A Timeless Journey (19 page)

Sunday was the day we had to return home, but it wasn’t until three in the afternoon. We decided to spend the first half of the day on an unpopulated beach where we could be alone. We chose a quiet stretch on the third island which was the furthest point of the park. Being only half past nine in the morning, the beach was empty. Luna and I found ourselves alone and isolated from the rest of the world. With such a high population on the planet, being alone was a rarity and a welcome treat.

The morning turned out to be a romantic one and once again, Luna and I felt as close as we had ever been. Warm sun, white sands and a turquoise sea were our only companions that day and when I think of those moments now, it creates a hole in my heart for not being able to relive this experience again. It would be very hard for me to repeat the emotions and the fears I faced during that weekend break, even if one day I will be able to return and do it all over again.

The freedom to travel around the world in no time is one of the many perks I miss now that I am back in the 21
st
century and to think, for a period of time, I took the entire travelling experience for granted. I would jump on an Emze and travel from Dominican to New York and back every day and sometimes around the world as if it was a bus ride down town.

During our lifetime, we go through certain pleasant events and as much as we would like to see those events repeated, we never have the chance again. Each event becomes memorable because of the unique circumstances and not because of the people and places around us at the time. As we look back with nostalgia, we realise that those events have become an unreachable and memorable landmark, affecting permanently the remainder of our lives and the way we feel.

Later that day we returned to our apartment in Laguna City and Luna’s happiness and her gratitude for my surprise weekend gift had brought our relationship back to normal. We spend the rest of the evening talking mostly about the awesome rides in the Water Works Park as we relived these moments thanks to the virtual display of these rides on Holo.

Monday morning we had to return to our jobs and, as I lay with my back on the bed looking at the stars above, all I could think was how fast and furious life was in this reality. Take the week we just left behind for example, the sad news of Luna’s grandfather passing on and her grief, mixed with the long term issues she had with her parents, had put Luna through a tunnel of dark emotions from which I thought it would take her a long time to recover and yet, three days later, her emotions had entirely transformed into a beautiful light, radiating only love.

From the moment I met Luna, my life had travelled only in the fast lane and although I had only known her for three months, it felt as if we had been together a life time. The old life and the people I had left behind had been pushed away from my memory by the presence of the most amazing person I have ever had the pleasure to share my life with. 

24

The next days and weeks passed by very quickly and, by the time we had saved all the credit needed to pay for our space holiday, it was already April. Luna had made a careful plan linking the flights between each destination with the time we needed to stay on each stellar body, before going ahead with booking the holiday. Once the space holiday was booked, the certainty that in less than two months I was going to travel in space, created a strange feeling of excitement and anticipation. Travelling in space was the kind of journey which I found it hard to believe it was going to happen thanks to my 21
st
century mentality and knowledge. Until I physically experienced it, the doubts that something may go wrong, played wildly in my mind.

Fate always takes strange turns when it comes to making plans. When I thought there is nothing to stop me from achieving my dream of space travel, the most unthinkable happened. During the coming days I was going to be sorely tested by a cruel turn of events forcing me to make a very important and heart-breaking decision. Even now, as I sit here writing this, I can honestly say that although not knowing at the time what the future was going to bring, I never regretted the decision I took regardless coming very close to throw away the opportunity of space travel.

It was the third day of May of the year 2573 when Link’s metallic voice abruptly woke me up. I turned on the Link virtual display to look at the time. It was 23 minutes past two on a Sunday morning. I had no work or other plans that day for Link to wake me up and certainly wasn’t happy being awake at that early hour. Before I had a chance to complaint, Link explained why it had woken me so suddenly and I froze from the shock. The first thought to cross my mind was about Luna. She slept peacefully beside me. I had to wake her up and tell her what was happening.

I looked again at her peaceful face sleeping and felt guilty for what I was about to do. Agitated by the news I had received, with my hand shaking, I touched her shoulder.

“Luna, please wake up, it’s important.”

Luna opened her eyes slowly, stretched her arms and fixed her worried look on me.

“What is it?” She seemed scared, as if she already sensed what was going on.

“Link just woke me up to inform the anomaly has reappeared on the beach. I can finally return to my old world.”

“You’re leaving, now? Wait, what do you mean?” Finally, Luna had fully woken up.

“An anomaly has appeared on the same place on the beach. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if I want to leave what I have here.”

Luna glued her blue eyes on me as her brain took some time to process what I had just said, before she reacted with genuine simplicity.

“No, I feel sad, please stay.”

“Believe me! I want to stay here more than anything, especially with the space holiday approaching, but what about my family? They deserve to know where I am.”

My confused state of mind distressed Luna even more. Her eyes filled up and the tears fed my desire to stay in this reality. On the other hand, the need see my family was pulling me in the opposite direction. Confused and unprepared for this kind of situation, I put my old clothes on and asked Luna to follow me to the anomaly. At first she refused to leave the apartment, because she couldn’t endure to see me go, but I strongly insisted. Eventually, she gave in to my demand and followed like an obedient dejected child.

We fell in complete silence in our way to the anomaly, as we failed to exchange a single word. Contradicting thoughts were going through my mind as I kept thinking of all the possible outcomes. None of the options could give me the best of both worlds. Witnessing Luna’s heartache and the idea of being without her for the rest of my life, made me realise how much I loved her. Leaving behind the person I cared the most, was something I wasn’t prepared to negotiate.

I also loved my family and the desire to see my parents again strongly fought my will to stay. If only I was able to walk through the anomaly and let my parents know I was safe, before returning back to Luna. I knew if I did try, there was a great risk the portal would close behind me forever. It would have been an impossible task running from the anomaly to the resort, then I would have needed to find in the middle of the night someone who cared to hear my story and after all that, expect the anomaly to still be there waiting for me. My mobile phone had no bars left on the battery and a phone call on the other side of anomaly was out of the question.

The prospect of the unique holiday in space, a chance that for me personally was an irreplaceable opportunity, made my decision even more complicated. If I returned to the 21
st
century, I was going to miss the only chance in my life to travel in space and this was an opportunity I just couldn’t give up for anyone, not for my parents and certainly not for Sophie and my friends.

“I can’t decide,” I said in a low tone of voice, more to myself rather than talking directly to Luna, but she heard me all the same and desperately pledged with me.

“Please stay Scott, I love you! Look, I am shaking from fear of losing you.” She stretched her arms forward to show me her shaking hands.

“I love you more than anything Luna! Believe me I want to stay, but my parents also deserve an explanation. I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t understand!” Luna exploded in a desperate attempt to make me stay. “They don’t know you have gone, no one knows.”

“How can you be so sure? I have been missing for nearly a year.” I replied, taken aback from her unexpected statement.

“I cannot explain. All you have to do is trust me and don’t go through the anomaly.”

What Luna was saying didn’t make any sense at the time. I was put in an impossible situation. Unlike when I arrived in this reality, my priorities had changed entirely. My life had taken a different meaning with Luna in it. If the portal had opened before I met Luna, my decision would have been a lot easier. Without a doubt I would have chosen to return to my old world, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. I had a lot to lose.

My decision hovered between my love for Luna and the love for my parents, between the only chance to experience space travel and living the rest of my life with Sophie in a primitive 21
st
century. I had to choose between the future and the past. Anyone with a sane mind would probably choose to follow their feelings and their dreams. For me, at that very moment, it felt a lot more complicated.

I kept staring at the spiral white fog in front of me and I knew damn well that it was the only way back home and possibly the last chance I would ever have. If I had to refuse my old world, there was a good chance I was going to regret this decision for the rest of my life. I was stuck between the anomaly and Luna. I kept looking back and forth at the foggy spiral and her tear-stained face, unable to decide.

I walked towards her, took her hand in mine as a crazy idea came to mind. I was about to ask her to cross over with me. Once again, I was torn between my selfish desire to be with Luna regardless where and when, and the guilt for forcing her to leave the only world she had known and live with me in a primitive past.

“What if we crossed together?” I asked with an indecisive voice.

“Are you asking me to give up this reality for love?”

“Would you do it?”

“For you, I would do anything and you know it, but this… what you’re asking, it’s not really worth the risk. I wish you had a little more trust in me. I told you, no one knows you are missing.”

“Maybe not,” I said, admitting in my head a silent withdrawal from my request, but nevertheless not entirely giving up. “I know it is not fair asking you to leave this reality, but we can still return here one day if the anomaly opens again.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

I didn’t know how to answer that question and succumbed to silence instead. I realised that I was wrong to ask Luna to leave a world where life was so easy and safe and put her through hell in a world that looked more and more on the brink of war. I begged her to forget what I had asked and then all became clear to me. I realised I was madly in love with Luna, I was living in a beyond-belief developed world and I was about to travel in space. I couldn’t just give it all up and return home as if it was nothing.

With some heartache for not being able to use the opportunity to see my family again, but with a clear conscience for what I was about to do, I decided to stay and with the hope that one day this opportunity would reappear again somehow.

I turned my back on the anomaly, faced Luna and solemnly spoke.

“Come on, let’s go home. I’m staying here with you.”

Her face lit up and she threw herself at me, hugging me so tight as if I was about to run away.

“Thank you, thank you my love. One day you will understand this was the right decision.”

We walked along the sandy beach away from the anomaly holding hands. For some reason, I felt that I had made the right decision despite being home sick. I had just thrown away what was maybe the only hope of returning to my old reality and yet, I felt no regret in doing so. I had chosen the future instead of the past.

There was another reason that I decided to stay, the hard task of explaining to everyone where I had been this entire time. I feared that if I told the truth, I would be locked up in some secret government building with a lot of questions thrown at me, the answers of which I didn’t want anyone to know.

Felling sleepless and deeply emotional, we decided to sit on a fixed bench outside our apartment building. The only thought on my mind was to cheer Luna up after the stressful spiral I had put her through.

“What is happening to us? Why do I feel so strongly about you that I couldn’t even take the courage to return home?”

Luna jumped off her seat and faced me. “It is called love and it is pure. I am grateful you chose to stay with me, thank you.”

“I’m scared Luna. I have never felt like this before. Look at me! I can’t bear staying a single day away from you.”

“We are simply fortunate to have such a connection and every moment together counts as a happy memory in the ocean of our relationship. We must return to our apartment. Come, let’s go, I need to sleep.”

She took my hand and with her soft look and a slight move of her head urged me to stand up.

“Ok my poetic lover, but not before a kiss. It will remind me the reason I decided to stay.”

We kissed and then made our way to the apartment where we savoured the steamer to relax our nerves before making carnal love in the private room. It was the fear of losing each other and the joy of still being together that drove us towards the passion. 

As we lay in the bed, I recalled Luna’s plead with me earlier. She begged me to trust her, which I blindly did. However, I had to know where she found the confidence to assure me that no one in my old reality knew I was missing.

“I trusted you earlier when you asked me on the beach not to go through the anomaly. You seemed so sure. What do you know that I am not aware of?”

“Nothing, let’s go back to sleep now, please!”

“I think there is more to this. Let me quote what you said, ‘You don’t understand, they don’t know you have gone, no one knows’ and when I asked how can you be so sure, you said ‘I cannot explain. All you have to do is trust me’. This to me sounds as if you know a lot more than you letting on.”

“You will learn everything when the time is right, but for now, let’s not create a paradox. It is important that you trust me and I emphasise the word
‘trust’
.
Now off to sleep, sweet dreams my love.”

“I guess I have no choice but to wait for the ‘right time’.” I replied quoting with my hands. “For now, I just simply have to trust you.”

“That’s right!”

“I feel tired and I don’t intend to question you any longer. You may keep your secrets for now. Good night L!” 

It took Luna a few minutes to fall asleep. As for me, I couldn’t even keep my eyes close. After Luna fell asleep, I started to think about the consequences of what I had done. All the worry and the nostalgia about my old reality that was secretly cultivated inside me, resurfaced and I filled with guilt and insecurity if I had made the right choice. These were the kind of feelings I was unable to share with anyone, not even with Luna.

I stared at the live projection of stars around the room for a while, trying to console myself with the thought that everything happens for a reason and my decision to stay was probably the right one. If I had returned back to my old reality, I would have ended up missing Luna and the new life I had started in the future. I concluded there was no point dwelling on an already-made decision and sinking into a depressive state. My future belonged in the 26
th
century with the girl I loved and besides, I couldn’t give up my space holiday. It is not every day that you have an opportunity to travel to the Moon, Mars and other planets of our solar system in three weeks. No one would be able to reject such an opportunity!

The positive way of thinking, managed to cast my worries away and next, without realising, I fell into a much needed sleep.

I spent the whole of Sunday discussing with Luna the events of the night before. We considered the fact that we were so close to lose each other and how my decision to stay, had made us very happy. I figured that if I cleared my mind of what had happened last night, if I stopped thinking of my old life and instead concentrated my efforts on the new life I had in front of me, I will avoid being home sick and suffer less heartache. Life in the 26
th
century was easy, effortless and stress-free.