TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE 2

A long while later, in the early afternoon, I convinced my dear wife to come away with me, for her first trip into the portal.

“But Roger will be here in a few hours. I need to be here for him.”

“And you shall be. That’s the beauty of it. We will only stay a week there, but we will be back here a few minutes from now.”

“Where is it we are going again?”

“Wrightwood, in 1953, the year of your birth. It’s beautiful there.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. How I loved to see them do that!

She looked at the collector in my hand. “How is it you can dial the date?”

“Oh, I am not sure about that yet,” I stammered. “I think it has to do with the mandelbrot around the edges of the portal. See the shimmering, there?”

She looked closely at it hovering on the wall, unafraid. “Yes?”

“I think these portals the collector creates are tuned to the person who creates them, to the electromagnetic ‘signature’ of my body and brain. I sort of think of the date, past or future, and it happens. I haven’t created any sort of mechanical or electrical control to do that yet.”

She crossed her arms. “And this is trustworthy?”

“I think so. None of the trips I’ve taken have been off the date at all, except I cannot go before the date of my birth. I don’t know why that is so.”

“But you’ve never taken anyone with you before, right? I think I heard you say that.”

“Well, when I invented it before, you wanted nothing to do with it, and you were angry with me when you found out I’d been using it. I used it in the garage, and you never go out there. Besides, I was always back as soon as I left, so you were not aware I was going anywhen.” I grinned a sheepish grin. “This trip is the first I’ve ever had anyone go with me.”

“How do you know it will work for me? Perhaps only you will be able to go.”

I did not tell her about Anna Wright, and how my fellow writer on this forum happened to quickly push her way through the portal with me, on one of my first journies anywhen. Nor did I mention that we had gotten separated on the other side, and that I never saw her again. Nor did I mention that all of her existence in the present had been erased somehow, once I got back. I spent a long time unsuccessfully looking for her, in the past. It was one of those kinds of things that probably caused me to remove the portal from my own timeline in the first place.

“Look. If you want me to go first, and check it out, I can. I will keep my hand in the portal while on the other side, and then come right back. You can see that it is safe. Or you can walk through it with me, hand in hand, and I will do the same thing, anchoring my hand in the present, so we can come right back, if anything goes wrong.”

She nodded her head quietly. She was probably having second thoughts about the whole thing. I should have just led her through it, and she would see that it would be alright. Somehow I ‘knew’ that we would be fine, where we were going.

“Come on. You’ve got your bag, right? You have all you need?”

“Yes. I will go with you. But you must promise me that we will be back here before nightfall. And don’t forget to bring your collector!”

“I promise.”

Taking her by the hand, we stepped through the portal together.

(to be continued)

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