A Timeless Journey (24 page)

I had started to think what kind of father I was going to be, since my intellectual background was outdated by five hundred years. I was worried that I was going to pass on to my child the habits and the culture of my old reality and that was something I hoped to be prepared to avoid.

29

Weeks and months passed since that August day when I found out I was going to be a father. The end of the year holidays came by again. Unlike the year before when we travelled the world, this time Luna and I decided to spend our holiday somewhere warm and quiet, just the two of us and the bump. We had hired a remote holiday villa for two weeks on the island of California, well away from the frenetic civilization.

After the nuclear war, the planet experienced climate change, dangerous levels of pollution, unexpected water tides due to the melting of polar ice caps and devastating earthquakes. One of those earthquakes had destroyed the Californian Peninsula turning it into an island. In the 26
th
century, it had become a getaway destination for those individuals who needed privacy.

The island of California with its luxury high-tech villas made of the wildest technology available, the warm weather, the beautiful Pacific Ocean and the pine trees was not easy to visit. It was very expensive and also people had to wait for years to book a villa. We would have waited too, but Luna’s brother managed to find us a villa through his interplanetary connections and even paid for it.

Our holiday villa was on top of a hill facing the Pacific Ocean on the south-westerly edge of the island. The glass villa was surrounded by a forested area and had an ocean view that took our breath away. A huge round-the-house circular green garden, looked like an expensive carpet and attached on the north side of the villa was a see-through swimming pool.

It is not easy for me to describe properly what I mean by ‘see-through’. Imagine a swimming pool where instead of tiles there is a kind of glass material and the earth underneath and on the sides, as well as the plumbing works, are visible. Then imagine the ground underneath the swimming pool bed planted with colourful flowers and on the sides, the transparent plumbing works that kept the water flow. The swimming pool itself was protected by a mini dome made of protection shield technology, which allowed its use regardless of the weather conditions.

The house itself, unlike the apartment, was made entirely of some kind of glass which turned foggy when privacy was needed. It had a controllable gravity feature which allowed us to float from the living space to other spaces upstairs if we wished to. Only the dividing walls inside the villa were covered with the pixilating technology. As for the outside walls, they only turned foggy thanks to an app on the villa’s control pad.

The roof was used as a sun terrace with a spiral slide which ended in the swimming pool, camping facilities, a minibar and also had a mini dome protecting from extreme hot weather conditions.

This villa was the perfect place for Luna and me to enjoy our intimacy and get away from the everyday routine. The mini dome on the roof also served as a giant Holo screen and it made for a perfect view during the evening hours.

Our first few days were spent mostly swimming, walking around in the woods and resting on the roof of the villa. For me, resting on the roof was the best feature of our holiday. From the flat roof, we were able to see the ocean beyond the tree tops and the infusion of dark green pines and the blue sea, made for a peaceful and relaxing view. The mini dome was always there to protect us from the high winds in bad weather, or the hot sun rays on a usual sunny day.

One of those peaceful evenings, as we rested on the rooftop admiring a romantic sunset while I enjoyed some local red wine from the California region and Luna an ice-cold cranberry juice infused with an essence of flowers, a pleasant conversation about the baby’s sex came out of the blue.

“Scotty, do you want to know baby’s sex?”

I jumped out of my seat with a surprised look on my face.

“You know what it is?”

Luna nodded and a cheeky smile decorated her beautiful face even more.

“Link informed me this morning, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to know, so I kept it a secret until now.”

“If you know what it is, I want you to share it with me, this way we can start thinking of baby names.”

“It is going to be a girl,” she said bluntly with a smile on her face as she ran her hand over her belly. She waited for me to digest the news and after observing my reaction for a few seconds, Luna asked.

“What names have you got in mind?”

It took my brain a while to process this news before I jumped up with joy.

“We’re going to have a daughter. I’m so happy, thank you Luna.”

“I would like you to choose her name, as long as it is not an old name from six hundred years ago, of course. An old name would sound odd in this reality and I don’t want her to grow up explaining to curious others the meaning of her name.”

“I fully understand and I think I have the perfect name for her. I have had a boy’s and a girl’s name in my mind for some time. Look up, what do you see?”

“I see an orange sun sinking into the ocean in front of me, the North Star to my right and the Moon’s crest behind me.”

It felt she was avoiding my question on purpose and I couldn’t understand why she was being so evasive.

“You are missing the bigger picture Luna,” I insisted. “All these are small pieces on what we call sky. I like to name our daughter Sky, so when I will look up, I will see both of you the Moon and Sky. What do you think?”

“It’s perfect and romantic too. Baby Sky huh, I like it, thank you Scotty.”

Judging from her reaction, I was under the impression she had heard the name before. Although she didn’t look much surprised, Luna’s eyes rolled up from joy and I smiled, knowing that I had made her happy once more.

We both fixed our eyes on the evening sky as we held hands for a while and the fact that I, a guy from nearly six hundred years ago had chosen the perfect name for our daughter, made me feel proud of myself. Luna put her right hand over the bump and, as she stroked her belly, looked up and with a pleasant smile, repeating over and over the words “baby Sky”.

Those two weeks turned out to be truly special and also relaxing and, although we didn’t travel around the world to see fancy places, or spend New Year’s Eve with the crowds in New York, we enjoyed being there alone, away from the rest of the world.

For the first time in my life I felt complete. The fact that we were going to be parents and take upon us to educate another human being seemed thrilling for both of us. Luna and I had never been as close as we were in those two weeks and I believe the reason for that was the prospect of having a child together. We couldn’t wait for the baby Sky to arrive so we could start experiencing what a proper family life felt like.

30

Luna had arranged to work from home after the holidays, which meant I had to travel alone to work and back. The global and local AI government systems were programmed to make sure that everyone had equal rights and opportunities when it came to having and raising a child. From half way through the pregnancy, the mother was entitled to work from home, or in some cases, when there were complications, the whole length of pregnancy. Seven months into pregnancy, the carrier as they called the mother to be, was entitled to take a full parental leave for three years. Once the child was born, the father too was entitled to take a whole year off work paid in full, to bond with the new-born.

After the first year, it was up the mother to choose if she wanted to return to work and, even if she did, she could work from home only. The other parent had no choice but to physically be at work, unless the job could be done from home. In the 26
th
century the global and local governments gave a high importance how children were raised. Their studies had shown the way a child was raised, had direct effect in the future of society and a better education for children, meant a brighter future for humanity.

One of the parents had to stay at home with the child at least for three years and after that, the child would be ready to attend the nursery, which was more like a school than a nursery. The nurseries were free and cost the parents nothing. The entire system was financed by the local governments to help parents carry on with their daily jobs as normally as they could.

Since Luna’s job was the equivalent of what we call today a ‘web designer’, she had the option of working permanently from home without the need to physically be in the office. Most people in the future, thanks to the advanced technology, worked from home and being physically at work wasn’t preferred as much, unless it was a personal choice or there was no other alternative. I could have worked from home too if I needed, but travelling to New York and being actually at work, was something I felt comfortable doing.

It didn’t take long for me to start missing our meetings during the hour long lunch break. Sometimes I refrained from going out of the museum entirely and spend my breaks in the office, or in the Holo room. It took Luna’s absence for me to discover that the Holo room was the main place to have the lunch break. It served as a library, as a music room and many other functions that one could access through Holo. I was able to do on line shopping, follow the daily news and other programs, play virtual games and if I fancied travelling, I could go on a virtual trip anywhere in the world, or in space.

There was also an exercise room where I could go running inside a running booth, or go for a swim against the artificial wild stream, which was a strip where water run with pressure from one end to the other. In the exercise room there was also a gravity-free steam room where I could relax during my break.

These leisure facilities varied from one work place to another. From what I understood, I was lucky to work in a global government site, since apparently a global government workplace had all the latest and up to date leisure facilities in the planet.

In one of those days I spent inside the Holo room, as I tried to kill some time, I searched for the name Sky to see how popular it was. I didn’t expect a few of those search results to shock me. I had telepathically required the search engine to bring up results for ‘Sky, baby names’ and in one of the search results, I saw my name and ‘baby Sky’ as the characters of a novel about time travel that I was supposed to have written in the year 2013. A novel, which had become more popular, as the time had gone by.

At first, I was surprised because I thought my Link device will block this kind of information, but what I didn’t realise was that due to being a global research institute, the ban did not apply. My personal Link device had created a conflict of interest between blocking my past and rules of banning relevant information on public institutions. The latter had overridden my Link and I was able to explore any information possible on line.

Once the initial shock subdued, the incident with Luna’s mother at her grandfather’s funeral came to my mind. I remembered her asking me about a book. Suddenly, I understood exactly what she meant. Luna, her mother and probably everyone else in the world knew who I was before I arrived. The existence of this book explained a lot of things and among them, my father’s in-law behaviour.

He knew who I was and what was going to happen to us, so why wasn’t he friendly with me since he knew Luna and I were going to have a child? What could have possibly bothered him about me? My father’s in-law behaviour was too much to think about at that moment and I focused my attention on the fact I had written a book while in the 21
st
century. Some negative thoughts send shivers throughout my body. 

How it was possible for me to write a novel in 2013 when I had been living in the future since 2012? If the timeline run parallel with my old reality, now it would be 2014 already. A shock wave ran through my body and I was intrigued to find out more, but the only way, was to read what I supposedly had written. I had little time left, so quickly brought up the Holo version of the novel and started to read the first and the second chapter.

It described in detail how I came across the anomaly and I realised, after reading the first two chapters, judging at the way it was written, there was no doubt it was my style. The style of writing and the description of events which I had witnessed convinced me that somehow I had written this novel, but what confused me was the timing. If it was really written in 2013 and first published in 2014, as it said, there had to be a logical explanation. There was only one way for this novel to be first published in 2014 and that was me travelling back to the 21
st
century in the same year and the same time as I had disappeared. If this was true, then no one will know I had been travelling in the future when I return and therefore no one was missing me.

Suddenly, Luna’s words, that no one was missing me back home, during the appearance of the anomaly before our space holiday, echoed loudly in my ears. She must have read this book and this is why she was convinced no one was missing me. I wondered if she knew our future from the first moment we met.

Did Luna know what was going to happen next? Everything that had happened between us up to that point took a different meaning in my mind. I trusted Luna and yet, I felt manipulated. I tried to understand why she had kept this fact from me. The thought that Luna might have read this book before I arrived, made me doubt how genuine our relationship had been from the beginning.

Although I believed that Luna had hidden an important fact from me and also I was convinced that she had known in advance everything that had happened up to that moment, I still believed her love was genuine. The temptation to skip to the end of the book and read the last two chapters, just to find out how this story ends, kept pushing my patience. Despite the temptation, I managed to resist as I was scared of what I was going to find out.

This novel had and ending, of course, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to learn the truth and discover that Luna and I had no future together. I was afraid that once I’ll read the ending, I might be forced by the strong feelings for Luna and my unborn daughter, to change the outcome and perhaps create a paradox.

The end of my lunch break arrived just in time to save me from temptation of discovering what happens in the end. I decided to continue reading the book tomorrow and the following days after that during my lunchbreaks, until I would come across the part where I discover the novel. Then it would be the time when I had to decide if I wanted to know what happens afterwards.

The existence of the novel in the 21
st
century meant I had left 26
th
century and returned to my old world. With the arrival in this world of baby Sky, I couldn’t understand why I would take such a decision and mere thought of it, troubled me. 

I went quiet for the rest of that day with all sorts of thoughts running through my mind. I didn’t want to keep secrets from Luna, but there again, if she had read the book, she already knew I was going to discover this novel at some point.

What if Luna hadn’t read the book and wasn’t aware how it ends?

How could I tell her that somehow I had travelled back and abandoned her and our baby?

I had a big dilemma ahead of me. I had to choose between telling Luna the truth and hurting her, or keeping my discovery a secret and protect her from getting stressed during the pregnancy. No matter how I looked at this, I couldn’t escape the guilt. On the other hand, I couldn’t help thinking if she knew about the book way before we met. Past conversations between Luna and I, kept resurfacing in my mind and some strange words at the time made more sense than before.

Being a very old book, meant its survival through the centuries, was down to becoming a classic. If this novel had become a classic for reasons connected to the period I visited, there was a good chance that Luna had read the story. If this had to be true, she must have been aware who I was when we met that day on the beach. It meant Luna knew how our story ends and had chosen to throw away her future to be with me.

I had to have travelled back, since this novel was written in the 21
st
century. She must be truly in love with me to go through such a risky relationship. Knowing what is going to happen and choosing to have a child with me regardless, it is a kind of commitment no one enters for fun.

I didn’t know what to think anymore and decided to keep my discovery to myself for the time being. Ultimately, if Luna had read the novel, then she would understand why I had to keep it a secret and if she hadn’t, I would spare her the stress of dealing with something unexpected and important like this while she was expecting.

I decided to discover the truth as I read along in the days that followed and until then, I had to convince myself that nothing had happened. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy for me to act normal after what I had discovered, but it was worth a try, for Luna was pregnant and inflicting stress in her mind may affect the arrival of baby Sky.

It was a quiet evening between us as we sat together watching on Holo a live reality show about a group of creative youngsters competing for the best innovative idea, a program that Luna followed regularly. I kept quiet about my discovery as I thought I was doing the right thing by hiding the truth from her. However, out of the blue she came up with some dubious questions that made think she already knew.

“Scotty, has something happened today at work? Do you need to share what’s on your mind?”

It felt like her question had to do exactly with what I had discovered and yet I wasn’t entirely sure, so I responded with a question of my own.

“I’m not sure why would you ask me this. Why don’t you start telling me what made you ask such a question?”

“You are quieter than usual. Clearly there is something troubling you and I think you look like someone who has discovered something important.”

In that moment, I knew she was aware of everything and I answered somehow relieved that I didn’t have to lie to her.

“Something important huh, like an old book, perhaps?”

“You have finally discovered your novel?”

“Yeah, about that, who would have thought I was capable to write a book?”

“It’s not a bad novel, I like it.”

“I was worried you would get stressed if I told you, but it seems you knew from the beginning,” I replied without hiding a sarcastic snare.

“I am sorry to have kept it a secret, but I had to follow the course of events and let you discover it by yourself. I wasn’t aware the novel was about our relationship specifically, until the day we met on the beach and it is exactly as you have described. I truly fell in love with you that day.”

“So, you knew from the moment we met what our future was going to be like, or perhaps should I speculate that your presence there that day wasn’t a coincidence at all.”

‘Everyone knew who you were when you arrived here, which explains you being the main event on the global and local news that day and the next, but there are many girls named Luna. I wasn’t sure if that girl was me until I saw you on the beach and it all made sense by then.”

“What you are telling me is that you walking on the beach that day, was purely coincidental?”

“Absolutely, if you remember when I first cast my eyes on you, I stopped with a shocked look on my face and that was the moment when I realise the story was about us. This is why I couldn’t stop smiling when you started to talk to me. I could have told you everything, but there was the risk that you would have never believed me and even if you had, knowing about what was going to happen next would have changed our future and all the nice moments we have had so far.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean now. I only read the first two chapters and I don’t know how it ends, but it is obvious to me that I will return to the 21
st
century and write this novel. How do you feel about this?”

“Of course I feel bad, but maybe you will return back to us again since you have not written another book after this one. I only know our future up to a point and after that, all I have is hope.”

“You are saying that I only wrote this book? This is good. It means I must have made it back.”