 

"Romancing you, I hope," I shouted over the song.

"Romancing me with Kiss static?" she said with a small laugh.

"It’s their best song, besides I really was made for loving you." 

"It’s lovin', not loving," she replied.

"Yeah I know but I felt weird just dropping the g. Now, are you going to let me in or what? This thing is fucking heavy and I am about to drop it and I don't think the guy I borrowed it from would be happy with that."

"You borrowed a boom box and played Kiss in order to win me over? You really are a weirdo."

With that, she vanished from the window and I was worried she was going to just go back to bed or call in a noise complaint but to my surprise, she came running out the door and over to me, surprising me with a soft but lingering kiss. "But you know what, you're my weirdo, and I really love you."

Just then a neighbour came out onto his lawn and yelled, "SHUT UP WITH THE NOISE ALREADY, SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!"

Maude reached over and hit stop. "Let’s go in already before he calls the police." She helped me carry the boom box in and we barely got it set down before we began melting into each other’s arms and stripping each other’s clothes off completely hungry for each other.

I couldn't help but smile as butterflies fluttered inside my chest and my eyes glazed over with love and lust.

We somehow found our way into her room and fell onto the bed together, our kisses never-ending, tongues tasting each other’s soft skin, fingertips caressing.

I wanted to memorize every curve and every freckle. I had come here in love and ended up somehow even more in love than I was, to begin with.

I slid between her legs, our body’s warm and soft together, breasts pressing together, our nipples instantly hardening.

Our cunts matched up perfectly already hot and dripping with arousal, our moans blending together along with our juices as I began to grind and hump against her heavenly pussy, our clits meeting with every other movement.

I leaned to kiss her again, my tongue sliding into the warm depths of her mouth and finding hers, as we further lost ourselves in our lovemaking. 

Our pussies radiated with electricity as we neared the edge of lust's oblivion. Finally, I broke the kiss and looked deep into her eyes. 

"This has never been wrong," I whispered softly until we screamed our way to climax, our cunts bursting together, love juices flooding everywhere and soaking the bed.

We laid in each other’s arms the rest of the day into the night only waking to make love once more.  

The rest is history. I finally remembered to take the boom box back after a few days and eventually her husband came home. Even though I wanted it when she broke it off with him I couldn’t help feeling bad about the deal. I know it was hard for her and I could tell she had trouble with it for a while. In the end, though, we spent the rest of the years together. I even got to see the eighties and for a while, my hair was fucking crazy and everything was a neon dream. We also got to see Halley’s Comet and it was almost everything I had always hoped it would be.

Then I got to relive the nineties which meant I finally got to go to the concerts I had previously missed out on. Now here we are back in  2020 lying in our bed together, old as fuck and surviving on Domino’s pizza. COVID and True Love are the two things that can't ever be erased.

Life’s been good.