Chapter 7: Earth - 2078

-- Earth time: 2078--

“Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!” I cussed.

As soon as I felt that weird feeling, I knew the damn book had sent me home. Daniel looked at me in surprise. He frowned at me. I sighed and sat up. I then picked him up, and balanced my son on my hip I walked over the Lectern.

“Send me back immediately,” I demanded.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I’ve lost contact with the portal you originated from. You look familiar. Let me see. Oh! This is very strange. According to my records, it has been twenty-two years since you left here. It is Friday, the Seventh of January, 2078,” the book told me.

“But I’ve only been gone just over a year in my calculations,” I told The Book, with shock and worry.

“Hum, I’ve received an update from the portal you left. It is still there and was able to reconnect with me momentarily, to deliver your boxes. I was able to tell it that you had arrived safely. But I seem to have trouble getting a fix on its location again.”

“Very odd, I believe there was a time dilation. The radiation in the atmosphere here has lessened some since you left. However, it may take me several months or even longer, to get another fix on the portal you came through. I’m sorry, I’ll have to try and work out its current location from the information it sent me.”

“I’ve no other information as to how far back in time you were sent the first time due to the spike that occurred when you left. You didn’t go to Haven, where I believed that I was sending you.”

“What’s on Haven?” I asked. I was surprised there was another world, other than Amity that I could have gone to. Then I remembered that Vaughn had said that there were many other systems, but it couldn’t connect to them at the time.

“More like whom. Tristan Watson, the wizard who created me, went there in 1992. I was trying to send you to him, and his family since the child you carried was related to them. I’m also sorry for that error.”

“I’ve since been updated, and I now know not to do that again. I’ve scanned you and the boy, and both of you are in excellent health. However, your magical items seem to be in need of repair. I suggest you access the living area and see if Tristan has left copies of his spell books here.”

“What living area? I only found three rooms. The one I first entered, this room and the empty one opposite this one.”

“You should find another short hall in the middle of the room opposite where you entered. Touch the wall on your right side and then walk forwards,” the Book told me.

“Thanks, Book,” I said. I felt like screaming at it, but I knew that it was pointless. It had tried to help me when I first came in here. I went to walk off when the book said, “Don’t forget your boxes.”

I turned and found the four wizard’s boxes were sitting on the dais. “I wonder why all four came with me?” I said aloud.

“They are Pix wizard’s boxes. They are bonded pairs. Tristan found that you could put the other boxes inside your wizard’s box and then he put his in his backpack to carry it around, if that helps you out,” The Book offered.

I thanked the book again and said, “I’ll come back for them when I find something to put them in.” I followed the directions I had been given and found the hot spot on the wall. I put a hand forward, and it disappeared through the wall unharmed, so I followed it.

The living area was one big room. A wide walk area was in the centre. To my right was a bedroom with a huge bed. Cupboards divided it from the kitchen/dining room area on the other side of them. On the left side were a laboratory/workshop type setup and then a study area. Book shelves divided these two areas.

I noted a doorway to the right on the wall I had walked through closer to the bedroom and discovered it was a large bathroom with a huge hot pool and even a shower. I walked to the other end of the main room and touched the wall. I found the spot and walked through the wall into what was obviously a storage space twice the size of the area I had left.

It was filled with all sorts of boxes and other crap. I could see many of the boxes and items at the front of the room had been disturbed but noted a lot of the ones down the back had not been touched for a very long time. I suspected that if there were anything of value that I could use, it would be in those boxes. I hoped Tristan, whoever he was, didn’t mind.

I assumed I was going to have to work out how to acquire some form of identity if I was going to be stuck back on Earth for some time. I also had no idea what the state of affairs in the wider world was. It was after all twenty-two years into the future as far as I was concerned.

I hoped the Island still had a working resort so I could access their systems. I had learnt a lot from Torus about how to do this when I was helping fix her. If I could access data for an Alien Being, I was sure I could do it here.

Daniel indicated he was hungry, and I found that whoever had last been here had left the fridges and cupboards stocked. I hoped he could tolerate cow’s milk. He already had twelve teeth and looked older than the eleven Earth months that he was. He was even walking five or six steps before he plonked on his butt.

I found several litres of milk in the fridge and poured him a small cup. I didn’t have any bottles for him, but he was a well-coordinated kid. He happily drank the milk from the cup. I then found him a banana and sat him on the floor with a piece of it.

He happily munched on it and squished it, and I knew I’d have to clean him up, but he was content. I got some food for myself and watched my son. He was a fine looking boy I decided.

I had to chuckle to myself. I’d been bitching about not spending much time with him, and now I had little choice. I wasn’t real sure what I was to do with him. He held his hands up to me and said, “Uky.”

I grinned at him. “Yep you sure are,” I told him. I went and got a warm cloth, and he was more than happy to let me wipe the squished ‘nana off him. I picked him up, and he snuggled into my shoulder and yawned. I placed him on the bed, and he rolled onto his tummy and closed his eyes.

I needed to get him some supplies like bottles and nappies. I watched him for a minute, but he was fast asleep. He was such a contented baby that I was amazed that he was mine. A clock on the wall in the kitchen had indicated it was about five o’clock in the morning here.

I decided to take a chance and blinked to the path that was near my old room, hoping no one was using it and that it was still there. I sighed in relief that the path was still there and it was empty.

I walked up to the back door and tried it. It opened under my hand, and the lights were on inside. It smelt and looked clean, and I could tell that the resort was still in use. I sighed in relief.

I needed to access a computer and to do that I needed an empty room. I hoped that my old room wasn’t a popular one since the staff would probably have stories about me and that room. I dropped a spell on the door and entered cautiously.

Carefully I looked around and found that it was indeed unoccupied. It had been redecorated since I last used it and noticed that it had new equipment in it. I touched one of the big screens over the desk, and it lit up and asked me if it could help me.

I soon determined that it still had built in internet access and I happily set to work. I connected to the island’s server and placed a ‘search and hide’ spell on it to cover my activity. I linked into registrations for the Island.

I found that they currently had high occupancy with it being school holidays, but my room was free. I placed a reservation in the system for my room and booked a three-week stay to start as of today. I also requested a cot for Daniel.

The system stated it needed my ID number and a bank account. So I tried to link through the network to my old bank and checked if my trust fund still existed. I was surprised to find that it did.

It had accrued quite a sum over the years, but I didn’t know the current value of a dollar. If the price for the room were an indication, more would be better. I wanted to be financially independent while I was here.

Brian had changed the directors to my mother and me when I’d turned twenty-one. The main bank account was also off-shore. I guessed this was why it hadn’t come up in an audit of my mother’s and my assets.

I changed the director’s names to Talia and Daniel and used Michael’s last name, Watson. I created a new account in the name of Talia Conner and linked it to the fund. I then ran into trouble.

Apparently, even for this bank, you needed an ID chip with a registration number to link to my accounts and use them. Credit cards apparently, were ‘old hat’. I linked into the Births, Marriages and Deaths Registrar and created new identities for Daniel and me. I memorised the numbers it displayed so I could add them to the reservation and bank account.

Then I requested the system send new ID chips to the Island, stating that my son’s and mine had malfunctioned after we left the airport in Brisbane and now I couldn’t pay my bills on the Island. I was amused to learn that this wasn’t uncommon with the chips.

I searched and found the death notice for my mother while I was in there. I learnt that she hadn’t come out of the coma and had died the day I had disappeared. I was saddened by this news, but then I hadn’t expected to find her alive.

I then searched the internet for Michael and found pictures of him and tonnes of information about his life and his inventions. I was amused to find that he had married Vivian, the nurse that had helped us. They had also had a son and two daughters.

It looked like there was not a lot wrong with Michael’s ability to sire kids. Strangely, I didn’t feel anything for Michael when I looked at his current pictures. It had only been a year and a half for me, but he was now twenty-two years older and a different man from the one I knew.

I looked up the son and found he was a hotty just as his father had been. He was called Mike and was about twenty-one. He was attending the same university that Michael and I had. Michael’s son interested me more.

I learnt that Michael had spent twelve months in a Behaviour Restoration Hospital. He’d apparently had a breakdown after I had disappeared. It was believed that I had committed suicide. The courts had considered his hospitalisation when his case went before them.

The coroner had also reported that his blows were not the cause of death. Brian had hit the coffee table when he fell from Michael’s first blows, and it had snapped his neck. Michael was charged with the lesser offence of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and death.

He had to wear a Locality Bracelet for five years, but as he didn’t re-offend, they took it from him, and he was then free to travel outside of Australia. The news sites were very sympathetic, and I was glad that he had been able to get on with his life.

I learnt that Brian’s company went bust and the government claimed most of his assets since my mother and I were dead. I guessed they hadn’t found my trust because it was actually looked after by a subsidiary accounting firm that they didn’t know he’d owned in partnership.

The other bloke was still running it. I wondered why he didn’t dissolve the trust, but I wasn’t going to say no to the cash in it. I found my offshore bank had other accounts like mine and riffled through them.

I grinned as I emptied several accounts that had been sitting idle even longer than mine had and shifted the money to my new personal account. As far as the bank new, they just didn’t exist anymore, and they all closed with different exit dates.

Brian had actually taught me about moving money, and I found the methods still worked here on Earth even after twenty-two years. The ‘hide’ spell wouldn’t hurt either if anyone tried to trace the money.

I looked at the general news since I had left. I was amazed to learn that the Moon had several Dome Colonies owned by different Nations and an International Space Station. There were even several Dome Colony’s going up on Mars.

Different Nations and private companies were looking at sending missions to several of the closer star systems. I wondered where Amity was in relation to Earth and decided I needed to ask the Book at some time.

I found the location for the warehouse for housekeeping on the Island. I studied a map of the island and then chanced blinking over to it. I had little trouble getting past the locks and security. I simply blinked to the other side of the door.

I found a room marked lost items. I was amused to find dozens of unclaimed bags and all sorts of items. The best score was a nappy bag. It had four bottles and enough nappies suitable for Daniel to get me out of trouble for a few days. The formula was in sachets and still in date.

I looked through the other bags and picked out a small one for Daniel and a larger one for myself. Boy’s baby clothes were scarce, but I found two playsuits and a little coat that should do.

Two of the bags belonged to women that had been close to my size, so I picked through them for some clothes. I dropped a spell on the bags to change their colours and make them look new. At least I know had some baggage to turn up with.

Worried about Daniel, I headed back to the cave.

Daniel woke from his nap when I appeared.

I found the water in the bubbling hot spring pool was a lovely bathing temperature and I stripped Daniel and myself and got in. He loved being in the pool, and I had fun teaching him how to swim doggie paddle.

Daniel rarely needed to be shown how to do anything more than once. He loved learning how to swim and had a fun time. I just enjoyed his exuberance in life, and it lifted my spirits a little. I had wanted to come home, and here I was.

I finally encouraged him out. I had found the spring had helped recharge my magic, so I wasn’t in need of a sexual fix and actually felt more my old self. After getting Daniel dressed in a singlet and nappy, I found a bikini and a loose dress in one of the bags and got dressed. Daniel was happy to accept the formula and a cuddle from me as I fed him.

I then took Daniel to the back room to have a look through the boxes that didn’t appear to have been touched. I found a lot of junk, but I also found a lot of items that I could use. I had noticed that fashions here in this time, seemed all over the place. It seemed to depend on your sub-culture as to what you wore.

As I was planning on selling myself as financially independent, I looked more at what those with healthy incomes wore; more what I thought of as, upper middle, lower rich. I had also decided I would go back to University and get a new degree.