The next morning came, and I cheered and danced. I was finally going to marry someone that I loved!

My feet raced downstairs but stopped when I heard a heartbreaking conversation. "I snuck out last night. There's a creepy man who saw my face. He knows the secret." Jesse explained as he looked at his mother and father. He is talking about the man in the yellow suit.

Angus let out a long sigh. "We'll have to split up. It's not safe otherwise."

Mae sat on the couch and began to cry. "I can't believe this is happening. I've waited ten years for this visit!" I finally revealed myself, but stayed by the stairs.

"We'll have to leave our cottage. Maybe for good this time." Angus stated as he tried to comfort his wife.

"We could come with you." I stated, leaning against the staircase. Winnie nodded and smiled, adjusting the vest she was wearing.

Mae shot up from her seat. "No! I knew I should have taken them back last night!" Mae cursed herself as Angus sat her back down.

"This is my fault! I should have never taken us to Treegap in the first place!" Angus said as he shook his wife's shoulders.

Winnie walked up to Angus. "But then you wouldn't have found the spring!" Winnie pointed out, visibly upset.

Mae looked at Winnie with puffy eyes. "Honey, that's entirely his point!"

"But the spring is a miracle! I'd drink from it right now! But, Jesse wants me to wait!" Winnie exclaimed as my eyes shot open.

I walked over to my young sister and pointed a stern finger in her face. "You are not drinking anything from that spring!"

Mae and Angus slowly turned their heads toward Jesse. Jesse slowly sank in the seat at the table.

"Jesse Tuck, for the first time in one hundred and two years I am truly disappointed in you!" Mae yelled at her son as he tried to stand his ground.

"But Ma-"

"No! Not this time! There are some things that even you can't sweet talk your way out of!" Mae yelled as she ran out of the house.

Angus panicked. "Mae!" He quickly turned back to Jesse. "Well now you've upset your mother. Say your goodbyes."

Angus ran after Mae as Jesse put his face in his hands. "Did I do something wrong?" Winnie asked quietly as she made her way over to Jesse.

Jesse looked up at her with wide eyes. "No. No, no. Never." Jesse reassured as he looked over Winnie's shoulder to see me shaking my head.

"Do you still mean what you said at the Silo? About the water I can keep until I'm seventeen?" Winnie asked as I made my way over to the two, anger in my steps.

He shook his head yes, but I quickly intercepted. "Jesse, my sister cannot drink the water."

"Why not?" Winnie argued as I turned to look at her, my face red. "Why don't you drink the water too!"

"I will!" I yelled back, pushing her slightly.

"Why!" Jesse asked, siding with Winnie.

I stomped my foot on the ground. "Because Miles and I are getting married! If I want to be with him, then I will drink the water, and no one can stop me!" I yelled as I backed away from the two. I quickly felt a hand on my back, looking up to see Miles.

"Why don't I smell pancakes? You two must be starving." Miles laughed as he gave me a kiss on the cheek. He was happier than usual, until he looked around. "Where's Ma and Pa?"

Winnie stepped forward. "They're outside. I think I made them mad."

Miles noticed the clothes that Winnie was wearing. He took a moment to stare at them. "Why are you wearing those clothes?" He asked, anger laced in his voice. "Where did she get Thomas's clothes?" Miles yelled as he looked around at all of us.

"Who's Thomas?" Winnie quickly asked as I held Miles's hand, trying to calm him down.

Jesse stood in front of Winnie, protecting her. "Don't let him bully you Winnie. And you didn't make anyone mad. I did! Like always!" Jesse yelled as Miles lowered his eyebrows.

"What did you do now Jesse?" Miles asked, expecting something that Jesse had done in the past such as breaking a tree branch inhabited by baby birds or getting soaked by a small puddle.

Jesse raised his hands in defense. "Look, I don't care who's disappointed in me anymore! Someday, I want Winnie to drink the water."

Miles looked furious. "Jesse, even for you this is a new level of SELFISH!"

"No it's not! I want to see the Eiffel Tower! I want to see the Egyptian Pyramids!" I grabbed Winnie's shoulders. "You're drinking the water! I will too!"

Tears dripped from my eyes as I looked at Winnie. "No! You want to see old age! You want to see your children grow up!"

Winnie pushed me off of her. "You do too!"

I cried and shook my head. "Winnie, I don't. I'm scared of the future. Nobody wanted to marry the only woman in Treegap who couldn't have children. That's why I had an arranged marriage." I explained as Winnie helped me up, realizing that she had messed up on her words.

"Well Jesse, if you won't listen to your big brother, then listen to some common sense! So, okay. Your plan works for three years, maybe four if you're luck, and then what? You suddenly start a family? Your children drink the water? And what happens when the neighbors catch onto your secret, then what? Do you want to go to jail forever?" Miles asked, still fighting with his brother.

Jesse was fuming with rage. "I REFUSE TO KEEP LIVING ALONE IN THE SHADOWS!" Jesse screamed, leaving me a bit shocked. "I already feel like I'm serving a life sentence, Miles! I'd rather do my time with someone who actually appreciates it!"

Jesse ran off as an angry Miles sat down at the table. There was a moment of silence.

My feet leaded me over to Miles, sitting next to him. "Miles? Who's Thomas?" I asked, massaging his shoulder a bit.

Sorrow started to fill Miles. "I don't talk about him." Miles answered, turning in his seat and wiping away a few of my tears.

"Then why did you say his name?" Winnie asked, sitting across from me.

Miles hesitated, but soon answered. "He was my son." My heart almost shattered. He was a father. Well of course he was he has been around for so long. But why aren't they here? Am I crazy for loving him?

"Is he alive?" I asked, choking on my words.

Miles could hear the heartbreak in my voice. "I don't know. My wife took him from me." The man explained as I held a hand in front if my face, covering my teary eyes. He did have a wife.

"Did they drink the water?" I asked again, stopping Winnie from asking the same question.

"No. By the time I figured out the secret of the spring the years have passed for them, but not for me. She thought I was possessed! A freak!" Miles explained, trying to see my face (which I hid from him as best I could.)

Winnie smiled at him, since he started to tear up talking about his past. "I don't think you're a freak. Neither does Charlie."

Miles stood up, wiping his face. "It's time we got you both home to your family."

"Can't we stay just a little longer?" Winnie asked as Miles shook his head, trying to help me up.

Miles attempt was not successful. "No. If your father is anything like me, all he's doing right now is watching your front door. All he's doing is counting the minutes." That was my trigger. Father. He was gone, and I couldn't change it. I stood up and raced out the door, slamming it behind me. The trees hung over me as I raced towards the spring, ready to start my new life.

"I had a farmhouse with a grandfather clock where I would teach time to my son. Our lessons began at twelve o'clock sharp, when the hands would come in as one.

I'd say the big hand counts minutes, it's so tightly wound. It chases the small hand to make hours go round.

I taught Thomas constellations in the sky, to tell a silver maple from a cotton wood. I taught Thomas to divide and multiply, but one he never understood was time.

As I watched him grow, time. He would never know time. For my regret resides time. If I only knew the what and how and who that time truly divides.

There was a farmhouse with a grandfather clock. Where one day I woke up alone. They feared I was magic. They feared I was cursed.

But mostly they feared the unknown.

The big hands the father. The small hands the son. And there never came a time when they came back as one.

I taught Thomas how to catch a firefly, how to make a pebble skip and rowboat skim. She took Thomas and never said goodbye. The one thing I could never give to him was time."

I'm left with nothing. Nothing but time.