by Alan Seeger
“Steve? Steve!” she cried, running to him. He enveloped her in his arms as she covered his face in kisses. Holding her, he realized that she was thinner, more fragile than he remembered. Her hair, which had been a lustrous chestnut brown, was now mostly silver. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “It’s been so long! I thought you were dead…”
“I’m sorry, Lynne, I’m so sorry. I went through the void and came out somewhere else, and just spent a few hours there, and when I got back…”
“It’s been fifteen years,” she said. “But, Steve… oh, my God, look at you. You’re so young!”
“It doesn’t matter, Lynne. It doesn’t make any difference.”
She smiled at him. “You always were such a gentleman. That’s one of the things that made me fall for you. But look at me,” she said. “I look like your mother.”
“I’m gonna go call Annie,” Samuel said with a smile, going into the living room to find the phone.
CHAPTER 20
They sat in silence at the kitchen table, looking at each other. She was still the same Lynne. Steven still felt the same way about her as he always had. They’d been married for eighteen years — well, they had before his trip to Centra, anyway. He didn’t know how to figure it now. Should they count it as 33 years? He shook his head, smiling. “What are you thinking?” she asked him.
“I was just thinking that I used to say you’d still be just as hot when you were 60, and now I’ve been proven right,” he grinned.
“I am not 60,” she retorted, smiling back at him. “I’m only 53, for your information.”
“Well, you’re a sexy 53,” he growled in a bad imitation of Antonio Banderas.
They were still laughing when the door burst open and a strikingly beautiful young woman with waist-length brown hair walked in, wearing a crocheted top, jeans and boots. She saw Steven and her brown eyes grew huge. “DADDY!” she screamed, running to him and jumping into his lap.
“Oh, Annieleigh,” he said, “God, look at you.”
“Nobody’s called me Annieleigh in… well, since you left. Fifteen y—” she stopped suddenly. “Daddy, look at you,” she said. “You’ve been gone, what, fifteen years? You’re still so young!”
“It’s gonna sound weird, Lianne,” he said. “But while it was fifteen years for you guys, to me it was only about four hours.”
She stared at him, uncomprehending.
He spent the next four hours telling the tale in great detail while Lynne, Samuel and Lianne listened.
They told their side as well; they’d waited for two weeks, knowing that he’d been gone that long on his earlier excursion, then two more. Lynne was reluctant to report him missing, knowing what he’d told her about the way that the timestream seemed to vary in the void.
“But finally, after you’d been gone for three months, I felt I had no choice but to call the police. Of course, I didn’t mention the fact that you’d gone through some kind of gateway in space,” she said, rolling her eyes, “but it wasn’t long before the police discovered the portal — the Gate, you called it, up on the hill. They questioned me and the kids about it and wound up calling in the Federal government.”
“They immediately declared it top secret and began this black ops program to study the portal and also to keep its existence a secret,” said Samuel.
Over the fifteen years since then, the base, once just a temporary outpost, had grown into a facility covering nearly a square mile. It was officially listed on the Army’s records as the South Central Montana Military Vehicle Depot, but in reality it had been established specifically to monitor and study the Gate. Initially, the base was staffed strictly by military personnel, and the Denver family was ordered to move out of the house. Lynne balked at this, however, and contacted both of Montana’s U.S. Senators and the Congressman for the district; since the Army couldn’t give a valid reason for trying to evict the family without revealing the secret of the Gate, they relented and let them stay in the house, though the base was built around it. After five years, the decision was made to bring civilian scientists in to study the Gate, which the Army labeled Project STAMINA, for Space-Time Anomaly/Montana Incident/North America.
After Samuel earned his Doctorate in 2022, he applied for a job at the facility, and his dissertation on a topic remarkably relevant to the work being done there won him the position of Senior Research Assistant. Eighteen months later, the head researcher retired, and at the age of 25, Dr. Samuel Denver was promoted to the top job there.
CHAPTER 21
Steven woke up the next morning and looked over at Lynne’s sleeping form beneath the sheet. She was curled up on her side, facing away from him. Things seemed almost the same as they had been the previous morning, apart from the fact that the thick braid that trailed down her back was mostly silver, and the layout and décor of the room was different. He kissed her bare shoulder as she slept, got up, and went into the kitchen.
He got a cup of coffee and wandered into the living room, staring out the window. Had he really lost fifteen years in just a few hours? It didn’t seem possible. But his wife was lying in bed in the other room, and clearly, for her as well as his children, time had moved on.
Jesus. The word was half expletive and half prayer. He really didn’t know what his future held now.
“Steve?”
He turned and saw Lynne in a thick maroon terrycloth bathrobe, standing in the archway. “Good morning, baby,” he said, smiling. She smiled back, but it was a sad smile.
“Seems a little ironic, to call me ‘baby’ now, doesn’t it? I really do look like I should be your mother. Or at least your great-aunt.” She crossed toward him. “Tell me more about this world you went to,” she said.
He told the story of his four-hour visit once again, trying to fill in any details he might have left out the night before. She asked questions, her teaching mind intensely curious about the people in Centra. She asked about the sky, the plants, the food, the wine. He could see something in her eyes he’d never seen before. It was a new spirit of adventure.
“I wish I could see that place,” she said.
“Well,” he said, more than a little surprised, “The Gate’s still out there. Randolph told me that if they last longer than a few days, they’re very likely permanent. I managed to get out of the base without them locking me up — I bet I could get us back in,” he offered.
She smiled and looked down. “Look at me, Steve,” she said. “I’m too old for adventuring.”
“Bullshit,” he smiled. “Who was it that took me kayaking for the first time? Who got me to try bungee jumping on our third date? Who always said she wanted to climb Pike’s Peak?”
“Well, yeah, but that was a long time ag—”
“But, nothing. You’re not a septuagenarian, honey. You — we — still have years and years to spend together, and you’re not too old for a little adventure.”
She was silent. He looked at her, seeing the gears turning in her mind. “What are you thinking?”
“Steve,” she said, “I’ve been thinking about all of this since last night. I — it’s been a joy having you here, feeling your touch again, but there’s something you need to know. You’re still the same 40-year old that you were fifteen years ago, but I’m a 53-year-old former schoolteacher who was alone for years… until I met someone two years ago.”
Steven stared at her.
“His name is Christopher,” she said. “I met him one day when I had a flat tire at the supermarket. He changed my tire for me, and then we started seeing each other not long after that. We were married last September. He’s a sales representative for H&E Equipment.”
Steven shook his head. “You — you’re married to another man? But I — last night —”
She looked at the floor. “I know. Chris is on a business trip to Chicago this week, otherwise that never would have happened. I do love you, Steve, and I always will, but it’s too late for us. I can’t go back to the way things were.”
“Sam’s wife — what was her name? Erica? She still called you Lynne Denver,” Steven gasped.
“I still go by that. I was Mrs. Denver for so many years, teaching, it only seemed natural to keep it.”
Steven couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and yet, deep down, he understood. He let out a moan, looking at her, shaking his head. “Don’t, please, Steve,” she said. “I have to at least work through this. You can’t possibly understand how it feels. It took me months to accept that you were gone, and years to get over the loss. And now here you are again, but you’re almost young enough to be my son, and I moved on with my life years ago.”
He closed his eyes and turned his face away, feeling as though someone had run his heart through with a skewer.
CHAPTER 22
Four days had passed since Steven’s return from Centra. He was staying with Lianne while he tried to figure out what he should do. He was sitting alone in her living room watching CNN and trying to sort out the changes in the world when the phone rang. Annie’s machine picked up on the second ring.
“Dad, it’s me,” he heard Samuel’s voice say. “Pick up.”
“Hey,” said Steven, picking up the receiver, “what’s going on, son?”
“I need to talk to you, Dad. Can I come over?”
“Of course, Samwise. Come on over. I’m just sitting here watching the tube.”
Fifteen minutes later they were sitting at Lianne’s retro-style kitchen table, coffee cups in hand.
“Dad,” Samuel began, “The other night you told me all about that place you went on your last trip in to the — Gatespace, you called it?”
“Centra.”
“Right. Centra. And the time before that you were on some strange world, and before that, in the Arctic… and…” He hesitated.
“What is it, Sam?”
“I… I’ve never done anything really exciting like that. I’ve never had an adventure. I’ve never been down the rabbit hole, or traveled to Mordor, or swum the English Channel. I’ve never been to Japan — which Nikki has. Ever since you disappeared, I poured myself into school and then later into this job…” He paused, looking at the floor.
“What are you saying, Sam?”
Samuel looked up at his father, locking eyes with him. “Take me there, Dad. I want to go to Centra with you. I didn’t document the fact that you came back. No one would ever know.”
Steven looked at his son with alarm. “What are you saying? Look what happened to me when I went! I lost fifteen years of my life!”
“No, you didn’t, Dad. We lost fifteen years of your life, but you’re still young. You still have years ahead of you…” He grimaced. “Mom has a new husband; I know what she told you the other morning. I know why you’re staying with Annie instead of with her.”
“So what are you saying? You figure since your mother kicked me to the curb, I don’t have anything to lose? I did lose those years! I lost fifteen years of seeing you grow up, you and your sisters! I can never get that time back!”
“I know,” Samuel said, “But… it’s just that I need to do this. We need to do this.”
Steven was silent for a moment.
“What does Erica think about this craziness?”
“She doesn’t know yet, but… well, I didn’t intend to tell you, not yet, but we’ve been in the process of a divorce for about three months.”
“A divorce? But… why, Sam?”
“She’s not happy here. She’s not happy with me. She’s just not happy in general… and she doesn’t know that I know it, but she’s been seeing another man.”
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Sam.”
“It’s all right, Dad. She’ll be happier, and…”
“And what about you? Will you be happy?” He remembered the little boy to whom every setback was a tragedy, every small disappointment an utter devastation.
“I don’t want to lose her, Dad, but if the truth be told, I don’t have her now. In her heart, she’s already gone. You can’t lose something you don’t have.”
Steven looked at the man who had been his little boy, and realized that somehow, in his twenty-six years, he had gained a measure of wisdom.
“So we’ll just be two bachelors, huh?”
“Two bachelors, on an adventure… in another world.”
CHAPTER 23
Steven stepped out onto the alien landscape with Samuel in tow. Sam fell to his knees, and Steven realized that the shock of Sam’s first excursion into the Gatespace had taken more of a toll than he expected. He helped Sam to his feet, steadying him, and was rewarded with a look of wonder that slowly spread across Sam’s face as the world came back into focus.
“Oh, man! This is incredible!” Samuel exclaimed, looking around. Steven noted that it seemed to be a different season than on his previous visit, for the trees which had been the color of malachite were now golden, but the sky was the same pinkish color. He led Sam toward the little town.
Soon he saw Randolph, still working on the three wheeled wagon. The old man looked up and began walking towards them.
When he was within shouting distance, Steven raised his hand and hailed him. “Randolph, my friend!” The old man stopped short and looked at him suspiciously.
“Do I know you?” he said to Steven.
“Do you —? Randolph, I’m Steven Denver. I came through the gate yesterday. Don’t you remember me?”
Randolph frowned and said, “Yesterday? We had no sojourners yesterday.”
“Well, the Gatespace does crazy things to time. Perhaps it’s been a while since I was here, or maybe I haven’t been here yet. What day is it?”
“Today,” said Randolph, “is June 23, 2769.”
“June 23,” Steven said. “Yes, when I was here yesterday you told me it was June 22. You took me to the inn and gave me a meal, and then I spent a few hours in your library, using the computer.”
“I don’t know what a computer is, stranger, and I certainly have never met you before. And as far as the library is concerned, only the priesthood has access to that.”
A look of chagrin came across Steven’s face. “But —”
“And you claim we fed you as well?” He gave a grim laugh. “There are rules in Centra, stranger. No man shall eat except that he work. What did you do to earn your meal?” He was stern now, not at all the welcoming sort of figure that Steven remembered from the day before.
“You treated me like a guest! You showed me around, introduced me to people,” Steven said. “Wait — I can prove we’ve met before!” He pointed at Randolph. “You were born on Earth, in Connecticut, in 1842. You came here through a Gate in 1872. Before that, you were in the Union Army during the Civil War!”
“Civil War? I am quite sure I don’t know what you mean,” said Randolph.
“The War Between the States, the North and the South!” Steven said.
“War between the states?” Randolph laughed. “I don’t know what you are talking about. There was no ‘war between the states.’ There was a dispute over the rights of slave owners in 1860, and the Southern states announced that they were leaving the Union,”
“Right, and there was a great civil war…”
“There was no war,” Randolph intoned. “President Douglas recognized their right to self-determination and the South formed their own nation, the Confederate States of America.”
“President Douglas?” Steven gasped.
“Stephen A. Douglas, who was president from 1861 to 1868,” Randolph replied.
Steven stood speechless, unsure of what to do. “And so black slavery was never abolished…?”
“Abolished? On the contrary, it became more widespread than ever. And slaves of any color are still quite popular, seven hundred years later, on Earth… as well as here in Centra.”
In all the confusion, Steven had failed to notice the group of grey-clad men that had approached them from behind. Now they grabbed Steven and Samuel roughly and began to bind them with ropes
.
“Stop! You can’t do this!” Steven cried.
“Oh, but we can,” Randolph said. “We can always use a couple more strong backs to build our city. Oh, and for the record — I was indeed born in Connecticut, but my family moved to the sovereign state of South Carolina when I was just five years old.”
Steven fell to his knees, his eyes focusing on the far side of the town for the first time since their arrival back in Centra. He felt his throat go dry as he realized that the little western-style town he remembered was now a walled fortress, a massive stone castle — built by slaves.
CHAPTER 24
Steven awoke in the dark, lying on a cold stone floor. His head and ribs ached. There had been a beating, he remembered that much. One of his eyes wouldn’t focus. He realized he was no longer bound, and reached up to touch his left eye, which was caked with dried blood.
Samwise. “Sam… Sam, are you here?”
There was a moan nearby. He felt his way in the darkness, crawling on his hands and knees, until he found his son. He pulled him into a sitting position, cradling his upper body in his arms. “Sam, are you all right?”
There was an odd, low murmuring sound. He listened for a moment, then realized that Samuel was laughing softly. “Gueth it wadn’t thuch a good idea to come heah, huh?” Samuel said quietly. His lips were swollen horribly.
He smiled in spite of it all. “No, son, I think that particular decision pretty much sucked.”
There was a clang, and a narrow rectangle of light appeared near the floor on the far side of the room. “Feeding time!” said a gruff voice. The light disappeared as the food door clanged shut.