Ghosts of Winter Future

** Sensitive language, and harm to children.

‘Winterfest’ was always a special holiday for the people of Augusta Cove, Long Island. A small bay town, where everyone knows everyone, all their happy memories along with all of their dark secrets. The yearly festival was a great place to set aside your grievances, and enjoy the magical winter holiday together, as a community. 

December 19th, 1999, may be one of the town's most memorable holiday festivals, and not for a good reason. It was the day Rory Falco was murdered.

The town spent the last few weeks getting ready for the festival. For some it was a distraction from the everyday grind. For others it was an annual tradition, one that always happened, and always will happen. Main Street was alive with people and families of all ages. 

At the edge of Main Street is a big park. Inside the park sits a giant white tent, illuminated by lights of red and green; blue and white; saffron and red. Colors welcoming to all. 

There’s a children’s choir standing outside the tent, conducted by Ms. Davis. They are singing as guests from all across the town shuffle their way into the tent. Noel Winter stands in line waiting to enter. She looks across at the choir and hears;

“Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright … “

She’s lost in a trance listening as a grumpy old man cuts to the front of the line, bumping Noel from her tranquility, “Excuse me, sir!” she yells.

“Excuse nothing, squirt,” The old man quips.

Noel ignores the intrusion and is drawn back to the music.

“Round yon virgin Mother and Child. Holy infant, so tender and mild…”

She looks back at the children singing the beautiful melody. Some are off key, like young Bobby Hinkins, but others are in perfect harmony. Noel smiles as she looks over at the twins Holly and Rory Falco. She sees them go into perfect harmony, gifting the town with the lyrical hook.

“Sleep in heavenly peace…. Sleep in heavenly peace…”

The line moves forward bringing Noel to the front of the ‘security’ checkpoint. It’s an old lady sitting behind a white folding table. 

“Excuse me ma’am,” The lady behind the table says.  Noel remains silent. “Excuse me, MA’AM!” she yelps out, a little louder.

“Oh, sorry. I was caught up in the song. Hi, How are you?” Noel asks.

“Good. Thank you for asking, young lady.”

“Oh, you flatter me. I’m not young anymore,” Noel nervously says.

“Neither am I,” the lady behind the table responds. She searches Noel up and down. “Do I know you? You look familiar.” 

“I don’t think you do ma’am.”

“Please, call me Beverly.”

“Well Beverly, if we've met it was a long, long time ago.” Noel looks at Beverly. “I used to live here, but my family moved out when I was just about nine or ten.” She looks around and points to the choir. “Probably not much older than those angels right there.”

Beverly smiles. “They sure are precious, aren’t they?” They both nod. “So why did you leave?”

“Family stuff. Dad was a drunk. Mom left us. You know, typical family dynamics.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs?”

“Noel.  Nice to meet you Beverly.”

“Nice to meet you too. What brings you back to the Cove?”

“Revenge.”

Beverly is a little startled and just looks at Noel. Noel smiles. “I’m just kidding.” They both laugh. Beverly a little too much. “I was just passing through. I have a big meeting in New York City tomorrow and I always had such great memories of the festival so I wanted to see it again.”

“Well, once a part of the Cove, always a part of the Cove.” They both smile. “Don’t let me keep you any longer. Go in and enjoy the festivities.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Parker.”

Beverly looks at her startled. Noel points to the nametag on Beverly’s shirt. They smile at each other as Noel enters the party tent.

Noel stands in the back of the tent, silently observing. She’s been here for about thirty minutes watching people. Studying every person who enters or leaves the party. She’s trying to be left alone and is purposely avoiding interacting with anyone. She’s holding some eggnog, not drinking it but using it as a prop to blend in, when someone taps on her shoulder.

“Excuse me, Noel?”

Noel turns around and sees Walter Parker, the school's English teacher, standing next to her.

“So, I take it you spoke to your mom?” Noel asks.

“Uhh, yeah. I’m Walter.”

“Hi Walter.”

“As you also know, news travels fast in this town. You used to live here?”

“I did, a long time ago.” Noel tries to move the conversation along.

“So I figured I’d come talk to the mysterious former Cover.”

“Sorry, I’m only here for tonight. Then I have somewhere entirely else to be.”

“I get it. But you’re here now. Can I have this dance? 

Noel looks around the party and see’s the choir entering the tent.

“No thank you Walter.”

“Let me buy you a drink?”

“The drinks are free.”

The students walk past them. Holly and Rory stop for a second. Noel looks at them both, as Holly starts to talk. “Mr. Parker, did you hear us?”

“I sure did, and you were brilliant.” He rubs her head, he looks over at Rory. “And so were you champ!”

The two giggle and skip away in childish glee. Noel watches them disappear into the party. Noel, who knew she would need an out from this conversation was slowly pouring her drink onto the floor. She holds up her empty glass and smiles at Walter.

“How about that drink?”

Walter eagerly grabs her empty cup and runs off.

“I’ll be right back!”

Noel, with intentions to avoid him the rest of the night slips into the party to remain incognito.

Another ten minutes have passed, and Noel has now stationed herself on the other side of the tent looking out at the crowd. The adults are mostly drunk, dancing and mingling. The children are running around with innocent joy. She looks up and see’s Walter searching the crowd holding an extra eggnog. Before Walter can look at her she dips down and hides behind a balloon arch. She bumps into someone.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

Her words are cut short as Holly looks up at her. 

“Do I know you?” Holly asks.

“I don’t think so squirt,” Noel responds.

“My dad calls me that!”

“So did mine.” Noel smiles.

Holly smiles, as she looks out into the party. “Sorry I gotta go, my hiding spot’s been compromised.” She points out to Rory in the crowd creeping forward. Before she goes, she whispers, “I like your hair, I wish I was brave enough to dye it red and purple.”  Holly jolts off, running away.

“Maybe one day you will be,” Noel says to no one, as she scans out at the crowd and watches Rory chasing after Holly. Noel crouches and follows them through the maze of people. She’s weaving and observing, avoiding contact, but never losing sight of Rory or Holly for what seems like an eternity. Finally she bumps into someone’s lower back. Ms. Davis abruptly stops her conversation, turns around, and looks at Noel creeping along the floor.

“Sorry about that, ma’am,” Noel says as she stands upright.

“Do I know you?” She looks Noel up and down. “You look familiar.”

“No, you don’t know me.”

“I never forget a face, and yours is familiar.”

“I’m sorry if you think I’m someone else. And I’m sorry for bumping into you,” Noel says as she scans the crowd. She sees Rory and Holly playing around on the dance floor. Ms. Davis shakes her head and returns to her original conversation. Noel, trying to blend in, starts to sway on the edge of the dance floor and begins singing along to the song.

“When I first saw you, I already knew, there was something inside of you…”

Ms. Davis hears the voice and her ears perk up. She looks at Noel singing. She knows the face is familiar, but that voice is so recognizable.

“Something I thought I would never find. Angel of mine.”

While Ms. Davis is processing Noel’s voice, Noel is searching the party. She sees Holly dancing alone in the middle of the dance floor. She panics, searching for Rory, and finally spots him exiting the tent. She proceeds to chase after him. As she is running away something clicks in Ms. Davis’ mind.

“It can’t be?” Ms. Davis says to herself, as she watches Noel run out of the tent, then looks over at Holly on the dance floor.

Noel jets out of the tent looking into utter darkness. She hears some noises in the distance and follows them. She reaches into her jacket and grabs her pistol.

The far edge of the park leads into a small forest. Noel stops at the edge of it listening. She hears some branches break. She holds her gun in front of her as she creeps towards the noise. Eventually she comes across an old man hunched over Rory, pointing a pistol at him. Rory is cowering on the dirt floor. 

Noel raises her gun and points it at the man’s back. “Let him go.”

The old man slowly turns towards Noel, shifting his gun from Rory to her. It’s the same person who bumped into her earlier in the night. They stare at each other for a few seconds. “I’m afraid I can’t do that squirt.”

“Dad?” Noel whispers.

“Drop your gun, and let me explain.” 

Noel doesn’t move. Rory looks on, but is too afraid and too confused to move. He lays there paralyzed.

“It was you?” Noel asks. Her world is shattered.

“I didn’t have any other options.” 

“What are you talking about?”

“Let me explain.”

Noel cocks the hammer of the gun back. 

“Holly… please?”

“I’m not Holly anymore. She’s back there at the party.” Noel waves the gun off into the distance. “I’m Noel now.”

“Since when?”

“Since Rory disappeared, and my whole world was shattered. You became a drunk. And mom ran away in the middle of the night.”

“Squirt… I’m sorry,” Dad humbly pleads.

“You were always blaming mom for Rory’s disappearance.” Noel’s eyes start to tear up.  “Ironic, isn’t it?” Noel waves the pistol frantically at her Dad.

“Let’s talk about this.”

“Now you want to talk? You neglected me, obsessing over your life’s passion of finding a way to go back in time. Then that consumed you, and eventually killed you on one of your test runs!” Noel shouts.

“Well, I see you picked up where I left off and figured out the solution.”

“Not till forty years later. After spending several years of neglect in foster care. Then I spent my twenties and thirties on the streets begging for money anyway I could. My forties were spent strung up on any drug or liquor that would numb the pain.” Noel is frantic at this point. “Finally, on my fiftieth birthday, I overdosed. I was laying in a hospital detox bed, thinking back to when life was happy. So I found your old journals, and picked up where you left off, determined to come back here, and change the one event that turned our lives to shit”

“I knew you were always smart.”

“Stop pretending like you care!” 

Dad starts to laugh. “Pretend like I care?” He starts to get angry. “The only reason I’m here is because I care!” 

“That’s original, coming from a man who’s about to murder his son, and has a gun pointed at his daughter.”

“Let me ask you the age-old question. If you could go back in time and kill Hitler when he was a child, would you do it?” 

“If I wasn’t using my only jump to come here? Yes.”

“Ahh. You can only jump into the past once? And back to your present once as well?”

“Yes. But that’s not the point. This is 1999 Long Island, not 1889 Austria-Hungary.”

“The point is… Rory grows up to be worse than Hitler.”

“Liar!” Noel steadies her wavering hand and focuses her gun at her Dad. “Let him go.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Dad says as he cocks the hammer of his gun. “Do you know how hard it is for a father to spend years developing one plan? One which requires him to go back in time and kill his only son?”

“Why not go back in time and never have him in the first place?”

“I thought of that, but then you wouldn’t be born either.”

“Don’t pretend like you’re doing this for me.”

“This is all for you, so you can live, and live in a free world.”

“Why today, and not when he was a baby?”

“I told you, it was hard. I’ve been back in the nineties for eight years now. Always mustering up the courage to kill him. But unfortunately, I’m a coward.”

“Until now. What changed?”

Dad pauses for a second before responding. “I guess I was stalling, hoping for a better solution. But in six days on Christmas he will kill you.”

“Bullshit!”

“At first we thought it was an accident, and felt bad for him in our sorrow. But then we learned he did it on purpose.”

“Your web of lies are intoxicating. Let him go.”

“I can’t squirt.”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”

“I know you don’t believe me, and I know it seems like your life sucked in this timeline.” He stops pointing the gun at Noel and now focuses it on Rory.  “But at least you have a life.” Dad is trying to plead his case. “And the world is still at peace.” Rory looks at the barrel of the pistol and squirms.

A shot rings out.

Dad falls to the floor with a bullet hole in his shoulder. Noel starts to inch closer to Rory, but keeps her gun pointed at her dad. Dad slowly rises to his knees gripping his wound. “Please, you have to hear me out. As an adult, Rory is a bad person. He becomes a leader convincing millions to follow him to no end. He’s a tyrant. Everything Hitler did, he did bigger. If you spoke against him you were executed.” 

“This is insane. You’re obviously still a drunk,” Noel interjects.

Dad starts to regain his composure, and is readjusting the grip of his gun. “He’s started a nuclear war with Russia, Japan, England, Italy and Germany. Our own air is polluted with nuclear toxins…”

Another shot fires from Noel’s gun. This one hits Dad in the chest. He falls to the floor. Noel is now next to Rory. He delusionally looks up at her.

“It’s okay. It’s over now.”

Rory just stares blankly into her familiar eyes. Dad starts to rise up again. “Please, you have to believe me,” he begs.

Noel starts to swing her gun towards her Dad for a third time. As she is in motion, Dad fires a shot and hits Noel in the head. She slumps to the ground. Dad weakly gets up and walks over to a shaking Rory. He points the gun at Rory’s head, looks away and pulls the trigger. He slouches down and hugs both of them.

“I’m sorry,” he begins to sob. He pulls out a small tablet from his backpack. He puts a watch on his wrist, Rory’s, and Holly’s. He pushes a button on the tablet and the world around him changes.

It’s now December 19th, 2053. Robert Falco is in the forest of Augusta Cove Long Island on a beautiful peaceful winter night. Blood is pouring down his shirt. Next to him are his two dead children. Robert stumbles to the edge of the forest. He looks out into the night sky. It’s normal, no toxic fog hanging in the air, no smell of burning debris.  He can hear a children's choir singing at the festival far away. It’s beautiful and haunting. 

Robert digs two graves deep in the forest. It's a slow effort because of his wounds and his sorrow. He lays Holly and Rory into the graves. He starts to fill the holes with dirt. As he does the choir echoes through the trees.

“Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright … “

In the dirt, above each covered hole, he etches their names. He sits upon the makeshift grave.

“Round yon virgin Mother and Child. Holy infant, so tender and mild…”

He thinks back about how in 1999 no one will ever find the body of Rory Falco, leaving it a cold case forever. He thinks of the terrible life he knows Holly will live. The children’s singing cutting through the forest gives him some clarity. Knowing that the world is at peace helps him come to terms with the idea that he and his family made the ultimate sacrifice for eight billion people.  Robert lays down next to his children and falls asleep for one last time.

“Sleep in heavenly peace…. Sleep in heavenly peace…”