Chapter 5: Enjoying the Island

Even though Alfred's final healing hadn't taken all that much time, I didn't think we would be doing much for the remaining hours of daylight and decided to take a nap as well.

I picked up a couple of pillows, a snifter of cognac as well as one of Alfred's ready-mades and went down, still nude, to the waterfall.

Relaxation was total: the soft murmur of water cascading down over the precipice, the rustling of leaves, play of light and shadows under the tree and the lovely aromas of weed and drink made me feel content to wait till Alfred would wake up, knowing that even if I lived to be a hundred years I would never experience anything like it. In the end I must have dozed off.

When I woke, I smelled some food and made my way back up. Alfred was bustling about in the kitchen, stirring this, shuffling the other and smiling happily at me when I walked into the cave and got dressed.

"There you are, Berthold. Just in time. This will put us on the right track again. Leftovers more or less, but I stirred in a couple of eggs, some bacon, too, and toasted some bread. And the prawns are ready too. There is also a rather nice bottle of white wine to be had. Your department I think."

True enough, I could do with a drink and some food and we both tucked in with determination.

"Berthold, what happened towards the end of my healing? I remember most of everything but towards the end, when my larynx was fixed, things became a bit tight, didn't they?"

"Yes, you might say that again. You know you are an ornery, stubborn, pig-headed bastard. I tried to make you go slow but you wouldn't have it. You kept trying to duck under in one go, with me holding on for life and slowing you down whenever I could. And I was worried about not being able to check your progress on the computer. Thank God you fainted in the end and I could do the rest quite slowly. But I needn't have worried, since, contrary to all my misgivings, your head was alright — if quite whacko, of course. You slept right through the final stages of the healing and I completed the process, after putting you to bed."

Alfred was quite happy to hear this and even accepted the adjectives in good grace.

"Eh, what about the ... you know, side effects?"

"Yes, damn you, Alfred. I was most embarrassed and glad you were asleep. We were both rampant and definitely not fit to be seen by anybody. You should try and sort out this little snag to an otherwise sterling programme, especially if you think of having visitors over here."

He, however, just laughed away my complaints and reminded me that we could set up visiting hours and select the persons allowed to visit at will. We just needed to define some parameters for entry, as it were. He mentioned too that this rather quaint side effect was the reason for all those questions about my sexuality. Had I shown any homosexual tendencies he would have had to set up his programme differently, depending on whether I would want to stay with it or wished to be straightened out, probably negating a few features in the process.

"But first we should enjoy all that the island has to offer in our newfound health. And I thank you for it. Let's get ourselves really fit as well. Do the gym, swim a lot and walk wherever we want. Remember, even if we stay here for a couple of years, only five minutes will have passed in our other reality. Tomorrow I am going to synchronise our bio-clocks, nothing to it, because I realised that I must be much older in fact than my years would indicate, spending so much time in setting up this reality."

We decided to do ourselves proud by eating and drinking only the best. When I told Alfred that I wanted to at least share the cost of provisions, he just laughed it off.

"Look, Berthold, without you and your island I would not have lived to spend any money. And there's lots of it. I hate cars, any kind of motorised vehicle in fact, couldn't be bothered with owning a house — the physical aspects of upkeep frighten me, don't like to be tied down — clothing is something to keep me warm and dry, nothing more, and though I might do quite a bit of travelling now that I am healthy, there's simply too much to use it all up. Let's rather enjoy ourselves to the full."

We did just that. We would spend a pleasant hour or so every day creating the craziest menus, with appropriate drinks of course, and then Alfred would shift himself back to the old reality to go shopping. He got hold of a few decagrams of black truffles, mentioning as we took care of this most exotic of foods with a couple of fantastic steaks, that even though he was loaded, we could diminish his funds rather rapidly should we develop a liking for the stuff. He claimed that all major suppliers of delicatessen knew of him by now, that his e-mail was swamped with special offers for outrageous things like frogs' legs, marinated drumsticks of quail, live snails from France (filthy stuff, he claimed) and even some tiny fish from Italy.

"Berthold, this species actually lives in and feeds off the sewers of cities like Naples, Palermo, Genoa. And yet, they are caught and fried just as they are, being too small to be cleaned out. Thoroughly revolting indeed, though considered to be a delicacy by many.

"But do you realise that I just spent four weeks in the other time, working, going shopping and setting up delivery schedules? There will be some of the very best beer from Belgium and Czechia coming up, more of that fancy wine from South Africa, German breads and cold meats, cheeses from France, pastries from Austria and chocolate from Switzerland, the Jewish delicatessen chap is delighted to supply pastrami and a variety of salads every now and then, at exorbitant prices of course; we will eat and drink very well indeed." He winked at me. "We both loathe Indian cooking, if one can call it that; sushi is the most overrated junk food ever; Greek cuisine, their bloody Feta cheese and yucky wine, we leave well alone, but we certainly will have a go at an Indonesian rijsttafel or two and Mexican food tastes good almost all the time.

"I have rigged up the provisioning now so that I can do it from here, without the need for physically moving myself. Also, down in the shed there is a couple of sturdy mountain bikes as well as two kayaks for the bay. We won't be bored and can do as much or as little as we like."

Re-setting our body clocks went without a hitch and entirely without pain. Alfred just booted his programme and attached a few watertight probes to various body parts before I settled in the no. 3 pool.

"This is where the templates come into play once more. The programme checks your body against the ideal values as stated. Subsequently, the healing pool will be charged with the necessary properties to adjust whatever needs adjusting. It should not be painful at all, my furry friends didn't even seem to notice when I tried that on them. Ready?"

I just nodded to him and waited for whatever to happen. And happen it did: the weirdest feeling I hitherto experienced, much like being tired to the point of utter exhaustion and then waking up after a full restoring sleep. What made it so strange was the fact that it all took place within only a few minutes. Not that I was complaining, trying times ought to be past us now.

Since everything went without a hitch, Alfred disconnected the probes and electrodes and fixed them onto him, me being just his dumb acolyte checking the numbers and making sure that all the connections were sound. He had set up the programme to bring his age forward to fifty years. We were both very much surprised when we were informed that his age needed to be set back to fifty years as well since he was presently fifty-four years of age!

"Damn, I must have lost track over all this time shifting and warping. But this is even better. No more bad surprises for us."

Again, the adjustment was made within mere minutes and it was a very happy Alfred gathering up all the paraphernalia and putting his laptop away.

"From now on, we are only here to enjoy ourselves. Whenever you are ready, I will take you back and there, at your home, I will rig up the programme so that you can use it to travel backward and forward and to shift other things, and persons, at will. You will need a more powerful computer for that. But first, we will discuss how we are going to handle visitors and how we are going to share the island. If you are going to share at all, that is."

"Alfred, don't be silly. This is your island, your invention, and while I agree that we both should have some privacy when we want it, it will be easy enough to set up some framework of usage, some way of knowing the island is free, or whether company is invited or not.

"But you know that I need to learn a lot more about your reality to use it ... well, responsibly, and it would be a good idea to first invite your teacher friend over here. I am certain to get lost in the scientific details, since maths and physics never were my forte. But with your and your friend's help I might be able to gain some insight on a rational level without embarrassing myself overmuch."

Alfred pondered this for only a little while.

"Yes, I will do that and you are right about the other things as well. But I think we should give ourselves a few more days together. We haven't ridden the bikes yet and the bay needs some exploring too."

So that's what we did for a few days, Alfred showing me this aspect or that of his special time, how to move things, animals or people. But then he told me that things were getting much too theoretical for his liking. Action was needed. After putting on some sturdier clothes and sneakers, Alfred took off like a shot, running downhill as if trying to crack the Iron Man. I followed him at a more sedate pace and not before grabbing a six-pack out of the fridge.

By the time I got to the shack, Alfred was already at it, doing all kinds of complicated tricks on the bike, the change to his personality so obvious and total, making him look like somebody else altogether: an utterly careless teenager was gambolling about here.

"For a guy only interested in programming, Alfred, you do this extremely well. Is there something you didn't tell me?"

"Oh, perhaps I should have mentioned that this was my first love. I disliked the kids at my schools intensely and this is the ideal sport for a solitary type. My newspaper rounds paid for my bikes. I even had my private track at a disused quarry were I could try and climb impossible slopes, free jump off them and generally run amuck till I dropped from exhaustion. And," adding this pensively, "I should have had the healing ponds then. That's how I broke my collarbone, amongst other things."

With that he jumped up and raced off towards a mob of kangaroos like a demented werewolf lusting for blood. I trundled leisurely towards the lake to drop the six pack into the water and then tried to join up with Alfred, but he was chasing the 'roos all over the place and till today I believe that the rascally beasts were in the mood to play with him. They would wait for him till he was virtually on top of them, cawing and cackling desultorily, and hopping out of harm's way not further than absolutely necessary, one of the big boomers even making a few moves like shadow boxing and sneering at Alfred, too.