Page 54 of Kiss Across the Universe
Kit had been planning on exploring this with Alannah tonight, but he’d upset her enough with talk of walking over the mountains that she’d turned to the pretense of sleep to avoid more conversation.
Her orienteering skills were a double edged tool. She knew just enough about the dangers of the wild to be scared of them. Kit wasn’t afraid of the dangers, but he did respect them. And he knew enough to be confident that they could make it over the pass. There was only one high section, and they could move through it during daylight, which would help. So would her abilities as a hiker and cross-country runner.
While Alannah slept, Kit worked on the bison haunch. He carved off the outer layer of cooked meat and put it on a flat rock he’d cleaned to cool off. When it was cold, he put it on a clean section of the original plastic wrapping. In the meantime, the newly exposed meat cooked over the fire. When he’d taken off as much meat as the haunch would provide, he would wrap the plastic up, tie it with the string he’d woven from grass, and put it in the pack. It would fit, because his back-up pair of boots weren’t in there anymore.
He had emergency rations in the pack, but the fresh meat would get them through to Stoney land. What happened then would be…interesting.
Plans, and more plans. He kept busy; carving off meat, listening to the night sounds of the forest around him, and once, turning the haunch to let the other side cook.
Around two a.m., Alannah stirred. Kit paused from his carving to monitor, to see if she fully woke. She might be disoriented when she woke.
She turned, her face toward the fire, and gave a deep sigh. The sleeping bag shifted, revealing one shoulder and the thin tunic top, which had slid over the corner of her shoulder and down the arm.
Kit twitched to pull the top back into place. Or did he really want to smooth his fingers over the pure white flesh she displayed, to feel its warmth and find out for himself if it was as soft as it seemed?
He turned his mind away from the speculation, for it was pointless.
“You should sleep,” Alannah murmured, so softly that at first Kit thought he was imagining it.
“I will in an hour or so.” He could feel the tiredness pulling at his bones. He could get by on only a few hours sleep tonight, if he kept moving tomorrow and slept well tomorrow night. Staying afoot wasn’t an issue, and tomorrow night he wouldn’t have a haunch of bison to cook and carve.
Alannah didn’t answer and for a while, Kit thought she had drifted back to sleep, for her breath remained calm and deep. But then she spoke again. “Will he find us?”
“He’d have to be good.” He kept his tone confident.
“Maybe he is. I should just jump us….somewhere. Somewhere safe.”
He shook his head, even though she probably had her eyes closed. “He’s looking for you because you can do what do you. If you jump, who’s to say it won’t tip him off? He found you once in time. We don’t know enough about him to know how he tracks you from a distance. Analogue and out of the way is safest.” He paused. “You’re too used to using time to your advantage.”
She didn’t pause as long to respond, this time. “You might be right. My fathers are always harping on about respecting time and not using it. But we grew up thinking that way.”
“I figured,” Kit said, keeping his tone easy. Her voice was sleep-filled. She might yet drift off if he didn’t say anything to alarm or anger her and stir her fully awake.
After a while, she said, “My brother is therealtime jumper. He turned time into a money machine.”
He thought about that. Once one got beyond the staggering fact that time travel was real, then the possibilities expanded. Using time to make money seemed like a logical progression. Any new technology was first exploited by criminals, then entrepreneurs would spot the legal ways to skin the cat, and would get to work. That introduced the technology to the masses. “Go back to Mesopotamia, pick up a freshly made idol, bring it forward to this time and sell it for a fortune. Like that?”
“Something that doesn’t show age,” Alannah breathed. “He digs diamonds out of the Kimberley fields in the 18thcentury, long before anyone valued them. Says they’re just lying on top of the dirt like every other rock.”
“Gold from the Klondike,” Kit guessed.
“And opals from South Australia. Marit pointed that one out to him.”
He shook his head admiringly. “But you don’t use time that way.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Mostly because I let the storiesFarandAtharand Mom always tell sink in too deep.” After a moment, she added, “Afraid, I guess.”
“You’ve more courage in your little finger than most men scrounge up in a lifetime.”
Her silence was much longer this time. “Me?” She sounded more awake now.
“It’s not that you’re afraid,” he added, carefully wrapping the small pile of steak slices. “I think it’s because you’re trying too hard to be human…only you’re more than just human.” He picked up the string and with one hand holding down the plastic, contrived to wrap the string around it and tie it off. While he worked, he said, “I always knew you were different in some way and hiding it. Your whole family is utterly unique, but you are in a class of your own. I had no idea what that difference was, but you were doing everything you could to hide it, and stay human normal. Repressing yourself like that…it shows in odd ways.”
“That you noticed.”
