Chapter Seven

Into the Future

 

 

"Honey what is this thing?" she asked William.

"Oh that, I don't know. Some guy said that it was a time portal that would take me into the future."

Still looking at this 'time portal' for awhile, Jessica asked "Does it work?"

Shrugging his shoulders, William said "I haven't tried it. I think he may have been pulling my leg." Not being an overly curious person, William went back to pulling weeds in the garden.

Jessica being naturally curious, couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities of time travel. After a while she stopped working in the garden and went over to the 'time portal' to get a closer look. "Honey, do you think we could try it?"

William once again stopped weeding and pondered her question. "Do you mean you believe that really is a time portal?" He could hardly believe she could be that gullible.

"Why not? It's a big world and anything's possible. Besides I'm curious, aren't you?"

"Not really." William wasn't sure he liked where this was going.

"Oh come on. Wouldn't you like to know what the future will be like or what our descendants will accomplish?" She couldn't imagine why William wasn't more excited. "I'll go by myself but it would be more fun if you'd come along."

I can't believe this is happening, William said to himself. But I can't let her go alone. "Ok, Ok I give up, I'll come. So, any ideas on how this thing works."
 



 

"Looks like all you have to do is step into the light." With that Jessica stepped through and disappeared. William watched and sighed I have to do this. I have to step through, nothing bad will happen, he told himself. When William exited the time portal he saw Jessica was there waiting for him.

"William wasn't that an awesome ride and I can't wait to ..." Jessica stopped as she noticed that William was turning a sickly color of green. "Are you ok?" she asked in concern.
When William exited the time portal he was overwhelmed with waves of nausea and everything danced before his eyes in an unending rotation. He closed his eyes in hopes that things would stop going in circles but it didn't help, he still felt like he was still going in circles. He could here Jessica asking him something but he couldn't understand what she was saying. He fell to his knees and he tried to keep from throwing up but it was like trying to stop a volcano from exploding. He kept throwing up until he felt he was going to heave up his insides and yet the dizziness persisted and all he wanted to do was curl up and die.

Jessica tried to find someone to help but no one was around. She tried to help William get to his feet but he kept falling over as he couldn't walk straight and she wasn't strong enough to carry him. She was afraid he would get really hurt if she continued to try to move him. So the only option she had was to leave him to find someone to help. She went to the nearest street and flagged down a taxi and convinced the driver to help her get William into the taxi.

All the way to the hospital she kept apologizing for the mess but the taxi driver ignored her. She was sure he was angry at the thought of having to clean up the vomit that was accumulating in great quantities in the back seat. But what else could she do? She had to get William to the hospital, something was horribly wrong. She knew it was her fault that he was sick. She's the one who wanted to try the 'time portal'.

Once they arrived at the hospital, she begged the taxi driver to help get William into the hospital emergency room. He clearly didn't want to, the sight of William was enough to start the gag reflex in anyone and you were sure to become covered in vomit from just touching him. You couldn't help but wonder where all of it was coming from.

As soon as they entered the hospital, Jessica started yelling for someone to come and help. A nurse came running from the nurses station.

"What's wrong him?" the nursed asked.

"If I knew, we wouldn't be here." Jessica said in exasperation, already disliking the young nurse. Taking a deep breath Jessica said that once they arrived here William became extremely dizzy and couldn't stop vomiting.

"Where'd you come from?" the nurse asked as she motioned for an intern to get a wheelchair.

"From the past" Jessica stated feeling a bit stupid as she said it. She briefly wondered if they would think she was crazy for believing she traveled through time.

Instead the nurse turned to the intern that just arrived with a wheel chair and said "Inform the doctor on call that we have a possible victim of time paradox sickness."

As the intern hurried off to tell the doctor, Jessica wondered what time paradox sickness was. Turning to the nurse she asked "Will he be ok?"

"Don't know Miss but we'll do all we can." With that the nurse wheeled William off to see the doctor.

 

Jessica just stood there, wondering what she was supposed to do or where she was supposed to go. She couldn't believe this was happening. This was supposed to be an adventure not a nightmare.

"Miss, excuse me miss but I need to get some information about the young man that was just brought in."

"Hmm, what?" Jessica said distracted still looking down the hallway where the nurse wheeled William down.

"Why don't we go into the waiting room miss" the nurse said steering her towards a room.

"Here have a seat. Now miss what is the young man's name?"

"William, William Bennett." Jessica provided trying to focus her attention on the nurse in front of her.

"How old is he?"

"20"

"Is he married?"

"No, he's my fiance"

"How long has he been ill?"

"Ever since we stepped through the time portal, about 3 hours. It took so long for me to get someone to help. Will he be ok?"

"We're doing all we can. He has one of the best doctors and you got him here in time. That's what matters." the nurse said reassuringly.

"Wait here and when the doctor is done seeing to your fiance he'll come and get you."

Jessica waited in the waiting room all afternoon. While she waited she played around with the rhythm-a-con. She found it soothing to focus her attention on playing this then on the realities that her fiance was deathly ill. The music she produced was eerily sad as she tried to convey her feelings."

Finally the doctor came into the waiting room. "Miss I'm Doctor Ogun."

Stopping immediately Jessica asked "Will he be ok?"

The doctor faintly smiled at the all too common first question all families of patients asked. "Your fiance should make a full recovery. He is suffering from a severe form of time paradox sickness but you were able to get him here in time to get the antidote. I would like him to stay here a couple of days just to be sure he doesn't suffer from any adverse side effects. After that you can take him home. I will also write you a prescription for him to take just in case he suffers another bout of time sickness when you go home to your own time line."

"Thank you doctor" Jessica said in gratitude for the doctors assistance.

 

For the next couple days while William was recovering in the hospital Jessica explored Oasis Landing. She especially enjoyed playing the rhythm-a-con at every opportunity. She was really get good at it and she even had a few people stop and watch her as she practiced. Once William is out of the hospital she hoped to spend some time shopping at the emporium and showing William all the wonderful inventions that the future as to offer.

 

William was so happy to be leaving the hospital after being severely ill so long. It was an unbelievable relief to feeling like himself again. He hoped to never experience that degree of nausea and dizziness again.

Jessica could hardly contain her excitement at seeing William on his feet again. She ran over to him and gave him a hug.

"Oh William you have no idea how scared I was when you were so sick. I just kept imagining how awful I would feel if you died and how it would have been all my fault." Jessica rambled on until William kissed her to get her to be quiet. She smiled up at William as he silently laughed at her.

"Oh Jessica, my dearest you have nothing to be scared of. It wasn't your fault. I followed you because I wanted too, you didn't make me, so stop blaming yourself. I'm well thanks to the doctors here and I have my prescription for when we go home. Everything's alright. You know what?"

"No what?"

"I love you. Now let's get out of here and do some exploring."