Unhappenings (39 page)

elen and Athena talked for four hours. Mostly, I kept out of their hair. I made dinner, occasionally interjected something clever, but otherwise simply basked in this mother and child preunion, and felt my love for both of them swell with every laugh. Once over the hurdle of the shocking discovery, it was a surprisingly simple matter to adopt Athena into my heart as my little girl. I reflected back on my relationship with her as Penelope, and the sibling-like quality it had (although it was never clear whether she was playing the role of little sister or big sister), and it all fell into place. It would take some getting used to, but it would be worth the transition. It did make me miss my own family, and consider how or if I would ever return to them, but I pushed that aside for the time being. It saddened me that Athena would never meet my parents until I remembered she already had.

Before she finally did depart, Athena agreed to pose for a family portrait. It manifested as three twenty-somethings smiling nervously, perhaps the best of friends, perhaps siblings or cousins. Only we would ever know it was two proud parents and their baby girl.

“You,” said Helen once we were alone, “are the best father ever.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Are you kidding me? She’s amazing!”

“Maybe that’s you,” I said.

“She has your sensibilities,” she said. “When she speaks, I can hear you in her voice. She also has a little of your darkness.”

That brought me up short.

“My darkness? I don’t want her to have my darkness.” In fact, Athena’s darkness had come to be her most familiar aspect to me. The thought that I had done that to her was a punch in the gut.

Helen took my hand.

“It makes her strong,” she said. Then she let go and started spinning, and doing a little happy dance. “We have a daughter!” she sang. “And she’s brilliant!” Then she stopped, and the look of joy and wonder on her face became something serious and contemplative. She came to me and held me. I could feel her sighing against my chest. When she looked up, I thought she was going to kiss me, but she just brushed my lips with her fingertip.

“I have to know this is real,” she said. “I have to know it won’t all vanish if we push it too hard. Can you promise me that?”

“Not yet,” I said honestly.

She smiled at me, then took my own finger and kissed it. “Well, get on that.”

elen began visiting me at home at the end of her workdays. Most evenings we stayed in. We alternated cooking dinner. Helen often brought work home, and it was fairly usual for her to work there while I read. In the winter, we did that in front of my fireplace, which for me was still a novelty. As it got warmer, we migrated to the screened-in porch.

Some evenings we went out. Took in a movie. Went to the symphony. Dinner at a fancy restaurant, occasionally even an extravagant one. The stipend I received for the work I was doing for my older self was absurdly grand, and I had also begun to experiment with ways to supplement that. The tricks a time traveler has at his disposal for accumulating wealth are so copious and so obvious that it required very little effort to be sure we would always be able to afford whatever entertainment struck our fancy.

We maintained two residences, but more and more hers became an abandoned shell. She kept most of her work clothes in my closet, and rarely went home unless she needed to get something. I programmed the locks on my house and car to recognize her key card, and she voice-printed on my home computer.

And every night, by agreement, until we could be sure, we kissed, and retired to our separate bedrooms.

On the whole, those three months were some of the most relaxing, carefree and rewarding times in either of our lives. It would prove to be our final calm as the storm began to brew.

thena came to see me one day in my basement lab. I was still working patiently on the unanswered question of stabilizing the unhappening effect.

“You don’t write, you don’t call,” I said as soon as she blipped in. “Your mother and I have been worried sick.”

“You know why Mom is funnier than you?” she asked.

“Why?”

“Her jokes sound much less rehearsed.” She picked up a wrist module, turned it over in her hands, and put it back down.

“She is disappointed, by the way,” I said. “She thought you would start visiting us now. She says she understands why you don’t, but I know it makes her a little sad. She loves you to pieces.”

Athena smiled at that. “Good.”

“So. Athena. For real.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m a little surprised you guessed that, to be honest. And your reason threw me. Mom always said I sprang fully armored from your head, like it was part of a very important story. I always assumed she had given me that name when I was a baby. Turns out you beat her to it. Nice to know you can surprise me once in a while.”

“You could have told me, you know.”

“Ha!” she said. “There were times I almost did, just to see your reaction. There were also times I was sure you had figured it out. But it was always better for you not to know.”

“Is that why you haven’t been back? Because I know now?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been busy.”

“Said the time traveler.”

“Okay,” she admitted. “I wanted to give you two some time to get used to the idea. It’s only been a couple days for me since I saw you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Thank you, I guess. Are you staying for dinner? Helen is going to pitch a fit if she misses seeing you.”

“It’s best if she doesn’t see me today.”

“Oh.” I sat. “You’re here on business then?”

She nodded.

“You’re going to tell me about Carlton, aren’t you?”

Athena sat as well. “Yeah, that’s what I’m here to do. There are things you need to know. And before you ask, yes, there are still things I can’t tell you, and yes, there are still things I don’t know. A lot more of the latter than the former, believe it or not.”

I braced myself to hear about Helen’s ex-lover, and the monster he apparently would become.

“Okay,” I said.

Athena cleared her throat. Shifted in her seat.

“Carlton West, even as we speak, is already one of the wealthiest people in his generation. His family controls or has interest in more businesses than any one of them is even fully aware of. His second cousin is a United States Senator, and his Aunt is the Governor of Rhode Island. This is all background. The Carlton currently residing in 2146 has no interest in politics, and fleeing family expectations in that regard is one of the reasons he moved to France.”

“But he becomes something later. Something powerful, right?”

“Can I get something to drink?” she asked. “My mouth has gone a bit dry.”

“Of course,” I said, hopping up. This was going to be big for her. We had already started down this road three times, and each time she had been reluctant—or forbidden—to give me details. My concern over the consequences of the story she was about to tell me now paled beside my concern for the well being of my child. “Water? Lemonade? Scotch?”

“A glass of water would be wonderful,” she said. “If you could leave the bottle of scotch on the table, that would probably be a good idea too.” I served her a glass of ice water with a slice of lemon from the refrigerator in my basement workshop. As instructed, a half-full bottle of scotch was also placed within reach.