by Rachel Ford
Alfred nodded, the memory washing back over him unbidden. The weight of it was too heavy for words.
“You got another chance, taxman. So did I. Make the most of it. I sure as hell mean to.”
“Mean to what?” Nancy’s voice asked from the doorway.
The two men glanced up as she returned. “Have another drink,” Ray lied. “You want one?”
“Oh God, no. I’ve had way too many already.”
They waited until Dori woke. But, then, they made their final goodbyes. The men exchanged handshakes, and the women hugs.
“Watch yourself, taxman,” Ray declared. “I won’t be there to save your skin next time.”
“You mean, I won’t be there to save your neck.”
Ray shrugged, wrapping an arm around Dori’s shoulders. “Maybe. But I trust my backup.”
Alfred glanced at Nance. “I think I’ll be okay too.”
The detective nodded. “I think you will at that. Well, I guess we better amscray so you kids can get back home. Goodbye, Alfred. Goodbye, Nancy.”
The pair left them, and once Nance was certain that they were far enough away, so as not to follow in Fluff’s paw prints as accidental stowaways, she sent them home.
It was night when they returned, and Alfred was deeply grateful for it. He was exhausted and on his way to being a little hungover.
He stared into the darkened living room, that looked a little emptier than normal for Ray and Dori’s absence.
“Hey,” Nance asked, her voice soft. “You okay?”
He nodded slowly, sorting through the tidal wave of new memories that crashed onto his consciousness. “They lived a good life.”
“Yeah,” Nance nodded. “They did.”
He squeezed her to him. He’d look at the files and confirm for himself how things had played out, tomorrow. But, for now, he knew enough to be content. “Let’s get some sleep, Nance. I’m too old for these kinds of hours.”
Even after a night’s sleep, it was a long day at work. Alfred’s mind wandered, and he found himself returning to the Lorina files. It was bittersweet, because it confirmed what he already knew: his friends had died, years ago.
But they’d lived, too. Ray and Dori had married two months after the Tomassi raid. Ray had gone to war, and survived D-Day. They’d had four kids. Dori spent her middle-age fighting for civil rights. Ray stuck with the department, taking down more mobsters than Alfred could keep track of during a long and storied career.
They were good, fulfilling lives, and Alfred was happy for his friends. He was proud of all they’d achieved in their lifetimes, and the good they’d done. He was happy for the happiness they’d found, and the happiness they’d made, with each other.
And, somehow, his thoughts inevitably returned to Nance. Ray had said she was his Dori.
And the fact was, she was. She was the Dori to his Ray. In terms that Nancy might have understood better, she was the Arwen to his Aragorn, the Spock to his Kirk. She was the one who completed him, who pushed him to be his best self.
He’d known it for awhile now, but last night had just driven it home: his world had become indelibly tied to her.
He tried to broach the subject over lunch, but Nance was too engrossed in another topic dear to his heart, though not quite that dear: his presentation. “Caspersen said the video is up. She said you blew everyone away.”
“Is it? Did I?” He remembered a very different reaction. But, then, he also remembered the response she was describing. Competing timelines really were hard to keep straight.
“Yeah. Let’s watch it.”
He didn’t need much persuading. The final version of the speech, the one he gave after the timeline shifted once and for all, was very good. It was better than the original. He told the story of Ray Lorina, who had been framed by a rogue IRS agent. He filled his slides with newsprints of the time. There was an image of Kennedy, his head jutting out the side of Tiny’s Pub, the briefcase full of mob money in hand. There was the picture of Dori in Ray’s arms after the shootout. There were photos of Ray and Isaac taking Mario Tomassi into the precinct.
It was his closing line that really brought the crowd to its feet – metaphorically speaking, anyway. It was a good talk, but not that good. “We don’t know anything about the anonymous IRS analysts who helped Lorina crack the case. But there’s a powerful lesson we can learn from them all. John Stuart Mill once said, ‘Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.’
“Let we who are called by law and duty to do more than look on, remember the case of Ray Lorina. The ideals that we uphold are only as strong, and just as fragile, as the men and women who protect them. For good to triumph, it cannot be apathetic. It cannot be waylaid by fear. It must be courageous. It must be willing to sacrifice.
“It must be willing to stand up and intervene.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Alfred had made up his mind to ask Nancy to marry him that evening. Nothing was going to stop him this time – no calls from Josh, no tax law presentations. Nothing.
He was, however, temporarily waylaid by the sight of registered mail, addressed to him from a New York law agency.
It was a small, rectangular parcel, that was so light he half wondered if it contained anything at all.
This only stoked his curiosity, and Alfred scrutinized the box, wondering who would possibly have sent him registered mail. And via lawyers no less?
He peeled open the far end, and among Styrofoam packing, he found a letter and a little jewelry box. He stared for a moment, then double-checked the address. It was, indeed, his name and street listed. It is for me, then.
So he unfolded the letter. Then, he gaped as he saw the nearly illegible handwriting, scrawling across the page. He’d recognize those hieroglyphs anywhere.
The letter was dated April 14th, 2005, and it read:
Dear Alfred,
When you get this, I’ll be dead, for a while now I should think. Over the years, Dorothy and I thought about looking you up, but that, of course, would never have worked. You wouldn’t know about the device yet. You’d think we were batty, and who knows what that’d do to the timeline.
Now, of course, you do. And now, if this delivery goes according to plan anyway, we have met – you, me, Nance and Dori. You saved my life, and my Dori’s.
It’ll be yesterday for you, but it’s been sixty-five years for me. Still, I remember it like yesterday.
I’ve never been one for words. You know that. But I can’t leave this world without saying thank you, one more time. You gave me back my life. Not just me, but Dori too. We’ve got four kids, and I’ve lost count of how many grandkids and great-grandkids we’re up to.
Dori’s gone, now. She passed away this February. I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around that one. But I’m okay. Don’t worry about that. I’ll see her again, probably soon. She asked me to say goodbye to you, too.
And that brings me to the ring – Dori’s ring, the one I gave her for our engagement. We wanted you to have it, for Nance. Our tomorrows aren’t promised, Alfred. But it gave us sixty-five beautiful years. I hope it brings you two at least as many.
It was a pleasure knowing you, taxman. Keep conquering,
Ray
“What is it?” Nance called from the other room.
Alfred blinked back the moisture in his eyes, and cleared his throat. He slipped the ring into his pocket, answering, “Just a package.” Then, he took a deep breath, and walked into the room to join her. “Darling?”
She was plugging in her laptop in the back office, but glanced up as he entered. “Yeah?”
“There’s something…there’s something I need to ask you.”
She seemed concerned by the sudden seriousness in his tone. “Okay.”
“I love you, Nance. I love you more than anything.”
She smiled. “I love you too, babe.”
“Then…” He took one of her hands in his.
“Nancy Abbot…”
He was just about to drop to one knee when a knock sounded on the office entryway.
Nancy yelped, her eyes darting to the doorway, and Alfred spun around. There in their house, as bold as brass, stood a man in a suit. “Forgive me for startling you,” he said, his tone smooth if not apologetic.
Alfred wrapped an arm around Nancy, standing between her and this intruder. His thoughts were full of mobsters and hit men, and he was keenly aware of the fact that he had no weapon nearby. “Who the hummus are you? And how did you get into our house?”
“You can relax, Mister Favero. I’m not here to harm you.
“I entered the premises with this.” He produced a shiny silver gadget that looked suspiciously like their own spacetime field generator.
“As for who I am…my name is Roger Winthrop. Special Agent Roger Winthrop. I represent the Interdimensional Bureau of Temporal Investigations. IBTI, for short.”
Alfred blinked, and Nancy said, “The what?”
He ignored the question, fixing them with a hard stare. “It’s our job to monitor the timelines of all accessible dimensions. And…” Here, Agent Winthrop tutted, “the pair of you have popped up on our radar for quite a few temporal incursions lately.”
“So, I hope this is a good time?” He paused expectantly, then sighed. “Industry humor. Never mind. At any rate, it really is past time that we had a good, long talk about your use of that device.” He shrugged. “And, maybe, if there’s a future for the pair of you in the IBTI.”
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About the Author
Rachel Ford is a software engineer by day, and a writer most of the rest of the time. She is a Trekkie, a video-gamer, and a dog parent, owned by a Great Pyrenees named Elim Garak and a mutt of many kinds named Fox (for the inspired reason that he looks like a fox).
You can follow Rachel on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/rachelfordauthor/
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More from the Author
The Time Travelling Taxman series (humorous time travel):
Book 1: T-Rexes & Tax Law (ebook, paperback and audiobook)
Book 2: UFOs & Unpaid Taxes (ebook & paperback, and audiobook)
Book 3: MarvelousCon & Tax Cons (ebook & paperback, audiobook releasing soon)
Book 4: Time Slips & Tax Thieves (ebook & paperback, audiobook releasing soon)
Book 5: Mob Bosses & Tax Losses (ebook & paperback)
Book 6: Gullible’s Travels & Taxing Rabble releases August 15th, 2019
The Tribari Freedom Chronicles series (dystopian sci-fi):
Book 1: Catalyst (novelette – ebook and audiobook)
Book 2: Uprising (novel – ebook, paperback and audiobook)
Book 3: Liberation (novel – ebook, paperback and audiobook releasing soon)
Book 4: Absolution (novel) releases June 28th
Black Flag series (space opera sci-fi):
Book 1: Black Flag
Book 2: Lee Shores releases July 15th
Other works available now:
Prison Break (sci-fi space opera novelette, ebook & audiobook)
Flesh Eaters (military sci-fi novella – ebook & audiobook)
