The Strangest Love of All - The Sequel - Part Two

Sitting in front of his bay window, sipping ice water, he looked out onto the San Francisco Bay and admired its beauty. His thoughts would roam, imagining something as beautiful as this ten times greater where Elyse was. Twin suns, twin moons, no wars, no illness, a new world of pure tranquility. He would give anything to be there.

Looking at the timer, he saw it was time to hopefully bring Zach back from wherever he went—hopefully.

Going to his station, he again pressed and flipped a few buttons and switches and pressed enter. That quickly, lights lit up and a whirring sound went into motion. Thirty seconds later it stopped.

Hesitating for a moment, he licked his lips, wiped his hands on his lab coat, and slowly made his way over to the door.

He stopped short by about a foot. His heart started pounding, and any louder and it might have ripped out of his chest.

Zach was there and he was alive!

Opening the door, he reached down to pick him up and to run some tests on him when he spied a folded piece of paper. That was strange. He didn’t put that there.

He then picked up the paper, walked over to another station where Zach’s cage sat and placed him gently inside.

“Zach, old buddy, welcome home. You are going to get a treat for being so brave. I’m going to double the fruit and vegetables I would normally give you for a good month. I just wish you could tell me what you saw.”

Turning away to sit by the bay window again, he open up the folded paper and was astonished by what he saw. Words. And in English!

This is strange. This rat appeared from nowhere. How did it get here. Who sent it. And why? Odd. Just odd. Never seen anything like this before. Is someone out there beyond our time. Maybe I need to report this to the authorities. They are very good at determining things here on Alpha-Earth One. So if you are a bad person, they will find you and fix you, so you won’t be bad anymore. Goodbye.

“Alpha-Earth One? Oh my God … this—this is just too good to be true! That’s where Elyse is!”

The note seemed to have been written from someone young, but he could be wrong about that. But now, he had to make a determination why Zach could come back when all the other objects hadn’t. After Zach had his fill, he would check his heart rate for any noticeable changes, as well as take a blood and saliva sample and run more tests.

But this … this was the break Robert had been hoping for, searching for. He found the portal!

Slowing himself down to steady his heartbeat, he stopped for a moment and thought aloud, “But what if I send myself and I get caught up in a different set of molecule fiber-based anomalies that alter me, or some form of time shift, maybe caught up in another portal—that could kill me?”

He knew to be wary even if the excitement in knowing he found a way to get to Elyse after all these years. He also knew he wouldn’t be any good to her or his son or daughter if he ended up dead trying to get to her.

Walking back over to Zach, he looked down, smiling, and said, “You did it, Zach. Boy, I wish you could talk. But after you finish eating, it’s test time.”