Encompassing Love

by Richard Lord

  CHAPTER 35

  “We all existed. We all played our part.” -- from the Book of Stephen

  “Lords, I’m glad I met you. Pardon my place.” She left the bed to put on a silk robe and head to the restroom. She liked the silk robe because it made her feel like she had accomplished something in life, although she lived in what she called a ‘rat box’ in the middle of a high rise in the city. As she sat letting her bladder release into the bowl she watched a roach crawl out of a crack, inspect the area and then crawl back into the crack. She was hoping her lover would not notice the problem that plagued her by living in the place she did. Leaving her own bathroom she saw him laying and staring at the ceiling.

  “Did you have fun?” She asked.

  “I think you know the answer to that.” He grinned up at her as she leaned over him asking for some reassurance that he would be back.

  She laid down next to him and pulled the sheet up over herself to remove it as an obstruction between their bodies. “What are you thinking about?”

  He looked slightly, but not overly startled as he reached out his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to himself for a kiss. “Not much, just all the troubles of the world.”

  She gave him a look of disapproval and hurt. “That’s what you think about after we…?”

  “Well, I sometimes wonder why I deserve such bliss with you. So there is the answer to your question. Yes, I’m happy! Now get my suit, woman, I think I’m late.” As she started to rise he held her arm fast and kissed her as if the world would end.

  She kissed him back and as she felt her passions rise she cut the kiss short and said, “Umm, do you want to keep your job or not?”

  He laughed and said, “Hmm, my woman is more important to me, actually, but I suppose she’d leave me if I went broke.”

  She laughed and replied, “So, I’ve been thinking about kids.”

  He immediately sat up and started dressing. “Uh huh, so who’s the Daddy?”

  “Not funny!” She smacked his rear as she watched him dress hurriedly. “Have you ever thought about it?”

  “I think about your behind, your kisses and the way you do what you do. I suppose one day, but I don’t make enough, so can you put your clock on hold?” He asked her and then kissed her thigh.

  “Nope. Rumor is we don’t have to be rich to have kids. Plus, I’ve dated other guys. You seem like the fatherly type and I really don’t want you out of my life.” She responded.

  “Bah, I got taken advantage of last night by a harpy! I just met you on the street corner!” He replied laughing.

  “Not funny, it’s been a long time, Adam. I know we’re young, but isn’t that when we are supposed to have kids?”

  “I didn’t say no. Maybe, Tomorrow. I don’t like to plan things and I am late.” Renfield corrected her.

  “It’s times like this I wish you could spend a day with me and then just click back in time to get to work. I’ll be in later today.” Tomorrow flopped on her back and stared at the ceiling.

  Adam looked at her. It was if there was an echo from another life pounding in his head when she said that. He looked at his watch. He took it off and flung it, hard across the room and it made a sizeable impression in her wall. “Ok, my dear, I’m all yours. What are they going to do, fire me? I’m top in the nation. Come here!”

  She giggled, looked slightly concerned about his decision for a moment and then grabbed his body with her legs. Then she whispered in his ear. “Not bad for a miscreant!”

  “I have no idea what that arrest was about, but it blew over. It wasn’t funny. For some reason there was an officer there who seemed to have it out for me, but his boss wasn’t digging that vibe, baby.” Adam laughed at his impression. “It was like he knew me.”

  “You’ve always felt familiar to me.”

  Adam grabbed at her and threw away her silk robe, sure to aim for the hook she liked for it to sit on. “You are my Tomorrow.”

  “You bring me joy!” Her pupils dilated as she spoke the words. She didn’t know why, but she felt more connected to Adam than ever. She pulled his body in to hers.

  Adam sunk into her with a burning passion to complete them.

  Tomorrow reached for her clockradio to turn of the alarm she had set for the last possible moment to wake Adam so he could get to work on time. Her finger hits the wrong button and the song “Kashmir” begins to play. The disc jokey announces, “This song was written by a young band I personally think will be legendary!”

  Adam stops moving as he hears the opening words. He looks at Tomorrow. “I have to save our daughter.”

  She looks at him as if he had hit his head. “Adam, we were working on kids, we don’t have any yet.”

  “Yeah, but we did. A long time from now. You’re like a celebrity, I’m old. I don’t know. It feels like an echo that is true. Not just the noise.”

  “The noise? We’ve been through this. Are you still taking the medication?” She looked grabbed his face and looked him in the eye.

  “No, are you?” Adam asked, but she knew he already knew the answer to his question.

  “No.” She felt ashamed to admit it. They had met in the same group. His descriptions of memories that were not his own was so much like hers. He was cute, handsome, in fact. Strong willed. And she loved that he was intelligent. She wondered what caused him to have the same problems she did.

  “I have to save all of my daughters!” Adam began to remove himself from her embrace even though she was trying hard to hold him tight.

  “Adam, you don’t have any daughters.” Tomorrow looked confused and afraid that she may have misjudged him. Perhaps he truly was as mad as a hatter.

  Adam looked directly back into her eyes, “Hatters went mad because of the mercury that was used in their production.” He stopped at the sight of her looking at him with her hand over her mouth in shock.

  “How did you know what I was thinking?” Tomorrow asked.

  “What? I haven’t said anything.” Adam gazed at Tomorrow.

  “Are we?” Tomorrow gestured with her finger to his head and her own and then mouth to mouth.

  “Yeah, it seems that way. I have to go and save my daughters.” Adam replied.

  “You already said that, but you don’t have any daughters, Adam!” Tomorrow responded.

  “I didn’t say that. I’m telling you now.” He turned his head from her and then back to her. “I don’t have any children. That’s odd. Will you come with me?” Adam asked.

  “Where are we going?” Tomorrow asked. Then suddenly they were both in a river.

  “Hold on to me.” Adam considered his own words rattled in his mind. He looked at Tomorrow to be sure she was real and that he wasn’t dreaming.

  Tomorrow looked at him. “I taste sand. Adam, this isn’t my bed, please tell me what’s going on!”

  Adam pulled her to the shore and they lay under the trees for some time while he thought how to answer that. Tomorrow was silent trying to make sense of it herself.

  “This is where I began. I was never born. Being with you. My Alpha and my Omega.”

  “I would say you’re insane, but nothing explains what is going on.” Tomorrow then puts her hand to her mouth realizing she didn’t say those words.

  “Yeah, well if you think that’s weird, look at those two over there?” Adam comments on the couple working diligently at procreating with no lack of fun in their eyes.

  “Adam, I’ve looked in the mirror while we have been, umm, baby making. That’s us!”

  “Yeah, this is strange. Not to mention there are no payphones here, so I can’t call out for the day and you can’t either.” Adam mentions.

  “We’re pretty sexy together!” Tomorrow giggles.

  “Name someplace, I want to try something.” Adam replies.

  “Can I watch us before you get all scientific?” Tomorrow requests. “You definitely look older and I look younger!”

  Adam narrows his eyes at her and then he feels t
he heat on his back. He looks out as he sees himself hovering over Tomorrow pointing from a rise at two people on a cliff below whom are watching a hawk. He feels Tomorrow move.

  “Wow, and we were just starting to get interesting!” Tomorrow comments and then shades her eyes. “Seriously, am I dreaming?” She puts his hand on her rear end and says, “Pinch me!”

  “I can’t, I’m pinching myself. I am not sure what’s happening, but it’s happening.” Adam replies as he points to what he is watching.

  “Oooo, I look even younger! You still look old.” She smiles at him and reaches up to kiss him.

  “Yeah, whatever. Why are we seeing this? How can we be here? I don’t know about you, but I keep reaching for the pillow in your bed that should be right about there, but it’s not.” Adam looks very flustered at the fact that Tomorrow is taking the situation in stride. He is keenly aware this is not normal and also aware it doesn’t make sense to either one of them.

  “Well, from what I can see, those two are not as ‘friendly’ with each other as we are, or were by the river. You seem very serious and you are pointing at two guys. One of them is trying to trick the other one. I can’t tell which.” Tomorrow points to the sun. “It’s hot, this is dusty and disgusting. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to go back to sleep and wake up from this.”

  “I know that gesture. I’m considering something about the two people they are watching. I’m trying to explain it to you, but you don’t understand.” Adam explains, “I’m telling you and asking you.” Adam watches himself then he concludes, “One of those two must die and I have to do it. There is something familiar about them to him and to me.” He stops and looks at Tomorrow, “This me.”

  Tomorrow rolls her eyes at him and continues to pretend she is still in bed.

  “He’s signaling me. He knows I am here!” Adam yells.

  “Good. I suspect he’s telling you to go back to sleep.” Tomorrow reaches for his arm to pull him towards her.

  “Tomorrow, that really is me! I’m using a hand code I made up when I was young.” Adam’s heart beings to race as he repeats to Tomorrow what he is seeing, “Stay low. Which one? Children. Important.” He breathes out as he looks at Tomorrow, “What do you think that means?”

  “I don’t know, Adam. Maybe he wants to know the lottery numbers to pick.” She then sits up. “We really are here, aren’t we?”

  “Do you think he did it? I mean the older me?” Adam asks.

  “I think we have both lost our minds and that were just experiencing the best afterglow of all time. Well, given the environment, maybe the worst. I don’t know.”

  “They are both family. They both end up creating beautiful societies. They both will unintentionally lead to the death of your daughters.” The voice is clear to both of them.

  Tomorrow sits up. “What the hell?”

  “I don’t know. He’s trying to get me to decide which one to kill. What if I kill him?” Adam asks Tomorrow.

  “Have you ever even been in a fight, Adam? Plus he’s kind of far away. Can we just get out of here?” Tomorrow is clearly spooked.

  “I don’t even know how we got here!” Adam’s heart begins to race and then they are behind themselves. Adam moves quickly and grabs himself by the neck and begins struggling to either choke himself or break the neck of the older looking version of himself. He looks down and sees that Tomorrow has already put the younger version of herself down using a far more efficient method.

  She looks at Adam and he hears her think, “She won’t remember a thing.”

  Then they both hear a voice, “Adam, it is him, not you. Leave him alive. You can’t be the one. You are first.”

  Tomorrow looks up at Adam and thinks to him, “What does heyou mean?”

  Adam shrugs. He hears two more voices, “Bob and Tomorrow will finish. You and Tomorrow will begin with Joy.”

  Tomorrow grabs Adam’s arm. “Let him go!” Then she nods and says, “I understand. I have to go with him. I love you, Adam. Please take care of me.” She gestures to herself on the ground.

  He sees the hand signal from both of the figures on the lower cliff, across the divide as he lets his grasp release. The man who looks like him grabs the woman who asked to bear his child and they both vanish. Adam sits as his mind is flooded with millions of memories. Then he wakes Tomorrow.

  She sits up and looks at him, but quickly becomes dizzy with all of the thoughts in his head as she slowly catches up to him. Then Adam reaches out and grabs her arm and they arrive in a bombed out home in the dessert to hear a baby crying.

  “Wow. That’s you! Come on!” Tomorrow urges him to move with her as she pulls the child from the niche he was able to survive in. “You were kind of cute, Adam!”

  Adam, says, “I still am.” Renfield grabs Tomorrow by the arm again and says, “Tandem, I know where, just follow.”

  CHAPTER 36

  “Time is confusing until you’ve had time.” -- from the Book of Sara

  “Well we’ve raised you and sent you off to school, little boy.” Tomorrow laughs at her husband as she watches him sit on the barstool in their quaint, but small kitchen.

  “Not very funny, Sara.” Renfield comments.

  “Neither was you keeping all of this from me, but I understand why.” Sara responds. “I suppose it was true. You didn’t know the name I was using, but you did know the name I had, before you…” Sara watches her husband’s eyes, then asks, “So you had no idea we adopted you, even after you saw me and stranger yet, even yourself, day in and day out?” Tomorrow asked.

  “I don’t think I liked us very much when I was young. I doubt I would have considered it.” Renfield watches Stanley play.

  “It’s odd. I don’t mind as much as you seem to. It makes sense to me now. Brady wasis Johnson’s superior. Brady was dating Christina. Johnson was angry and hated you. Illogical, but he took it out on you since he couldn’t openly despise Brady. He found out what you were, knew about what we were doing and searched out someone who could isolate the genes for himself. That’s why he had two sons of his own. He sent them to meet your daughters to mix your bloodline with his own, so he could have a legacy of his own. The boys didn’t know his plans. All they knew was they had to introduce themselves. I think they may have even been briefly in love with them. An insane scenario all the way around, but it doesn’t sound like this Johnson guy wasn’t wrapped too tight. I think he knew it and that made him more angry. So he sent them to remove your daughters while he considered another plan. Which was to steal Stanley and raise him as his third son, after his other two were killed, by you and your daughters. We had Illumna, we have Joy and now we have Stanley. We just have to keep this Johnson guy away from him.” Sara pauses for a breath.

  “Something like that.” Renfield sits thinking.

  “I want to save my daughter, help you save Solstice, keep Joy safe and I want to know the one thing we don’t.” Sara says.

  “The me we just sent off doesn’t keep track of Stanley. I don’t know how we change any of it.” Renfield walks over and picks up his son and whispers in his ear, “Strange, but thanks for your mother.” Then he turns to Sara. “None of this is creepy to you?”

  “I and you are here and exist because of the events. We have children because of the events. We didn’t control the events. I love you and I love my children. I know you love them and Solstice. So get over the events and let’s figure out what we can do and stop obsessing on the events.” Tomorrow grins and says, although I suppose we have to if we are to save them. So, Stanley is the unknown.”

  “Was.” Renfield replies. “I think I just messed up.”

  “What do you mean?” Sara asks.

  “I just thanked him for you being in my life. I heard him lock the sincerity of that statement away and mark it as important. Which it is, but...” Renfield looks at Sara. “Every time I think I have made a change, it’s all still the same, only more complicated.”

  Tomorrow leaps
up and says, “Wait, before I knew I was Sara, I…” Then she sits down again. “Then no Solstice, no Stanley, no me, no Illumna, no Persistence, no Brian, no Stephen, no you. So we don’t exist and never meet.”

  Renfield considers his wife’s thoughts, “Keep in mind; Brian and Persistence are centuries before us already. So that won’t work.” Renfield walks over to his wife and kisses her.

  “But Stephen doesn’t exist yet. Can’t you go back and explain it to Brian?”

  “Oh. Well see, I learned a few tricks.” He sees Sara look at him. “Well Bob did. He downloaded everything to me before he…”

  Sara looks away, but Adam can hear her thoughts. She doesn’t try to hide them. Then she says, “You planned all along to become him as he became you. Both of you did.”

  “We have the exact same brain. We could perfectly engram each others experiences without feeling they were not our own. Basically, we became each other again.” Renfield explains.

  “No. Brian and Phillip both said you were the first, which is why you couldn’t die. So you are not interchangeable. So you are missing something.” Tomorrow points out.

  “Do you love me exactly like you loved Bob?” Renfield asks.

  “Yes. I fell in love with you too, remember?” Sara understands his line of reasoning, but she really can’t tell much difference between the two of them. Then she announces, “You’re pushier!”

  “I am?” Renfield asks.

  “Much!” Sara firmly says as she senses someone else present and turns with tears welling in her eyes to see their daughter, very grown.

  “She’s right, Dad. You are pushier than Bob.” Joy reaches for a peach.

  “Welcome home, dear. Technically Bob’s your Dad. Why don’t you help yourself to a peach?” Renfield says while gesturing to the peach she has already taken a bite out of.

  “See what she means? Also, I think you are wrong. Pretty sure you’re my Dad, don’t’ worry, I’m not hitting you up for money. Actually, yeah, I am.” Joy leans back on the kitchen counter and holds out her hand while taking another bite of the peach.