(Author's Note: I am back; writing shall continue. I could give excuses since I have them but who cares.)
[Cardiff, Wales – 9:58 AM 19/12/1920]
I shook my shoulders lightly in the mild atmosphere of the church, feeling the stiffness of my uniform since I hadn't worn it in…almost two years, damn.
The fabric was pressed neat against me, its brass buttons gleaming faintly in the light. My cane rested at my side as I fought the urge to fidget.
The pews weren't full; in all, perhaps thirty people. My mother and sister sat near the front, my mum with her hands folded in quiet anticipation and my sister with a newborn babe in her arms who had a large tuft of blonde hair that matched her father sitting next to them.
They were joined by my aunt and a handful of workers from the rubber plant. Across the aisle, Kitty's parents, grandparents, and a scattering of her extended family waited, their faces showing a mix of pride and curiosity. The room smelt faintly of polished wood and old hymnals, the sun streaming through the painted glass in muted blues and reds.
And then I saw her. Kitty. Her hair caught the light as she walked slowly down the aisle, her small bouquet of winter blooms clutched in her gloved hands. Her eyes met mine, and for a moment the murmuring of relatives and the creak of the floorboards fell away.
Her dress was a modest white cotton gown, the bodice fitted but not stiff, with a softly gathered skirt that fell to mid-calf. A narrow ribbon at the waist emphasised her figure, and a small spray of winter flowers pinned at her shoulder served as her only ornament. A short, delicate veil framed her face, catching the light as she walked. It was simple yet quietly elegant.
The priest's voice, low and reverent but with a practised presence, filled the small church.
He led the ceremony in the standard Catholic form: readings from the Scriptures; then solemn questions…
"Wilt thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death do thee part?"
I let out a slight sigh while I smiled. "I do."
The vicar then turned to her.
"And wilt thou take this man to be thy wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death do thee part?"
"I Do."
Then was the exchange of rings. They were small gold bands which were simple but carefully chosen with engravings for each other.
I felt the warmth of her hands as we clasped them and the gentle press of her fingers against mine as we said the words together.
My mother dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief; Kitty's grandmother smiled softly, proud yet restrained. The workers from the plant, stiff in their Sunday best, gave small, approving nods. It wasn't a grand affair…no carriages lined with ribbons, no orchestral fanfare…
After the priest had blessed us, we shared the sign of peace with a few close family members, and then we walked slowly back down the aisle together, heads held high and hands still entwined. Outside, I felt an ever more present sense of calm.
[Akureyri, Iceland – 02:17 AM 13/01/1921]
Steam curled around us, thick and warm, rising from the black stone pools of the hot spring. The chill of the night clung to everything beyond the water, causing our exhales to create streams of perspiration.
But inside the water, we were suspended in a world of warmth.
The Aurora Borealis was alive tonight, shimmering in ribbons of green and violet, twisting across the black canvas above. Kitty's breath caught, a soft gasp that sent ripples across the pool.
"It's…" she whispered, eyes wide.
"Oh yeah," I replied, grinning, letting the awe settle between us.
She laughed softly, half in disbelief, half in wonder. "I thought… I don't know… somewhere local, maybe London, or Paris if you were really crazy. But… this."
I leant my head to look at her, the colours dancing across her face, and smiled. "I choose somewhere a bit more memorable," I said, letting the warmth of the water, the sky, and her presence sink into me. "I wanted you to see something you'll never forget, something you couldn't even comprehend. Also all those places are crowded, here its just us…"
She leaned against my shoulder; the world beyond the steam and lights didn't exist. There was just the hot water, the flickering aurora, and the rare, undeniable sense that for this moment, nothing else mattered.
"I never got to see this either…only pictures. So it's the first time for both of us. And if you think this is special, we are going to see it all: the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest, the Victoria Falls, the Amazon, Parícutin, Pamukkale, Salar de Uyuni, Mount Roraima, Zhangjiajie Forest, the Jeju Lava Tubes, Halong Bay, the Sahara Desert…" I said, imagining all the places I had wanted to visit once I had retired in my old life.
She chuckled as my usual ranting and said, "I've never heard of almost all of those…"
"I know…hell, maybe even one day I'll take you to the moon itself," I said, turning my gaze towards it as did she.
There were several minutes of silence.
"Why, though…?" She asked.
I smiled and said, "Why, what?"
"You don't have to do this, you know? We could just live out our lives. Be happy. You've said it; we already have more than enough," she said.
I chuckled and replied. "You know. It's what I intended at first when I got here. 'Invent a few things,' and live off the money. And I'm not going to lie, when I saw you standing there for the first time in years, I got that desire even more. But…"
I paused for a moment, thinking, before continuing. "But if I did that, I would never be able to sleep well. I would always think about it if I had tried. Now I'm not going to pretend I'm some altruistic hero. I'm not going to throw my life away, just for humanity."
I am going to enjoy every moment of this wonderful planet and hopefully as many as possible with you… but the world is not going to be a nice place for decades, at least, if ever." And I fear we are so busy trying to survive we will never figure out how to live.
"I understand that. Are you ever going to tell anyone else? It'll be easier…having more help," she asked.
I shrugged again. "Don't know. I have an idea of some people who I might, but most of them are either still kids or yet to even be born, if ever."
"How can you trust them, then?" She asked, confused.
I smiled and said, "I'll just have to; besides, who'd believe them if they told anyone?"
"Oh. I see. So I'm the gullible maiden who believes the fabled hero no matter what he says…" She rolled her eyes and then seemed to look up as she changed the topic. "Can we really go to the moon?" she asked as a ripple of aurora passed over it.
I chuckled and said, "We will, but unless we do something about it, it will be nothing more than a vanity project, really," as I reached up and pretended to clasp it in my hand.
Oh, it's a 'we' now… You just said 'you'd' take me, already putting some of the work on me, are you? I didn't take you for a feminist," she asked, smiling.
I tilted my head back and replied in the same joking tone she used, "Why did I have to tell you about the future of the feminist movement?"
I switched to a more serious tone. "No matter what happens in the future, don't think for a second I will ever leave you out of any of it, but I also won't force you to be part of any of it." I then switched back to the more sarcastic tone. "Besides, I mainly waited this long to marry you because I needed to get a foundation going before I started laying the groundwork for my plans. And those plans involve me travelling a lot over the next two decades, and I don't particularly feel like seeing you once in a blue moon, so you coming along most of the time is just going to have to suffice."
She rolled her eyes and then leaned in closer. "Tell me another story…"
"Fine…uh…let me think." I pondered for a moment, rifling through the hundreds of books, films and shows I had consumed, for one I could tell that would make sense. Oh that might work… "What about the tale of the dragon tyrant…"
"The dragon tyrant…?"
And so I did.
I told her of a kingdom overshadowed by a massive, ancient dragon.
And of the people who lived in constant fear of it, they offered human sacrifices because the dragon had always existed and no one dared challenge it.
And how, over time, generations built roads, bureaucracies, and systems to feed it efficiently, normalising the suffering as inevitable.
And how a new generation realised that the dragon was not invincible, that human ingenuity could defeat it. So they forged stronger weapons and confronted the dragon at its lair, facing its immense power.
In the end, the dragon was slain, revealing that fear was the only thing that sustained its reign.
"But like why would people just accept that…?" she asked. "Or did I not get it?"
I just chuckled, "Because people often hate or degrade the value of what they don't have."
I just continued staring up, refusing to make eye contact with her.
"People speak about death," I said softly, "as though it were written into the bones of the universe. As if God himself demands it."
"But there is no law of physics that says you must die."
I could hear the frown in her answer. "Everyone dies."
"For now, but Adam and Eve weren't supposed to," I corrected. "And it's not like reality requires it; it happens because cells degrade, errors accumulate and the mind frays beneath time's weight. Biology is a machine that rusts, nothing more."
"One day, perhaps centuries from now, we will understand every mechanism of that decay. Every dying cell, every failing synapse, every slow collapse of memory and self. And once something is understood, it can be reversed. In fact, I know it's possible because there are some species of animal and plant like that."
"You're talking about immortality." she replied
"I'm going to be honest, I don't know if God exists or not. He might, he might not…but even then that may not be the end either."
"The universe obeys rules. Everything moves according to them. Every atom in your brain, every electrical pulse that formed your last thought, every pattern that ever made you you, all of it is part of a chain."
My hands spread as though holding the cosmos between them.
"If one day we possess enough power, enough understanding, we could calculate backward, pulling on those chains, the ones leading to this moment. Every branch, every motion, every flicker of matter from now to the birth of stars."
"We could find the exact state of a person's mind at the final instant before death. The precise neural structure. The full informational pattern of consciousness. Not a copy in the crude sense people fear, but the continuation of the same process, lifted from the moment it ceased and placed into new flesh, or new machinery, or something beyond both."
"So I have faith. When I see those passages in Revelation, of a paradise in which no one suffers, within which we are reunited with all our loved ones. I don't know whether God exists or not, but the fact that it's possible means I know it will happen. So for now, the best we can do is make the most of this moment here and every moment that follows."
She was quiet for a moment as if she were waiting for me to finish before saying to the skies above, "Why did you make the man I love a poet…?"
I was broken from my laughter by Kitty climbing on top of me as she pressed her form against my chest.
"You said no one's around, right?" She whispered into my ear as she began caressing my neck with her lips.
I'm going to have to cook up some Norethisterone or Levonorgestrel because at the current rate we're going over the last few days…
…Wait, did I even want kids? After all, Charlie had been an accident we decided to keep. Did Kitty want kids? did she even think about it like that, afterall at least to people here the idea of choosing was non-existant as a concept.
I was broken from that momentary lapse in attention by an ardent woman who began rocking.