Twin Flames, Two Souls Journey Through Time – The Professor - Chapter 4

                  Amelia’s cell phone buzzed during the midterm, she would normally ignore it, but her parents were in their eighties, so she always answered their call.  She stepped out into the hallway, It was Lucy, their dad was really sick and refusing to go to the hospital.  Thankfully she was done with her test, so she packed up her stuff and left for her parents’ house.

                  On the way she called her brother Ken to let him know that their father was sick.  As she, Lucy and John were the only ones who really took care of their parents, whenever one of them got sick, Amelia would call and let Ken and Edgar know and they would tell the rest of the family.  In truth Ken is prick and Amelia couldn’t stand him, but he is their child.  The ironic thing is she is the closest to his kids, probably because she and their parents helped to raise them. 

                  By the time Amelia made it to her parents’ home, Lucy, Sally and John were there.  John had her adorable baby nephew Devon with him.  Their dad was delirious with an infection.  They were waiting on Edgar so that he and John could get him down to Amelia’s car and she was going to take him to the emergency room.  Their dad refused to go, and an ambulance wouldn’t take him if he refused.  Their father was a stubborn and misogynistic man, his sons’ opinions were the only ones that mattered.  Once Edgar got to the house, he was able to talk their dad into calling an ambulance. 

                  Amelia had long since stopped attending church, and to the minds of her brothers that meant she must be the biggest whore, drunkard, drug addict alive, when the truth simply was she could no longer be part of any religion, let alone one that protects child molesters, and tells wives who husbands are beating them to stop antagonizing him, and to be more “submissive.”  Amelia knew that it would be a cold day in hell before she ever let a man lay a hand on her, if he did, he would find himself missing some vital body parts, parts he would most definitely miss.  Not being allowed to question anything as a child turned Amelia into someone who questioned almost everything as an adult.  Amelia was a strong an opiniated woman, and she wasn’t going to allow a group of men tell her how to live her life.  This did, however, cause a rift with her brothers, who with the exception of John, were all part of the church, and held positions of power.  The difference being that Ken was a narcissistic asshole, and while he may believe the drivel that he preaches, he is most definitively there for the prestige his position gives him.  And Ken was going to use this moment not only against Amelia, but Lucy and John as well. 

                  While Amelia, Lucy and John were trying to get their father settled and taken care of, Ken and Edgar were telling the other siblings that Amelia was trying to kill their father, so that she could steal their house from them.  Amelia didn’t know this at the time, but the rest of the family was treating her as if she was a lepper and being rude and passive aggressive towards her.  The situation was wrought with emotion, anger, and a whole lot of animosity from both sides.

                  The only thing that kept Amelia sane during this time was school, and of course Daniel.  He made her laugh every single day in class, his charm, his silly personality, his lame dad jokes, which were funny probably only to her, were what got her through that difficult time. For that one to two hours a day she could pretend that her life was normal, that her world wasn’t crashing down around her.  Despite what her vile brother thought of her, Amelia loved her parents, she stayed in the area, unlike her siblings, to take care of her parents.  She never wanted to be more than a ten minute drive away from them, which meant paying the exorbitant rent of the San Francisco Peninsula.  She was happy to do it, because she loved her parents, and she felt an obligation to take care of them, as they had taken care of her.  Her brothers were turning her father against her, he was believing their disgusting lies about her.  She and Lucy would go to visit him every day after work, and he wouldn’t even acknowledge their existence.  If her siblings and their spouses were there, they also ignored both Lucy and Amelia.  It was more than she could really take, and she was just glad that for a couple hours a week she had Daniel to make her smile.

                  Daniel was sitting behind his desk while the class was working on their worksheet.  He noticed Amelia leave the class to take a call.  He noticed how she hadn’t really been herself in recent weeks.  She wasn’t her usual happy self.  She hadn’t even been a smartass lately, and he had given her several opportunities to rise to his bait.  He wanted to say something to her, but she was getting her work done, paying attention in class, she was up to date, and per her usual MO, everything was early and 100%.  Even when she got one answer wrong on the midterm, and she had asked him what the correct answer was, and he replied, “not what you put,” with his wicked grin, she just had a look of surprise and smiled halfheartedly.  He wanted her to say something, anything, he wanted to see the flash of fire she would get in those piercing green eyes of hers, but it fell flat.  When she came back into the class Daniel looked at her and asked if everything is ok, and she said in a very exasperated tone, “Be glad you’re an only child Daniel,” and took her seat.  Something was off indeed with Ms. Jenkins.  Whenever he would normally ask her a question, she was always ready and willing to engage in a spirited discussion.  Amelia was passionate about everything.  She was a woman who had a definitive opinion about everything, and she wasn’t shy about telling you, a quality Daniel found extremely sexy.  He remembered the time she came in from taking a call and she had this shocked look on her face, and he asked her if she was ok, and she told him that her ex had told her that he still loved her.  Daniel loved that she was so open and honest, he knew that she would always keep him on his toes.  Daniel, replied “oh baby come back huh,” quoting the Player song, a reference he knew she would know, and her eyes turned immediately dark and said, “NO, baby is NOT coming back!”  At the time, Daniel breathed a sigh of relief at that statement, he had hoped that it wasn’t visible to anyone else.  But hearing that made his heart happy, he didn’t even know that a heart could be happy, but his was.  Now, she’s clearly upset, and there is nothing he can do to help her.  There is obviously something going on with her family, but if she doesn’t want to share, then it’s not his place to interfere. 

                  When he went home that evening, he had thought about writing her an email to let her know that she was up to date and if she needed to take some time off for personal reasons she could, but she was an adult, and maybe it was coming into class that was keeping her sane.  She was trying her best, and that’s all any of us could do. 

                  As time went on, her father got better, but his attitude towards Amelia did not.  She would go by to visit her parents on the weekends, and neither he nor her mother really wanted to talk to her.  If she showed up on Sunday, they would leave for church over an hour before it started, when they lived a five minute drive away.  He wouldn’t look at her, he wouldn’t hug her, if she told him she loved him, he wouldn’t respond.  It was a pain that Amelia had a difficult time dealing with.  She had almost lost her father, and miraculously he survived, but her evil brother Ken and his vile wife Angelina, both of whom are the most narcissistic human beings to ever walk the face of the earth, had managed to convince her parents and her other siblings that she was trying to kill their father.  That right there was the main thing she hated about that damn religion.  They take the word of a lying asshole without ever even speaking to her, simply because he pisses standing up.  Amelia would never ever understand why the fact that she had indoor plumbing versus outdoor plumbing, (which if we are honest seems like a design flaw), meant that what she thought or had to say had no value.  She was a passionate person, if she felt strongly about something she fought for it, that meant raised voices and animated gestures.  She was so tired of her siblings treating her as if she was ten, she was forty fucking three years old, she was not a child.  She was a good person, she helped homeless animals, fostered kittens, always took care of her parents, took her mother out at least twice a month for lunch, what crime had she committed?  Amelia realized that while she loved her family, they did not love her.  Hell, they didn’t even know who she was.  They took the fact that she stopped going to church and used that as a weapon to punish her.  They had long since stopped responding to any emails or texts about getting together to play games or maybe take a camping trip as a family.  It was clear that she was not part of the family.  It’s a hard pill to swallow to find out that people that she would have gladly given her life for, wouldn’t even piss on her if she was on fire, one of her father’s rather crass but funny expressions.  Though her favorite will always be, “as nervous as a bastard at a family reunion.”  The expression is outdated, but still funny, at least to Amelia. 

                  What her brothers clearly didn’t know about Amelia was that if it was a matter of principle, well then, she was going to fight tooth and nail for what she knew was right.  She would scream at God himself to make her point.  They may not consider her family, but her birth certificate listed John and Irma Jenkins as her parents, just as much as theirs did.  Her four older brothers were used to being Elders in their church, and everyone automatically respecting them, and deferring to their opinions as men.  Well, their baby sister was not someone to be trifled with, she was a Scorpio, and she was very adept at using her stinger. 

                  It was decided that a family meeting would be held, her brother Kyle even flew in to see their father from Virginia.  The meeting was a disaster.  Sally, Lucy and Amelia had gone out for a drink before the meeting, to calm their nerves.  The truly funny thing was Sally and Lucy thought that Amelia would be the one that was going to get hostile and animated, and it turned out that it was them along with John that lost their shit at the other four.  It became a shouting match over the past twenty years of hurt and resentment that they all felt towards each other.  John had even told Amelia that Edgar had called him the night before to try and get him to switch to their side, saying that Amelia was trying to steal from them and take the house for herself.  John knew it was bullshit and told him so.  Even though John and Amelia had their differences, mainly he leans far right, and she leans very much left politically speaking, John knew that Amelia was not that type of person.  Ken despised John, none of them could figure out why he hated him so much, but Ken as previously stated, is just a fucking asshole.  Amelia had helped to raise his three kids, she even bought most of their clothes for them, something Ken has never ever, not once said thank you for.  Amelia loves his kids as if they were her own, especially her oldest niece Christine, whom Ken completely forsook when he married his ogre of a wife Angelina.  Angelina was horrendous to his children, and Amelia saw right through her phony bullshit act, try as she might, Amelia would NEVER consider Angelina family.  She was evil personified, the definition of evil stepmother, she could cure cancer, and Amelia would still not like her.  The fact that the rest of her family now finally realizes this brings so much joy and happiness to Amelia’s heart, but that is a story for another time. 

                  The family discussion, which their mother chose not to attend, ended with Lucy, Amelia and John being told that their parents would be moving, and that Kenneth and Benjamin would be taking care of them. Ben was a great brother, he had just moved back from Kentucky to California, and she knew that he would keep to his word.  Amelia also knew Ken, and she knew he was so full of shit that his eyes should be brown, (she found it annoying that Ken was the one who wound up with the prettiest blue eyes, brown really would have been a more fitting shade), she knew that he was ALL talk, that’s all he did was talk.  He’s the guy who buys a $500 chainsaw and then pays for wood already cut.  Ken just wants to walk around with a toolbelt telling other people what to do.  He lived ten minutes from their parents too, and yet he never helped them at all.  Amelia and Lucy knew that their parents’ care would fall to the wayside.  Their parents were used to the fact that Amelia and John would drop everything to help them.  It didn’t matter what time of day or night, or what it was, they said “jump,” and their two youngest would say “how high.”  Amelia and Lucy tried to warn their siblings that it wasn’t going to be easy, and poor naïve Benjamin thought that he could believe Kenneth’s bullshit lies, but Ben learned soon enough to never trust a single word that comes from either Ken’s or his troll of a wife’s mouth, because all they know how to do is lie. 

                  Amelia was grieving the loss of her childhood home, while she had moved out of their house twenty years prior to this, she always considered that her home base.  Her brothers would never understand, they had all gotten married, and had kids, the homes they lived in with their families were their home.  It was different for Amelia, she never had kids, she didn’t get married, she may not have lived in it anymore, but that was her home.  She had so many fond memories growing up there, and her brothers, especially Ken, were ruining those memories.  They were forcing her to accept that fact that she loved them, far more than they loved her, hell she didn’t even think they liked her, let alone loved her.  She was coming to terms with the fact that they shared some DNA and a last name, but they were not family.  Amelia had decided that if her parents were moving then that would be on them.  She didn’t get to have a say in the move, she wasn’t going to help pack.  And she didn’t, not a single box, not a single tchotchke, which her packrat of a mother had in spades, she was not going to do anything to help them leave.  John made sure to tell both Amelia and Lucy all the kind things that were said behind their backs.  At one point Amelia had a biopsy scheduled because of a lump they found during a mammogram, and she wasn’t allowed to lift anything heavy prior.  When the four of them were complaining, John told them that Amelia had to have a biopsy done, and not even one of them ever called to check if she was ok, not even her parents called to check on her.   Amelia and Lucy had had a small fire break out in their bathroom, thankfully Amelia was able to put it out, but it was a very scary couple of minutes, and after the fire department had come and made sure everything was ok, she called her parents, and they couldn’t have cared less.  Not a single, “are you ok,” or “how are your cats,” nothing!  That night was probably the loneliest Amelia had ever felt in her life, up to that point.  She had Lucy, which she is thankful every day for, but lying in her bed that night, the adrenaline long since having worn off, she cried herself to sleep.  Amelia rarely cried in front of anyone, not even her sister.  She was used to being alone, having to always be strong, but sometimes you just want someone to hold you and tell you that everything is going to be ok.  And no matter how old you get, you want your mom and dad to tell you that everything was going to be ok, and they couldn’t even do that for her. 

This was a very dark time for Amelia in her life, and she was just thankful that she had school and Daniel to keep her mind occupied.  She appreciated how concerned Daniel seemed to be; she could sense his worry in his soulful brown eyes.  She would have sworn that at times he wanted to give her a hug, but that would hardly be appropriate.  Daniel was always professional, at all times.  She could imagine that as a professor, especially one fairly young, that he had to always be well above board.  She also knew that because of that, she was the one that was going to have to work up the courage to ask him out, he would never.  He really couldn’t, if she said no and then went to the head of his department, he could get in trouble.  She knew it had to be her that said something.  While Amelia wasn’t shy per say, she had never asked out a guy like this before.  She had used dating apps, but that was not the same as this.  The guys on the app were strangers who didn’t know her, if they said no, she would never see them again, no harm no foul.  Daniel was different, she would be attending that school for a couple more years at least while she got her core classes over with, and as a science major she would inevitably run into him again considering all the math classes were in the same building as his office.  Asking him out was going to take courage that she didn’t possess, courage that would take months to muster.  She spent countless hours talking with Leah, Lucy and herself, going over how she would do it, what she would say.  She went over every single response she thought he could give, her need to be prepared for every inevitably is said to be a trauma response to something from her past, she had no idea what it was, but Amelia had full on conversations in her head before any conversation of importance with anyone, and this was going to be one of the most important conversation of her life, to date.