Marilyn Peake - The Other

We spent two days recovering, same as we’d done on our first extended mission. Then we ventured out. We dressed as ourselves. This time, we were supposed to hide and observe, so we didn’t need any kind of disguise. We were green. We’d be wearing our form-fitting green suits. Our instructions were to try to blend in with trees, plants, anything green if we were in danger of being caught.

Waylon and I walked around the lake. It was a beautiful place. The sky was bright blue and filled with enormous white clouds. The water sparkled with the light of the sun. Every once in a while, a fish broke through the lake surface, then splashed back down into the watery depths. The world was filled with sound: birds singing and calling to each other, insects buzzing.

Waylon walked to the edge of the lake, dipped his hand into the water and splashed it around. He said, “You should try this. It’s refreshing.”

I did what he suggested and found the water to be cool. It made me feel alive, helped further my recovery from the trip.

Waylon said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live near something like this back home? We’re totally cut off from the rest of the world at the TTA.”

I commented, “The rest of the world is dying, though. We’d never find anything like this. It no longer exists.”

Waylon said, “We should enjoy it while we’re here. We should go swimming tonight.”

I agreed. That would be wonderful. I looked around. We were totally isolated, other than the birds and fish and insects.

At that moment, a deer stepped out of the woods. I’d only ever seen this beast in pictures. In our time period, they were extinct. This was a buck—tall with a majestic set of antlers. He pointed his snout in our direction, no doubt sniffing our body odor on the wind. We must have smelled different than all the other humans he’d ever come across. Did he wonder what we were? He looked directly at us, taking us in. We stared back. Then he turned and leapt over some branches, disappearing into the woods.

Waylon laughed. “That was incredible! We’re going to be able to see so many things from the past, things that no longer exist. I wonder how far back we can go. Wouldn’t it be amazing to go back to the point in time when Earth first came into existence?”

I said, “I wonder if there’s a beginning to time and an instance before that. What would that be like—to go back to the very moment before time came into existence?”

Waylon thought about that for a second, then said, “I’d bet it would be dangerous crossing over into that realm. I’m guessing we’d be leaving the entire fabric of space-time. There’d be the risk of disappearing into nothingness. Although chances are our current ships wouldn’t even be able to go there because there wouldn’t be any space-time coordinates to fold together in the period before time.”

I said, “If we’re thinking about this, so is the TTA. You know they’ll try to send a team there eventually.”

Waylon said, “I’d volunteer to go. That would be the ultimate learning experience.”

I joked, “Well, it might be your last learning experience before you turned into the time traveler who never existed.”

Waylon laughed. “No. If that happens, I want to be called The Time Traveler Who Stepped Out of Time , not the one that never existed.”

I said, “I’ll make sure that goes on your plaque in the TTA Memorial Building.”

We decided we’d better get going. We brought maps up on our contact lenses, showing us the way to the place we were supposed to observe.

A civil war had just ended in the United States. I had wanted to go back and study that, but the TTA felt they weren’t ready to handle the difficulties of sending travelers into a war zone and bringing them back safely. We’d have to wait until more missions were run and experience accumulated.

Our maps led us through the woods and past a flowing stream. It was clear as glass. It made a singing sound as it navigated its way over rocks and around obstacles. We crossed over it at one point, using a thick fallen tree trunk as a bridge. I marveled at the constant chatter of insects and birds. I swatted away tiny gnats and flies. They were incredibly annoying. I finally understood why previous generations had devised all kinds of methods for eliminating them.

Eventually, we came to the edge of the woods. Looking around, making sure no one was around, we stepped onto private property. According to our maps, this was our destination.

We heard an animal make a whinnying sound in the distance. A horse! I knew that from my studies. I’d heard it before on temporary ear chips, the ones that hook over your earlobes and send the information directly to your brain.

Waylon and I looked at each other and smiled. In a quiet voice, he said, “Do you hear that? We should go find it. I’d love to see a horse. There’s nothing else for us to observe right now.”

He was right. The hanging would eventually take place at the tree in the middle of the yard between us and the house. Nobody was there now.

Sticking to the edge of the forest that surrounded the property, we walked until we spotted a barn. Then we moved stealthily forward, trying not to make any quick movements that might attract the attention of someone looking out a window of the large plantation house.

Finally reaching the barn, we slipped in through an open door and moved into the shadows. There were men of dark brown color working in there. They were grooming horses and cleaning out the stalls.

The horses were magnificent. A man patted the muscular side of one. It whinnied and shook its long slender neck. These horses were especially beautiful: healthy-looking with shiny coats of hair.

We crept into a corner behind machinery and listened. We’d seen the horses. We continued to watch the interaction between men and beasts.

A tan-skinned man entered the barn and shouted, “Is she ready?”

One of the men who had been placing a saddle on the back of a horse said, “Yes, suh,” and trotted out the animal. The man who had made the request climbed onto the horse’s back. He grabbed the reins, squeezed the sides of the animal with his legs and leaned forward. The animal started walking. When they were out of the barn, it picked up speed. I decided that if it were ever safe for me to do it without getting caught, I’d love to try riding a horse.

The dark-skinned man walked over to another. He said, “How bad she hurt dis time?”

I thought they were referring to the horse. I knew people weren’t supposed to ride horses when they’d been injured. Horses sometimes had to be killed in order to put them out of their misery. If they were talking about the horse that just left the barn, however, it looked fine.

I soon realized they were talking about a person. We listened to their conversation.

“We can’ leave now.”

“We gotta leave tuhnigh’. Dey comin’ tuhnigh’. She be bettuh off leavin’ when she hurt dan not leavin’ at all. I don’t know when we get a chance like dis again. You know massuh never gonna set us free, don’t matter tuh him what da gov’ment says.”

“Go see her. Talk tuh her. Do it fas’, bafuh massuh come back or his wife go check on her.”

“Missus ain’t gonna check on her. Mary his property, not hers. And you know she want Mary dead. She jus’ as soon leave her tuh bleed tuh death. She gots tuh be sick o’ him sneakin’ off ev’ry night tuh go find Mary, comin’ back smellin’ o’ her. And now wid duh baby on duh way…”

“Aw right. I go talk tuh her…”

We snuck through the shadows to a side door and let ourselves out. Then we watched to see where the man was going.