A Timeless Journey (17 page)

The museum was spread throughout a large area and had examples of every vehicle, from the first car, train, plane, ship and submarine to the most sophisticated ones of the 26
th
century. I came across some machines from the 21
st
century that we still have to wait to be invented in our old reality. All the machines were kept in a good working condition. It took us all day to visit the over ground and the underground layers of the museum. We even witnessed a demonstration of some old cars on the runaways around the old base. It was the only place on the planet where fuel injected engines was allowed to operate and people who operated these engines were among the most paid on the planet, due to the risks involved in using a fuel combustible engine.

In the 21
st
century, we use everyday cars, busses, trains and planes that use the combustion fuel engines, but in the 26
th
century, it was considered a very dangerous experience and this fact produced a sarcastic smile out of me. The protective shield was on all the time over this area to prevent smoke from old motors mix with the planet’s atmosphere and also to keep an acceptable temperature in this warm part of the North American continent.

The whole experience at this museum reminded me of my old reality where we are forced to inhale everyday these fumes from our automobiles and ironically, in this future world, the smell of burning petrol in the air was a treat I could not refuse. The sound of the running engines, the modest speed these cars produced compared to the speed standards of the future, were a clear proof of how much the technology had changed during the years.

We returned home in the evening and it was then when I realised I had experienced the greatest holiday of my life so far. I had seen things that only a few months ago, thought to be impossible. If I had been on my own in this reality, I would have never known the existence of such amazing places and even if I had, I would have never taken the courage to visit them alone. Thanks to Luna, I was able to travel with the most amazing person and I felt the happiest man alive.

To travel all around the world in less than two weeks and see so many places without the need of flying for hours on a plane was something beyond belief and I just couldn’t get used to the idea. As much as I was trying to accept everything in this reality as it came, sometimes I just couldn’t get over the fact that what was happening was so bizarre.

After those two terrific weeks, it was time to return to work. Having all these incredible experiences I’d had, I just wished I could travel every day from the rest of my life and certainly wasn’t looking forward to work.

Somehow, the idea of spending the last day of my holiday with Luna locked in our apartment, made me forget about work and my mood turned for the better as I intended to savour every minute with her.

21

On the last day of our holidays, whilst Luna and I were sitting in our living space enjoying some time alone together, she came up with an idea which up to that moment I wasn’t aware it was possible for everyone.

It all started as we discussed our next holidays. Since we already had a week off work due to 5
th
of June celebrations (if you may recall from earlier, it was the day the last world war finished), Luna suggested that we add two more weeks and have a three week holiday in space. I hadn’t realised there was a possibility of having a holiday in space despite knowing space travel was advanced enough to allow someone to travel beyond our galaxy. I always thought the only people who travelled in space were trained astronauts. Apparently everyone could travel in space thanks to the sophisticated commercial space crafts.

Suddenly, my mind was overtaken by excitement and anticipation as to where about in space Luna had in mind. Knowing that people and the interplanetaries could travel between planets, I hoped that will be on some planet far away from our solar system, but as soon, as Luna started to speak, all became clear to me.

“A holiday within our solar system should be an affordable one with what we earn. We could stay for three days on the Moon, three days on Mars and the reminder of our holiday in Jupiter and Saturn where we can visit the various moons. What do you think Scott?”

The idea of travelling to Mars and other planets had left me with my mouth open.

“I’m speechless, why wasn’t I aware of this earlier?” I asked.

“Space travel is an expensive holiday and we have to save many credits.”

“I see. This is why we never talked about it. How much do we need for this holiday then?” I asked with all my being alert, interested to hear what she was going to say next.

“It is something around 12.000 VC per person, just the travel and a few thousands more to spend on food and fun. It also requires an accurate planning on flight connections between planets because there aren’t many flights available. I think is doable despite the short time we have to raise the needed credits.”

“I think it’s an expensive holiday, but worth every credit. It has been a long dream of mine to travel in space.” I insisted.

“It isn’t as expensive as an intergalactic holiday. To travel to another galaxy we need to save a lot more credit than our solar system. My brother works and lives on an amazing planet with two moons and a blue sun in a galaxy called Cartwheel Galaxy.”

“Is it far?”

“It is about 500 million light-years away from Earth.”

“Wow, your brother is so far away! How long does it take to travel there?”

“Not as long as you may think. They have this wormhole technology now where the spaceship travels through a black hole. Even I don’t fully understand it.” 

The total cost of this holiday was going to be a little too much for what I was earning. If I had to make it, I had to avoid eating organic food every day and staying home some weekends. After all, it wasn’t just
any normal holiday
! I was going to travel to the Moon and visit other planets too. It was going to be something I thought it would never happen during my life time.

I started to fire question after question about the space holiday and Luna thought the best way to describe our space trip would be to show me a promotional demonstration on Holo. My mind was blown away when I saw what the space holiday entailed. Although there were six months for us to plan and pay for our space holiday, the excitement started to build up already and I couldn’t wait for the day when I was going to travel in space. However, before the time to travel in space arrived, Luna and I had to deal with a few unexpected events.

The last week of January, Luna received some bad news while at work. Her grandfather was admitted into a Terminal Facility, which meant his life was near the end. Luna was devastated and didn’t speak much during our journey home from work. It occurred to me that all the time we had been together, she had never spoken about her family and I didn’t know much about her past. I knew her parents were alive and I also knew she had an older brother, who lived on a different planet as part of a scientific team that had gone there to exchange experience, but she rarely spoke of her family and I respected her privacy. The latest development had brought forward the possibility of meeting her family for the first time.

Luna rarely spoke with her parents and when this happened, it was always in private. I had never seen her speaking to both parents in the same time. They were never together in the same call. On the contrary, she spoke with her brother more often and I had the pleasure to share a conversation with him in more than one occasion.

From the intergalactic holographic link, I was unable to tell how tall he was, but compare to the objects around him, I gathered he was taller than Luna. As for his facial features, let aside the different hairstyle, he had a few similarities with Luna. He was conceived in Africa and his parents had decided to name him Leon after the African king of the jungle lion. In the few conversations I had with him, Leon came across as a well-educated and well-mannered guy with a steel personality who commanded respect.

Luna remained quiet all evening and I felt it was my duty to show her my support. I sat next to her, took her hands in my hands and tried to comfort her. It wasn’t easy as I didn’t know much about her family. I felt it was time for her to open up and tell me more about her granddad.

“Luna my love, I see you are saddened and I feel powerless to change the way you feel, but give me a chance and let me try, please.”

“There is nothing you can do Scott,” she replied, barely holding her tears.

“It helps if you talked about your granddad and your family. You may find it therapeutic sharing your thoughts about your family and remembering the good times you had.”

She gave me a soft cheerful look to acknowledge my efforts, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Where do I start? My family always been complicated, Scott, this is why I have waited this long to commit in a serious relationship, scars of my childhood, I guess.” She paused for a moment, probably thinking if she was doing the right thing by talking openly about something she had kept to herself for a long time and then continued, “My parents fell in love very young, while in their teens. Later, they decided to have my brother and me and life was beautiful for a while. My father just like his father – the one who is admitted into the Terminal Facility – became a naturalist preserver and he met my mother while studying at Kenya Natural Institute. My family has always lived in Kenya. My grandfather moved there in his younger years to be near the biggest animal preservation facility and it was there where I was born.

“When I was six years old, my mum and dad started growing apart. It was around this time when my happy childhood turned to a nightmare. My parents’ relationship became a difficult one and even a little girl like me could notice it. They barely spoke to each other until the day after my sixth birthday when my mother decided to move out. After that, my father and his new partner decided to take another job in the East Asian wilderness. My brother and I were left in Kenya to live with grandfather. Everything I have become today I owe it to him.”

“What happen between your parents?”

“Something I am not proud to talk about.”

“If I am coming with you to Kenya for support, there is a good chance I will meet your parents and you living me in the dark may result in an awkward situation.”

“My mother suspected that my father was having a secret affair with his work colleague and gave him several opportunities to admit his affair. My father didn’t want to lose us and also a part of him still loved my mother, so he denied everything and continued to keep his other relationship a secret. My mother on the other hand, as to revenge his actions, followed her feelings and started to have several affairs with other men and women. All this lasted for nearly a year until my father decided to admit to her that he had fallen in love with a guy he worked with.”

“I thought you all were open-minded in this reality and followed your heart, I don’t understand why it was an issue for your parents.”

“We are open-minded and I have no problem with my parents seeing other people, but there is a line we do not cross and that is lying. The fact they both kept secrets from each other instead of sharing everything good and bad, destroyed our family and this is something I will never forgive them for. This is why it is important to me to say everything as it is without holding anything back.”

“I am not pretending this is something that normally happens in my old reality because it is not and my conservative mentality is not as forward as yours. Therefore, I am the last person to give advice, but I know one thing, we all make mistakes and the word ‘forgive’ exists because our conscience is built to forgive and forget. I understand it has been hard for you at such a young age, but sometimes we do things out of fear of losing the ones we love, we do bad things out of love.”

“You really have a peculiar way of thinking.” She replied smiling.

In that moment, I realised her grief had subdued and my mission to take her mind away was succeeding.

“Am I wrong asking you to forgive your parents?” I asked, trying to engage Luna deeper in our conversation.

“I don’t know! It is not easy for me. Maybe you’re right, I have fed my anger for so long that I find it hard to forgive them. I just don’t like you being right.”

“Why is that?” I asked smiling.

“You, coming from a less developed world, with an old mentality and give me advice, which by the way, it is not a bad one.”

“Jealous are we? Anyway, you can always choose to sulk for what has happened in the past, instead of looking forward to the future. I am sure your grandfather would be proud of you if you showed some strength and moved on. No matter what they did, they are your parents and I am sure they love you unconditionally.”

Luna stood up, excused herself and went in the private space upstairs. I could see a tear rolling down her beautiful face and I knew it was time to leave her alone with her thoughts.

Next morning, Luna applied for compassionate leave for both of us and two hours later we were on our way to Kenya. Ten minutes into our journey and all I could see was the dark blue waters of Atlantic Ocean move fast underneath my feet. Luna hadn’t said much since our conversation last night and as much as I wanted her to return to her happy self I knew I couldn’t force her.

Halfway to our journey, out of the blue, she spoke. “Thank you for last night Scott. I value your efforts to help and I have thought a lot about what you said. I think is time for me to let the anger go and reconcile with my parents while there is still time.”

“Glad to help Luna, this is why we are together, to be there for each other when needed. How do you feel meeting your parents in such a difficult time?”

“Insecure and worried I might say something I will regret.” She answered.

“I am here for you.” My hand rested over hers and we exchanged a tender look.

“Thank you Scott.”

She appeared to be much calmer than a day before and I felt glad to have helped her achieve that. It was clear my words had made Luna review her relationship with her parents and it appeared she had decided to rise above her anger and accept the fact that they had moved on with their lives.