Timekeeper by Alexandra Monir

signet ring. But for some reason, you didn’t remember me. And again today, you were spending time with another girl and looking at me like I was just another one of your classmates, no one special.” The tears Michele had been holding back trickled down her cheeks. “How is any of this possible?”
    Philip gripped his chest, staring at her in shock. “I—I don’t understand. You’re saying that my younger self went into the future? How could that happen without me remembering it?”
    “It all sounds so crazy, I know. But he has your face, your voice, your ring; he even lives in this building! Everything about him is just like you … except for the way he is with me.” Michele wiped her eyes.
    Philip was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice was filled with wonder. “When I was younger, after you first left, I would while away days just dreaming of another life with you. I’d imagine that I was another person, born in your time, and that we could be together in every sense of the word. Do you think—could I have actually made that happen ?”
    “I wish there was a way we could find out.” An idea occurred to her. “Do you have anything … anything I can give to the new Philip, like a clue? Something to help him remember?”
    Philip thought for a long moment. “I’ll be right back.” Climbing in through the window, he gathered some papers off his grand piano and returned to her on the fire escape. “This is the song I was working on when I saw you outside. I only have a chorus and a bridge, no verse yet. Give this sheet music to him,and then the two of you can finish it. This is the way to remind him of us, and of who he used to be.” He gave her an emotional smile. “After all, writing music together is how we fell in love.”
    Michele felt her heart constrict at his words. She took the sheet music, holding it close to her. “What if this new you isn’t a musician?”
    He grinned, and for a moment Michele could see the teenager in him again. “He will be. There’s no way any version of me can exist without my music.”
    Michele smiled back at him. But there was something more she needed to say, and her expression turned serious.
    “Philip, I need you to do something for me. Please—whatever you do, stay away from Rebecca Windsor.”
    His eyebrows rose. “Violet’s aunt?” he asked in bemusement. “I haven’t seen her in ages. Why?”
    Michele hesitated.
    “You can tell me.”
    She took a shaky breath. “There’s no easy way to say this. Rebecca can time travel too, and—she wants me dead. She’s come into the future, into my time. And today I saw her, like a ghost, watching the new Philip Walker in a way that made me think she has something against you too. So please, don’t give her the chance to want to hurt him— you . Whatever you do, stay away from her.”
    Philip’s face was ashen.
    “ Why? Why does she want to hurt you?”
    “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I only know that it has something to do with my father.”
    Philip swallowed hard, and when he looked at her his facewas filled with despair. “I can’t stand being helpless—knowing you’re in danger and there’s nothing I can do, that I’m dead in the ground in your time, unable to do anything to protect you.”
    At that moment Michele felt Time begin its pull on her body. Her stomach lurched, longing for just another few moments with him.
    “You are helping me. Just by staying away from Rebecca, you could be helping me more than we both know. I’m being sent back to my time, but—I love you, Philip. At any age, in any body, in any era … I love you.”
    “I love you!” Philip called, watching as the wind lifted her off the fire escape. “I will do anything I can from here in the past to keep you safe.”
    Moments later, she found herself back on the twenty-first-century sidewalk in front of the Osborne, surrounded by familiar modern smells and sights. Her eyes remained on the