Artie finally left him alone in
Philly’s apartment. A long narrow space with a window at one end partially
obscured by an aged painted screen. Behind the screen he found her bed all in
white with the pillows askew and a mound of feathered comforter in the center.
Stacks of books served as bedside tables.
One wall of the narrow space was
brick and against it was a white leather sofa, small in scale with the room but
punched with bright purple and red pillows. A large round mirror hung above it
and on the opposite wall was a flat screen. He looked at it and figured it to be
some kind of an image projector. The other end of the room held a tiny kitchen
where food would be prepared. A bowl of apples scented the space. A small table
held electronic equipment. Two doors in the entry way were for storage. The
third opening near the image projector led him into another room. Small but with
a large double hung window. It smelled of linseed oil. The walls were white and
the floor partially covered in canvas cloth. Against the walls were many
canvases. None were framed but he knew she had painted them. One still remained
on the standing easel partially finished. She liked landscapes. He tried two
other doors in the room. One was a bathroom and the other a closet that held her
clothes. He lightly ran his hand over her clothes and then closed the door. This
was Philly’s space. She had come from this small space to his marble palace. He
smiled a little.
He would sleep there in her bed and
hold her pillows close to him. Tomorrow he would find her.
Artie pulled to the curb. He was
early but La Croix was already out there waiting for him.
"Good morning, you do all aright
last night?"
John looked at him. "I slept."
"You know I didn’t even think about
it but we didn’t get anything to eat last night. You hungry?"
"Yes."
Artie stopped a few blocks away and
ran into a little hole in the wall place. He brought out two breakfast
sandwiches of toasted bread, egg and bacon. "We’ll have to eat on the run cause
Ralph said we needed to start out early. This here is your coffee and there’s
cream and sugar in the bag."
John looked in the bag and at the
paper cup. He wasn’t sure what to do with it.
"Put the coffee in the cup holder.
This probably ain’t nothing like you’re used to eating."
"No."
"Just peel the paper back and take a
bite." He was doing the same while steering the car with a finger. "You know, I
ain’t so sure about this transporter. It’s all right for birds but for a man…I
don’t know. Maybe we ought to try it out first."
"Why?"
"Well, to make sure you come back in
one piece."
"I am familiar with it. It is an
energy. Something I once had."
"You once had…you had a
transporter?"
"I was the transporter. I created my
own energy and moved from place to place."
"Really? Dayum. Well, you still got
something. I mean I don’t know what it is but you got something. Yeah, there’s
something about you that’s different."
"I cannot be harmed."
Artie glanced over at him. "You got
some special powers?"
"I am protected from harm. It is a
gift from the gods."
"Wow, so you traded your immortality
for protection."
"I did not trade. I did not know
when I left our world if I would leave with anything that I had."
"You must care a lot for Philly."
"Yes, I do."
"You’re late." Ralph greeted them at
his front door.
"Late? It’s not even 8:00 yet."
Artie followed him through the door with John coming behind him.
Out in his laboratory Ralph went to
the controls. "Have you figured out a date?"
"Ah, well, we don’t know for sure,"
Artie hedged.
"The time machine was set in
increments of 10. Ten years into the future." John walked to the machine. "I
will know within five minutes whether she is there or not."
"Increments of ten. Do you actually
think I am going to transport you every ten years for…how long do you think? I’m
not going to jeopardize my transporter for-"
He’d moved so quickly Artie wasn’t
sure seen him move. His eyes widened.
John stood very close to Ralph. "You
will do as I say." He turned to Artie. "If he does not bring me back…kill him."
"Oh…now wait a minute, St. Croix."
"Very well," Ralph walked to the
controls. "Step inside."
John still looked at Artie. Artie
looked away and then back. "All right…I’ll kill him."
John stepped inside "Five minutes
and you bring me back."
Two trips into the future and John
decided she was in the past. He was depending on the stone to guide him. It had
not warmed as it had in the museum workroom.
Philly went to the museum with the
Professor and checked on the time machine. They were still waiting on the
manufacturer. Feeling down she went upstairs and wandered around the exhibits.
She became aware the necklace was warm and pulled it out and looked at it.
Unaware of the significance of the heat it generated she thought perhaps he was
thinking of her. She left it on the outside of her bodice. He was never far
from her thoughts. She found herself standing in front of the Trojan War
paintings again. Greek and Roman mythology…it was all a myth wasn’t it? The
Professor said she’d been back in the time of gods and goddesses. How could that
be so if it was all a myth? She moved away and came upon a painting of
Aphrodite. From the Professor’s lecture the previous evening she knew a little
about the goddess of love. She’d once fallen in love with a mortal and had his
son…Aeneas.
"I’ve fallen in love with a god."
She whispered. "How impossible is that?" She moved back to the painting
depicting Aeneas. He’d been married twice and had a number of children plus he’d
had a year- long affair with the Queen of Carthage, Dido. "Quite a lover, a
warrior, a hero and a god. Are you my god?"
Frustrated at being trapped between
two worlds she left the museum and sought solace in the park.
She became aware of the necklace
again. It’s heat penetrated the thin material of her bodice. She reached in and
pulled it outside of her coat. Deborah was very generous with her clothes and
lent her a long woolen coat. She’d declined the hat and found the fashions a
little over the top. From a fitted bodice with a double row of buttons the coat
hung sacklike to her mid calf. Deborah was a little shorter than her. She wore
her own boots.
Taking a few more steps she was in
Shakespeare’s Garden. The necklace began to glow and she stopped and looked at
it. "Oh, I wish you’d told me something about this ." She lifted it up. It was
very warm but it didn’t burn. It glowed and the glow lifted from the necklace
into the air an disappeared. "How odd. Maybe I shouldn’t even be wearing this
thing."
It was the fourth try into the
past. John materialized in the same spot but he was on solid ground, not the
steps to the entrance of the museum. He turned to see the entrance was not there
at all. In the few minutes he had he lifted his necklace and smiled. "Yes."
While he held it the glow increased and out of the air came the answering
contact he sought. Across the street was an entrance to the park. He almost took
a step before he was retrieved to Ralph’s laboratory.
"I have found her. You must send me
back but not the same coordinates. The entrance to the museum is not there."
Artie came off the stool where he’d
been slumped fearing this was an exercise in futility. "You found her, did you
see her?"
"No but she is there."
"1911…she missed it by a hundred
years. Ralph, what can you do?"
Ralph let out a breath. "I can put
him across the street. Now I must tell you something. I have never sent anyone
or anything out and brought more than one back. I’m not sure what you think
you’re going to be able to do. You have no idea where to locate her or how long
it will take and I must put in a retrieval time and place."
"The same place you put me down. As
for time I do not know."
"Well, we know she goes to the
museum and the park, you said the park was there? That’s Central Park…she’d go
there, St. Croix."
"Send me back there now and in four
hours I will be at the same place with Philly."
"What about what Ralph said? He
can’t bring you both back."
"Then I will send her if she will
go. You can make a second try for me."
"I’m afraid you don’t understand how
this works." Ralph was exasperated.
"Do it now!" John stepped inside the
transporter and in a moment he disappeared.
"Look, Ralph, you don’t want to
cross this dude. He’s not like you and me. He’s come a long way trying to find
the woman he loves. You ain’t gonna stop him."
Ralph rolled his eyes. "I’m not
trying to stop him I was trying to explain something to him. If I don’t send
something I can’t bring it back. Do you see?"
John materialized at the entrance to
the park. He hesitated a moment looking at the museum and then turned back
towards the park. He looked at his necklace and saw the glow increase and lift
away into the air. It would lead him to her.
Concerned about the necklace’s
strange behavior, Philly stopped on the path and tried to unhook it from around
her neck. The clasp wouldn’t open. She looked up distracted by something and
froze.
It couldn’t be…it was just her
projecting a wish…a…"You, are you real?"
"Philly, come to me."
She ran to him and stopped about a
foot away. "You are real…I don’t know how but…oh." Her arms went around
his shoulders and he held her tightly against him. She was blubbering. "I knew I
shouldn’t have left you. I regretted it. I wanted to go back to you."
"I found you. I will never let you
go, Philly." He kissed her and her arms went up around his neck and her hands in
his hair.
To feel him beneath her hands when
she thought she’d never see him again was too much. Her eyes spilled over and
down her cheeks. She took his face in her hands. "I love you. I don’t even know
who you are or what to call you. I doesn’t matter but I can’t keep calling
you…You."
He smiled, "I have picked up a
name…John St. Croix."
"Picked up…it’s not your real name."
"No and someday I will tell you. I
will tell you everything. We have about three and a half hours before we are to
go back."
"Go back…go back where?"
"To your time, 2011."
"But, how did you get here?"
"You remember Homer? He still had
the machine he traveled in. I was able to use it and traveled to Artie Wilson’s
workshop. I thought to find you there. He found someone with a transporter and
so I am here. It has taken many trips to find the right time."
"You’ve been with Artie…so he’s
not…in jail?"
"No, he is not and he was on the
verge of turning himself in when I arrived."
"I’m so glad he’s okay. There’s
someone here that I have to tell good-by. Professor Rinehart has been trying to
repair the time machine. You won’t believe how I ended up here." She reached in
the pocket of her coat. "This, this little pebble was lodged in the time wheel.
I think it was Aceton pulling me through the forest."
"It was Aceton that first alerted me
to you. "
"And you gave him his life back.
That was my first glimpse of you…the real you behind the energy field and the
flashing eyes."
"You will not see any more of that.
I have made a one way journey and some powers have been lost. I came to find
you. I know you are my last chance at happiness and love."
"I would have come to you once the
time machine was repaired."
"No, this is better. It is better
that I am with you and all past is forgotten."
"But not until you tell me about it.
You did say you would."
"And I will. Time passes if there is
something you must do then we should get on with it."
"Let’s go to the museum. The
Professor will be there." She linked her arm with his. "I wanted to ask you
about this necklace you gave me. It gets hot and does funny things."
"It is the necklace that led me to
you. You see, I have the other half."
"Oh, my goodness, and I tried to
take it off." She laughed. How quickly her whole world had changed with his
appearance. He was like the sun coming out on a cloudy day.
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