A Timeless Journey (14 page)

I gave Luna a passionate kiss and we walked through a passage underneath the moving lanes towards Central Park to spend our work break together. The park had been rebuilt after the war to the previous state and, for five hundred years they had managed to keep it as unchanged as they possibly could. Due to the sterile environment, all the pathways had been covered with the material that resembled carbon fibre and, although there was no longer a zoo, the rest was pretty much the same as it was before the war in the 21
st
century.

Some of the park benches were different from the rest, as I found out when Luna asked me to sit on a double bench. It had the same effect as sitting in a gravity chair. Before I had a chance to firmly hold her hand, the bench rose twenty feet upwards and started to move slowly forward around the park’s perimeter. It was a pleasant sensation travelling through the park and the neatly shaped Autumn- kissed trees, surrounded by very tall buildings at the same time. To top up this unusual experience, the late October’s warm air gently hit our faces as we kissed.

All the stress of my first day had magically disappeared thanks to Luna and I was happy again. Half-heartedly, I returned to the museum with a smile on my face after spending my hour break with Luna. Dutifully, I carried on with the museum tour without bothering any longer about Ms. A’s and professor Chang’s seriousness.

According to the employment regulations, in the future, everyone had to work a maximum of seven hours a day with one hour break in between. The working week was limited from Monday to Thursday with the rest of the week off. If a job required that an employee worked weekends, extra credit was added to the personal account as an appreciation for their sacrifice.

There was a one week statutory holiday around the 5
th
of June to celebrate the ending of the last world war in the 21
st
century. No one celebrated Christmas anymore as we do in this reality, but since it was a nice tradition of the past that brought people together, it was preserved and everyone had two weeks statutory holiday, the last week of the year and the first week of the coming year, to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. On top of all this holidays, there was also an allowance of four weeks holiday to enable workers to have a break from the job. People used these weeks mostly to visit places around the planet and even venture into space as I found out later.

18

After finishing work, Luna and I went to my apartment. It was then that I realised I was never going to be able to live without Luna by my side. We were paying rent for two apartments while we lived together either at mine or at Luna’s place for most of the time. An idea came to mind and I thought it would be better to let Luna know what I thought. I asked her if she wished to share an apartment together. Sharing rent and other payments would help us save a lot more virtual credit and also allow us to be together in our free time.

I had a vague idea where this courage came from. Love makes a person act in a different way from what he normally would. It was a bold move from my part and in my old reality such an idea would have never crossed my mind, no matter how much I would have loved someone. It took me more than two years to decide to move in with Sophie and only a week to ask Luna. Despite being the one to instigate the idea of living together, I was concerned with the way how fast everything was moving between us and how she might value her freedom more than moving in with me. I expected her to disagree with my idea to share her living space with me.

Regardless of my concerns, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Luna loved the idea and was surprised for not thinking of this herself. Moving in together made perfect sense. We would share the cost and save half of what we were paying, giving us more money to spend on having fun, with the added bonus of spending more time together.

Excited by the idea, Luna didn’t waste any time. She quickly moved to clarify with me in which apartment we were going to live before completing an application form on Holo to inform the local authority of our plans. The response from the local authority arrived straight away and with her help, I took my belongings and moved into her apartment.

Earlier we were flying back from work and the thought of living together didn’t even cross our minds. Less than an hour later, there I was moving together with the girl of my dreams. A childlike feeling of happiness had engulfed her and seeing how happy she was, I too decided to give in to my happiness unconditionally, without worrying about tomorrow’s consequences.

It is hard to explain in words how comfortable a person who lived in the future felt, when giving in to the momentous emotions without the need to build defensive walls around a relationship. The experience of that contented moment was worth every second and I wished mine and Luna’s happiness lasted for eternity.

Everything up to that point of my time in the future had moved very fast for me. Life in the 26
th
century was too fast, too furious for me and sometimes it felt if I blinked, I would miss a great deal of happiness. My relationship with Luna was a convincing example of how fast the life flowed. We had only just met and eight days later, we officially moved in together.

To me it felt as if Luna had been part of my life from the very beginning. Suddenly, for me time had collapsed the day I met her and from that moment had curled around our relationship. My mind developed a selective memory when it came to remember reality. While I was with her, I would forget everything, the stress of my new job, my old life and above all what I had with Sophie. Although I still cared for her, my feelings for Luna were different in many ways. I had never felt so connected to someone like I did with her, not even with Sophie. The simple and unconditioned way Luna approached our relationship, gave us more time to concentrate on enjoying our togetherness rather than worry what might happen to us in the long term.

We celebrated moving in together with an organic meal cooked by Luna - or Luna’s gadgets in the cooking area I should say - whilst enjoying some red wine from California and a warm conversation. After cuddling up on the U-seat for a while, we moved to the privacy room, where Luna switched on her favourite theme of space travel. Our bed instantly transformed into a platform travelling between the stars, as we enjoyed the carnal experience of lovemaking.

When Luna fell asleep by my side, I couldn’t help but stare at her beautiful face for a while. I kept thinking how lucky I was to have met her. If it wasn’t for her, I would have been alone with my sad thoughts about my old life. I was with someone who had given me a million reasons to live happily in this reality. For the first time since my arrival, I had doubts what I would do if the portal to my old reality opened again.

I felt confused by the desire to see my family and friends in my old reality and staying here in the future with Luna enjoying the wonderful life I had encountered so far. My newfound love had strongly challenged my prospective of leaving and deep down I wished the anomaly to my old reality would never appear again. I know it was selfish of me to think this way, but it was what I really wanted. If the portal appeared again, it was going to complicate my peaceful and marvellous life.

The rest of that week was spent between exploring the museum inside the Institute of World History and enjoying the benefits of living with Luna. By the time I finished my tour of the institute, I had learned quite a lot about our past and some of it resulted to be different from what I had learned from my days at school.

The ice age and the big flood for example had happened more than once during planet’s life, due to the Earth’s irregular oval orbit around the sun and the sun’s displacement due to the entire solar system’s oval rotation. In the 26
th
century it was believed that our planet had a near point and a far point with the sun, which occurred in a cycle of around five thousand years. When the Earth and the Sun was at their furthest point in their oval rotation, the distance of our planet to the sun increased and in this point in time would cause the ice age. On the contrary, when Earth and the Sun were at their nearest distance, the planet’s climate would become extremely warm. This is how they explained why in the ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire the statues always had hot weather clothing like sandals and toga and not winter clothes like you find in the Middle Ages.

The oval rotation of our solar system within the galaxy on top of the oval rotation of planets around the sun and the oval rotation of the sun around itself, played a big role in the long term atmospheric conditions, not by much, but enough to cause extreme weather.

Explaining this isn’t easy for me, given the complicated advanced science behind, especially with my limited knowledge about the modern combined of astrology and meteorology fields called astrometeorology. The new facts about our solar system involve a more advance scientific explanation, which I hardly understood let alone explain in detail.

There was another reason why the planet Earth was getting colder and it had to do with the cooling of the planet’s core. This was due to the Earth’s expansion, which had caused most of volcanic activities to disappear. As for the global warming myth in the 21
st
century, the lack of knowledge about the geological composition of planet had led to the biggest scam of all, the green tax. The idea to charge a tax on businesses and individuals in order to allow them to pollute was the maddest law any government had ever made and the biggest fraud in world history. I was impressed with the accurate information the museum attached to the 21
st
century pavilion.

Another interesting fact was learning the truth about the religious beliefs of the existence of a superior being. Since this is still a sensitive issue here in the 21
st
century, I won’t be discussing this topic in detail. I would like to avoid a futile debate on the matter. Nevertheless, I cannot ignore certain facts and I feel it’s my obligation to share the truth with you. All the religious wars and the self-sacrifices made in the name of God have been futile and looking at it from the 26
th
century point of view, primitive and barbaric. The purpose of the existence of humanity and the journey of what we call ‘soul’ is gravely misinterpreted and misunderstood. I am aware that only this tiny revelation might infuriate some people and make some others wonder, but ultimately, it is something to think about when a human being decides to affect a person’s life in the name of some imaginary being.

There had been a few other corrections to the history as we know it regarding the last millennium, thanks to past time travel where they had video-documented important events and history facts. I am aware now of facts about our past that would surprise mankind and make most people lose faith in their governments I truly believe the 21
st
century is not the right timeline to expose what I learned, especially what has happened over the last few decades and what happens in a near future.

At the end of my working week Professor Chang explained in detail my purpose of being there at the Institute of World History, which was an integral part of the museum itself. Since the time travel was now outlawed, my duty was to help the professor with my point of view of my own timeline, correcting any inaccurate detail no matter how small and irrelevant it was. In the future they didn’t just look at the facts, but the psychological effects each political decision had and this is why every small detail was important.

So my dear friends in a nutshell, during my stay in the 26
th
century, I had to work in an institution reviewing and correcting every event that happened in my old reality. In a wicked way, this job was going to keep my old memories alive. I was aware it wasn’t going to be easy working in an environment that reminded me of my old life but, thanks to my relationship with Luna, I had a chance to balance my nostalgic memories with the happiness of being with her. She was the one that kept me from becoming home sick and prevented my mind from obsessing of returning home to my old life.

After the first week, I fell into a routine of working with Professor Chang and Ms. Aurora, spending every other minute away from work with Luna. The pay was really good, at around about 5000 VC a month depending on the working days of each specific month. It was a substantial amount compare to the average wage. Since Luna and I were now sharing our living space, we had a lot of spare credit if we decided to travel around the world, eating out or simply having fun.

The job was a lot easier than I anticipated. I would be presented with an event or a date and correct any inaccurate details and also give my personal opinion on the matter. Not that my personal thoughts were going to be decisive in changing the point of view surrounding the 21
st
century. However, they were processed together with the rest of the information professor Chang already had on record and were appreciated since it came from someone with 21
st
century standard of thinking.

My job became easier as the days went by. There were times when I was even able to make professor Chang and Ms. Aurora smile, regardless of their opinion that I was being childish and silly! Professor Chang even admitted to me once that he found it therapeutic and helpful for his loss of concentration and felt good sharing a meaningless conversation from time to time, because it helped clearing his head and look at the facts in a more open-mind. I can’t say the same thing for Ms A. She simply smiled sometimes, but I had the impression she did to be polite and because she understood me.

The icy atmosphere of the first few weeks between the three of us disappeared and, by the middle of November, I was finally enjoying my time at the institute. After all, it was the easiest job I’ve had, remembering and discussing a time which was still the present to me, but the far past to the rest of them.