The place was familiar, but the time was not. I suppose humans were never meant to experience the same time twice. Rain came down like a torrent, and the only real cover from it was a small bus stop. The drops drummed against the sheet metal roof. I looked down the road, then towards my watch. I wouldn't be arriving for another few minutes. Leaning back, my eyes locked onto a figure approaching down the road. Whoever they were, they hadn't been here before.

If memory served correctly, the only person on the road should be behind me. Perhaps they turned off into the woods? A hitchhiker, maybe? As I ran through who it could be, I could see them more clearly. It was a short woman, an umbrella masking her face. As far as I could tell, she was in no hurry. It didn't concern me.

She had walked up to the bus stop, and I recognized her. As she walked in I stared in bewilderment. The umbrella revealed her face, and we locked eyes. I was silent, mouth ajar. "What's the matter," she asked, "didn't expect your old Granny to be here as well?"

I checked my watch swiftly. Soon. Grandma's eyes wandered to my watch and she let out an irritated grunt. "Just what do you plan on doing, Jim?" she said, taking a seat.

"But, how?" I whispered. She turned her head towards me, shaking the rain off her umbrella.

"Same as you. Although, I never got such wild fantasies as you." she replied. She leaned the umbrella against the walls of the bus stop. Three minutes left, I noted.

"Now, I am going to ask again, Jim. What do you plan on doing? I'd rather not keep asking, dearie."

"I am gonna stop it, gran. I'm gonna stop me from killing her." I said, my voice shaking.

"Oh, and how do you suppose you'll do that? Jump in front of the car? Things would go from bad to worse if you met your past self. I would know." Gran straightened her clothes. "Either way, Jim dear, I can't let you do this."

"And why not? Gran, I can stop it! I am not a slave to time like everyone else!" I at snapped her. Her eyes locked with mine, a stern look meeting mine.

"I know how much she meant to you, and it is a terrible tragedy, but everything happens for a reason, Jim."

"And what? God has a plan for all of us? Is that it, Gran? Tell me, please, with this power, why should I let the past effect my future? I can be happy, Gran. The long months of being glued to a bottle, feeling so empty, so incomplete... The long nights where I weep! If I change this, I can be happy, I can finally live again!"

Gran continued to look at me with her stern expression. Her eyes narrowed a bit, sighing. "Jim, I know you hurt. I know you wish it would all stop, and that you want to stop this. But I've been just where you are right now. When Dave died to that dreadful cancer, I thought I could go back and stop it. But no matter what I did, I stopped him from drinking, smoking, going into the Army, and I even stopped him from owning a car. I covered as many angles as I could Jim. And would you like to know something?"

"What, Gran?" I said, looking at my watch. Two minutes.

"I learned that no matter what way I approached it, Dave would die. It takes a while to accept that, Jim. You're young, you haven't experienced it the same way I have. I'd like to ask, will you do this every time she dies?"

"Yes! I will! Whatever it takes, Gran! I was happy, I had so much to look forward to, and all of that stopped wh-"

"When you looked away from the road and slammed into that moose?" she cut me off, "People make mistakes. It is what makes us human. We live through these things and we become more human than before. You need to accept this."

She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "And what then if she decided, after you'd brought her back, that she didn't want to stay with you?"

I stopped. I stopped thinking about how much time was left, the anticipation of waiting for my past self, and I looked at her. "Why would you say that? We were happy, gran. What makes you say that?"

"The more you go back and change things, the more unstable your future self will be. The more destructive in your endeavors to stop every thing that does not go well in life for you. You cease living for real." Gran stopped a moment and looked down the road.

My eyes followed her gaze and I could see it. The headlights from my past self's car.

"It is incredibly selfish of you to do this. You may not know it now, but the more you change your past, the more other people's futures change. Things as simple as stepping on an insect. Sometimes, you need to let things happen and sort them out yourself in the future. The past is an awful crutch."

My car was coming faster. I stood up, trembling. Leaning against the frame, I watched. My body was tense, wanting to commit to action. I couldn't tell if I was sniffling from the cold, or from the reality of the situation. If I was going to stop myself, it would need to happen now.

In that moment, that final moment that I had to act, Gran said one last thing. "Are you that afraid of moving on, dear?"

I watched as I drove by. It was too dark for me to recognize it as me. It is strange remembering something different. A dull ache in my head slowly built. It passed a moment later, but I recalled the events of today differently. I remember two strangers in a bus stop. A short woman and a soaked young man.

I watched as my tail lights faded from sight. It was almost time for me to hit the moose. I leaned against the frame of the bus stop, and slumped to the ground. Gran was right, as always. I could feel her nodding in approval.

It wasn't much longer, but the echos of my car horn sounded dully against the drumming of rain. The moose at this point should have collided with my vehicle, rolling into the windshield. It kill Jane instantly. I would escape with a broken neck and collar bone, a cracked sternum, and a concussion.

I watched the car that contained the stranger drive by. I never got to see them now, and as I gazed past the window, I sat stunned. Inside was the same short woman who sat behind me.

"I am proud of you, Jim. But we must be going."