We had wandered all over downtown Berlin the first day we were here and I had a pretty good sense of direction. “I know how to get back. You want the taxi to drop us there so he doesn’t know where we’re staying?”
“And to give us some time before he gets the police involved, which he will because he’s a good, law-abiding citizen. As soon as he drops you off, he’s going to go to the police and report what he thinks happened here and by sunrise, all the women and kids we just freed will be found clothes and food and somewhere to sleep.”
“Kids, too?” I felt sick.
Brody shoved his hands in his pockets, stretching the leather. “Slavery is horrible, no matter what your age, but the kids at least were spared the worst of it.” There was something dark in his tone, something that told me there was another secret there.
“So, back to the hotel and never say another word, right?” I asked.
“That’s not all of it. Get Elahah into her room, make sure she’s settled and feels safe, then I want you to come over to our hotel and bang on our room door.” Then he hesitated. I could almost feel it.
“And do what?” I pushed, because I knew he needed the push to say whatever he was holding back.
“This is going to sound a little strange,” he said slowly.
“I can handle strange,” I told him and realized it was the truth. I was a long, long way from L.A., much more than the two years that had actually gone by, or the miles I’d travelled.
Brody nodded. “Whoever answers the door—it doesn’t matter if it’s me or Veris or Taylor, as long as it’s one of us and only one of us—whoever answers the door, I want you to say to them ‘I’m not wearing a red shirt’.”
I turned that over in my mind. It sounded fucking unreal. “What happens then?”
Brody pushed out a breath. “We’re not going to know what happened,” he said flatly. “But that phrase will tell us we have to believe you. But here’s where it gets strange—”
“Only now?”
Brody gave me a small smile. “You can’t tell us what happened tonight. Not the details.”
“What the fuck…?” My jaw was dropping again, because he was right. This was even more bizarre than what had gone before. “Why not?”
Brody’s long fingers gripped my wrist and squeezed for emphasis. “Not yet,” he added. “You can’t tell us yet. But we have to know how to deal with the fall out. That’s what you tell us. That Elahah may need a new identity, that the police may end up on our doorstep if the driver recognizes me, that it all stems from something we’re going to do.”
Going to do.
I stared at him. Veris brushed past, heading for the corner of the block and Taylor paused to give me a smile. I must have stared at her like she was a ghost, too, because her smile grew warmer. “You’re doing fine, Andy,” she told me and headed after Veris. I watched her go, my brain twisting on its stalk.
“Remember this date,” Brody said and gave me a date.
“That’s two years from now,” I pointed out.
“It is,” he agreed evenly and stood up. “On that date, I want you to come and find me. I’ll be at home in L.A. That’s when you tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Everything, if you want. All of it. But it’s very important that you also say ‘Then you’ll live long and prosper’.”
I blew out my breath. “Do you have any idea how fucking bizarre this sounds?”
Brody laughed. “I know exactly how strange it sounds. But like Veris said, you’re going to have to live with it. He says you know how to keep your mouth shut and you’re smart enough to figure out why. I trust Veris’ judgment.” He held out his hand. “Thanks, Andy.”
I shook it, still trying to put things together. “Why are you saying that like you’re saying goodbye?”
“In a way, I am.” He dropped my hand and turned and headed for the corner, just as Veris and Taylor had.
So I did what he asked. I got Elahah back to her room and waited until she was sleeping before letting myself out again. Then I asked Budd to come and sit with his back against her room door. Budd blinked sleepily, but he did it, even though I refused to say why. Later on, I saw myself in the mirror. My hair was all over the place and my face was all haggard. Budd had probably figured out for himself that there was trouble, just from my face.
Then I got a taxi and went to the expensive hotel where the band was staying and knocked on their room door. I had to talk my way past hotel security to do it, because it was three in the morning. They walked me up to the room and stood beside me while I knocked. Despite the late hour, Veris answered the door almost straight away. He glanced at the guard. “It’s fine,” he said shortly and opened the door wide. “Come in, Andy.”
I stepped in and Veris shut the door and just looked at me.
“I’m not wearing a red shirt,” I said, feeling stupid as I said it.
Veris blew out a breath. “Come and explain,” he said softly and pushed me over to the sofa. So I sat and explained as much as Brody had told me I could and by that time I had run out of surprise, so I didn’t really feel anything when all three of them swallowed what I said without a hiccup. They just nodded, looking grave.
“Why can’t we know what happened?” Taylor asked the other two.
“If we do, it will direct our reactions,” Veris said. “But we can talk about that later. We need to sort this out and find a way to thank Andy for what he’s done.”
“Just let me keep my job. That’s thanks enough,” I said quickly.
I did keep my job. And Elahah stayed on for the rest of the tour. A woman called Erica became her shadow, following her wherever she went, including when she was with me, which killed any good intentions I had, but I didn’t mind. Erica made Elahah feel safe, so I was happy to wait.
The discovery of freed human slaves in the middle of Berlin hit the news the next day, but who had freed them was a complete mystery to everyone else. Who had enslaved them wasn’t hard to figure out because twelve men were found in the old shed, either tied up, unconscious or locked up. One was dead and most had injuries of one sort or another, but as three of them were identified as known human traffickers, the police filled in the rest of it for themselves. I don’t think they tried very hard to find out what had happened. They certainly never came after Brody and Veris, so maybe the taxi driver had a secret of his own now.
We watched the news on TV in the green room before the last show that night in Berlin and I caught Brody’s gaze on me as I watched the pictures on the screen. I didn’t even try to follow the fast flow of German. Besides, I knew the story already.
I looked at Brody and he raised a brow. I nodded, just a little. Then we were all called to the stage for the start of the show. Brody never said anything.
Once we got back to the States, everyone went back home and became normal again. Except I couldn’t do normal anymore. I wanted to stay working for the band, but when they weren’t touring, there wasn’t a lot to do. I got told by Loren to show up for work at the business office the band kept in downtown L.A. and the manager there started sending me on errands. Run for this, run for that. That was a pain in the butt because I didn’t have a license or a car and cabs were expensive.
Elahah talked me into getting my driver’s license and when Brian, the manager, heard I could drive, he tossed me the keys to a car and told me to use that for company business. One day when I got back to the office building at the end of the work day, the parking space I was supposed to use was taken up by an Oldsmobile. When I bitched to Brian about it, he shrugged. “Take the car home with you, then,” he said.
So I ended up with a company car and the errands I was assigned started getting bigger and more complicated.
Elahah and I stayed in touch after the tour was over and after three weeks I finally had the guts to ask her on a date. She didn’t even say yes. She just sighed and said “Finally!” A year later, she moved in with me. By then, I was studying fo
r my high school diploma, which had been her idea. She was writing her own songs—which was my idea—and schlepping demos all over town. The apartment we rented had a spare bedroom that I turned into a small DIY studio with some second-hand recording equipment for the demos.
Whenever the band toured, we both got to go with them.
Two years slid by so fast I just don’t believe it. And now I’m sitting in my apartment next to my girlfriend while she smoothes out a progression in her latest song. I’m writing out this story on an honest to goodness laptop computer. It’s my computer, can you believe that? I sometimes don’t. Not when I think about the years before I met Taylor.
Taylor said writing shit out helps you figure it out. I think I’m starting to figure it out. The date that Brody gave me in Berlin that night…it’s today. Tonight I’m going to drive over to his house in the hills, knock on the door and tell him “Then you’ll live long and prosper,” and I have an idea he’s not going to be a bit surprised when I do.
I wrote all this out because I have to sit down and explain it all to Brody and Veris and Taylor and it’s not going to make much sense if I don’t have it straight in my own mind—as straight as I can make it when I don’t understand all the secrets.
But I’m starting to understand. A biologist called Haldane, who I studied for my high school diploma, said that “my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” I’m really starting to understand what he means.
For instance, that night in Berlin two years ago…when I saw Taylor, I swear her hair was a lot longer than it had been that very afternoon. I saw it swinging around her hips as she headed back to the corner where the limo and Veris were waiting. Not only that, but she had what I thought was a belly, making the front of her jeans round out. Of course I considered the idea that she was pregnant, except that the round belly had gone the next day—actually, it had gone that same night in the hotel room when I reported back to them as ordered. There was no mention of pregnancy in the last few weeks left of the tour.
But a month ago, the three of them announced that Taylor was pregnant. That would make her about four months pregnant now, which would be enough to round out the front of her jeans.
Then there was the whole thing about them not knowing a thing about what went down but accepting, flatly and without question, that they had done these things that they didn’t remember.
Tonight I get to tell them exactly what they did…what they will do. There’s another guy, a writer who said “once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” That writer was a lot smarter than me, so if I use his formula, then the improbable truth that remains is that if the three of them don’t remember doing what I saw them do, then they haven’t done it yet.
If I accept that, then everything else fits in like a jigsaw puzzle and it all makes sense.
Everyone has secrets. Some secrets are grander than others, but all secrets change people. I’m real glad I have mine. Look where they’ve brought me.
Gotta go. Have to warm up the car.
I’m looking forward to tonight.
_______________
Los Angeles, a few minutes later…
Brody explained how Andy had helped out at both ends of a time jump while Andy grew red in the face and fidgeted. “Wasn’t nothin’,” he muttered when Brody finished.
“It stayed nothing because you helped,” Veris said firmly.
“You’re embarrassing him,” Taylor told them. “Andy, can you stay a while, or do you have to hurry back?”
“Elahah’s waiting,” Andy said. “I just wanted to drop off the disks so Brody would have them before tomorrow’s meeting.”
“Have you proposed to Elahah yet?” Veris asked.
Andy, who had started to relax, stiffened and blushed again. “I…umm….”
Taylor smacked Veris’ arm. “Don’t be nosy,” she chided him.
“I’m just curious,” Veris said.
“She’s never said anything about getting married,” Andy said, rubbing the back of his head.
Alex cleared his throat. “If I may be just as nosy as Veris, Andy? Elahah is Iranian? The name is evocative, that is why I ask.”
“Originally, yeah, but that’s not what her papers say.”
Alex held up his hand. “I understand and it won’t be repeated by me. But I do understand the Muslim mind. Elahah is from a culture where women never say what they want. It’s too forward and frowned upon.” He gave Andy a small smile. “I guarantee she has thought about it, though.”
Andy looked at Alex, startled. Then he grew thoughtful. “I hadn’t thought of that. She’s so…well, westernized, most of the time.”
“It’s hard to shrug off what we were raised to believe,” Veris said.
Taylor laughed. “So, so true,” she said and both Veris and Brody scowled.
Andy grinned. “And when are you three getting married?”
Alex laughed loudly. “Hoisted by your own petard.”
Brody smiled. “We’re still working out the logistics. I don’t think there’s a judge in the country that would marry three of us at once and I know there’s no priest who will.”
“Good luck with that, then,” Andy told him. “I gotta get going. My girl is waiting.” He nodded to everyone, gave Taylor a big grin and Brody walked him to the door.
Alex watched them leave. “I didn’t think anyone else knew about the time travel,” he said softly.
“Andy is a special case,” Veris said. “He was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.”
“Or the right spot at the right time?” Alex asked.
“Perhaps,” Veris said.
“I’m surprised there aren’t more people out there who were in the wrong spot at the wrong time,” Alex added. “Or even the right spot at the right time, like Andy, who oriented you all at both ends.”
“And like you, Alex?” Brody asked as he came back into the room. He glanced at the other two. “He just about blackmailed me to get me to admit it wasn’t my subject self he met back in Jerusalem, but the future version. He had it all figured out, like Andy put it together.”
“I did not blackmail you,” Alex protested. “I merely implied that there were many people who would be interested to know that time travel was an accomplished fact.”
“You being one of them,” Taylor added. She shifted on the chair, arranging herself more comfortably and sighed. “There isn’t a single position that doesn’t hurt after a few minutes.” She reached around awkwardly to rub at her back.
Alex studied her.
Veris watched Taylor closely, like he might watch prey, tension radiating from him.
“What is it?” Brody asked sharply.
Alex shook his head. “Nothing at all,” he said dismissively and Veris sat back in his chair. Alex gave them all a small smile. “There’s nothing that lasts as long as the wait for a child to arrive. I’ve been through one or two of them.” He picked up Taylor’s teacup and handed it to her, settled back on his chair and relaxed back. “There is a question that neither of you have ever answered to my satisfaction. Perhaps, while you are both in such expansive moods, you might indulge me?”
They both looked at him expectantly.
“I’ve always been curious about what happened after the siege at Jerusalem when I met you. I know, of course, what happened in Jerusalem as I was there. Lady Tyra died of her wounds.” He nodded at Taylor. “The Lady Davina was also never seen again after that last night of the siege and they came to believe that she had been taken by vengeful Fatimids.” Then he smiled. “The great knight William left his master, Selkirk, to take up with Lord Norwich and a large scandal that caused, too. Then everyone decamped back to England. But since I have met the three of you once more in this century, I have come to wonder what it was like for the two of you, having to deal with the aftermath of that very trying time.”
Taylor stoppe
d rubbing her back to look at Veris and Brody. “That’s something I have always wondered, too,” she said. “Brody, you didn’t remember anything of those four days. And Veris never jumped back there, not that time. It was the contemporary Veris who had to make all those huge adjustments….”
Veris was looking at his hands.
Brody cleared his throat.
“Then there were some re-entry issues,” Alex said, as if they had confirmed it.
“Brody’s the story-teller,” Veris growled.
Brody pulled all the hair off the back of his neck, twisted it into a rope and tossed it back over his shoulder. “You asked for it, Christian,” he warned Alex.
“I do indeed want to know,” Alex said gravely.
“Well…” Brody began.
Time and a Third
Tenchebray, France—October, 1106
Brody had heard more than once the mistrals sing of the love that was like an arrow, thudding into one’s chest unlooked for, smiting the victim with a helpless yearning for the object of his affection. He’d heard it and dismissed it, because he knew love. He knew the shape of it, the taste of it. He understood that love didn’t arrive fully formed. It came an inch at a time, creeping into his life until he looked up one day and realized how deeply the emotion ran.
So when the arrow slammed into his chest, that night in the king’s hall, it took Brody completely by surprise.
This was their twentieth day in Tenchebray. It was a well-founded town, with a solid castle protecting it and a monastery that guided the townspeople on the conduct of their lives. It was peaceful and prosperous, newly recovered from the dent that most of Europe had suffered when men and resources had been sent to defend Jerusalem.
They were here because the King was reaching terms with his brother, Edward, whom he had defeated on the fields outside the town. The negotiations were taking time, for Edward was as stubborn as the King. While the King bargained, his lords waited, boredom making them restless and inclined to anger. Many of the lords had sent for their ladies and the distraction and amusement women provided.
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