farther the decent, the longer time it takes. If you don’t travel too far back in time then it won’t take as long.”
“Can you show me the system without taking an actual trip?”
Michael was getting the picture of what the portal was like and wanted to see it first so that he could gather his own true understanding. Caution was smart and since I’d already pioneered my way through the learning process it would be easy to show it to Michael.
For the entire conversation up to a point, Lucy was quiet. When there was no one speaking for a few seconds Lu asked her question.
“Elena, when you and Michael go to space, what do Charlie and I do?”
Lu was used to getting an assignment during experiments. She liked to help and to do her part.
With an adoring look at Charlie, I explained.
“Charlie has set up a monitoring system, a camera to keep an eye on us while we are out of commission. Maybe you could assist him – more eyes on us to see if we are in trouble would be good.”
“Elena, how can you get into trouble?”
Lu looked at Michael with a worried expression on her face.
“There’s no way that I can say for sure that we won’t have difficulties. Lucy these are experiments that I’ve never known anyone else to be involved in so we are playing it by ear.”
I stopped to see if she understood that what we were doing was not without risk, even though I couldn’t say what the risk might be.
“As an observer, it will be important for you to note any changes. You could help us understand the time issue with this experiment. When we’re under, you can be timing how long each trip takes. Is that something you think you can handle?”
Lu smiled her cooperation and understanding.
During our conversation Charlie didn’t say anything. He watched me and listened to the explanation I presented to Lu. At one point he laid his large hand over mine for support.
It was nearly morning when we parted for a few hours sleep. We were all in good moods and excited about the plan.
Charlie and I talked for a few minutes before we made love and fell asleep wrapped up in each other. After two sleep cycles, about three hours, I got up and left Charlie snoring gently.
The sun was just breaking the horizon when I took my coffee to the garden. I was there as usual first to think and then to gather the freshest produce available. Our breakfast would be hearty and satisfying.
Just as I was about to give a toast to the day, I felt Michael’s approach and stopped before I actually got started and waited for him to join me. He set his cup on the table and then put out his arms for me and we hugged up and sighed.
“Oh my God Baby, I can never get used to how good this feels. Even if I’m a mess and the rest of the world is going mad, I can always count on you fixing it all with a single hug.”
“Baby, that’s back atcha,” I whispered.
“You know,” Michael continued.
“Our combined voice is a gift to the world but wouldn’t it be better if we could give this feeling to the world?”
We didn’t drop our hook up and I heard Michael chuckle.
“Helen, you are my drug of choice.”
Before we sat, Michael raised his coffee to the sun and made the toast for the day.
“To gaining greater understanding and appreciation , cheers, thanks a lot, eh.”
We sat quietly for a few minutes before Michael spoke again.
“I’ve decided on a date for our destination and I want to see the bigger picture. Does that narrow it down too much for you?”
“We’ll first go to examine the portal before we actually take the trip so that you can see what we’re dealing with in regards to just how intricate and complicated the system really is. It’ll matter how close and connected we are when we jump. The last time you wrapped up at the last minute and I think that may have caused some issues with how it felt for me to be in the portal. It was as though I were carrying you piggy back around my neck. I’d like to avoid that for this trip.”
“You can tell how nervous I was but I’ll try to relax this time.”
“Michael, I’ve given this a lot of thought and I think the best position for us when we jump is to be side by side holding hands with our fingers laced. It’s a really strong connection for us.”
“I’m the student; I’ll abide by what the teacher tells me to do.”
He smiled at me and then we began to gather the produce that the garden dropped for us.
The four of us made a great breakfast of omelets and because Charlie requested, biscuits and gravy.
Tut greeted us with his extremely loud whistle that nearly scared the life out of Lu and with his “Helen squawk, Helen, I love you Helen.”
Before Tut even knew that we had company he came strutting into the dining room with his wings spanned out to give me what he knew I loved to see.
“Hey, hey good lookin’, I’ve missed you pretty boy.”
I called to him from the table
Right then Tut saw Michael and Lu at the table and stopped before he actually got to us. “Shit, shit, shit,” he barked in Miles’ gruff voice. He drew in his wings and came to me in kind of a march as though he were pissed off.
“Tut, you remember Michael? Please be gracious to my friends.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah asshole.”
Tut gave his acknowledgement and pushed his head into me to get the attention he knew I’d give him.
Michael addressed Tut.
“Hey, Tut it’s good to see you again.”
Tut took that as an invitation and strutted over to Michael to get physical attention from him. Michael responded by giving Tut exactly what he wanted. After that, Tut made the rounds and got attention from each of us before he was satisfied.
After breakfast we all excused ourselves to the privacy of our own rooms and to get ready for the day. We planned to meet back in my room for the experiments at 11:00 – when Tut took his first nap for the day.
Charlie and I showered together and enjoyed the best time, laughing constantly except for the brief moments when we were serious and no longer playful in order to endure our release. We stepped out of the shower laughing and clean. Charlie dried me and I did the same for him. My job was much bigger than his and ended up bringing back his woody. When I saw that, I jumped into his arms and wrapped my legs around him in an effort to claim him.
He took me to bed where we worked it until both of us voiced our satisfaction and relief.
