Chapter 50

“Hey, Tom,” Esky started, as he pushed the button for the lift.

“Just be aware that Lee probably dropped a spell on both of you to restrict what you can say about this time when you get back to your time,” he grinned at them. Then he stepped into the lift that would take him and his two visitors to his apartment.

“Well she tried to,” Tom chuckled as the doors dinged open. “I let her know that I already have a spell on me, and I had put one on Nena to restrict what we can say about future events when other people are around and what we can do with that knowledge.”

“Seriously?” Nena said sharply to Tom when they stopped outside an apartment’s door.

“Yes, seriously. Remember that you agreed to obey me and protect me and not to say nasty things about me to others. Well, talking about our adventures, off-planet is included in that agreement. It can get us into some serious difficulties.”

“We are very privileged to be able to move in time as we do. That also means we have to take more care in what we do and say. Our futures may not be written, but the past of the future times we visit is.”

Nena looked at Tom, and the shrugged, “Actually that does kinda make sense. It may be frustrating in my future, but it does make sense.”

Esky opened the door to his apartment, and they were met by a long scream, as a two-year-old girl hurtled herself at Tom. Tom soon had two chubby little arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

He just stood there and let the tears fall, as he hugged Lorena just as tightly as she hugged him.

It took some effort, but Tom finally got Lorena to release him from her death grip.

He knelt down so he could put her down to look at her little face, “Lee did fix you up real good. You are as pretty as a picture.”

Lorena gave Tom a huge grin, “All fixed from bad doggies. Daddy says you save me. I rem’ber you. Safe, you make me safe and feel better. I missed you.”

Tom grinned at her, “I have missed you too. But I bet your daddy gives you big hugs and makes you feel safe too.”

Lorena looked up at Esky, and a lovely smile spread across her face. She looked back at Tom and said, “He is good daddy.”

Tom glanced up at Esky and back at Lorena, “Some kids get lucky and get good daddies. I think you got really lucky.”

Lorena nodded in agreement and then spun around, tore off into another room, yelling, “Chris, Sara, my Unka Tom is here.”

Esky turned to Tom as Tom stood up, “For a long time, she’d wake up in the dead of night screaming and crying. It didn’t happen every night but at least a couple of times a week. For the last year, it hasn’t happened so often.”

“For some reason, she wouldn’t quieten down unless I told her that her Uncle Tom would come back like you promised. Lee fixed her as soon as the Fortune docked in Harmony, and she got a look at Lorena. She promised to take the blame if you got upset. We were just happy to have her well again.”

“One of Lorena’s first words was ‘Tom’. Lee gave her a picture of you when she was one, and she just seemed to know who you were. She still kisses your picture goodnight, every night.”

“She woke up very excited this morning and told us that Unka Tom was coming today. Tahoora and I got worried because she was so insistent, and I contacted Lee.”

“Lee just chuckled and said that knowing you if you told her that you would come back at this time then Lorena would know. We were just relieved when I got the message that you were at the bank, so I snuck out to get you.”

Esky stopped talking, as Tom had to kneel down again and meet the other kids. He was soon dragged off and pushed into a huge chair with the four-year-old Chris straddling one leg, the two-year-old Lorena over the other, and a six-year-old Sara squeezed down beside him on one side, while he read to them.

Nena chuckled, and she accepted a cuppa from Tahoora once she was settled in her own chair. “He seems to attract kids. Whenever we go sit in the café or bistro at home, little kids come up to him and hug his leg or pat him, and then wander off again.”

“That useta happen a lot on the ship with Esky too. If a kid got lost, we’d send him to find it, and he always did. He spent as much time in the dome with the children as he did running the ship,” Tahoora told Nena.

“It’s a dad thing,” Esky said confidently as he stirred sugar into his cup. Nena and Tahoora looked at each other and just smiled.

Then Tahoora continued, “Anyway when we got Lorena, we discussed a change in jobs. I had thought he’d fight me about getting off the ship he loved. I then learnt that he had been doing a degree in Early Childhood Development in secret for a couple of years. He wanted to surprise the kids and me.”

“So, I wasn’t the least bit surprised when we got back to Utopia that he accepted a job teaching the younger levels downstairs. It was time for us to settle into a more normal life for the kids. I have my own laboratory and staff here, so this is where we settled.”

“And their granddad wanted his little prince and the princesses safe on the ground,” Esky added.

Tahoora giggled at Nena’s bemused look, “His dad is a normal type, prince of the realm, back on Earth.”

“Oh,” was all Nena could think to say to that.

Tom and Nena had a lot of fun.

They spent the next two days exploring Futura with the Cool family and even got a ride on an airship with a Captain Tomos and his wife, Glenda. They said that the locals called the airships their version of a bus.

The couple also explained that space-shuttles were only to fly between specific ports, and then everyone got on a train, boat, or an air-ship to go to other locations unless they owned an electric vehicle like a Linger.

Tom and Nena got to meet faeries and even some baby wyverns. Nena wanted one, but Tom talked her out of it and said maybe if they ever shifted to a different planet to live, she could have one then. Nena, of course, said that her granddad was mean, making the Cool children giggle.

Bus attracted a lot of attention. A Brisbane City transit bus made in 2005, wasn’t exactly a common sight on Utopia in 2102 (Earth time). Tom hadn’t worried about the glamour since he knew the bus itself would be hard enough to explain. Bus was amused by the whole experience.