It was hard, seeing her, the love of my life. It seems I’ve loved her forever, even though we’ve been married only 30 years. I love her more now than I’ve ever did, and I’ve loved her with all my heart, always.
She is amazing. She gives. She loves. And those she loves know it. They feel it. She has such a good heart. I am very blessed to have had her love.
But I don’t belong here. She has her Roger, and she loves him.
Me? I’m an interloper, at best. A curse at worst.
But I had to see her.
How could I not try?
“What are you doing? You just left. I saw your car drive away.”
I was in the shadows of our room. “I know. I just had to see you.”
“What’s wrong? You seem ill.”
“It is just that I’ve been gone for such a long time. I’ve really missed you.”
“I don’t understand. You’re not making sense.”
I came out of the shadows, so she could see me.
(gasp!)
“What’s happened to you?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ve been time traveling.”
“Time travel? There’s no such thing. How is it you’ve changed so much?”
“Use your eyes. You see its me. How else can you explain how different I look?”
Connie sat down on the bed. I sat next to her, and held her hand in our old familiar way. It felt good to touch her again.
“Take a good look. Who am I?”
“You are Roger, my husband.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. But I don’t understand.”
“I’ve been on the most fantastic journey. It’s been too long since I had a chance to come home.”
“But you’ve been home. You’ve been here all along. I take care of you and help you through your chemo treatments. . .”
“Obviously, that is not me. Do you trust me? I can explain all of it.”
“I always trust you. I just do not understand any of this.”
“Roger and Fermin left for his chemo treatment this week, in Ridgecrest, right? Fermin drives him., and they’ll be gone eight hours?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I waited until he was gone, before I came in to see you. I’ve missed you forever, it seems.”
“Go on.”
“Roger invented a way to time travel three years ago, in early 2007. But then he later regretted creating that, so he erased it from time and from everyone’s memory. This is why you and him don’t remember it. But I was, ah, elsewhere, when that happened, so I was not affected, for some reason. But it took me a long time to get back here. Sorry.”
“Time travel? Roger always wrote stories about that, but it was only fiction.”
“Well, sometimes his stories and blogs were too prescient. How could he be right so often about future things, if there was not some truth to the idea of time travel in his past?”
“Well, I’ve had feelings. Somehow, I’ve always wondered. Perhaps it was in dreams, or something. But he’s always seemed a bit out of time, out of touch with reality. . . ”
“And you’ve always put up with me. I’m glad you do.”
Connie smiled that smile. Man, it was good to see her again.
“So, how is it you came to be here?”
“Through a portal. I can show you. There is time.”
I stood, reached into my pocket, pulled out the collector, and aimed it a wall. The portal soon formed on its surface.
Her eyes widened. “Where does it go?”
“Anywhere, or anywhen. Want to take a trip?” I grinned.
She remained seated on the bed. “First, tell me something. How is it you have no cancer?”
“But I do. It is just dormant for now. I am the same man I’ve been since I got cancer, back in 1994.”
“You still have the bypass surgery?”
I opened my shirt, so she could see. “Yes.”
“But you’re not on chemo?”
“Not for several years now. Why?”
Connie smiled again. “Come back here, and sit on the bed next to me.”
“You’ve not been with him for a while now?”
“No. How can we be, with him on such heavy chemo, and always in pain?”
“But we are the same person.”
“I know. I always thought you should have been twins.” Grinning, she reached out her lovely arms, invitingly. “Which is why I would like to spend some time with my husband, right now.”
(deleted)
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