A related chapter from the (yet untitled) book I wrote that’s set in the world of Endless Tempest but over 100 years even farther into the future.
Chapter 45 Moonlight
“Father likes his time with just us, to walk and talk.”
“Doesn’t he get enough of that ten hours a day?”
“It’s not the same.”
“But he skips the constitutionals these days, anyway, right?”
She nodded. “Tonight was just for you.”
Kai was looking at her skeptically. “Me?”
“Yes,” she smiled. “He welcomes you in our circle.”
“I haven’t been feeling too welcome lately,” he said.
“It is our way,” she said with almost a curtsey. “A guest must find his seat at the table and set his place.”
“What?”
“He was waiting for you to integrate with the rest, so that you might not become too dependent on him…or me.”
“That’s just…strange,” he said. Clearly it did not sit well with him, but he continued to walk along with her, arm in arm as they had in New Springfield.
“We were instructed to leave you alone, but I’m happy you’re finding your place.”
“I don’t have a place. You should know that. Not in the 2020’s and not here.”
“Maybe you have had a place and a people and have simply forgotten them.”
“Maybe,” he said.
“Maybe you’re finding new people,” she ventured, “like us?”
“Maybe,” he said again, but he did not sound like he believed it.
“You said, a few nights back that you knew more about yourself.” she said, “What can you tell me?”
Kai looked at the sky as he walked, as if he were reading notes up there. “Feels like all I know is what I’m told…or shown. Your dad showed me a tape--or whatever--of some part of my life when I was with this guy David and a bunch of Televangelists.”
“How did you come to know the word, ‘televangelist,’ Kai?”
“That’s what you guys call the teleporting people, right, the big gladiator guys going out righting wrongs with David and me?”
“Yes, that is the term, but how did you come about it?”
He frowned, the wound on his eyebrow an irregularity in it, and he thought through some things. “I…I don’t know. Once I started using that word, though, Perth and the others sorta lightened up with me, you know.”
“You came to it on your own, then? You are remembering things.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I just--”
“We have strict orders as to what we can and cannot tell you, Kai.”
“Yeah, yeah, cultural shock, I know.”
“Actually, we were not to mention teleportation nor televangelism in particular until you did.”
“And why is that?”
“Again, finding your comfort at one table before being invited to another.”
“Just sit me at the head table and let’s get this all over with.” Kai told her. “I’ve been waiting for answers a long time.”
“It is impossible knowing where to begin,” she said, as frustrated as he was.
“Let’s start with this: am I a Televangelist? Somebody told me I was. Is that true?”
“Not just a Televangelist.”
“So I was one?”
“Yes, and--”
“I knew it!” he said, thrusting his fist in the air.
“Yes, and yet, who told you?”
“Dankworth. The guys. I dunno.” Kai’s stride was jaunty then. “We’re salesmen then, right? Televangelists. All this ‘righting wrongs’ stuff is just for show, just theater, right?”
“Are you asking me that?”
“Your dad said we did things--like shows or whatever--and people bought up a bunch of port passes.”
“Time Itineraries,” she corrected. “When you traveled time and returned heroic, sales would boom.”
“Okay. Okay, so I’m a celebrity salesman. Big deal. Why hide?” Kai danced ahead and turned back to face her, beaming. “The salesman has returned heroic!”
“You seem exceptionally jubilant,” Addie said. “And misguided.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, didn’t father describe your exploits with David?”
“Yeah, he said we saved the whole transportation corporation, too. Those guys must love me!”
“What else did he tell you?” Addie pressed. “What else did he tell you about David?”
“I dunno if we talked much about him, just that he was the first one to help the Televangelist show, then I joined up, and then we did things together, famous things through time traveling.” Kai was clearly excited. His words ran together as he spoke. Addie had some problems keeping up with his antiquated accent and phrasing, though she had studied it all her life.
She walked on with him, passing the trailhead again, wishing only that he were just a boy, and she just a girl, and that the moonlight could take care of the rest.
Finally, she stopped, and stopped him, and took both of his hands. She studied his face, young with old eyes. Handsome and yet battered from sparring. “Kai, ask Father to show you more on the Viewer. There is more to see.”
“Like what?”
“Like what you and David and the Televangelists would do when out there ‘righting wrongs, eternally,’” she said. “Like why you are the last great hope of the Port Authority.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing…”
“There are better things,” she said, squeezing his hands. She longed for those nights when their minds had spoken without encumbrance of words.
Kai was looking deep into her eyes then. His childish smile was gone. Even his body language had changed. Violins swell, she had read once, and now the bees and the night breeze were the orchestra.
“Aidios,” he said her name and it sounded like poetry. “Aidios,” he said again, then beamed and blurted out, “were we a thing?”
She released his hands and took a step back. “Why, no!”
“Are you sure?” he asked, gliding in again. “I’m sorry I can’t remember it--or much of anything else--but it seems like we must’ve been a thing.”
“I am a Librarian, Kai Riddle. I have not been a thing nor done a thing with anyone!” Addie said. “And it is forward of you to say so.”
“Forward?”
“Untoward,” she added. “Uncouth.”
“So, it’s wrong to ask if we were in a relationship?”
“It is.” She could feel her face burning with the blush.
“Why?” His eyes were twinkling with moonlight. He looked so sweet and innocent.
The night sky was resplendent. She felt the cold wafting from the treeline, and she heard bees spreading rumors in their hives. “To ask in some social contexts is…improprietous.”
“We’re not in a social context, Addie. We’re in the woods.”
“And sometimes,” she continued, “to ask takes away from the lesson. Do you remember what Father said, not an hour ago, about the lesson of this apiary?”
“No. Something about you’ll get it when you get it?”
“He said, ‘what you should get just comes to you,’ yes.”
“Well, I’m all out of epiphanies. And I’m sorry if I said something wrong.”
Addie ached to tell him more. He looked so discouraged, hands deep in his pockets, gazing at his feet.
She cursed herself. She looked to the treeline, closed the gap between them, and tipped his chin up with her fingers. “Kai,” she sighed, “I could lie to you. I could invent a backstory built on all you imagined and wrote of us in that journal. You would believe it. I would win your heart. I would have it all.” She swallowed hard, taking in his eyes. Her hand caressed his cheek and cupped the back of his neck. “However, the truth is that we have not been in a relationship. We were not even in the same time, until now. You left my time when I was but a baby. We were raised to revere and study you. A generation has waited and wished for your return. Now you’re standing here, transfigured,” she chuckled, “talking to a petty girl about love?”
“Talking to a pretty girl who loved me so much she spoke to me across time,” Kai smiled, lowering his forehead to touch hers.
“I seduced you,” she whispered. “In my selfishness, I lured you here for myself.”
“Well…” he said softly, “It worked. I’m here.”
It was her first kiss in her entire life, and she pushed through the awkwardness to share in it in full. There was no reservation in his passion, either, and the kissing continued until they were both breathless.
“Sorry,” she said, touching his lip, showing him the blood. A wound had reopened.
He wiped his lip with the back of his hand, “Apologize later,” he said, and pulled her to him for more.