I prepared to make my own trip back to the present but before I could even close my eyes the world began to spin and twist around me. Colors blurred together and separated again, a whirling palette of reality. I felt gravity bend, tugging me in different directions with every passing millisecond. My travel headache, which I had become accustomed to experiencing, burst into action with a force I could never have imagined.
I bore witness to the rebirth of a complete, healthy prime universe, and it nearly killed me.
Chapter 26
1
I awoke in my own bed. I rolled to my right and muscle memory moved my hand toward where my phone “lived” connected to its charger on my nightstand. It was there. I pulled it closer and tapped the power button with my finger. The screen showed the date and time: 6:32 AM, Tuesday, December 17, 2013. The same day I had left on my great and terrible adventure.
I rolled over to my left and nearly had a heart attack. Helena was curled up around her pillow, eyes open, studying me. She smiled cautiously. “Dan, I’m so glad you’re okay! You were tossing and turning all night. Screaming and hollering and I couldn’t wake you up… I thought you were really sick. I know the doctor said to give you a pill if you started having one of your episodes but I didn’t know if I could and…”
“Honey, I’m here and I’m totally fine,” I said. I felt fine, too. The headache was completely gone. I felt rested and healthy. The shock of seeing Helena faded quickly. The memories of watching her die were still clear in my mind, yet they seemed like they had happened to someone else. Like watching a particularly disturbing movie. This in front of me was my Helena, but there was something different. A genuine compassion in her face. A sweetness I hadn’t seen from her in years.
“You’re sure?” she asked. She was still watching me, like she thought I might start screaming again.
“I’m sure.” I was overjoyed to be back home and back with my wife. I kissed her. She pulled me down on top of her and I made good use of my newfound energy.
After, she reminded me that I had the day off. When she asked what I planned to do with my freedom, I told her I just wanted to hang around and spend time with her. Helena smiled and went off to the kitchen to make breakfast.
I flopped back on the bed with my iPhone in hand. I had thought that if I ever came back to the prime universe I’d have to account for months of absence. It seemed like instead I’d returned before I’d ever made the trip. A chance to start clean. Still… was it possible all of that had never happened? Maybe it was a delusion brought on by stress and the strange functionality of my brain…the trips to the doctor seemed to have still taken place.
I absolutely refused to try traveling, not even to go back one day just to prove it hadn’t been a dream. I couldn’t risk damaging everything again. I was lucky to be alive and to have been able to repair the universe, assuming that’s what had happened. No matter what, I was staying put in my time and my world.
One thing nagged at me. I loaded up Safari on my phone and searched for Suzy Bailey. It didn’t take long to locate her. The link for her Facebook profile was one of the top matches. I loaded the mobile app and searched again. There she was, confirming that I wasn’t all crazy. She existed and she looked exactly how she had appeared in the alternate 2013. She was single, but she looked happy. A little more research confirmed that her life was almost the same as it had been in the other world. Our summer fling hadn’t changed much of anything after all, and my later involvement had gotten her killed.
I wondered what it all meant. Justin the computer guy hadn’t interfered with Suzy’s life plan after all. There was no special man she had been meant to marry. That realization broke my heart. The “real” Suzy had never had the love that I had shared with her in the alternate reality.
I stared up at the ceiling and thought through everything I had experienced. I didn’t want to travel through time anymore, but there was one remaining question in the present. Suzy and I had almost rekindled our relationship before the other Daniel interfered. I wondered…
I dialed the number I found for her. She answered on the third ring, and different universe or not, her voice almost brought me to tears. “Hello?”
“Hi,” I said, and then waited in silence, hoping that the right words would come to me eventually.
“Hello?” she said again. “Who is this? Who are you trying to reach?”
“My name’s Daniel,” I said. “Are you… are you happy, Suzy?”
“Daniel? What? I don’t understand. Do I know you?”
“Are you happy?” I asked again.
“Um…yes? Is that what you want to hear? Who are you?”
“I…I really should go.” I hung up the phone and brushed away one lone tear as it made its way down my cheek toward the pillow.
“Dan,” Helena called, “your eggs are going to get cold!”
“Coming, babe,” I responded. I put the phone back on the nightstand, got out of bed and went to join my wife for breakfast.
January, 2015
Wellington, Florida
ALSO BY FREDRIC SHERNOFF
Atlantic Island
Rising Tide (Atlantic Island II)
Angels of the Earth (A Silo Saga Novella)
Doing the Job (Nonfiction)
The Traveler: A Time Travel Thriller Page 20