*** End of Last Chapter***

The little girl shivered a little, and then stood up.

"It's cold, mommy. Can we go home now?"

"Yes, Jan. Let's go home."

Yes, this story has been almost twenty years in the making. I started this story in high school and am now continuing in my thirties. Life has been extremely busy but as people have continued reviewing over the years it has always been in the back of my mind, and I've decided to try to at least give the story a decent closure. Enjoy! – Jessikah -

Janet Carol took a sip of her double shot espresso as she scanned the test documents for what seemed to be the fortieth time. Twenty-five letters had been sent back in time; five had been proven to be found in good condition. It might finally be time for phase two.

Her coworkers, who she insisted call her J.C., had been sending the letters in weatherproof containers back to the early 1970s with precise instructions.

"Hello! This is a letter written by three girls in Los Angeles. If you find this letter, please help us with our experiment. We would like to test the willingness of strangers to follow instructions. If you are willing to help, please sign your full name and today's date, then bury the letter in Elysian Park next to a prominent statue or landmark."

Five brave souls had gone to the park and buried their letters. J.C. and her coworkers had found and cross-referenced the letters with ancestry and census records to verify the accuracy of names and dates. It seemed that the letters had not only survived the trip, but had survived in perfect condition.

In phase two, J.C. and her coworkers painted the back of a turtle with the word "Belle" and sent the turtle to Grandma Carol's house in the 1970s. She then checked her mother's old diary, which she kept in the top shelf of her closet along with a few other treasured possessions.

"March 22nd, 1970. Today we found the strangest thing in our backyard – a turtle was walking across the yard with a little French word written on it! When we looked it up in a French-English dictionary at the library, we discovered it meant "beautiful." Cindy has decided she wanted to be the one to take care of it, but I imagine we'll all probably end up having to step in when she forgets. What a strange but wonderful surprise!"

It was time. J.C. had spent her whole life wondering what things would have been like if not for the death of her aunt Jan, for whom she was named, and now she might finally have a chance to see. To see a life where Grandma Carol and Grandpa Mike's marriage hadn't dissolved under the stress of the death of a child. A life where her mother Marcia hadn't gone from one abusive relationship to another, never feeling that she deserved better for having failed to protect her younger sister earlier in life. A life where J.C. wouldn't have had to fight every step of the way to succeed, under the duress of poverty, constant moves to run away from crazy men, and a mother who became increasingly emotionally distant with every passing year.

J.C. closed her laptop and headed to the machine. It wasn't pretty, but then again the first ships that took man into space were clunky old things that made LAN parties in the 1990s look high-tech. She pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail, sat one of the two chairs, buckled her five-point harness, and went through her startup checklist.

When the checklist was complete, J.C. swiped her index finger over the small screen next to her right wrist and pushed the image labeled "T/L". She inserted the coordinates for a discreet area within several miles of a small, two-story house in California, then typed in the date. She spoke to her coworkers over the microphone that would only work until she pressed "GO."

"July 30th, 1970. Ready to roll, guys."