Chapter 16

As it turned out, economics didn't give a damn about how we treated it, and of course, I won. A couple of days later I walked into the agent's office, handed him the money, in cash to his delight, and got all the papers done in less than an hour. We were now the proud owners of a house that needed a lot of renovation.

Anita had to quit her job and Nina gave notice on hers, she had to work till summer break but after that she would be, she told her employer, 'moving back to her hometown'. While Anita supervised the renovation, I went home to Nina's place and built a Machine in the biggest wardrobe. It was a very simple Time Machine, it could only manage a trip over to our Safe Haven, or Home as we called it, so she could come over almost every day.

I also had time to go over to Fritz' and helped him build a Machine similar to the one that I had installed at Nina's. Fritz and I had earlier agreed to have the destination of our Machines programmed to be in each other's homes, or at least close to them. On our grounds, there was an old cellar that could easily hide the smaller version of the Machine, and Fritz installed theirs in his work shed behind a false wall. He even dug a tunnel from the shed to the main building. Obviously, he had gotten something to think about when Nina had suggested that perhaps he wasn't as safe as he had thought. When we had the Machines installed, I could clearly see that there was a stone that had fallen off his burden. I put it down to the fact that he originated from prewar Germany and had seen what the Nazis had done. How the informant culture had flourished making no one trust his or her neighbor.

One day, when I had nothing to do, I walked around the house where Anita was busy measuring the windows for curtains, or blinds, or whatever. She finally got tired of me wandering around underfoot.

"Why don't you go and see Irene or Chris," she suggested. "I will work on this till very late. I must have it ready in time for Nina to move in soon after school's out. I don't want her to be alone longer than necessary."

I looked at her and she must have seen the question marks in my eyes.

"Robert sometimes I wonder what you... She's pregnant for heaven's sake!"

"Yes. I know," I said a little hurt. "Even if she hadn't told me I'm sure I would have noticed by now."

"Yes. And we don't want anything to happen to the child, do we? Or to the mother?"

"No. Of course not!"

"See?" She said as if that explained everything.

"But - but it's not due for months yet!"

"Oh Robert! Go away, will you. Tell me where you went when you come back. I would like it if you went and saw your daughter, though."

Slowly I went out to my Machine and entered it. I just sat there for a while thinking about which of the two girls I should visit, Irene or Chris. It wasn't that long ago that I had visited Irene so I decided on Chris. I set the dials and off I went.

When I arrived at my destination and got out it was almost dark. As I closed and locked the door, I heard the church clock strike nine. Slowly I walked the short distance to my daughter's residence and, looking up at her windows, saw that the lights were on. When I tried the door, it was locked, and I tentatively looked at the row of buzz buttons to the left of the entrance. I easily found my daughter's name in the row. Although I still had the key, I pressed it and a few seconds later I could hear my Chris' voice crackle through the speaker.

"Yes?"

"It's me," I said in my half-whisper.

"Who?"

"Me. You know. Your invisible lover."

"Oh! Go away! I don't want to see you!"

"I only want to talk to you. To apologize."

"Why?"

"Why does one apologize?"

She was quiet for a while. Then the buzzer buzzed, and I pushed the door open. As I climbed the stairs I could hear a door open, and when I reached Chris' floor, her door stood open but there was no sign of her. What was this? Was it a trap? Had she called the police? I shrugged my shoulders when I realized that I acted just as Fritz might have reacted to this situation. What if she had called the police? I was invisible and I couldn't imagine a policeman chasing around my daughter's apartment hunting something or someone she claimed was invisible and that it had raped her. Not that I had of course, but then I hadn't had her full cooperation either. Not first at least, but after a while she had proved to be just as eager as her mother to feel my cock inside her snug pussy.

I entered and closed the door behind me, and I heard it click locked but just to be sure I pushed the handle down. When I found her in the living room she was sitting in the armchair with her feet under her and her arms around her knees, her chin resting on top of them. She looked directly at the door.

"Hi," I said.

"Hmmm. So?"

"So what?"

"Aren't you going to apologize then?"

"Oh. Yes. I'm sorry for what I made you do. Not that I regret it," I hastily added when I saw that something flared in her eyes that I took for anger.

"How can you apologize for something you don't regret?"

I had to think about that one for a while. "I apologize for my intrusion. I don't regret our loving, that I couldn't do, even if it were wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Yes. From what I've learned later, rather much later, it was wrong of me."

"Do you know something?" She asked rhetorically, and I treated it just as that. "I have always considered my father to be someone like you." My heart skipped a couple of beats. "Mysterious, I mean. Mother never told me anything about him, and then suddenly she introduces him to me! I don't believe her! Them! I don't think that he's my father. I think I know who I think my father is."

My silence must have convinced her that her suspicion had been justified.

"Yes! I knew it! Do you do this a lot?"

"What?"

"Make love to your daughters?"

"I think I've better..."

"Don't you dare! I'll confront mother if you leave now. And I can promise you that if I have to do that, it won't be a nice confrontation. I gave in last time because it was the right thing to do. But not so this time. All I want is the truth, damn it! I could easily love you, or Robert, but I need to know for sure." There were tears in her eyes now. If they were tears of anger or sorrow, I didn't know.

"Please," she begged in a softer voice. "I just need to know if I'm allowed to love you... and if so, how."

"Robert is your father," I said truthfully and her shoulders sagged at my words.

"And you?"

I had a silent conference with myself. My daughter was smart. She would never believe a lie. Not now. It was too late for lies.

"May I sit down?"

She just shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't care what I did.

"I would also like for you to sit closer to me."

"In your dreams," she snapped. "I'm not coming near you until you tell me the truth, every little bit of it!"

I took a deep breath and threw myself into my sad story again. This time I told it in greater detail since I now had the answers to everything that had happened.

In the middle of my story, she unwound herself from her cramped position and sat more comfortably in the big chair. However, her eyes never left the space where my voice came from. When I finished my story, she gave me a weak smile.

"So?" I asked. "Are you still angry with me?"

"Yes. A little. Both at you as well as at Mom. For missing you when I was a child. For Mom and you not being together as you should have been. You because of what you did without considering the consequences and at her because she was... I don't know, a coward?"

I could see her point and didn't say anything as she became silent and sat in her chair, looking young, hurt and sad at the same time.

"What... What do you think of me?" She asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well. I acted like a slut... you know... that night."

"You did nothing of the sort! Don't you ever dare to think about yourself in those terms. You're the best daughter any father could ask for. And your mother is really proud of you also."

"Yes, because she doesn't know. If she knew she would hate me. And you too."

"You're wrong. Your mother is the most understanding woman I've ever met. Besides, you don't think that I have kept any secrets from her, do you? We swore that we would never again keep anything from each other. For us it is only the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but... from the moment I met her as Robert. We promised."

"She knows!? How could you!?"

"I had to. Remember, no secrets."

"Can you promise me that too?"

"Of course, if you'll do the same to me."

This got her silent for a while and as I looked I could see a blush spread over her face. I wondered what that was all about.

"OK," she mumbled and than with a little stronger voice, "I promise."

"I'm glad. Now would you like to sit here beside me?"

"I... I rather not, not until you've answered some questions I have for you that I've been wondering about since I met you. The second time," she added.