Flight of Fancy

As morning was breaking, David was lying awake in his bed and waiting for enough time to pass not to raise suspicion. He knew Ana would be suspicious if he got up too early and would ask questions he didn’t want to answer. At least not yet. It wasn’t the right time yet. Eventually, he would tell her everything, but it still didn’t feel right.

Of course, sleep didn’t come to him during the night. How could you sleep when your freedom might be taken away soon? As if humans had any freedom at all, perhaps just the illusion of it. But the illusion of freedom was still better than sitting behind bars for god knows how long.

Ana appeared to sleep during the night. Her light breathing reassured him to a point, but not enough to lull him to sleep himself. If she knew, she would be really worried. She knew that he rarely had problems sleeping. Even when he had to deal with loads of stress, he still managed to get five or six hours of sleep. This was the first time in a long while that sleep evaded him completely. The day would be spent walking around like a zombie, even having to pretend that everything was fine and that he had sleep.

He was thinking about all the possibilities. Why hadn’t the agents arrested him on the spot? Or arrested one of them. All of them even. It was clear that the device was lost. Perhaps they needed to see how the device functions before they could press charges. Maybe they wanted to get DNA of the device, so they could get the right person. Who knew?

Perhaps they were right. You never know. It really could be some bomb, for all he knew. He doubted it very much, but you can never tell. He wasn’t an expert. Even if it was some other form of technology, governments would want to get their greedy hands on it, either to use it or suppress it. God knows what happened to the inventions of Nikola Tesla. How much he probably achieved that we didn’t even know about. There was probably so much “clean” technology out there to rid us of our oil dependency, but there was a “hidden” force trying to prevent it all.

In any case, they were always looking for a scapegoat to confirm their way was the right way, even going so far as putting people in jail for inventing clean energy. So, naturally, he wouldn’t be out of reach. They could make a scape goat out of anybody. And once they get his DNA of the device, he would be lost.

As he looked at his beautiful wife, with long brown hair braided, her lovely slightly oriental eyes closed in peace and rest and her slender figure resting in the embryo position, he felt he would lose so much. She was the light of his life. He knew he often took her for granted, but if this thing got sorted out, he would never do it again. He swore to any universal force out there, to any force that bound all living creatures that if he could stay with Ana, he would never again take her for granted. God, how he loved her. The passion with which their relationship started might have been gone, but the trust and respect was greater. And still, whenever they did make love, it was always better and sweeter than at the beginning, when they were both still reserved. They hardly had secrets and had no reservations. They could tell each other anything without shame. Even the darkest secrets and thoughts weren’t frowned at, but accepted and not ridiculed. He never realised such intimacy was possible before her. Life without her would be unimaginable. She was what made life worth living, and here he was on the verge of losing her. It was just a matter of time.

Help me universe!

Why did he have to build that stupid machine? Why couldn’t he just take life as it was? It wasn’t that bad. He had a place to stay, a lovely wife and supporting family. Sure, the economic situation was bad, but there were a lot of people much worse off than he.

Why couldn’t he just be happy? There was nothing wrong just working on the farm, living off the land and loving your wife. You could stay quiet, keep a low profile and then quietly slip away into eternity as your mortal life was extinguished.

Instead of assembling something he found, he could find a better hobby. He could actually cut wood, go to the gym, or do a dozen better activities. It was almost as if somebody planted that stupid instruction manual in the cellar to make him commit some sort of international felony. He could plead ignorance, but he knew that wouldn’t hold up in a court of law.

He looked at his watch. He pressed the light button on the watch to check the time, as the room was still to dark to see. It was 7:45 – just acceptable enough for him to get up. He would close the door to the bedroom and hopefully Ana wouldn’t wake up. He didn’t want her to walk around like a zombie as well. He got up and closed the door of the bedroom. He waited silently in front of the door to hear if she would stir. All was quiet. She appeared to be sleeping soundly.

Good!

He shuffled quietly through the lounge into the kitchen and put on some water to make himself a cup of tea. He also got out some porridge and a yoghurt to make himself some breakfast. He needed all the energy he could get.

Right then he decided he would pay another visit to the forest. He didn’t know why, but something was calling him there, some invisible force had extended its grasp and was pulling him closer. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he shouldn’t be doing it, yet couldn’t control the urge. He had to go check it out one more time.

**********

Jack Dawson left the other three to watch the video feed coming from the cameras they had left in the suspicious family’s forest. That was one of the perks of being in charge. He could let the others do the grunt work, while he would reap the benefits. However, there would also be repercussion if nothing would be found. He was pretty sure of that.

Sooner or later, the young long-haired man David would make a mistake and they could pounce on him. From talking to the other three, everyone eventually made an incriminating mistake when they were being observed. That wasn’t enough though. He wanted to catch him in the act. Most of all, the device, whatever it was, had to be found. That was paramount. The safety of the world was at stake. You wouldn’t want an empty-headed civilian to blow up half the world, even if it was by mistake.

He had already talked to the people in charge back in the USA. He expected to be yelled at, told to pick up the pace, but they calmly told him to keep doing what he’d been doing. They couldn’t take anyone into custody unless they had solid proof.

He had plenty of time, it seemed, and all the resources at his disposal. He would use both and was determined to see somebody held responsible for endangering the safety of the world.

He didn’t care about this shithole of a country, but if anyone could potentially pose a threat to his beloved cradle of democracy, he had to do whatever it took to make the world right again. Oh, to have the good old days back, when everyone respected the USA and nobody dared fuck with them. But the stars and stripes were still in charge and he would make sure they remained at the top of the heap and become feared yet again.

***********

After having a nice long lunch with Ana, David told her he wanted to go back to the forest to get some more firewood because they still didn’t have enough for the winter ahead. Ana seemed fairly content with the idea, but still seemed a bit afraid after the experience the day before.

“Hurry back,” she whispered.

“I will,” he replied gently and kissed her on the cheek.

“I don’t want you to be out there for too long, especially after what happened yesterday.”

He didn’t know what he had done to deserve this kind of love, but it was truly moving. There was a tingling sensation in his stomach, as he felt an overflowing of gentleness towards his beautiful wife.

He gave her another kiss and a long embrace.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I have no desire to repeat what happened yesterday. If I see anything out of the ordinary, I’ll get out of the way and come straight home.”

She seemed satisfied with the reply and went to clean the dishes in the kitchen. He took one more look at the apartment on the top floor of their parents’ house, then at his wife and smiled.

“What’s that smile for?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just realised how much I loved you.”

She smiled back at him and he could see she was touched as well.

“Go on,” she said. “I don’t want you to be out too late, especially with it getting dark so soon.”

He walked out the door, blew her a kiss and descended the stairs.