Fabric...

Derek hugged Nina a little longer and then took her shoulders in his big hands. He stared down at her and saw her mother in her eyes. He fought back the tears that reminded him how much he was still in love with Carrie Ann.
"Nina, why did you come here!!? Don't you know how dangerous this can be for you!? Everytime you do this, you take a chance of never coming back. I had hoped your mother would have told you this."
"I had to come daddy... she is in trouble."
"What did she do that she needed to go back to damn near before she and I were born?"
"She goes back daddy because..."
He saw the tears in her eyes. How many times had he wiped the tears from her mothers eyes. She would be crying many times when he would come home after a long day at work. When he would ask her why, she always said the same thing.
"Because I miss you! Because your daughter cried herself to sleep again! Because all I wanted was you and Nina. And all I have is Nina."
He could hear her words so clearly in his mind. He wanted them to never want or need for anything should something happen to him. He thought that his hours and hours of dedication to making money to give them a better life would be understood, appreciated.He never thought she would take his Nina from him and leave.
"She goes back why, Nina? Tell me why she chances everything to go back to a place she has never been before?"
"She does it to try and save hers and your marriage daddy. She is trying to find a way to bring you back and lock us in a time that you would not have to work so hard to give us what you wanted us to have. She does this for us, Daddy."
Derek just stared at his daughter. He could feel tears streaming down his face. He had given all he had and lost her. Now she was giving all she had to keep him. he hugged Nina once again, sobbing into his little girls shoulder. He loved them more than he loved his own life. They were his life. They truly always had been.
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She walked into the bakery as if she had been there a million times. The woman behind the counter watched her as she entered. She was a stout woman with a huge beehive hairdo that seemed out of date to Carrie Ann. She knew her in an instant, although by the time Carrie Ann could remember her, this woman was frail and grey haired. She looked at her and smiled softly.
"May I help you, young lady?" Her voice so startled carrie that she almost fell backwards against a coat rack. She had not heard that voice in fifteen years. Her grandmother had raised her since her mother walked away from her when she was only five. She was a kind woman,but strict with her rules for Carrie. Her strictest of all was "no Fabric."
"Your mother did it once to often and now she is gone to us forever. You must not use this gift ever, Carrie Ann." Carrie knew her grandmother only told her this story to help her not hurt so much. Carrie knew her mother had not traveled to many times. She watched her through a crack in the door as her mother packed her suitcase and without even a kiss goodbye, had walked out the front door and left with a man. Not too many Fabric moves... too many men.
"Miss, can I help you find something?" Carrie was brought back to the present, or whatever time this could be called, by her grandmothers voice.
"I am sorry. I was day dreaming I suppose. I am looking for a clock. Not just a clock really. It was a clock that was made in this time that was special."
Her grandmother looked at her through squinted eyes. Carrie realized what she had just said to this lady. "What I mean to say is that I was told it was made by a clock-maker by the name of Rawlings. A friend told me you carry his works."
Her grandmother , still looking at her with question in her eyes, nodded. "Yes I carry his clocks here. But few people know that and fewer ask for him by name. Might I ask what your interest in his clocks could be?"
Carrie could feel her palms starting to sweat. The Fabric, the fabric is going to tear, is all she could think of. She had to be so very careful if she was to get back out of this time. One tiny rip and she would be here for the rest of her life. No more Nina and no chance to ever have her Derek back in her arms again. God, why had she ever gone away? What was she trying to prove to him? Did she just expect him to follow her, run out and stop her from going? She had slipped out while he was working. She had made certain he couldn't ask her to stay then. If he had, she knew she could not have gone. The lesson she wanted to teach him about working so much had slapped her right in the face. Derek had NOT come to stop her nor did he beg her to come home. He simply told her he would love her until the last stars in heaven had gone out. He promised to keep her and Nina always well taken care of. And he told her that he would take her back if ever she wanted to be with him. But she didn't want that. Oh no, this stubborn girl insisted in her heart that HE be the one to come to her.
"I need the clock to set time right. It is the only way I have of going back to an exact time. A moment when I walked out on a man without giving him a chance to ask me to stay. In just a few hours, Evel Knievel is going to make a jump on his bike. He will fail. His bike will catch on a time rif and fall to the ground. At that exact moment, I have to set the alarm to go off. It will take me back... take us back to the moment I am looking for. I need that clock maam. Please, please help me."
Her tears poured down her face and she sobbed uncontrolably. Had her words just sentenced her to life here, in 1967? Had she just sealed her own fate because of the love she had for Derek and Nina? How could she even be sure that Derek and her Nina were even here in this time era? She had to believe that they were. Her sobbing seemed never to stop. Her grandmother came around to the front of the counter. She took Carrie in her large arms and held her tight. She rocked her gently as she had done after Carrie's mother had left her. And she cried softly with Carrie, just as she had done so many years ago.
"Now, now, My beautiful Carrie Ann. We will fix this. You just let grammie help."
Carrie pulled away from her grandmothers arms. She looked at her through eyes that were huge as saucers. Her whole body trembled as the voice echoed through Carrie's mind. "Oh dear God... you know me. What have I done this time? What have I done!????"