Post by James Gilmore on Feb 8, 2019 0:34:58 GMT
“PAST PRELUDE”
JAMES’ PERSONAL LOG
Stardate: 96701.24 (February 6, 2019 - 1:30 PM)
”While I’m compilin’ my childhood memories into the log, in the meantime...I figured I’d share some things off-the-cuff.
First off, I hope Xavier Cross realizes what he’s doin’. After proudly defendin’ his title for months, he couldn’t resist the temptation to sell his soul to the Demon Lady herself. Thing is, from what they’ve done to Fiona, Yulia, and countless others, the Pack are NOT a real family. They are based upon hatred, deceit, lies, and causing outright pain to those who stand in their way.
A family that is built on those things I described...they are going to fall.
I’m itchin’ to help exacerbate the process, but I have to understand...that I can’t do it alone. The truth is, Bein’ Infamous isn’t just a fancy gimmick or a team name...nah, we’re a brotherhood, we’re a part of a much bigger--and more truer--family than the Pack can ever hope to break. We are the Imperial family, and if they wanna fight against US...they’re gonna have to be willin’ to get their butts kicked!
I know, I know...I sound like a leader! Me, James Gilmore, a leader!?!
If only things were that simple, but...they aren’t, nor will they ever be.
Workin’ with Rob Diamond these past few weeks has taught me one very important thing: you might think you’re in control of a given situation, but the most painful--yet realistic--truth is that ya can’t control everything around you. That’s just the way life works, ya?! Ya might think you’re on top of everything, then realize ya forgot somethin’ and have to go back down to get it.
That’s how ya handle losin’...at least, in my own mind.
Right now, I’m worried about my friend, about Fiona. When I saw the altered version of Mortal Kombat, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was really her playin’ Kitana, if that was really her in the picture with a young Spike Kane. I understand people might not believe me and all that, but...sooner or later, I’m gonna have to tell somebody about what I saw.
All I needed was a sign…”
As his fiancee was taking a nice, hot shower, James Gilmore sat down at his desk, placing his pen down as the Al Stewart song “Time Passages” began to play from his computer’s music mix. He loved that song, for it reminded him of the quick and often painful journey he has taken through the annals of time. His journal, written in the very same notebook his friend Fiona McFly had given him a year ago, contained his personal recollections of his childhood, all the way up through high school and into his first years of college.
Yet...what purpose did they serve?!
”It was late in December, the sky turned to snow
All round the day was going down slow
Night like a river beginning to flow
I felt the beat of my mind go
Drifting into time passages
Years go falling in the fading light
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight"
The Islander alum shook his head, reminding himself of a speech Steve Martin, playing Neal Page, had made to his co-star John Candy, as Del Griffith, in one of his favorite comedy flicks of all-time, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It was, as Gilmore tried to recall, about using selective memory to have a point to his stories, thus making them ideal for the listener. As straight-faced as he was on the surface, James still found himself to be an easy target.
He felt like being as cynical as some of the others who’ve trolled him in the past, one that could potentially hurt others’ feelings, but in his mind?! James Gilmore wasn’t changing a thing about his inner personality, a soul who saw things with the wonderment of a child.
After all, he was a real walking, talking article. He truly felt like Del Griffith at heart.
Whey everyone else saw was what they were going to get--a bitter irony considering the tune he was listening to.
”Well I'm not the kind to live in the past
The years run too short and the days too fast
The things you lean on are the things that don't last
Well it's just now and then my line gets cast into these
Time passages
There's something back here that you left behind
Oh time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight”
It only seemed like yesterday that Gilmore signed on the dotted line to work for Imperial Wrestling after touring the independent circuit. He gazed over to his photo of him and Fiona standing in front of the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia with a warm nod. They had trained together, traveled together, even sang songs together as friends and colleagues. Before meeting Yulia and Rob, the Northern Irishwoman was, perhaps, the only friend he ever had.
Now he was worried about her. She hadn’t texted him or talked to him in weeks.
Yet just as he was going to meditate on things...
"Hear the echoes and feel yourself starting to turn
Don't know why you should feel
That there's something to learn
It's just a game that you play...”
...the doorbell began to ring. James stood up, stretched his arms out, and slowly trudged to answer the front door. He soon discovered an older gentleman wearing a distinctive brown button-up shirt with khaki pants standing at attention, a familiar-looking brown box truck parked in his driveway.
“Are you JJ by any chance?,” the man asked, prompted James to raise an eyebrow. “Is your name James Gilmore?!”
“Ya found him sir!,” James responded with a nod. “What’s up?!”
“I’ve got somethin’ for you,” the guest reached into a large white tote bag and pulled out a manila envelope. “A letter.”
The ex-Islander looked down at the envelope’s contents--specifically at a handwritten label that featured his exact address on it.
“A letter for me?! Shoot...I don’t get much in the way of fan-written mail save for bills and junk,” he chuckled. “Who are you anyway?!”
“UPS,” the man answered back. “Funny thing is, some of my colleagues workin’ in the dispatch center were hopin’ you could shed some light on the subject. You see, we’ve had this envelope in our possession for the past...umm, twenty-five years!”
James’ gasped in shock, his brows perking up in amazement.
“It was given to us with the strictest of directions...that it’d be delivered to a man fitting your description--answering to the name of JJJ or James--on this exact date, at this very moment in time! I bet my wife you wouldn’t even be alive to receive this letter; now I owe her a triple-chocolate cake and a case of Diet Dr. Pepper!”
The UPS deliverer laughed out loud as James looked at its postmark, which dated back to sometime in 1994.
“Whoa there, hold on a sec…!?! Did you just say twenty-five years!?!”
“Yessir! Twenty-four years and almost four months to be a l’il more precise. I need your John Hancock on line three please!”
James watched as the UPS guy drove off, then proceeded to open the envelope. Inside, he found a small color photograph along with a letter, its contents beautifully written in longhand cursive. He took a deep breath, his eyes widening as he skimmed through the parchment at first until he spotted a familiar signature at the end.
A very familiar signature.
“No way...NO WAY!!! YULIA, SCOPE THIS OUT!!! IT’S FROM FIONA!!!”
“What...?!,” Yulia rushed into the picture, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt featuring the Royal Caribbean logo on its front. “Is it really your friend…!?!”
James could only nod his head in excitement.
“‘Dear James,’” he announced as he read the first part of Fiona’s letter aloud. “‘If you receive this letter, that means you are doing very well. First, I would like to assure you that I am doing just fine. I’ve been living these past ten months in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the year 1994. I’m sure that might be considered a shock to your system…’”
He paused, then scanned back down to her signature and the date below it.
“NINETEEN-NINETY-FOUR!?! OCTOBER 25TH, 1994!!!”
Laughing like a kid on a playground at recess, James bounced up and down as if the Dallas Cowboys had won the Super Bowl, flinging the letter in the air. His straight-edged and serious outer personality, even if for a brief moment, was thrown out the window. Using lessons he learned from his journal writing, not to mention those who mentored him as a child, he closed his eyes and let his imagination do the work.
The altered Mortal Kombat i which Fiona had played Princess Kitana under a stage name.
The photo featuring Spike Kane and the fresh-faced woman from his memorabilia case.
It all made sense to him: ‘Lara Croft’ was actually Fiona McFly.
Yulia, though, brought James back down to earth when she read through the note in greater detail after picking it up off the floor.
“JJ! Calm down, breathe slowly…did you read the whole letter?!”
“Nahhh…”
“You might want to read the whole thing, but I warn you, you might not like what she has written.”
James didn’t like the tone of Yulia’s voice at all, a dire sense of urgency that trembled from her lips taking out whatever fun he was havingat that instant. She prodded him back to his desk, where he sat down and began to read the full letter silently to himself.
Surely, his mind began to ponder. Surely Fi was gonna write a happy note, detailing what she had seen in her journey.
However, everything that came into James’ brain was wrong, and as he read the document...
+++
Dear James,
If you receive this letter, that means you are doing very well.
First, I would like to assure you that I am doing just fine. I’ve been living these past ten months in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the year 1994.I’m sure that might be considered a shock to your system, especially considering how deeply worried you’ve been over my absence from wrestling.
I hope this will ease your fears a little bit.
I find that the Fredericksburg of this time is much smaller compared to the town I have seen in the present, plus it is also more...how shall I put it? I find things to be more wide open, more intimate, and more comfortable. Everything feels so wide open, I LOVE strolling out into the countryside to catch the fresh air. It does get hot during the summer, but hey--that is Texas weather for you!
I have trouble sleeping at night, and I don’t know why. I feel like I’m grabbing onto the side of a rockwall that isn’t there, and I can only brace myself for the eventual fall off the mountain. I want you to understand how much wrestling has meant to me, both personally and professionally, but I find myself not being able to fully express my love of the game in ‘the right way,’ often leading me to hurt those who don’t deserve to be hurt.
That is why I came back to this particular point in time, to learn that all over again.
But honestly?! I don’t even know what I’m learning to begin with.
As cover, I’ve set myself up as an independent actress and singer. Hopefully, I can figure out my purpose in wrestling before coming back to the present, but even in the past, there are those who wish to do people harm. That being said, if anything should ever happen to me, I will bestow upon you a very special gift--my ranch in Fredericksburg. I would advise that you check out the property for yourself.
It is quite the sight to see!
Before leaving on my journey, I have hired a company to begin the task of extensively renovating and expanding the ranch house, adding a brand-new living room and two more bedrooms, plus a second bathroom. As for the house on Wolf Creek Drive? I will be moving everything from there to the ranch house, after the renovation is completed, before selling the former. Hopefully I can make it back home in time to see this process through to its conclusion, but I can’t make any guarantees.
Whilst you are in Fredericksburg, if you are able to make it there, look for a gentleman named Sam Dawkins. He is moving into a farmhouse down the road along with his daughter Sarah; they will fill you up to speed on the progress of the renovation. I must, however, ask that you respect these three wishes:
First, if you happen to see a certain specialised aeroplane parked on the ranch, then destroy it. Do not--I repeat, DO NOT--attempt to come back to 1994 to save my life. Whilst I feel content with where I’m at right now--at least, for the foreseeable future--I figured, what the fuck is the point of saving each other when nobody saved me from, say, Rowan doing what she did to me?
It surely didn’t matter to her. It didn’t matter to everyone else. It sure is shit don’t matter to me anymore.
Why should life outside the ring be any different?! I couldn’t save Jack from dying. I never heard so much as a good-bye; he just fucking keeled over and left me alone to rot. As far as I’m concerned, I want to believe that the family I have poured my heart and soul into for four years is dead, that it died on 26 December 2017...and I don’t feel as if I’d be welcomed anymore if I were to come back.
As far as they’re concerned, without him...I am nothing.
Second...if you decide to stay at the Fredericksburg ranch house whilst I am away, please keep it tidy.
Finally...and most important of all...you keep on doing what you’re doing. You have a purpose for being in wrestling, and I am very, VERY proud of you for aligning yourself with a proven champion in Rob Diamond. He might be a bit eccentric at times, you might be as straight as an arrow, but seeing the two of you come together, when nobody thought you would, was a godsend that’s helped you find your reason for being in this sport. I will always treasure the stories we shared together and the songs we sang (even though you were horribly off-key!); you will always have a special place in my heart, for you have given me some great memories that will last forever and ever.
I do not know when I will be back--if I decide I want to come back, that is--so I want you to do me a favour, okay?! Don’t throw this life away like I’ve done...or like I’m doing now. Don’t ever forget who you are, who you want to be, and who brought you into the sport...and you’ll be just fine. In the interim, I will be playing the role of Kitana in a film called "Mortal Kombat," and...well, let's just see where it goes from there!
Warmest wishes and love from your friend,
-FIONA M. MCFLY
25 October 1994
+++
...his face began to turn into a very deep frown.
While it wasn’t the worst case scenario, a suicide note, he understood the message Fiona had been trying to convey. ‘This life,’ as he understood it, meant wrestling, the very business Jack Gaither had brought the two of them into at various points in time. He soon realized he had to do something, even if it meant breaking her wishes for her to be left in peace.
After all, James Gilmore was not about to let his best friend leave the one avenue she truly loved over anything else.
Not without opening up to him on what was holding her back.
“But how...?!,” he pondered.
The Islander alum knew that nobody else would believe this story...except for a pair of living souls that were just as eccentric as he was. With a great sense of dispatch, he grabbed his iPhone and dialed his tag-partner, Rob Diamond, on speed-dial. James gritted his teeth when he heard the standard voicemail greeting.
“Yo Papa Bear! It’s L’il Bear Jimmy,” he spoke after the tone. “I know you’re prolly in trainin’ and all that mess, but we need to talk about somethin’...personal. It’s about Fiona. Gimme a poke when ya hear this message, later gator!”
James put his phone in his right-front pants pocket and stood up. He marched towards his front door and grabbed the keys to the red-and-white 1982 Datsun pickup truck Fiona had given him as a birthday present. He had been teaching himself how to drive for the past few months, the vision in his left eye was such that he was able to barely pass the qualification to get a driver’s permit.
“Where are you going?,” Yulia, her hair still wrapped up in a white towel, protested. “You only have a driving learner’s permit; you cannot drive by yourself legally!”
“I gotta go see Doc Hostetler. She’s into this time-travel stuff, talks about not meddlin’ with the timeline. I’m gonna go tell her about what we saw when we watched Mortal Kombat,” James chuckled with a sly grin. “She’ll prolly figure out what’s goin’ on. Wanna ride along with me, I’ll be leavin’ in...five minutes.”
Yulia didn’t need five minutes. She jogged to the laundry room and tossed her towel into the hamper before jogging back. The pair went outside, locked the front door, and hopped into the old truck. As the ex-Islander placed his key into the ignition...
“I hope, for our sake, you know what you are getting into…”
...James could only nod his head as he started the engine, his mind focused on showing Fiona that her true family was alive and well, and that come hell or high water, they were going to get her back.
Even if it meant going to a place where angels or demons feared to tread.
“So do I, babe. So do I…”
“That’s the power of love
That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad
Next time you feel it it might make you mad
But you'll be glad baby when you've found
That's the power makes the world go'round
And it don't take money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden it can be cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life...”
To be continued in "My Heart Will Go On"…
JAMES’ PERSONAL LOG
Stardate: 96701.24 (February 6, 2019 - 1:30 PM)
”While I’m compilin’ my childhood memories into the log, in the meantime...I figured I’d share some things off-the-cuff.
First off, I hope Xavier Cross realizes what he’s doin’. After proudly defendin’ his title for months, he couldn’t resist the temptation to sell his soul to the Demon Lady herself. Thing is, from what they’ve done to Fiona, Yulia, and countless others, the Pack are NOT a real family. They are based upon hatred, deceit, lies, and causing outright pain to those who stand in their way.
A family that is built on those things I described...they are going to fall.
I’m itchin’ to help exacerbate the process, but I have to understand...that I can’t do it alone. The truth is, Bein’ Infamous isn’t just a fancy gimmick or a team name...nah, we’re a brotherhood, we’re a part of a much bigger--and more truer--family than the Pack can ever hope to break. We are the Imperial family, and if they wanna fight against US...they’re gonna have to be willin’ to get their butts kicked!
I know, I know...I sound like a leader! Me, James Gilmore, a leader!?!
If only things were that simple, but...they aren’t, nor will they ever be.
Workin’ with Rob Diamond these past few weeks has taught me one very important thing: you might think you’re in control of a given situation, but the most painful--yet realistic--truth is that ya can’t control everything around you. That’s just the way life works, ya?! Ya might think you’re on top of everything, then realize ya forgot somethin’ and have to go back down to get it.
That’s how ya handle losin’...at least, in my own mind.
Right now, I’m worried about my friend, about Fiona. When I saw the altered version of Mortal Kombat, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was really her playin’ Kitana, if that was really her in the picture with a young Spike Kane. I understand people might not believe me and all that, but...sooner or later, I’m gonna have to tell somebody about what I saw.
All I needed was a sign…”
As his fiancee was taking a nice, hot shower, James Gilmore sat down at his desk, placing his pen down as the Al Stewart song “Time Passages” began to play from his computer’s music mix. He loved that song, for it reminded him of the quick and often painful journey he has taken through the annals of time. His journal, written in the very same notebook his friend Fiona McFly had given him a year ago, contained his personal recollections of his childhood, all the way up through high school and into his first years of college.
Yet...what purpose did they serve?!
”It was late in December, the sky turned to snow
All round the day was going down slow
Night like a river beginning to flow
I felt the beat of my mind go
Drifting into time passages
Years go falling in the fading light
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight"
The Islander alum shook his head, reminding himself of a speech Steve Martin, playing Neal Page, had made to his co-star John Candy, as Del Griffith, in one of his favorite comedy flicks of all-time, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It was, as Gilmore tried to recall, about using selective memory to have a point to his stories, thus making them ideal for the listener. As straight-faced as he was on the surface, James still found himself to be an easy target.
He felt like being as cynical as some of the others who’ve trolled him in the past, one that could potentially hurt others’ feelings, but in his mind?! James Gilmore wasn’t changing a thing about his inner personality, a soul who saw things with the wonderment of a child.
After all, he was a real walking, talking article. He truly felt like Del Griffith at heart.
Whey everyone else saw was what they were going to get--a bitter irony considering the tune he was listening to.
”Well I'm not the kind to live in the past
The years run too short and the days too fast
The things you lean on are the things that don't last
Well it's just now and then my line gets cast into these
Time passages
There's something back here that you left behind
Oh time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight”
It only seemed like yesterday that Gilmore signed on the dotted line to work for Imperial Wrestling after touring the independent circuit. He gazed over to his photo of him and Fiona standing in front of the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia with a warm nod. They had trained together, traveled together, even sang songs together as friends and colleagues. Before meeting Yulia and Rob, the Northern Irishwoman was, perhaps, the only friend he ever had.
Now he was worried about her. She hadn’t texted him or talked to him in weeks.
Yet just as he was going to meditate on things...
"Hear the echoes and feel yourself starting to turn
Don't know why you should feel
That there's something to learn
It's just a game that you play...”
...the doorbell began to ring. James stood up, stretched his arms out, and slowly trudged to answer the front door. He soon discovered an older gentleman wearing a distinctive brown button-up shirt with khaki pants standing at attention, a familiar-looking brown box truck parked in his driveway.
“Are you JJ by any chance?,” the man asked, prompted James to raise an eyebrow. “Is your name James Gilmore?!”
“Ya found him sir!,” James responded with a nod. “What’s up?!”
“I’ve got somethin’ for you,” the guest reached into a large white tote bag and pulled out a manila envelope. “A letter.”
The ex-Islander looked down at the envelope’s contents--specifically at a handwritten label that featured his exact address on it.
“A letter for me?! Shoot...I don’t get much in the way of fan-written mail save for bills and junk,” he chuckled. “Who are you anyway?!”
“UPS,” the man answered back. “Funny thing is, some of my colleagues workin’ in the dispatch center were hopin’ you could shed some light on the subject. You see, we’ve had this envelope in our possession for the past...umm, twenty-five years!”
James’ gasped in shock, his brows perking up in amazement.
“It was given to us with the strictest of directions...that it’d be delivered to a man fitting your description--answering to the name of JJJ or James--on this exact date, at this very moment in time! I bet my wife you wouldn’t even be alive to receive this letter; now I owe her a triple-chocolate cake and a case of Diet Dr. Pepper!”
The UPS deliverer laughed out loud as James looked at its postmark, which dated back to sometime in 1994.
“Whoa there, hold on a sec…!?! Did you just say twenty-five years!?!”
“Yessir! Twenty-four years and almost four months to be a l’il more precise. I need your John Hancock on line three please!”
James watched as the UPS guy drove off, then proceeded to open the envelope. Inside, he found a small color photograph along with a letter, its contents beautifully written in longhand cursive. He took a deep breath, his eyes widening as he skimmed through the parchment at first until he spotted a familiar signature at the end.
A very familiar signature.
“No way...NO WAY!!! YULIA, SCOPE THIS OUT!!! IT’S FROM FIONA!!!”
“What...?!,” Yulia rushed into the picture, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt featuring the Royal Caribbean logo on its front. “Is it really your friend…!?!”
James could only nod his head in excitement.
“‘Dear James,’” he announced as he read the first part of Fiona’s letter aloud. “‘If you receive this letter, that means you are doing very well. First, I would like to assure you that I am doing just fine. I’ve been living these past ten months in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the year 1994. I’m sure that might be considered a shock to your system…’”
He paused, then scanned back down to her signature and the date below it.
“NINETEEN-NINETY-FOUR!?! OCTOBER 25TH, 1994!!!”
Laughing like a kid on a playground at recess, James bounced up and down as if the Dallas Cowboys had won the Super Bowl, flinging the letter in the air. His straight-edged and serious outer personality, even if for a brief moment, was thrown out the window. Using lessons he learned from his journal writing, not to mention those who mentored him as a child, he closed his eyes and let his imagination do the work.
The altered Mortal Kombat i which Fiona had played Princess Kitana under a stage name.
The photo featuring Spike Kane and the fresh-faced woman from his memorabilia case.
It all made sense to him: ‘Lara Croft’ was actually Fiona McFly.
Yulia, though, brought James back down to earth when she read through the note in greater detail after picking it up off the floor.
“JJ! Calm down, breathe slowly…did you read the whole letter?!”
“Nahhh…”
“You might want to read the whole thing, but I warn you, you might not like what she has written.”
James didn’t like the tone of Yulia’s voice at all, a dire sense of urgency that trembled from her lips taking out whatever fun he was havingat that instant. She prodded him back to his desk, where he sat down and began to read the full letter silently to himself.
Surely, his mind began to ponder. Surely Fi was gonna write a happy note, detailing what she had seen in her journey.
However, everything that came into James’ brain was wrong, and as he read the document...
+++
Dear James,
If you receive this letter, that means you are doing very well.
First, I would like to assure you that I am doing just fine. I’ve been living these past ten months in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the year 1994.I’m sure that might be considered a shock to your system, especially considering how deeply worried you’ve been over my absence from wrestling.
I hope this will ease your fears a little bit.
I find that the Fredericksburg of this time is much smaller compared to the town I have seen in the present, plus it is also more...how shall I put it? I find things to be more wide open, more intimate, and more comfortable. Everything feels so wide open, I LOVE strolling out into the countryside to catch the fresh air. It does get hot during the summer, but hey--that is Texas weather for you!
I have trouble sleeping at night, and I don’t know why. I feel like I’m grabbing onto the side of a rockwall that isn’t there, and I can only brace myself for the eventual fall off the mountain. I want you to understand how much wrestling has meant to me, both personally and professionally, but I find myself not being able to fully express my love of the game in ‘the right way,’ often leading me to hurt those who don’t deserve to be hurt.
That is why I came back to this particular point in time, to learn that all over again.
But honestly?! I don’t even know what I’m learning to begin with.
As cover, I’ve set myself up as an independent actress and singer. Hopefully, I can figure out my purpose in wrestling before coming back to the present, but even in the past, there are those who wish to do people harm. That being said, if anything should ever happen to me, I will bestow upon you a very special gift--my ranch in Fredericksburg. I would advise that you check out the property for yourself.
It is quite the sight to see!
Before leaving on my journey, I have hired a company to begin the task of extensively renovating and expanding the ranch house, adding a brand-new living room and two more bedrooms, plus a second bathroom. As for the house on Wolf Creek Drive? I will be moving everything from there to the ranch house, after the renovation is completed, before selling the former. Hopefully I can make it back home in time to see this process through to its conclusion, but I can’t make any guarantees.
Whilst you are in Fredericksburg, if you are able to make it there, look for a gentleman named Sam Dawkins. He is moving into a farmhouse down the road along with his daughter Sarah; they will fill you up to speed on the progress of the renovation. I must, however, ask that you respect these three wishes:
First, if you happen to see a certain specialised aeroplane parked on the ranch, then destroy it. Do not--I repeat, DO NOT--attempt to come back to 1994 to save my life. Whilst I feel content with where I’m at right now--at least, for the foreseeable future--I figured, what the fuck is the point of saving each other when nobody saved me from, say, Rowan doing what she did to me?
It surely didn’t matter to her. It didn’t matter to everyone else. It sure is shit don’t matter to me anymore.
Why should life outside the ring be any different?! I couldn’t save Jack from dying. I never heard so much as a good-bye; he just fucking keeled over and left me alone to rot. As far as I’m concerned, I want to believe that the family I have poured my heart and soul into for four years is dead, that it died on 26 December 2017...and I don’t feel as if I’d be welcomed anymore if I were to come back.
As far as they’re concerned, without him...I am nothing.
Second...if you decide to stay at the Fredericksburg ranch house whilst I am away, please keep it tidy.
Finally...and most important of all...you keep on doing what you’re doing. You have a purpose for being in wrestling, and I am very, VERY proud of you for aligning yourself with a proven champion in Rob Diamond. He might be a bit eccentric at times, you might be as straight as an arrow, but seeing the two of you come together, when nobody thought you would, was a godsend that’s helped you find your reason for being in this sport. I will always treasure the stories we shared together and the songs we sang (even though you were horribly off-key!); you will always have a special place in my heart, for you have given me some great memories that will last forever and ever.
I do not know when I will be back--if I decide I want to come back, that is--so I want you to do me a favour, okay?! Don’t throw this life away like I’ve done...or like I’m doing now. Don’t ever forget who you are, who you want to be, and who brought you into the sport...and you’ll be just fine. In the interim, I will be playing the role of Kitana in a film called "Mortal Kombat," and...well, let's just see where it goes from there!
Warmest wishes and love from your friend,
-FIONA M. MCFLY
25 October 1994
+++
...his face began to turn into a very deep frown.
While it wasn’t the worst case scenario, a suicide note, he understood the message Fiona had been trying to convey. ‘This life,’ as he understood it, meant wrestling, the very business Jack Gaither had brought the two of them into at various points in time. He soon realized he had to do something, even if it meant breaking her wishes for her to be left in peace.
After all, James Gilmore was not about to let his best friend leave the one avenue she truly loved over anything else.
Not without opening up to him on what was holding her back.
“But how...?!,” he pondered.
The Islander alum knew that nobody else would believe this story...except for a pair of living souls that were just as eccentric as he was. With a great sense of dispatch, he grabbed his iPhone and dialed his tag-partner, Rob Diamond, on speed-dial. James gritted his teeth when he heard the standard voicemail greeting.
“Yo Papa Bear! It’s L’il Bear Jimmy,” he spoke after the tone. “I know you’re prolly in trainin’ and all that mess, but we need to talk about somethin’...personal. It’s about Fiona. Gimme a poke when ya hear this message, later gator!”
James put his phone in his right-front pants pocket and stood up. He marched towards his front door and grabbed the keys to the red-and-white 1982 Datsun pickup truck Fiona had given him as a birthday present. He had been teaching himself how to drive for the past few months, the vision in his left eye was such that he was able to barely pass the qualification to get a driver’s permit.
“Where are you going?,” Yulia, her hair still wrapped up in a white towel, protested. “You only have a driving learner’s permit; you cannot drive by yourself legally!”
“I gotta go see Doc Hostetler. She’s into this time-travel stuff, talks about not meddlin’ with the timeline. I’m gonna go tell her about what we saw when we watched Mortal Kombat,” James chuckled with a sly grin. “She’ll prolly figure out what’s goin’ on. Wanna ride along with me, I’ll be leavin’ in...five minutes.”
Yulia didn’t need five minutes. She jogged to the laundry room and tossed her towel into the hamper before jogging back. The pair went outside, locked the front door, and hopped into the old truck. As the ex-Islander placed his key into the ignition...
“I hope, for our sake, you know what you are getting into…”
...James could only nod his head as he started the engine, his mind focused on showing Fiona that her true family was alive and well, and that come hell or high water, they were going to get her back.
Even if it meant going to a place where angels or demons feared to tread.
“So do I, babe. So do I…”
“That’s the power of love
That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad
Next time you feel it it might make you mad
But you'll be glad baby when you've found
That's the power makes the world go'round
And it don't take money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden it can be cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life...”
To be continued in "My Heart Will Go On"…
Well howdy there pardner.