Chapter 36

I was in a deep, restful sleep, more restful than I had been in years. I slowly drifted towards being awake. I felt a warm, feminine body lying next to me. I was in bed. I sighed and opened my eyes, turning to see Melanie. She was in pajamas, lying on her side, her head propped up with one hand.

She looked at me and smiled. "Good morning! Remind you of anything?"

I probed the outside. It was about 7:10 AM, the sun just peeking over the horizon. "Yeah, sure does. The Spirit landing on Mars, the day we got back together. I was the one to wake up first though, back then."

Melanie smiled and nodded. "I've been awake for hours, thinking about you, thinking about that day too. I remember my absolute shock when you levitated. It was the day my universe changed." She reached over and stroked my head lightly with her other hand. "Eric? May I ask you a really important question?"

I nodded. "I have a really important one to ask you too. But go first."

Melanie didn't respond immediately. She just kept petting my head and smiling. All the nervousness and almost all the shyness of last night were gone though. She was completely relaxed, lying by my side, smiling and petting me. It felt absolutely delightful.

"Eric," she whispered. "Do you remember me taking you to bed last night?"

"I almost don't. I remember falling to sleep with you on the couch. Vaguely maybe. I think I remember you taking off my shoes and socks. It felt so wonderful to sleep with you again."

Melanie nodded. "When I came into bed with you, you muttered something. You said you could never be complete without me. You told me that before, so long ago, and I never appreciated, not until now, how dead serious you are when you say that. Eric, do you still want me as your wife? After two years of being rejected, do you still want me?"

We stared at each other, finally locking our eyes together. Finally! Words were no longer necessary. I didn't have to ask my question, not with words. Melanie understood completely. Her eyes were full of forgiveness for me, forgiveness and acceptance, and just behind that, a mind bursting to be playful. Her gaze fused with mine, intertwining with my love and unbounded desire for her. We both started crying. Melanie turned and was soon lying on me. I reached up and hugged her, intending never to let go again. We were both laughing and crying at the same time.

The tears stopped first. Then we both sat up still laughing. "Breakfast?" Melanie asked playfully.

"Sure! May I?"

Melanie blinked. "Oh yeah! It's been so long, I'd forgotten what a great short-order cook you are!" She laughed. "Okay! Surprise me!"

We were soon sitting down in her kitchen (my kitchen?!), munching on a big bowl filled with exotic iced fruits, and piping hot fish and shellfish wrapped in an assortment of light pastries. I remembered this as one of Melanie's favorite breakfasts. My wife (my wife!) dived in with gusto.

"So tell me Eric, besides the awful business with planet-X, what else have you seen in the galaxy?"

"The galaxy, it's so incredible! I don't know where to begin. And I've just begun to explore it. I've spent most of the last two years studying. You should see my library at Daedalus now."

"Oh? Studying what?"

I munched on a bite of hot lobster wrapped in a buttery pastry. "Well, my breakthrough was integrating my memory buffers for replicating objects with my cognitive understanding. I can speed read entire books in seconds now. I don't do it with recreational reading, but for learning languages, sciences, philosophy, medicine, stuff like that, it's fantastic."

"Oh wow." Melanie looked very thoughtful at me as she ate a piece of fruit. "Medicine, huh? Interesting. And philosophy? Anything in particular you focused on?"

I nodded. "I've been studying a lot of religions. Last year I spent a lot of time studying Buddhism."

Melanie's eyes popped open and she blinked in surprise. "Are you a Buddhist now?"

"No. I wanted to study the ethics though. I'm trying to decide what principles to use to guide my life. Such horrendous mistakes I made two years ago. I never want them to happen again."

"Hmmm. And what did you learn?"

I thought for a moment. "One of the things I've come to appreciate is how important it is to set aside time for reflection. Pick a time when life is quiet, when things aren't urgent, and then think about what principles you want to use to guide your life. Then, when you have an urgent question, don't try to answer it directly. Instead ask, what principles are involved here? Upon what principles should I make my decision? You do that, you've got your question at God's level, the real God."

I munched on a steaming hot oyster wrapped in hot-pepper spinach leaves. "Identify the right principles involved, and let them guide your decision. It's really quite easy, and very effective."

Melanie smiled at me as she bit into a Kiwi. "You make it sound so easy."

I batted my eyes at her playfully. "Well, yeah, in practice... Difficult decisions are still difficult. Melanie?"

"Uh huh?"

"What's your schedule like for today?"

"My resident schedule is two days on, two days off. This is my 48-hour break time between rotations, 5 PM Friday to 5 PM Sunday, the..." She smiled and took one of the pastry types I had been munching on. "The world is my oyster!" She took a large bite. "Oh! These are so good! I had forgotten how much I enjoy your spicy cooking!"

I nodded back at the compliment. "And what are your break days like?"

"Oh, I try to fill them with fun, mind challenging activities. The wash, clean the condo, go food shopping. The car is overdue for an oil change."

I smiled. "The wash, done. Clean the condo, done. Food shopping, done." I paused for a second. "I just cleaned the interior of the car and gave it my patented super-deluxe tune-up. I'll clean the outside when it's dark."

Melanie blinked as she realized all I had just done. "Thanks sweetie. That was another thing I had forgotten, how much you can open up my day." She reflected for a second and then giggled. "I remember two years ago, Patricia was visiting here just a day or two after we, well, after I had asked you to leave. Patricia was astonished there were only a few snack foods in the kitchen. She insisted on taking me food shopping. The store clerks were all greeting me as a lost friend. They hadn't seen me in years. They all thought I had moved away. Patricia was absolutely befuddled. I had to make up some lie, that you did all the food shopping, and I didn't know where you went."