Together Forever - Chapter 3
The next time my eyes opened they were greeted with the sight of a pile of dirty laundry in the corner of a room. I blinked a few times and sat up, struggling for a brief moment to escape from the tangle of hand-knitted blankets around me."Julie," her voice whispered from beside me. "What happened?"I snapped my head to the left to see her laying there, nearly hidden in a pile of blankets up to her ears. Her golden fur was bright with a healthy shine. Her face was so young and innocent, bearing no resemblance to the tired, beaten down face she had when I last saw her."Elise," I breathed, tears streaming from my eyes. "I think I'm dead."Elise rolled onto her back, laughing heartily. "Nobody's dead, Jewel. College is tough but come on."I shook my head vehemently."No, Elise. We've been out of school for a long time. Don't you remember?"Elise's smile slowly turned into a frown and her eyebrows narrowed in concern."Jewel..." she said slowly. "Are you alright? You're scaring me.""Of course I'm alright," I replied. "I get to spend an eternity with you. It's just... John. Who will take care of him?"Elise propped herself up on her elbow, eyebrow still raised in concern. "Who's John?""John, Elise! John! Our son!" I shot to my feet, looking for my shoes and coat."Jewel!" Elise shouted over my hysteria. "Please just relax and we can talk about this.""No, Elise!" I shrieked. "We have an eternity to talk about things. We're dead, goddammit. Dead and gone! You've been dead for so long that I think you've forgotten everything!"I found my coat and I pulled my shoes on. As I stormed over to the door, Elise jumped out of bed, landing on all fours blocking my way. Her tail stood straight in the air, unmoving, ready to pounce on me if she had to. I stared into her light brown eyes, glaring with fierce determination. The scent of her floral shampoo and men's cologne filled me up, causing my body to calm down in a way I thought would never be possible again. I froze in my tracks, fresh tears springing into my eyes. Elise reached out and held me in her arms. I instinctively buried my face in her chest. Her thin white undershirt allowed me to feel the warmth of her fur that I had ached for every day for the past twelve years."Jewel..." Elise said as she stroked my hair. "What is-?" she stopped, her claws freezing in my tangled fur."Jewel... when were you going to tell me you were getting a little gray? You shouldn't be going gray at this age. You could be really sick-"I turned my face up from her chest and looked at her. Her eyebrows narrowed even more in concern and confusion. Her claws untangled from my matted and knotted fur and her paws fell at her sides. A few moments of silence passed between us and then her narrowed eyes brightened with sudden realization. "You're serious, aren't you?""Of course I'm serious," I replied, my breath leaving me in a rush. "You've just been gone for so long and I can't believe that you've nearly forgotten everything that has happened. I just never expected to be reunited with you and you're still so young and I'm..." I trailed off, my fingers grabbing the ends of my graying strands of hair.Elise offered her paw to me, which I took, and led me to the edge of the bed. She sat down next to me, her warm paw still intertwined with mine. She was silent, her eyes squinted in concentration."Elise?" I inquired gently. "I know that face but I can't read your thoughts."Elise paused for a brief second and gave my paw a little squeeze."This paw," she began slowly. "Is not the same paw I kissed this morning before you left. And, you shouldn't even be home right now. This paw is not yours, and yet, I know it is.""It's me, El," I replied, shaking my head. "I'm sorry I didn't step into that Connector when you did. We'd be young, together, forever. What's wrong-?"Elise's head snapped up, her eyes burning bright with excitement. "What did you just say?""The Connector, Eli!" I cried, gesturing violently to its earliest incarnation in the other room.In a moment that seemed to last an eternity, the silence was so thick between us that I swore I could hear Elise's brain working, putting the pieces together."Julie," she whispered softly and cupped my face in her hands. "You're not dead."I said nothing, not understanding and feeling helplessness sink in. I would be doomed to an eternity with my lover who was convinced that we were both not dead.You're not dead," she repeated, a bit more excitedly. "You're trapped... in time."I blinked."What?!Elise didn't respond but dashed from the bedroom to the den. Before I could follow her, she was back, tossing a pile of notebooks and loose pages full of scribbling, formulas, and diagrams."It was only a test I did once," Elise rambled as she frantically searched through her records."I had entertained thoughts of making it more advanced and yet simpler than punching in coordinates. If the electrical impulses are strong enough, the Connector could tap into thought patterns and send you anywhere you wished with just a mere thought, provided there was a connecting Gateway. It was a random strand of code I put in one night while I was tinkering with it. I never thought it to be complete enough to be functional."Elise paused, her eyes focused on some distant thought I could not see or even begin to comprehend."I was thinking on such a small scale but, perhaps my broad, incomplete portion of code was able to accomplish something so much more."She turned to face me."What is the world like?"My heart fell into the pit of my stomach."You're dead, Elise," I breathed, my voice shaky and barely audible.A brief flash of sadness passed over Elise's face. "How do I...?" she trailed off.I licked my dry lips, trying to keep myself together. "The Connector," I began, gesturing helplessly to the god-forsaken machine. "You go in and you don't - you don't come out. Well, some of you comes out. There is this blinding light, and - and loud, terrible horrifying grinding noises. There is smoke. I can - I can smell smoke and burning flesh; your burning flesh and fur. The smoke clears and I adjust my eyes. In the machine, across the room there is blood, torn flesh, and other parts of - of you inside of it."I trailed off, feeling my body shake and tremble."Let us just accept our deaths, Eli," I whispered. "Let us be happy now for an eternity. Together. Forever."Elise shook her head slowly. "No, Julie," she said softly. "What happens next?" "Eli," I pleaded. "What happens next?" she demanded. "I black
out," I whispered, wringing my hands together as I spoke. "I wake up in a hospital room. A nurse walks in and hands me a baby boy. My baby boy; our baby boy." "Who else is there when I die?" she implored."So many people," I replied. "It is your third demonstration of your teleportation technology. There are many respected scientists, military leaders, and government officials. It is the day that will make or break your credibility as a great, revolutionary leader of modern science and technology.I inhaled deeply."I never understood why it happened that day. As much as I loathed your invention, I was still proud of your ability to make it work so flawlessly. That day, the accident - I never understood why or how...""Sturner," Eli said sharply, her voice laced with venom."Sturner? I mean yeah you two had some rivalry but I can't imagine that he would want you dead. When you - you - when it happened, Sturner stepped forward and did everything he could to see that your invention succeeded. He kept your idea alive. The government intervened and he worked with them. Connectors were mass-produced. The Grid was established. Your dream was then made into a reality."Elise shook her head. "No, all of that, the Grid, the government, the mass production; that is all Sturner's dream. I want no part of it, Lately, Sturner talks nothing of presenting the idea to the government. He claims it will bring world peace and social order. I don't like what he says. He wants too much power from it. I just want the tech to be perfect and change the world for the better; revolutionize global trade and travel." My heart was racing and my mind was reeling. Maybe if Elise was right in saying that I wasn't dead, we could change time. We could destroy the factors that destroyed our time together. It was possible and so horribly selfish. To ask Elise to destroy her life's work just to lead a simple life together was something I knew I could never bring myself to do. I knew that Elise would not choose glory over family, but I did know that dying at the hands of her own great invention was such a high way of achieving honor."The world is Sturner's world, Elise" I said softly."The government seized control and the Grid rules the entire world. It is used as a great method of communicating and bringing the world together but it is also used as a method of great fear. We all know that the government holds all the codes and all the coordinates. They can come in at any time. There is no escape. That is why there is no war. There is no animosity. There is only peace because are all locked into a constant state of fear."Elise looked crestfallen and I felt my heart sink even
more. I wish I could have lied to her and told her that her invention changed the world and advanced society to a higher level of intellectual superiority and increased morality but I couldn't. The truth had to be spoken."And what about your writing, Jewel? Tell me that you didn't give up," she said, almost pleading with me to lie.All I could do was shake my head."I'm a journalist," I responded. "But I'm not free to write revolutionary stories clamoring social change." I laughed bitterly."I never even have to leave my desk. The stories come to me in facts, figures, and numbers. It's my job to put it together and make it appealing to the public. The government controls and watches everything. The energy used to power the Grid has ruined the environment and sucked the planet dry. Acid rain falls from the sky and the air is unsafe to breathe without a mask. Most people don't care because the Grid makes is so that nobody even has to step a single foot outside. Nobody has to do anything; not even pick up food. Machines called constructors manipulate atoms into whatever want at the sound of our voices.I stopped, feeling as if I was rambling.Elise's eyes were glued to the floor."I just wanted to help..." she mumbled, seemingly to herself.I moved forward and wrapped my arms around her."You can help right now," I said."If you're right, you can change the future right now by destroying that thing so that it never gets the chance to exist. The government will never get their hands on it and you...."I bit back a small sob.Elise remained silent, her mind working rapidly. She suddenly whirled her head around to look at the clock."Shit, you're coming home in a few minutes," she said, sounding panicked.I opened my mouth to ask what in the world she meant but she grabbed my hand and led me into the bedroom closet."We can't afford the effects of what could possibly happen if your two selves interacted with each other," she explained apologetically. "The good thing is that you have a conference to go to tonight. When you leave, I'll power up the Connector, send you back to the correct time, and go from there.""Conference..." I mumbled, digging into my memories. "Oh!" my face immediately turned deep red. "Uhm... this is awkward."The front door opened and I heard my voice call out."Eli, I'm back. Can't stay long because I've got that conference tonight."Elise slammed the closet door shut, plunging me into complete darkness." - but I've got time for - ""Jewel - late - conference -""I need you - "" - now - "At first, I thought it would be incredibly awkward to listen to my own intense sexual experience but it wasn't. In fact, listening to the sounds of our voices and smelling the scent of our perspiring bodies ignited a powerful, sad hunger inside of me. It had been too long since I had felt Elise's sensual, passionate, touch. I pulled my arms around my body and I waited in the dark, stifling closet. Hot tears slide down my cheeks as I silently sobbed, being tortured by my own past.