Encompassing Love

by Richard Lord

  She began staring out at nothing in particular and he watched her arms go up to hug herself. Then she muttered, “So the martyr was man?”

  “Of course he was. Hell, I’ve told you he was my brother and my great-grandson. That doesn’t make his deeds any less noble!” Adam stopped.

  Tomorrow continued to look at nothing. Finally her eyes turned up to the stars. “No it makes them more noble. He had weaknesses and yet he faced his own death to help others.”

  Adam thought about that and was surprised by that comment from her. He decided he should continue with what he was saying before she stopped him. “Anyway, they know you are a bio, and they know what you can do. They are familiar with it. Phillip could do it and they have started noticing their children doing some of the same things. They are willing to give you great living quarters and good food, in exchange for you training their children on how to control their…things.”

  Tomorrow turned to Adam quickly. “Wait, you’re the best teacher. Where will you be?” Then she heard his answer and began to cry again. “No Adam! No! I’ve decided! I want to spend the rest of my life with you. No, please, no!”

  “I’m not leaving you, but I won’t be around as much. I have a lot to do. I can’t move forward anymore and I can’t go back past when I was born anymore. What Stephen did changed a lot of the rules. I have to accept that it’s not possible to change that. There are loopholes, but I’m not going to get into that. I don’t think Stephen’s methods were at all humane or even half way decent. But, things are the way they are. It creates a better model for those like us. I could literally spend another few years explaining that to you. We can’t use time to override each other anymore. Trust me, that’s more of a relief than I could explain.” Adam looks at her with a worried brow, but he was careful to be sure his overall demeanor was calm.

  Slowly Tomorrow turned her head to look at him, as if she was in a daze, but she spoke, “What are their names?”

  “Huh? Oh!” Adam adjusted and thought about it for the first time, “Tina named her daughter Amelia, but she goes by Amy. Venetia named her son Conan, but he answers to Coco more often.”

  “What does that mean?” Tomorrow looked at his face with a lot of emotion in her own.

  “I’m not sure. I suspect Phillip’s humor at play there. Coco was the name of an ape that could talk to humans. While it could communicate it was still considered only an ape. There’s another reference from the past, but it’s pretty much the same thing.”

  Tomorrow was trying hard to be strong. She asked, “When are you leaving?”

  Adam realized he hadn’t thought about it. Then he answered, “I’ll stay with you long enough to teach you how to survive in an above ground city. It’s not that much different from down there, but there are things you aren’t used to.” He reached out to grab her hand and then he squeezed it tight. “I’ll be back often. Right now, this is the most sane way for you to continue Phillips dream. If you meet someone else, don’t hide it from me. I’ll understand.”

  “Adam, I could never meet anyone like you. Will you eventually stay with me?” Tomorrow began to cry again as she studied his face.

  “How about I make weekend visits. I’ll negotiate for you to have weekends off. That’s something they did in the old days.” Adam looked at her and then realized he had to explain, it made him feel useful, but also old. “For every five times the sun rises, I will be here for two of them after that.”

  Tomorrow wiped at her eyes, and said, “OK.” Then she squeezed his hand tight.

  Adam began to rise to continue their decent down to the valley below but she did not stand and held his grasp firm. He turned and saw the look on her face. He lay down in the grass beside her and began kissing her back. He could hear all of her organs churning with fear. Something that wasn’t her normal anymore. She showed little fear these days. He sat up and looked at her and kissed her while saying, “Now’s a good time to let that out! You certainly don’t want to stink up the meeting room. First impressions mean a lot!” He laughed and she smiled at him.

  “I’m going to miss you a lot. I don’t understand why we couldn’t stay where we were, but I suppose I always knew you were training me for something. This way, I get to help the martyr and not go back to that hole in the ground, as you call it.” Tomorrow pointed all of this out to make sure he understood she didn’t’ feel he had betrayed her.

  “Another thing. They know all about your mother, but they never met her. Phillip did visit her almost daily for a while. Just so you know he had to stop seeing her when he realized he was putting her in peril. I don’t know the details, but I thought you should know.” Adam leaned over and kissed her as if the world was ending.

  He heard Tomorrow think back to him, “It is.”

  CHAPTER 15

  “She wasn’t what I expected. She was more. The one we called Adam had taught her many things.” -- from the Book of Venetia

  “Okay you two. Stop. Get something to eat, we’re going to the hillside outside of town. Which one of you wants to go first?”

  Both of them raised their hands immediately.

  “Ok, just remember whoever goes first will be alone for a while and has to not move!”

  Both of them lowered their hands.

  “Well one of you has to go first. So are boys stronger or are girls stronger?”

  Conan made a raspberry sound with is lips. “Everyone knows boys are stronger!”

  Amy, looked at him sideways, “I think girls are because we are more patient and we don’t have to protect things down there.”

  Surprised at that response, Tomorrow replies, “Okay we’ll throw the rabbit in the air. If Fluffy lands on his head, then the boy goes first. If he lands on his butt, the girl goes first.”

  Odd topic Conan asks, “When is that man coming back. He hasn’t been here in a long time.”

  Tomorrow refocuses, “What man?”

  Amy replies, “Your boyfriend!”

  Conan laughs awkwardly.

  Tomorrow looks at the two of them, “Why do you ask? I’m surprised you even remember him. That was a long time ago.”

  Amy says, “But you still think about him. When you’re not sneaking out of here to do whatever it is you’re doing.”

  Tomorrow looks at Amy. “I don’t have to sneak anywhere. When I am not working with the two of you I have the right to go where I please.”

  Conan adds, “That’s not what it sounds like to us. You sound sneaky when you are going somewhere else.”

  Tomorrow ignores both of them and tosses the rabbit into the air. It lands flat on it’s face. She groans slightly to herself. “Okay Conan, come here, but remember you have to stay where we land until I come back with your cousin. Do you understand?”

  Conan murmurs, “Uh huh.”

  Tomorrow groans to herself inwardly again and then as he reaches out she touches his hand and clicks.

  They appear on the hill above the city. “You sit here Conan. Do not move. Wait.” Then she clicks back, hoods out her hand to Amy and Amy walks toward her giggling.

  “Do you want to take bets on if he’s there by the time we get there?” Amy asks.

  “No. And it’s not funny.” Tomorrow clicks and of course, Conan has already wandered. Amy frees her hand of Tomorrow’s and clicks.

  Then Tomorrow looks up and sees Conan dragging his cousin by the hair, “I knew she was going to do that.” Then Amy reaches up, grabs her cousins arm and they both click away again. Then they appear in front of her, Conan still gripping her hair. Tomorrow quickly reaches out with a hand around Amy’s wrist as she looks at Conan. “Why would she want to get away? What is there to get away from, or too for that matter?”

  “She wants to see the world. Like you did. She can’t go very far. I can go further.” Conan announces and let’s go of his cousin’s hair. He looks at Amy and says, “I am trying to look out for you. You are foolish some times and that’s what boys do. They look out for girls.”


  Tomorrow thinks then says, “Okay, if I take you further, can you promise to stay with me, BOTH of you?”

  They look up and nod. Then Amelia asks, a question. “Why do people bury the dead?”

  Tomorrow looks at her wondering where the question is coming from, but she responds. “Adam explained. It is ritual. A long time ago a dead body drew scavengers, it’s not just bad for the camp, people feel emotion and don’t want their loved ones to be eaten, so they buried them deep enough that scavengers couldn’t get to them.”

  Amelia tilts her head and says, “I love my brother. Will I bury him?”

  Tomorrow thinks this is an odd question, but answers, “Amy, you’re a girl. Girls usually don’t do the burying.”

  Amelia replies, “Didn’t you teach us that things like that are sexist?”

  “”Didn’t I just teach you that some things are tradition for a reason?” Tomorrow fires back at her student.

  Amelia tilts her head again and says, “Fair enough. We want to go someplace with you.”

  Tomorrow takes a breath wondering at Ameilia’s keenness, but says, “Okay then, choose. Do you want to go someplace good or someplace bad?

  The cousins look up at her as if it’s an odd question and then ponder it.

  Then Conan announces, “I have to pee.”

  Tomorrow looks at him and says, all right, well then go over there and take care of it.

  Conan begins to walk off in the direction she pointed to and then she hears Amy say, “I do too.”

  “Umm, Okay.” Tomorrow looks behind her and points, “You can go over there.”

  Then Conan says, “Why do I have this and she has a hole?”

  Tomorrow, not at all expecting the question looks at Conan, “What do you mean?”

  Conan asks, “If I put this into her, would we make babies?”

  Tomorrow becoming entirely flustered answers, “No. Well, yes, but not with your cousin. You have to find your own girl and she has to find her own boy. Cousins don’t have babies together or even try.”

  Conan responds, “But I don’t know any other girls.”

  Tomorrow realizes that the sheltered life has not been good for them. “You will when it’s time.” Tomorrow answers.

  Amy turns her head and asks Tomorrow, “When will it be time?”

  Tomorrow answers swiftly trying to stay ahead of the barrage of questions she supposes every child wonders around their age. “No one knows for sure. I would say in a few years, judging by your ages now.” Then she stops cold. She does the math in her head. They are about twelve, but they were conceived before she was born. That would mean they should be about her age, but they weren’t. They were clearly younger. Her mind reeled for a moment and she could hear the kids asking her questions, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Then she remembered something Adam had said to her. In fact two things: “Time is complicated.” And he also said, “I can only travel within my own lifetime now.”

  She yelled at the kids, pull your britches up, let’s go! Amy, I’ll take you first. Trust me when I say don’t move. It’s a very deadly place. I know, I’ve been there.”

  Tomorrow walked over to Amy, grabbed her hand and she clicked. She could see the place and the time in her mind, so she thought she might be able to do this, but she wasn’t sure. She considered that she might be foolish to put Amy at risk, but it was too late. As she appeared on the edge of the cliff, she looked out and saw herself and Adam. Quickly she clicked back and arrived with Conan. Then she looked down and saw Adam was peeing. Then she caught it. He looked directly at her and waved. Her mind began reeling as she considered the fact that Adam knew then. She calmed herself enough to realize she had just made her first time jump. Then she heard Amy behind her.

  “Isn’t that you down there? You look younger.” Amy put a hand to her mouth in shock.

  Tomorrow turned to look at herself looking up between Adam’s legs. She blushed at her actions as a young woman. He had changed her, made her very different. She was older now. She had been raising the kids for years. Then she heard Conan behind her.

  “I’m hungry, can we go back now, it’s hot here.” Conan wasn’t paying attention. He was focused solely on his own wants.

  Tomorrow wanted to answer, “Try rattlesnake!” But instead she took a breath and said, “Okay, Amy your first. Conan, don’t move. I promise you - you will regret it if you do.”

  The way she said it had more of an effect on him than she expected. She knew he had just relieved himself before they clicked here but, apparently, he wasn’t done. She looked at his pants and realized she had to take him first. She turned to Amy, but saw the same dilemma. “Okay, Amy concentrate on my thoughts and grab your cousin’s hand, we’re going to try something.” Tomorrow realized she couldn’t organize her thoughts well and started to let go when she felt Amy tug at her hand.

  “I know what you are trying to do. I’ll hold onto Conan.” Amy began to concentrate on Tomorrow’s mind to be sure she could get the timing right.

  Tomorrow started to reconsider but instead she just clicked. Her theory worked. Amy could listen clearly. While she couldn’t click very far, let alone time, she could do it with help. She had been the one to move Conan with her.

  Tomorrow then snapped into action. “Okay, kids. Get out of those wet clothes and into a bath. When you are done, come give me a hug. I think we have had enough adventure for today.”

  Both of the cousins nodded and began to strip. Tomorrow spoke up, “I meant in your own quarters. Actually, whatever, just hand me your clothes so I can go wash them.”

  Not too long after she set up the washed clothes to dry and set out their night clothes on their beds, they walked back into the classroom, still not wearing any clothes, but soaking wet. They walked towards her and each of them hugged her.

  Tomorrow looked at them, “Did you two walk down the halls like that?”

  They looked at her and nodded.

  “Remember I said you’re going to change soon. It is no longer okay to walk around without clothes. Understood?”

  They both nodded.

  Tomorrow added, “It’s not because you two are different, but it’s why you see adults wearing clothes. Understand?”

  The two cousins looked at each other and then back to Tomorrow and nodded.

  “Sleep well you two. I hope you had fun today.” Tomorrow said as she watched their faces and they simply nodded again. Then they ran off to their own rooms and she stood to head towards hers with a head full of things to think about. As she was closing the door to the classroom she thought to herself, “Well at least they will listen to me better now.” Then she clicked into her own bed and stared up at the ceiling for a while trying to unravel what it was Adam had planned and why. Then she thought of the things she has been doing in her spare time and noted that if the children had figured out that she was keeping a secret, it was possible others, without their rudimentary ability to hear her, may also be aware of what she was doing.

  She started to fall asleep, but she couldn’t stop thinking about those topics. She sat up, wrapped a robe around herself and clicked down to the common area and found the concierge. As she approached eh smiled at her, as was clearly one of the reasons he held his position. She wondered what he was really thinking about her approaching him so late with only a robe on. “I’m told news comes here in writing. I would like one of those things sent to my room in the morning, please.” The concierge made a note and bowed to her. As she walked away, she rounded the corner and clicked back to her bed.

  Then she sat up again. She couldn’t read very well. Most of what she had learned she had learned from Adam only in situation where he had to explain what letters were and their basic sounds, so he could hand her a short note, usually a single word, at the most two, so that she could carry it with her to remember the tasks he had given her. Usually they were at the end of a long list which he audibly told her, but she did find the notes useful towards the end. The rest she h
ad learned from tutors, such as herself, who were assigned to teach her to read so she wouldn’t remain behind the kids too far in that rudimentary skill. While she could recognize words, she didn’t know all of them. There were few sentences she could make out, as a whole. She considered asking the concierge to read to her, but decided on concealing her weakness until she overcame it.

  Exhausted by all of the thoughts in her head, she started to fall asleep. Then she came to full consciousness one last time as she kissed the last pillow her Adam had slept on. That was so long ago, it no longer smelled like him. It smelled like everything else in her room, but it had become a habit.

  CHAPTER 16

  “He told me, to understand time and space, learn to use a bullwhip in thin air.” -- from the Book of Tomorrow

  “Those were bog fish. Why did you click me out, I almost had one.” Tomorrow looked up at Adam wondering.

  “Do you remember me showing you how a triggerfish has teeth and how aggressive they are?” Adam asked.

  “Yes. They’re colorful, but I’ve seen what jerks they are to other fish.” Tomorrow answered.

  “Ok, well those are called sharks. They eat fish too and people. In fact they are pretty efficient about it.”

  “But I can click, Adam. I could have had one.” Tomorrow responds.

  Adam laughs and out loud he says, “Great plan, Tomorrow. Bring something on the boat that can eat us.” He again laughs at her naiveté but stops himself and says, “They don’t taste good.”

  Tomorrow asks, “So they taste like rats or bats?”

  Adam smiles and says “No, tougher meat, like gator. It’s not fun to try to cook and it’s not fun to eat.”

  “You’ve tried it?” She stares at the shark with hunger.

  “Yes, really big fish. But with big teeth and the meat isn’t really worth the risk. Plus, your fishing method is a tad insane. I keep trying to show you how regular people do it, but you are determined to do it your way which puts you at risk. If you see one, you click back. Understood?”