CHAPTER 6 TIME OUT

He walked her down to her private dock area where a small motorboat was tied up. He held the rope while she maneovered herself and the picnic box into the back of the boat, then rolling up his pants he pushed the boat out into deeper water so that she could lower the small outboard and get the engine going.

"You ok out there in the open water on your own Gina? The mainland is a fair distance away." He looked at the island that was off in the distance then turned his gaze in a semi circle to take in this little slice of paradise she had carved out for herself here on this small private island. He could understand that need to be on one's own. To have a small corner of something to call your own. This was magic. White sand, hot sun and blue breakers that just begged to be ridden into shore, tamed by man and board. And he was itching to get the feel of a surfboard under his arm once again. Instead of looking for portals that would take him fifty years into the future. Perhaps she had a surfboard stashed around the place... this was the sixties afterall. The time of some of the greatest surfers of all time, and long boards... oh yeah!

He waved at her as she motored off, standing in the shallows, the waves lapping softly over his rolled up pants legs. A little touch of paradise... yeah...

And Gina's thoughts mirrored his own and she watched him get smaller and smaller on the shore. His head tilted back slightly to take in the sun and surroundings, and the sight of his muscular thighs in the tightly fitted pants, now wet and moulded more firmly to his body. She sighed and hoped that he would still be there when she came back that evening.

He waded back to shore and tried to find the enthusiasm to begin searching the area where she had found him. Found that said enthusiasm was sadly lacking. He kept looking out at the waves which had picked up a little in the late afternoon and shrugging his shoulders decided that the portal would still be there tomorrow. He had told Gina that he would be there when she came back and he was looking forward to seeing her, if he was truthful to himself. So with this in mind, he trudged back to her house, smelling the scent of island flowers on the breeze and thinking perhaps, life in 1962 was really not so bad.

Digging around in the old shed he found out behind her cottage, he found gold. A long board, recently waxed and ready to go, standing just waiting for him on the back wall of the shed. And he grinned. No sirree... 1962 was really not so bad...

The rest of the afternoon passed in gold plated memories, and he would treasure these moments for years to come. Paddling out to the breaker line, the feeling of his swell rolling beneath the board, and the scratch of the wax as he rose smoothly from supine position to crouch, felt the pull of muscles in his knees as he balanced, riding the tubular tunnel of water as it roiled and moved relentlessly to shore. That rare and treasured moment when the wave finally surrendered and he remained standing, proud and true and shouted to the sky. Oh yeah... this was living.

He pulled himself to the shore two hours later, as then sun began it's slow descent towards to the horizon, and he lay on the sand smiling up at the sky, feeling boneless and relaxed, thoroughly relaxed for the first time in a long time. Hawaii. He had been here in his early twenties, not long after he had enlisted. Been stationed for a short time on the airforce base in Honolulu and spent some sweet afternoons when time permitted, surfing these same breaks, forty years or so in the future. His last memory of his present time was standing on a cold planet waiting for his team to investigate some alien rock. Had he made the right choices over the years? Was he really, where he was meant to be or had he deviated from the path that he had set for himself so long ago. He couldn't remember any more. Couldn't think beyond the now and laying here on this sand, feeling as though he had purged something bad inside him and didn't move. Just lay there until finally the sky darkened and the fireworks began. And he smiled. Happy independence day. In seven years man would walk on the moon and the most ironic token of that moment in history will be the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the Moon. It read: 'We came in peace for all mankind.' As the United States was dropping 7.5 megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, they congratulated ourselves on our humanity; we would harm no one on a lifeless rock.

And she found him here, not a long while later... the same small smile still on his face as his thoughts fought to find purchase in his mind, sought to make sense of his life, of the last fifteen years in particular. Had he compromised himself in any way by choosing to do what he did and had mankind compromised themselves by opening up the universe to exploration?

So many what ifs...

"John... John?... John!" He heard her voice from afar, had not heard the boat come in so engrossed in his thoughts. He blinked uncertainly up at her, taking in the windblown hair, the light sunburn on her shoulders and the bottle of beer she held out to him. He pushed himself up and instead of standing, she plopped herself down on the sand beside him and thrust the bottle into his hand. It was still cold so he assumed she had been carrying it in a cooler. She leaned companionably against him and shoulder to shoulder they looked out to sea, until tired, she dropped her head onto his shoulder and just rested against him while he drank his beer. He looked down at her from time to time, pondering his reaction to her and content to just sit. And be.

"So... Gina? Independence day picnic... the family? It went well?" He broke the long silence.

"It... went... let's just leave it at that. I can't do it anymore... can't be under his control. She leaped up suddenly to run back to the boat, grabbing two more beers from the cooler, bringing them back to where he still sat. She passed one bottle to him so that he could open it for her and quickly drank half of it before glancing sideways at him to see his amused expression.

"Medicinal Gina? Liquor filled courage, or anaethestic?"

"You choose John... the result is the same. I feel nothing... isn't that enough?"

He took the bottle from her hand, set it down on the sand beside his and took her face in his hands before moving his mouth gently over hers, exploring the softness of her lips, slowly at first, then with more fervour as he sensed her mounting passion. He ground out an oath and pulled away from her and answered.

"Feeling nothing? I don't think so... that wasn't nothing. And numbness? That's not the answer Gina. Whatever happened in your past, whatever that bastard did to you, if you feel nothing now, then he has won. And I'm sure you prefer not to give him that satisfaction."

He let her go and stood up, needing to put a little space between them. "You're not the sort of woman who feels nothing... there's too much heat, too much fire inside you. You've got dreams Gina, big ones and you're too scared to go after them. There's a whole exciting world out there... hell, there's more than a world, there are galaxies and more... and they're waiting for you. Go and get them."

"I'm scared... "

"I know you are. But you don't need to be." He sighed when he felt her come up behind him and wrap her arms around his middle, pulling him against her.

"We can't do this Gina... I don't know what sort of effect this could have in the future. My present. I can't knowingly change anything."

She rubbed her face against his shirt, loving his smell, needing a man to make her feel good about herself again. And somehow she knew that this man could do that.

"We'll find your portal in the morning John – can't we just have this one night together?"

He turned then, unable to bear the pain in her voice, fuelled a little he knew, by the alcohol and the intense emotions from being around her family that day. Knew too, that perhaps she didn't really need him, but needed someone to make her feel sexy, feel special, feel like a woman needs to feel. He could do that one thing for her. It need change nothing. He would still leave tomorrow. It need not affect her future or his present. One night...