Encompassing Reality by Richard Lord Read Free Book Online Page B

Then as he saw the suspicious look on her face he added, “The two men on the rise we were watching.  One was my grandson, Brian.  The other was Phillip, his son.”
    “That’s impossible!”  She yelled loudly while squeezing her fists together yet holding them down to her side while trembling with anger.  “The martyr died to save us all!”
    “Yes, he did.  My daughter died with him.”  He took a step towards her.
    “Liar!” Tomorrow yelled at him with extreme anger and then she swung and hit him hard striking him in the face.
    He backed a step away and then said, “That’s what I meant when I said we’re back to now.”
    She paused considering hitting him again but she wanted to hear him.  “That doesn’t make sense and how could we see a dead person?”
    “We were in the past.  I can’t do that too much anymore.  I also cannot travel ahead.  At least not in a way I can explain.  The future is something created by the superimposition of events from the past and current, watched like a movie with other movies played under it, in layers.”  He stopped, realizing the explanation was not changing her mind.  Then he continued trying again.  “It’s like the thing with the rocks.  But I can do it with time too.  They didn’t know we were watching them that day.  It felt good to see them.  But I know how they think and I could see that Brian was teaching his son a hard lesson.  Phillip didn’t know then that he was talking to his father.”  Then his eyes looked up and his finger raised to his own chin, “Actually, I think Phillip knew, but he wasn’t sure.  Not then anyway.”  He saw that he was getting nowhere, but continued anyway.  “See, Phillip thought his father was dead.  At least that’s what his mother thought. So that is what he was brought up knowing about his father.”
    “How can you be that old?  No one loves that long!”  She looked at him waiting to hear more of what she perceived to be falsifications.
    Pausing, to consider what he was going to say next, he decided just to blurt it out, “This is going to sound strange, but Phillip was my older brother.  I was born after him and I wasn’t that old when he gave his life.”   Adam looks at her realizing he is confusing her as much as convincing her that he’s making it all up.
    “That was just before I was born.  I’m not as old as you.”  She thought on what he was saying for a while and then said, “So it doesn’t make sense!  What made you so crazy?  Eating snake or the hot sun up here?”  She looked at him, studying his face.
    “Yeah, well there’s a thing about time.  I’ve lived a lot more of it by moving through it, staying in some of them for long periods and then back at different times.  So even though I age slower, it’s been long enough that it’s beginning to show.”  He gave her a look wondering if she was understanding his explanation at all.  Then he added, “I’ve gone around the sun more times in my life than the planet has, if that helps to explain it.  Therefore more years in my time than, for instance, you.  You stayed in the same place, relative to the sun.”  He thought about that and looked at her and then said, “Never mind.  I can barely explain it to people who get the concept of relativity and time travel, let alone to someone.”, he abruptly stops himself.
    “You still think I’m stupid?”  She asked.
    “No, I think you haven’t been given the chance to learn.  That’s what I’m trying to do.”  He looked down into the sand and asked, “Do you want me to take you back now?”
    “Just stay in front of me and give me your knife.  I’ll think about it.”  She held out her hand and tapped her foot as if she was in a hurry.
    He reached into his shirt and handed over the knife then he asked, “What made you decide I wouldn’t just use it on you when I pulled it out?”
    Tomorrow looked at him.  She gestured with the knife for him to