Redemption: Supernatural Time-Traveling Romance with Sci-fi and Metaphysics (10 page)

“Beautiful isn’t it?” he shouted
over the sound of the wind.

“Incredible!” she replied
forgetting her anxiety, and, without really thinking about it, she took her
hand off the rail and placed it on top of Michael’s. “It’s breath-taking! I
can’t believe I’ve never done this before.”

Slowly, seemingly by inches, they
descended, spiraling lazily across the sky. All the concerns and shocks of the
previous days drifted away on the breeze and Ann felt at peace once again, more
at peace in fact than she had done for as long as she could remember.

~

“Thank you so much, Michael,”
said Ann, as he pulled the car up back outside her apartment building. “For everything.
For taking care of me yesterday and taking me out today, I’ve loved every
minute.”

“It’s been my pleasure,” said
Michael. “My absolute pleasure.”

Ann opened her door, but, before
she got out, she turned back to look at him and gestured towards the apartment
building entrance.

“Would you like to come in?” she
asked airily. “I make a great coffee.” She stopped, surprised at her own words.
Coffee? Where had that come from?
It
was as though the words came out of their own will.

“I…” Michael paused briefly. “I
wish I could. But regrettably I do have some work to get done today back at the
museum.” He smiled. “The Stone Age needs my attention.”

“Another time,” said Ann.

“Definitely. I look forward to
it.”

As Ann’s door swung open, she
reached into her purse and produced a sleek, plastic card. “Here are my contact
details.”

“I already have them,” said
Michael with a wink.

Ann’s eyes widened in surprise. “How
come?”

“Easy. I scanned your car’s
license plate. Now I know everything about you, even which floor your apartment
is on. It’s number ten twenty-nine, yes?”

“Wow!”

“That’s the beauty of technology.
The SmartInfo server is a stalker’s best friend!” Michael grinned. “But I’ll
keep this as a souvenir all the same.”

He reached out to take the card
and, as he did, so, he caught Ann’s fingers in his own and gently kissed the
back of her hand.

“Until the next time, my dear.”

~

That night, as Ann lay on her
bed, she enjoyed reliving the sensation of drifting through the air with
Michael by her side. It seemed crazy to think she had only met him yesterday. She
felt she had known him for much longer. And she definitely wanted to get to
know him more. He was just the sort of man she had been looking for, though she
would never have admitted she was ever “looking for” a man, not even to
herself. But something had changed in the last couple of days. Maybe it was the
sense of happiness she had felt when she experienced Mi’s love for Lu or her
dancing with the hunter at the feast. Or perhaps it was the joy of holding her
own son in her arms. And as she slowly drifted to sleep, Ann’s thoughts were
filled with visions of Wu and of Michael, and of the delight she felt at the
idea of being with them.

Chapter Nine

W
ell, that was a most enjoyable vacation,” said Ann as she steered
her car away from her apartment building. “Though I’m not entirely certain I
could call it restful!”

Rob’s face appeared on the
screen, smiling broadly. “Quite,” he said. “You sure managed to pack plenty
into the last few days!”

“To be honest, I feel quite
relieved to be returning to work again. It’s as though the craziness of the
last couple of days is finally being replaced with some kind of return to
normality.”

That said, Ann’s sleep had been
disturbed once again by those same haunting dreams. She had hoped her visit to
the psychic would have dealt with all that, and yet she had had that same
vision of the infinite spiral holding her in its grasp as it stretched away
through time and space. The only difference was that, far in the distance, she
felt that it connected her with Mi.

“Rob?” she said, as she pulled
onto express tube and switched the car’s systems over to the tube’s SmartDrive
server.

“Yes, my lady.”

“Did you find out much
information on the… spiritual stuff we were talking about the other day?”

“Of course.”

Ann paused, not sure what she
wanted to ask, or at least what she wanted to ask
first
. “Do you believe in Evolution? Or in the whole Adam and Eve,
God made everything in seven days… stuff?”

“I think you’ll find it was six
days. And the answer is yes. I believe in them both.”

Ann frowned and, with the car now
safely in the control of the SmartDrive, reclined her seat and turned to face
Rob’s screen. “Come on! How can you believe
both
?”

“Because they appear to
contradict each other?
 
It’s quite
simple. In fact many humans do it without thinking.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Take, for example, the
fact that most people believe in Free Will, yet at the same time consider
themselves to be in some way under the influence of a higher power such as fate
or God. You make your own choices, but live out a specific purpose.”

“I guess.” Ann turned her gaze
back to the windshield, which was now displaying one of the many “environments”
provided by the SmartDrive system. At present it was set to Ann’s favorite,
sunlit waterfalls, which helped her to relax and concentrate. “So,” she
continued, “what has your research turned up? What is God’s purpose for us
humans?”

“It’s hidden for the blind, my
lady. And yet open for those who can see.”

Ann rolled her eyes. “What is
that supposed to mean? You sound like a fortune cookie!”

“Firstly,” said Rob, with a
slightly mischievous smile, “We’re dealing with secret knowledge here,
knowledge which is different for each person, and the only way to attain it is
to earn it.”

“And secondly?”

“Secondly, a person must at least
be interested in such knowledge.”

Ann frowned somewhat defensively.
“I am interested!”

“You are
now. B
ut this wasn’t always the case, my lady, and this is sadly
true of many people. They are too busy to think about the purpose of their
existence, because they spend all their time focused on earning money, sorting
out family problems, fighting with neighbors or any one of a thousand other
things. Across the city people are sitting in traffic jams; the same is true of
their lives. They are too caught up in the worries of their existence to really
live!” Rob smiled suddenly. “We, however, seem to be moving quite freely.”

Ann glanced out of the window.
They certainly were moving freely. Sure the tunnel was pricey, but it was
better than being snarled up on the streets with everyone else.
Why did freedom always seem to come at a
cost?
 

“This is fascinating, Rob. I’ve
never heard anything like this, not in school or college… not anywhere.”

“That’s because you’ve been too
busy, just like everyone else. But now you are on the way not only to
discovering your purpose, but fulfilling it!”

“But I’m also still pretty busy.
So how do I go about all this? Should I go along to a church or something?”

Rob raised his eyebrows at the
question. “Go along to church? My research suggests that such organizations
have mostly become infected with busyness too. They focus on quantity rather
than quality. They tend not to serve individuals so much as expecting it to
work the other way round. But…” He paused.

“But what?”

“But you
have
already made some progress. You are exploring your truth by
yourself, as you must.”

“I guess.” Ann took hold of the
wheel again as the waterfalls on the windshield were replaced by the sleek
interior of the tunnel. She was approaching her exit. “But these religious
organizations must have something to say about the general purpose of our
existence, no?”

“Certainly. And as you’d expect,
there are many conflicting points of view, from those who believe we exist to
bring glory to God to those who believe we are nothing more than some cosmic
accident, without purpose or meaning.”

Ann thought for a moment as she
disconnected from the SmartDrive server and steered the car up the exit ramp
towards the street. “I guess, in a way, that’s what I’ve always assumed. Though
when you put it in those terms, it sounds pretty bleak.” As she emerged from
the tunnel and merged with the Chicago traffic, another car nearly drove into
the side of her and she beeped the horn crossly. “Idiot!” she shouted.

“Almost another cosmic accident!”
said Rob.

“Quite.” Ann tried to concentrate
on what they had been discussing, wishing she still had the calming waterfalls
to help. “So what about those who believe in God? What do they say about, what
was it? Living for his glory?”

“That depends. Christianity
teaches that such a life is based on a relationship with the Creator. As one
grows in love and worship of him, so one increasingly lives for his glory.”

“How does that work?” asked Ann,
with a frown. “And how long does it take to be changed in such a way?”

“It is supposed to work the same
as any other relationship, though most do not involve people trying to love
someone they can neither see nor touch. The process is said to take the whole
of a person’s life.”

“One life?”

“One life,” said Rob with a nod. “Their
Holy Bible says, ‘it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh
judgment’”.

“Cometh?” Ann laughed. “Why can’t
they speak English, like everyone else? So what about people who believe you
live more than once?”

“Reincarnation? That is more of
an Eastern concept, taught by the Hindus, Buddhists and suchlike.”

“Fine. So what do they teach
about the meaning of life? Or rather the meaning of lives?”

“You’ve heard of Nirvana?”

Ann turned the car round the last
corner towards the A.I.I. building. “The rock band?”

“Hardly. Those religions that
believe a person has many lives teach that the goal of those lives is to
achieve Nirvana, ultimate freedom from all that is evil. Becoming one, as it
were, with everything, even with the God himself.”

“And how does one achieve this
Nirvana?”

“By living increasingly pure and
disciplined lives dedicated to spiritual pursuits. Each life, you see, is
affected by the former lives. It’s called karma.”

“I’ve heard of karma,” said Ann,
pulling up in her usual space and cutting the engine. “So how many lives does
it take? Would two be enough?”

“No one knows,” said Rob as Ann
picked up her E-A device from the dash. “The cycle of birth and death has been
continuous throughout time, but I suspect Nirvana cannot be achieved with only
a couple of lives.”

“Interesting!” Ann switched off
the device and slipped it into her bag as she headed towards the elevator. And
while she traveled up to the sales and marketing floor, she wondered to herself
just how many other lives she had had. Were there other past existences that
she knew nothing about, yet which had affected her life here today?

~

“Right, settle down, please.”
Ann stood at the head of the table in one of the A.I.I. meeting rooms and
looked around at her team. Gradually the noise of conversations died down,
until all the faces, including the smiling face of Mike-15, were focused on
Ann. “Great to have you all back. I trust you made good use of your vacation time?”

There was a chorus of “yes” and “you
bet”, mingled with laughter from some of the team.

“I took the opportunity to read
through the Simpson contract again,” said John eagerly.

This comment raised even more
laughter.

“Teacher’s pet!” said Peter
good-humoredly. “Have you brought Ann an apple today?”

“No,” John frowned at Peter,
then, turning to Ann, asked her, “Would you like an apple?”

“Allow me,” said the robotic
voice of Mike-15, plucking up an apple from the bowl on the table and passing
it to Ann.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said,
placing the apple to one side. “Well, I’m glad you all enjoyed your time off,
whatever
it was you got up to.” She gave
John and Peter meaningful look, her eyebrows raised. “Now, however, it’s time
to get back to our work. If you could all look at your screens, you’ll see the
sales figures for the Second Generation E-A over the last quarter.”

Ann paused as she noticed that,
around the room, people glanced at one another in confusion and peered at the
screens embedded in the tabletops.

“I don’t seem to have the file,”
said Peter.

Frowning, Ann looked at her own
screen. “Sorry,” she said, tapping a finger on the glass surface, “Here it is.
Okay, what I want to draw your attention to are the monthly European sales.”
She looked up at the sound of muttering and noticed Peter was talking to the
guy sitting next to him. “Peter?” she said, and he quickly turned to face her.

“Yes?”

“Perhaps you could suggest why I
might be concerned about the European sales of the Second Generation E-A.”

“I would, Ann,” said Peter,
pointing at the display in front of him. “But these appear to be the figures
for the First Generation. I’m not a psychic.”

She blinked in surprise at his
use of the term psychic, then bent forward again and focused on her screen. He
was right, it was the wrong file. She began to swipe through the files she had
uploaded, looking for the correct one, but found it hard to concentrate. This
wasn’t like her at all. What was wrong with her? As soon as she asked herself
the question, she knew what the answer was. It was that wretched dream! She
rubbed her forehead, trying to focus and stop thinking about the psychic.
Why did Peter have to use that word?

“I’ve got the file here,” said
John, raising his hand like an over-keen school child. “Shall I distribute it?”

“Er, sure.” Ann nodded at him. “Thanks,
John.”

Again, heads leaned forwards to
consult their screens as the correct figures were displayed at last.

“Ah!” said Peter. “Yes. I see
what you mean about the European sales, Ann.”

Ann took a deep breath before
looking up with a smile. “Excellent! Perhaps you could share your thoughts with
the whole team.”

~

As Ann drove away from work that
evening, she was still feeling irritated with herself.

“It was embarrassing, Rob.” She
thumped the steering wheel, causing Rob to raise his eyebrows.

“I’m sure it was just a brief
lapse, that’s all. Everyone has them from time to time.”

“Well, I don’t! It took me years
of hard work and dedication to become a team leader at A.I.I, the only female
team leader in the whole organization, and I refuse to jeopardize that because
of some stupid dream!”

Rob was silent for a moment as he
considered his response. “You seem tense, my lady.”

“You think?”

“Might I suggest a workout to ‘work
out’ the pressure and frustration you’re feeling? Amphibia is only a few blocks
from here.”

“That,” she said, turning the car
towards her exclusive gym, “is a fine idea, Rob.”

But when, a few minutes later,
she pulled up in the parking lot at the front of Amphibia, she did not get out.
Instead, she sat and stared at the massive building that towered above her. Her
focus was taken up by a large display, an advertisement for membership in the
gym. On it was displayed a beautiful, slim woman and an equally attractive,
muscular man, both wearing clothes that showed off their perfect physiques. The
banner read: “The Future You?” Beneath this was the message, “You can’t change
the past, but we can help shape your future. Ask us how.” Ann sat and stared at
the sign, deep in thought.

“You can’t change the past,” she
said, whispering the words under her breath. “You can’t change the past.”

“Sorry, my lady?”