Redemption: Supernatural Time-Traveling Romance with Sci-fi and Metaphysics (9 page)

She knew it was only a model, but
all the same her breath caught in her throat and she staggered backwards, away
from the glass, unable to take her eyes off the figure. It wasn’t Zo
—
not
quite. There were no tiger claw marks for starters, and instead of Zo’s
menacing look, this face was, if anything, friendly. And yet in its hand it
held a spear of sharpened wood. Instinctively her hand went to her chest, to
the place where the spear had pierced her heart, which seemed for the moment to
have stopped. Her vision blurred and, as she tried to blink her eyes back into
focus, she realized that she was falling.

She braced herself to hit the
hard gallery floor, but she never made it that far. Instead, strong hands
caught her, supporting her weight gently as she was lifted up into someone’s
arms. As her sight returned and she could see clearly, Ann found herself gazing
up into the
insightful eyes
of a man. His thoughtful,
friendly expression was filled with concern.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Part Two

LOVE

Chapter Eight

A
nn rubbed her eyes and continued to stare up at the man, unable to
think of anything to say. Even if she could think of something, she wasn’t sure
she was actually capable of speech. The shock of all she had seen had made her
quite dazed and confused. The man touched a hand to her forehead and looked
concerned.

“Let’s get you something to
drink. Steve!” he called out towards the gallery entrance. After a few moments
a large security guard wandered in looking as though he had just been woken up.
“Ah, Steve. Please could you get this lady a glass of water? She appears to
have had a nasty turn.”

As the guard turned to leave, Ann
found her voice at last.

“No, no,” she said, trying to
push herself up. “I’m quite all right, thank you.” Even as the words left her
mouth, her strength gave out and she sank back into the man’s arms.

“You don’t
seem
that all right,” he said. Just rest a moment. There’s no rush.
After you’ve had some water, I’ll make sure you get home safely.”

Ann let herself relax, her head
on his chest. “Thank you, er. . .” She looked up at him
questioningly.

“Michael,” said the man with a
smile. “And you are?”

“Ann.”

“So tell me, Ann. Do you usually
throw yourself at men in the museum? Or were you simply overcome with the
wonder of our Stone Age exhibition?” Michael gestured expansively at the
gallery.

“A bit of both,” said Ann with a
weak smile. “You’re a very handsome guy and the exhibition is certainly true to
life.”

“Oh! Am I?” said Michael with a
wink. “You know about life in the Paleolithic era?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Paleo- what?”

“Paleolithic. The Stone Age.”

“Ah. Let’s just say I have a
little experience on the topic.”

At that moment Steve returned,
carefully carrying a glass filled to the brim with water. He handed it to Ann,
who sipped at it. It was warm.

“Thank you, Steve,” she said,
handing the drink back. “I feel much better.”

With the help of Michael, she
climbed unsteadily to her feet, while Steve walked off, muttering to himself
about timewasters. Ann leant against a display cabinet for support and looked
in again at the features of the model caveman. Now that she saw it again, the
face did not look quite so like Zo as she had first imagined. The eyes were
less harsh and the features more friendly. Suddenly she noticed the refection
of Michael watching her in the glass and she turned to face him.

“You said this is
your
Stone Age exhibition,” she said. “Do
you work for the museum?”

“Not exactly,” Michael smiled and
pointed towards the exit. “Come on. I’ll explain while I drive you home.”

~

Five minutes later, they were
sitting in Ann’s car as Michael drove it out of the parking lot. At first, Ann
was going to protest that she was perfectly capable of driving, but as she
still felt somewhat dazed after all the events of the day, she realized that
she really wasn’t. Instead, she had simply climbed into the passenger seat and
closed the door.

“Nice car,” said Michael,
enjoying the sporty feel of Ann’s vehicle. He gestured to the parking lot. “I
won’t tell you which of these old rust buckets is mine.”

“So you
do
have a job then,” said Ann. “What is it, if not working for the
museum?”

“Well, in a way, I
do
work for the museum. At the moment.”
He paused at a crossroads and looked expectantly at Ann. “Some direction would
be nice.”

“Oh! Sorry.” She leaned forward
in her seat to see where they were. “It’s left here.”

Michael turned left.

“Please carry on,” said Ann.

“Yes, so at the moment I am
helping the museum with the Stone Age exhibition. I’m an archaeologist.”

“Really? I thought archaeologists
spent all their time digging holes in the ground and making up huge stories
about tiny pieces of pottery.”

Michael laughed. “Oh, we
certainly do that. But it’s not
all
we
do. One of the other things we get involved in is working on museum
exhibitions.”

“Doing what exactly? Take the
next right, by the way.” She pointed to the road in question.

“Advice mostly,” he said, slowing
down before taking the turning. “For example, on this Stone Age exhibition, I
have been helping the guys at the Field museum to acquire artifacts, construct
models and generally ensure the maximum impact and information for their
visitors.”

“Maximum impact?” said Ann,
clearly amused by the idea. “It’s a museum!”

Michael winked at her. “Well, it
certainly seemed to have an effect on you, Ann. I believe we’re here,” he
added, as he pulled the up car in the shadow of her vast apartment building. “Where
should I park?”

“Don’t worry about that!” she
pointed towards a young man wearing a long coat and a top hat. “Timpson will
park the car.”

She opened the door to get out
then stopped, turning back to Michael.

“What about you? How are you
going to get back to the museum?”

“Don’t worry about that,” he
said, with a smile. “I could do with a stroll. There’s nothing like a bit of
fresh air.”

“Well…” Ann wasn’t sure what to
say. Should she invite him up to her apartment? Or would that seem too forward?
What she really needed to do was talk to Nina.

“Talking about fresh air,” said
Michael, breaking the awkward silence. “How would you like to come hang gliding
with me tomorrow?”

“Hang gliding?” Ann took a step
backwards in surprise.

“Sure. There’s nothing quite like
it! Plus, you haven’t really told me anything about yourself yet.” He signaled
to Timpson that he could park the car. “Why don’t I pick you up at six tomorrow
morning?”

Ann hesitated, unsure what to
say. Six in the morning sounded pretty early to her, but on the other hand, she
certainly enjoyed activities out in fresh air and she was intrigued at the idea
of hang gliding. But then she had only just met Michael. Ann looked across at
him as he looked out of the windshield, suddenly realizing she wanted to find
out a bit more about this mysterious man. He certainly was handsome and clearly
very caring. And she still had another day’s vacation…

“Okay,” she said. “See you at six
sharp!”

And with that she climbed the
stairs towards the entrance. As she reached the top, she suddenly realized she
had not thanked Michael, but when she turned to do so he had already gone.

~

“What do you mean, you didn’t
invite him in?” Nina stared at Ann from the video screen, her face incredulous.
Calling her had been Ann’s first course of action on arriving in her apartment,
and she was already starting to regret it. “Let me get this straight, darling.
You’re telling me this… Michael, was that his name, nursed you back to health
at the museum, of all places, and then drove you home, in your own car, and you
didn’t
invite him in?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,”
said Ann. “I’m no rush to leap into bed with him, Nina.”

“Whyever not? Is there something
wrong with him?” Nina suddenly looked serious. “Don’t tell me he’s got one of
those
things
on his face, like that
guy, Patrick, I went out with. What a mistake that was!”

“What? No. There’s nothing wrong
with him, Nina.”

“Well, then there must be
something wrong with you, sweetie. If it were me, I’d have him in that
gorgeous, big bed of yours right now, rather than chatting away with me.”

Ann laughed. “I don’t doubt it!
But he’s not here. And the reason I am ‘chatting away’ with you is that I want
your advice. We’ve arranged to meet tomorrow.”

“His place or yours?”

“Neither.” Ann paused, unsure how
best to tell her about Michael’s proposed activity. “Um, he’s taking me hang
gliding.”

There was silence for a moment
before Nina responded.

“Sorry, darling. I don’t think I
caught that. It sounded like you said hang gliding.”

“That’s right. We’re going hang
gliding together.”

“So what advice do you want from
me, apart from hold on really tight? I’ve never been hang gliding in my life.”

“Funnily enough, I was more
looking for advice on what to do with Michael.”

Nina raised her eyebrows and
smiled mischievously. “Well, don’t go hang gliding for a start!”

Ann sat on the edge of her bed,
looking nonplussed as Nina giggled.

“But seriously, darling,” Nina
continued, in a gentler tone. “You don’t need any advice from me. You’ll have
this guy eating out of your hands in no time. You already got him to look after
you and drive you home without apparently doing anything more than falling into
his arms. Just be yourself.”

“Be myself? That’s your advice.”

“Sure. Just relax. It’ll be fine.”

~

“Just relax. It’ll be fine.”
Michael gave her shoulder an encouraging squeeze as they prepared to take
flight.

Ann had not slept much during the
night. It was partly due to nervousness about the hang gliding, but mostly due
to the events of the day and the thought that, in some other life, she had been
that woman, Mi. She couldn’t shake off that feeling of fear that she had
experienced when fleeing from Zo, and the sensation of the spear piercing her
heart. And it came with a terrible sense of loss. First of all she had lost Lu,
her husband, and then Wu, her son, who somehow really was her son; she had
actually given birth to him and fed him from her breasts. These were the thoughts
that kept going through her head as sleep evaded her and the night rolled eventually
into morning.

True to his word, Michael had
arrived to pick her up at six o’clock, in a car that was every bit as sleek and
sporty as her own.

“I thought you said your car was
a rust bucket,” she said, gazing at the vehicle with no little envy. “This is a
gorgeous little number.”

“Thanks,” Michael smiled, holding
the door open for her to climb inside. “We have quite a long journey ahead of
us, so we might as well travel in style.”

And it had indeed been a long
journey. They had traveled south of the city for at least two and a half hours
before Michael turned his car into the hang gliding club driveway. But the time
had passed quickly as they chatted about Ann’s work at A.I.I. and about
Michael’s insights into life in the Stone Age era. The day itself was beautiful,
bright and sunny with only a slight breeze, perfect for outdoor activities.

Michael, it turned out, was an
old hand at hang gliding and often spent his days
flying
through the air
. Having parked
and checked in at the reception desk, it was not long before Michael was
strapping Ann into the hang glider, with himself securely in position next to
her.

“I
am
relaxed,” said Ann, in response to his attempts to encourage
her. And it was true. His calm self-confidence as he had got everything ready
gave her great reassurance, and she was actually looking forward to it. “Let
get this thing off the ground, shall we?”

Without another word, Michael
gave the thumbs up to the pilot and their flight began. The plane began to ease
along the runway and, as the tow rope tightened, they found themselves being
pulled forward.

“Wow!” said Ann, shouting to be
heard over the wind. “I can’t believe how quickly we’ve taken off. These
gliders really catch the air!”

“I know!” said Michael, as the
plane towed them higher. “It won’t take us long to get to two and a half
thousand feet. Then the plane will leave us to it!”

To Ann it felt like seven hundred
miles the ground seemed so far away. Eventually, the tow rope released its grip
on the glider and the plane made its way back to the ground. And they were
flying.

As the noise of the engine faded
away, leaving only the sound the air rushing past them, Ann looked around. There
was the hang gliding club far below them, surrounded by an endless sea of green
fields, cut through by thin crisscrossing roads and the broad snake-like body
of the Kankakee River. Away to the north, she could just make out Chicago, her
home city, spread out along the shore of Lake Michigan.

It’s amazing! Simply amazing
, she
thought.
The air’s so clear I can see all
the way to the horizon in every direction!
 
It feels as though the whole world is laid out beneath me. Everything
that seems to be huge down there on the Earth looks so small from here. Stop!
Things from above are looking smaller… Is this what I saw in my dreams? Is the
spiral thing a picture or projection of something bigger than I can imagine?
And my long-as-a-river and wide-as-a-lake life is just a small little drop on
the spiral path?

Intuiting that Michael was
watching her, she turned to see him smiling at her.