Life on Another Planet Ch. 00-05

Practice was underway and Kirsten had little time to look for the guy. The coach had kept them busy with drills and skating exercises. The older woman was quick to notice any of her charges whose attention had wandered. Kirsten had worked hard to prove she was ready for the next step. She wasn't a scholarship player. She was a "walk-on" who wanted to qualify for the team. The odds were long. UBC had recruited several young women from across the country to play and Kirsten was an afterthought. Only her father's reputation gave her the opportunity.

Tomas Gustafson was a perpetual all-star in the NHL almost from the day he joined the Detroit Red Wings from the Swedish Elite League. He had won the Norris Trophy five times and had been nominated four other times. His fourteen year career was well documented and he was an almost sure-fire first round selection to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Now retired, he had come to Vancouver near the end of his career to act as a role model and teacher for a young defence. When he retired, it was widely acknowledged he was largely responsible for helping develop the Vancouver Canuck defence corps into one of the best in the league.

Kirsten felt an unspoken obligation to follow in her father's footsteps. She was an only child, but not by choice. Her mother, Anika, was unable to have another child after two very distressing miscarriages. Tomas would never have the son who might have followed in his footsteps. Kirsten believed it was up to her to fill that role. The young girl was unaware that her father did not expect that of her, nor did he wish it on her. But, if she chose to play hockey, he would support her.

The ninety-minute practice took every ounce of energy Kirsten could summon. She was soaked to the skin from the effort of keeping up and being ready for the coach's next instructions. She hated the two-on-one drills, fearing any success by the forwards might mean the end of her ambitions. Her father had coached her on how to handle odd-man rushes and so far it had paid off. Even the stern-faced woman who commanded her complete attention seemed to be satisfied with her performance.

Kirsten didn't linger in the shower. She wasn't shy about her nudity in the communal tiled shower room, but wasted little time getting in and out. She had no friends on the team yet, merely acquaintances. A couple of the girls were from Quebec and spoke French, probably thinking that no one could understand what they were saying. Kirsten understood French well enough to know what they were talking about despite their strange dialect. She wondered if any of the other girls could understand the way these two talked about them.

As she left the dressing room, she passed the two, still gossiping with each other.

"Passez une bonne journée, filles," she said with a smile as she left the room. She didn't stop to see the look on their faces, but if she had, she would have known she had accomplished her goal. The two were red-faced and silent.

~*~

Jesse had returned to the swivel rocker and sat, now curious about the big blonde woman who lived just a few feet from him. At least it distracted him from the melancholy of his lost family. Was he that shallow that a beautiful female could push his troubles to the back of his mind? "Be realistic, Jesse," he said to himself. "She's way out of your league." It was the Don Pollard-Juliet Crouse scenario all over again. Except, this young woman put Juliet to shame. That simply pushed her that much further out of reach.

Perhaps it was the distraction of Miss Gustafson, or perhaps it was just plain fatigue, but Jesse fell asleep and didn't awaken until the bright, warm light of the rising sun was fully on his face. He looked at the clock and saw it was nearing eight that morning. At least he got some sleep. He forced himself out of the chair and headed for the bathroom. He showered and brushed his teeth first, then examined his face to see if a shave was necessary. He decided it wasn't and moved to his room to dress for the day.

He returned to the chair that was becoming familiar to him and sat gazing out at the awakening city. Already the traffic was heavy and the nearby market was alive with delivery trucks and merchants getting ready for the business day. It all seemed so normal, except to him it wasn't normal at all. He willed himself not to fall into the dark place he visited last night. That was more than he could handle. He wanted to be optimistic. He wanted to be positive about his future. Could he? How?

Eve was up now. He could hear the water running in her bathroom. There was no sound coming from Mica's room. It seemed unfair that the boy would have to go to school in July when most of the other kids were on holiday. However, Eve said this was the third year of the three semester experiment and he had become accustomed to the schedule. Nonetheless, that didn't seem to get him out of bed any more easily.

Eve appeared dressed for the hospital, looking fresh and to Jesse's eye, very attractive. She smiled as she greeted him.

"Good morning, Jesse. Did you sleep well?"

"Not really," the boy sighed. "I had a nightmare that kept me awake. I don't ever remember having one before."

"I'm sorry to hear that. What was the nightmare about?"

"My parents and sister were trying to reach me ... but they couldn't. It was very frustrating and disturbing."

"I'm sure it was. Why don't you have some breakfast? We'll go to my office and talk. In the meantime, I've got to get Mica up and moving or he'll be late for school."

Jesse headed for his bedroom while Eve knocked and entered Mica's room. He could hear her encouraging the boy to wake up and get moving. Jesse was smiling to himself. This sounded an awful lot like his mother and him some years ago.

Forty minutes later, Eve and Jesse were on their way to the hospital and his first session of hypnosis. He wasn't looking forward to it, largely because he was ignorant of what hypnosis was about and what Eve hoped to learn that he hadn't already told her.

"I saw the girl who lives across the hall this morning," Jesse said as they drove along.

"Oh ... you mean Kirsten?"

"Yeah. You were right ... she is impressive. She was carrying a big bag. I wondered what she was doing up at that time of the morning. It wasn't even six o'clock yet."

"She plays ice hockey. Her mother told me she's trying to qualify for the UBC women's hockey team."

Again, Jesse was surprised. "Women play hockey now?"

"Don't be so shocked," Eve grinned. "You'll discover women do a lot of things now that they didn't do before."

"I guess," Jesse sighed, wondering just what else women did that was different from "his time."

Eve led him into her office, closing the door behind her. It was a simple room with a bookcase, three comfortable looking chairs around a coffee table, a desk, and an office chair. There was nothing fancy about this office.

"First of all, I have some news for you that will be disturbing," Eve began as they sat in the soft chairs opposite to each other. "I've traced the records of your parents and grandparents. As you might have guessed, your grandparents passed away in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Your parents are both gone, I'm sorry to say. Your father died in 1999, while your mother lived for five more years, passing in 2004. I'm sorry I couldn't bring you better news."

Jesse sat motionless, listening to her solemn confirmation of his fears. He nodded. "I expected that," he said quietly. "What about Roberta?"

"We haven't traced her yet. She married a doctor in Toronto in 1964. His name was Terrance Joyce. Apparently he was a very highly regarded specialist in communicable diseases and left Toronto to take up a position in Atlanta, Georgia. He died in 2005 and was buried in Toronto in a family plot. Your sister survived him, but we don't know where she is now. She quit nursing when she married Doctor Joyce. We're still looking for her. We believe she is still living in the United States, but we haven't located her yet."

"So ... Roberta might still be alive, then?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes ... if she was healthy, she would be seventy-four, not an advanced age for most people today. We'll keep searching for her."

Jesse nodded, hearing for the first time since his "reawakening" a ray of hope for someone from his past.

"I've begun the process of getting you established as a Canadian citizen, Jesse. I've produced a request for a birth certificate for Jesse Michael Peterson, born December 11, 1992, in Haven, British Columbia. It would be recorded as a home birth with no attending doctor or nurse. Haven was destroyed when an earthen dam burst flooding the town in 2001, destroying most of the buildings and all the town records. It's a deceit, but a necessary one. Once we have the birth certificate established, we can begin to apply for all the other things you will need to exist in this time period."

"So ... what you are doing is illegal, right?" he asked carefully.

"Yes. But I don't like the alternative if we don't do this. You'd be a non-citizen ... then what? Homeless, broke, jobless ... your future would be pretty dim. Or worse, you might fall into the hands of the government and they would want to find out just how you managed to skip forward fifty years. I think this is a necessary risk with a better probability of success."

"I don't understand why you are doing this for me," he said. "You don't know me. You could get into really serious trouble doing this. Why?"

"I think it's the right thing to do, Jesse. I trust you. I believe you. I know what has happened to you is impossible, except that you are here and everything you've told me about yourself has turned out to be true. Officially, you died on July 12, 1961, and are buried beside your parents in the Mountainside Cemetery. But you're not dead, are you? You're very much alive and living in the present. I have to help you survive in this time, regardless of how you got here. I take that as my personal responsibility."

"So ... my grave is real? I'm buried beside my parents? I can go and see the graves?" he said, his eyes wide with shock.

"Yes. I don't recommend it right now, Jesse. It's too new. You need some time to get accustomed to the reality of this new life. You need some time to absorb what you have gone through and what you are facing. Wait a while, then we'll both go."

Jesse sat silently, his eyes unfocussed and staring of into the distance. He wasn't ready to face his own mortality ... he knew that. He might never be ready. For now, he would listen to Eve and follow her directions.

~*~

Doctor Eve Mikeska glanced up at the clock on her office wall. It was approaching noon. The hypnosis had been successful and she had learned a great deal about Jesse Michael Peterson. Most importantly, she learned that deep in his subconscious, Jesse had been telling her the truth about himself. When she brought Jesse out of his hypnotic state, he showed no sign of being disorientated.

"Didn't I go under?" he asked as he looked around.

Eve smiled. "Look at the clock," she pointed.

"Holy Cow! How long was I out?"

"About ninety minutes. That's a long time, but you had a lot to tell me and you seemed to be quite comfortable. I decided to make it a single session for now. How do you feel?" she asked.

"Fine. I didn't even realize I was hypnotized. Is it always like that?"

"Generally, yes. You were a good subject and our session was very helpful to me, and I think it will be for you too."

"So ... what did you find out? Was I telling the truth?"

"Yes. Your subconscious gives up your innermost secrets and you were telling me the truth when you said you were born in 1942. As much as that is physically impossible, it is the truth as you know it. I have to accept that and I have. We will work together to help you adapt and integrate into our twenty-first century society."

"Was there anything else you learned about me?"

"Yes, but nothing that you need to concern yourself with for now. I've kept a record of the session and I will be going over it to see what help it will give me as we go forward from here. I'm convinced you are who you say you are, and now the real work begins. I hope you're ready for it because it won't be easy. But ... I'll be with you every step of the way," she promised.

"I'm glad that's settled. I'm not happy," he said in a sour tone. "I have nothing to hang onto from my family or my previous life and that hurts ... hurts a lot. But I wonder ... can I make it in this new life?"

"I believe in you, Jesse. I truly do," she smiled. "I'm sure you can make it. Now ... let me buy you lunch ... but not here. There's a nice restaurant a couple of minutes from here. You're ready for a treat, I think."

"Let's go," he said with the briefest flicker of enthusiasm.

~*~

"That was the best lunch I've ever eaten," Jesse smiled as he leaned back in the booth.

"Glad you enjoyed it. You earned it this morning. I've learned quite a bit about who Jesse Peterson is and I'm pleased to say my first judgement of you was correct. You were not only telling me the truth, but you weren't hiding anything. I think I probed pretty well all your activities in the past few years and I'm satisfied you are who you seem to be; a nice, clean-cut teenage youth about to move into adulthood."

"I'm almost two-and-a-half years from becoming an adult," he noted.

Eve was shaking her head. "That's another thing that has changed. The age of maturity has been lowered to nineteen. You'll find a lot of things have changed in that respect, but you'll find out about them as you go along. No point in overloading you this early. One step at a time, Jesse ... one step at a time."

They sat quietly while Eve sipped her tea and Jesse finished his cola.

"What's next this afternoon," he asked finally.

"Shopping," she grinned. "What else. We'll go out to Ridgeview Center and do our shopping there. More stores and more selection."

"You must be rich to be able to spend all this money on me," he said, unconcerned that he might offend her.

"No ... well ... I guess comparatively you could say that. My father is very wealthy thanks to his inventions, and I've been a beneficiary of some of that wealth. I also have a very high paying job at the hospital. Money isn't something that I have to worry about each day."

"I think my Dad was in that situation too," Jesse said. "I mean, he didn't have a rich father, but he had a great job and was really good at it. They paid him really well, Mom told me, just so he wouldn't go somewhere else. He'd had some pretty nice offers, but stuck with Weyburn Electric out of loyalty. I guess they really wanted him to stay. I think Mom said he got some stocks in place of cash for bonuses."

"Stocks are often used as rewards to valuable employees, especially if the business is doing well. They can be traded at the value of the stock at any time. If they're kept, they increase in value if the business does well. Of course, if the business isn't doing well, the value of the stock drops, so it's in the employee's best interest to do everything to make the company prosper. That's called an incentive plan."

"Yeah, I can see how it would be. I know Dad and Mom were really happy with how Weyburn treated him."

"What about you, Jesse. What do you see in your future? You said your father was an electrical engineer. Were you thinking in that direction too?"

"No ... I don't think I have the right talent to be an engineer. I'm more interested in writing, like I told you the other day. I don't know where it will lead me and I don't know if I can make a living doing that, but I'd like to find out. I don't see myself stacking groceries or washing cars for a living. You know I planned to go to university, but that's on hold for now. I don't know how long it will take me to catch up to the minimum requirements. I had qualified for them in my other life, but I'm sure they wouldn't be worth anything today."

Eve nodded. "I suspect you're partially right, but don't get down on yourself. If you were smart enough to earn a place back in 1961, then you're smart enough to earn one today. All you have to do is catch up on some of the subjects. I doubt English and most of the languages have changed very much. Perhaps Math, and definitely the sciences have progressed, but they aren't the only courses. I think Psychology was one of my most valuable courses when I was in first year, and that helped me make a decision about my career. Don't get too discouraged until you see the size of the hill you have to climb."

"I guess the best place to start is to find out just what I have to know and where I'll get the information to learn it," Jesse said.

"Exactly right. Let's see if we can find that information next week. In the meantime, none of that will matter if we can't get you documented as a Canadian citizen with all the necessary identification. That's going to take time. Tell me, what did you do during your summer vacation period?"

"Oh, I had a job at the Top Value in the village, stacking shelves and doing odd jobs. I did that when I was in school too, working on weekends."

"So, you didn't have a lot of free time to just have a good time," she smiled.

"I did okay, Eve. I played high school baseball and had a girl friend. I was allowed to use my Mom or Dad's car. I didn't get bored, if that's what you mean."

"Juliet was your girlfriend."

"That's right. How did you know that?"

"It's one of the things I learned when you were under hypnosis."

"Huh. I guess I don't have any secrets anymore, eh?"

"Don't worry. You're protected by doctor-patient confidentiality. I'll reveal nothing about you to anyone unless you authorize it."

"Okay ... that's good," he said with a sigh of relief.

"Just between you and me, what are you worried about someone else learning about you?"

Jesse was red with embarrassment and was hesitant with his answer.

"Uhhm, you know, about what Juliet and I did ... in the car."

"Oh, that," she smiled. "I have news for you, Jesse. Nearly seventy-five percent of North American males of your age have lost their virginity. By the time you finish college, that number will be higher again. You aren't that remarkable compared to your peers."

"Oh ... I didn't know. Things have really changed a lot in fifty years. When I see what some of the girls are wearing on the street and in the stores, I wondered about that. They wouldn't dare parade around like that back in my day. I guess that's another thing I'll have to catch up on," he mused.

"Don't be in a rush," Eve cautioned. "Pick and choose your partners, and take it slow. You're a fish out of water right now, so some of the boy-girl relationships are going to be strange to you at first."

"I can tell. Just the language I hear some of them use is going to take some time to accept. And the tattoos and metal things they stick themselves with are weird. I know about pierced ears, but some of the things I've seen are not very pretty."

Eve laughed. "Welcome to the age of individualization. Hence, the coloured hair, the piercings, the tattoos, the strange clothing choices. It's all about making a statement to others. You are an individual and you can express yourself anyway you choose."

Jesse was shaking his head, mystified. "I can think of a number of other more sensible ways to make a statement. Some of what they do is not very complimentary toward themselves. It's like they're saying they don't like themselves very much."

"I don't understand the psychology of it either, Jesse, and I'm a professional who should know the whys and wherefores. But it's been coming on for several decades now and it's still developing. It will be interesting to see how these people look in thirty or forty years."