[ WP ] A time traveler meets the same person twice , but in two different and distant time periods .

“ Then it was all dark, and his white crib and the dim faces that moved above him, and the warm sweet aroma of the milk, faded out altogether from his mind. ” Cody set down the book and let out a sigh. His eyes sparkled as he watched his son snuggle up to his blanket. Cody tucked a blanket around the slumbering boy. When he was sure that his child was comfortable, he left the room in silence carefully closing the door behind him. 
 
 He walked down the hall and past the living room, deciding that it was time for a walk. “ Where are you going, honey? ” his wife called out from the living room. He took his coat of the rack and looked at his wife. “ I just realized… it ’ s been another year. ” He didn ’ t need to explain what he meant. His wife knew perfectly what he had meant simply by the way he looked at her. And he was more than grateful to have married such a woman. “ Kyle asleep? ” was all she inquired before she allowed him to leave. 
 
 Cody only gave himself one day a year to remember the past. He only stopped being a dad or a husband for one hour in his life and become the Cody that had to break his own heart willingly to do what was right. He took time to remember that once he was a teenage boy who fell in love with a girl who turned out to be someone running away from her past. Funny enough, she was from the future. She ran away from her present to a past where she had believed she could change things. And change things, she did. 
 
 The blonde slipped on his coat and slipped out of the house. Years later and still he could not forget. How would any man ever forget the girl you waited for for too many long years? She had disappeared then, just leaving him a note, and he read it everyday and wrote to her everyday. But he never sent it to her because he never knew when, where, and if he'll ever see her again. He could still remember how he ’ d sleep every night and try not to be disappointed that she did not come. He could still remember how he reminded himself that there was still tomorrow morning to wake up to, that she might just come when tomorrow came. 
 
 He slipped his hands into the pockets of his trench coat as he tread forward into the night. Fresh grass of early spring crackled silently under his foot. Don ’ t get me wrong, Cody Alessi loved his wife. But there was a love he could not quite forget. 
 
 The suburbs of New York was a home to the Alessi family, but for just an hour, Cody was going to forget that. He turned on the ignition of his car and drove to that one spot he returned to yearly. His heart raced as he held on to his steering wheel, his eyes focused on the road, his thoughts flying. 
 
 Before he even knew it, it was there. The place where the carnival once stood. He once worked there as a pyromancer. He remembered, it was here he met a certain japanese girl who he'd never have thought would change his life. He turned off his car and stepped outside. He ducked under the ‘ closed ’ sign and went inside. He could remember the colors of the carnival so clearly as if it were still alive. He breathed in the dusty air and frowned slightly. He wished he could remember the smell of cotton candy and popcorn. There wasn ’ t anymore screams of joy ( or what might have been terror ), no more boisterous laughter, no more popping popcorns, no more whirring machines, just the silent creaking of metal. 
 
 He stood in silence, allowing himself to remember the happy ( and the not so happy ) memories he had had in this place. A small smile tugged on his lips as he stood silently, his hands in his pockets again. For one more hour, he was going to stay silent and just stand in the place he once called home. Scratch that- he was going to stay silent and just stand in the place he calls home. 
 
 A tug on the hem on his coat snatched him away from his thoughts. He looked down and found a child probably a few years older than his own. Her dark hair cut in the exact same way as that one girl he had waited for years and years ago. Her eyes of the exact same shape. The sadness in her eyes not yet existent. 
 
 
 
 `` Excuse me, mister,'' she squeaked, still tugging on his coat. `` What are you doing here all alone?'' 
 
 Cody smiled at her. “ I could ask you the very same question, ” he retorted. 
 
 `` I asked first.'' She stomped on the ground stubbornly. It seemed like she had the exact same stubbornness, too. 
 
 `` Alright,'' he gave in to her demand. He glanced away from her and looked back at the once ever so majestic rides. `` Do you believe in magic-'' he paused. `` What ’ s your name?'' 
 
 `` Manami,'' she replied in a small voice. Cody had to bite his tongue for a moment, afraid of what he could say to the child. Manami Nakamura. After all these years, they met again. But Cody had never thought they would meet this way. He would've frozen where he stood if he had n't been able to remind himself that she was not his Nami. Not yet. 
 
 `` Do you believe in magic, Nami? Is it alright if I call you Nami?'' He glanced back at the little girl, stooping to her level to see here eye to eye. 
 
 Manami nodded. He took that as a yes for both questions. “ Well, years before magic happened here. ” 
 
 `` What kind of magic? I can do magic. I can disappear and reappear. I can make clocks stop. I can do a lot of things.'' 
 
 He smiled at her and stooped down so that he could see her eye to eye. “ Well, this was a different kind of magic. It ’ s the kind of magic that you can ’ t see. It ’ s the kind of magic you feel inside you, in your chest, at the pit of your stomach. Do you know what I ’ m taking about? ” 
 
 She nodded, her eyes flitting away from his. He assumed that she was probably thinking about her parents. She had always talked like her parents were the very definition of love. “ Well, ” he said standing up, “ I came back to remember that magic. ” He turned back to her. “ Now, it ’ s your turn to tell me why you ’ re here. ” 
 
 Manami pursed her lips and blinked, her cheeks becoming redder by the minute. “ I was lost… and I was kind of hoping you were lost too… so we could be lost together or something, ” she mumbled. Cody chuckled. 
 
 `` We can sit there and wait until you ’ re no longer lost.'' He nodded toward an old park bench. He walked straight toward it and sat down, trusting she would trail behind ( shyly, he might add. ) She climbed up the chair, denying any help from him. With much effort she finally sat herself on the bench. Her feet, hovering inches from the ground, were swinging under the seat. He dug into his pockets and handed her a mooncake wrapped in plastic, but not before opening it for her. `` Here,'' he offered, `` while we wait.'' 
 
 In silence, they each ate a piece of mooncake, and soon enough Cody ’ s hour away was done. But he didn ’ t move, he stayed there with her even way after they finished their snacks. 
 
 In a sudden moment, Nami suddenly perked up. “ Did you hear that? ” He turned to him. “ Tousan is calling me. ” She jumped off the bench and ran to the source of the voice. But when she noticed that Cody wasn ’ t running with her, she turned back and shouted, “ Aren ’ t you coming, mister? You can meet tousan! He knows a lot about magic. ” Cody simply smiled and shook his head. Manami shrugged and ran back to her father who was screaming out her name in the streets of New York. 
 
 The man stood up and walked away from the carnival, his keys dangling at the tip of his fingers. And he realized, that was the very first time Manami Nakamura met a certain Cody Alessi and she never would ’ ve even realized it. 
 

