Planetbound by DM Arnold (best contemporary novels TXT) 📕

She smiled, looked up into his face and touched his cheek. “Now what?”

“What -- now what?”

“Nick -- you look as if you're about to bust out crying.”

“No -- it's just ... I was thinking ... if something were to happen ... to either of us ... well, to you ... I was taking inventory of all the things about you that are special. I think we should live each day as if it may be the last.” He brushed a tear from his cheek.

“Nick -- now you're maudlin.” She shook her head. “I'm sorry -- you're right. We should cherish the moment because in the next -- one of us might be dead.” She kissed his cheek. “But, let's not start mourning until it actually happens -- okay?”

“Okay.”

Yasuko pushed the stroller toward the bench. “Shall we look at the flower beds?” she asked.

“Sure,” Suki replied and stood. Nyk took her hand and walked with her mother.

Suki pushed the stroller up to the front steps and lifted Nicky from it. Nyk folded it and carried it into the house. He glanced into the living room. George was lying in the reclining chair. His head was turned to one side and his eyes were closed.

“George!” Nyk exclaimed, dropped the stroller and ran to him.

George jumped. “What the hell?”

“Oh, I'm so sorry, George -- I thought...”

“Thought what?”

“Never mind... I'm sorry.”

Suki came down the stairs from the apartment. “Nicky's down for his nap. What's the commotion?”

“It's nothing,” Nyk replied.

“Nothing except I think he startled ten years off my life.”

“I am sorry, George. Really.”

“I'll get over it.” He settled back into the recliner and folded his hands in his lap.

“I have to go to the market for some supplies,” Yasuko said. “Care to join me?”

“Sure,” Suki replied.

“I'll come, too,” Nyk said.

“You?” Suki looked at him, her head tilted. “You've never shown interest in going to market.”

“Why not? I have nothing better to do.”

Suki shrugged.

“I'll get my bag,” Yasuko said and headed for the closet.

“What was it with Daddy?” Suki asked Nyk.

“I walked in the house and saw him in the recliner. For a moment it looked as if...”

“As if what?”

“As if he wasn't breathing.”

Suki rolled her eyes. “Come on, let's go.”

Nyk accompanied Suki and her mother toward an Asian market a couple blocks from the house. Nyk walked in, inhaled the aroma of the place and regarded the shelves of noodles and canned goods. Yasuko stepped to a vegetable counter and began examining produce.

Suki selected a cellophane bag of hard candies. “I like these.”

“They're so big -- you could choke on one.”

She giggled. “If I were three, perhaps.” She dropped the sack into Yasuko's shopping basket and began looking at the selection of noodles.

Yasuko approached him. “Nick -- since you're with us -- would you mind grabbing that 25-pound bag of Calrose rice?”

He picked it up and headed to the checkout. Yasuko exchanged some words in Japanese with the clerk. Nyk hoisted the sack of rice onto his shoulder and headed toward the house.

Nyk watched Yasuko cut chicken breasts into cubes. Suki gestured to him. “My mom knows how to cook,” she whispered, “she's been doing it since before I was born. You are underfoot.”

He accompanied her to the living room. She sat on the sofa and patted the adjacent seat. “Sit here and be a good boy until dinner's ready.” He held her hand. “I swear, Nick -- if you had exhibited this sort of ... of obsessive-compulsive behavior before we were married -- we wouldn't BE married.”

“I'm sorry -- I'm having a bad day.”

“Is that what it is? As the day grows on -- you seem to get ... I don't know ... more antsy.”

He took a deep breath. “I'm sorry -- I have some free-floating anxiety today. Haven't you ever had that?”

“Not to your degree.” She kissed his cheek. “Try not to creep Mom and Daddy out at dinner too badly? Okay? Come on -- dinner's served.”

Nyk knelt at the dining table. “Sake?” George asked.

“A small one,” Suki replied.

“Same here,” said her mother.

“Nick?”

“I'm sorry -- what?”

“Sake?”

“Oh, no thanks.”

“Thanks for carrying the rice, Nick,” Yasuko said.

“Huh? Oh, no problem ... any time.”

Nyk lay in bed, his hands locked behind his head. Suki entered in her robe, brushing her hair. She tied it into a ponytail, slipped off her robe and slid in beside him. “Okay, Nick -- I want answers.”

“To what?”

“To your bizarre behavior today.”

“Bizarre?”

“All day you were so ... twitchy -- you were Mister Clean in the shower -- the weepy stuff at the park -- scaring my father -- telling my mother how to prepare donburi. What is going on?”

“It's nothing.”

“It's not nothing. I want to know -- and I won't give you peace until you tell me.”

He drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. “When I was on Floran...”

“Why is it every time you go to that world, you come home with a story that starts with, 'when I was on Floran...?' What is it about that place?”

“When I was there -- I came across a document -- some ... family records that ... suggested something bad happened today.”

“Bad? What sort of bad?”

“That somebody in this household ... might've ... you know... died.”

Suki gaped at him. “Why didn't you say something?”

“I couldn't -- because of Quinn's Postulate and because of temporal interference. I must tread around you with great care, korlyta -- for your safety as well as that of my people.”

“Well -- that, at least, explains it.” She rolled her eyes. “I don't know what to tell my folks about your antics.” She looked at the clock. “It's a few minutes after ten. If you really mean today, then we have about two hours left. We're all safe in our beds. Short of a ... a satellite crashing through the roof, I think we're home free -- don't you?”

“It would appear so.”

“Care to make love?” she asked.

“I'm too overwrought.”

“What happened to 'let's make love every night -- no excuses?'” She looked into his eyes. “I see how it is -- you thought I was going to die today, didn't you?” He nodded. “The whole thing with the wedding -- mid August -- live each day -- all part of this notion about today.” He nodded again. “And you really believed it.”

“I've been dreading this day ever since I traveled there for the hearing. I wanted to be near you so ... so you could die in my arms. I must've made a fool of myself -- I'm so sorry.”

“Nick -- I forgive you. I probably would've acted the same way.”

He turned to her, grabbed her and held on. “I couldn't bear the thought of losing you.” He wept. “I'm so happy that document was wrong.”

“Records can be wrong,” she said as she stroked his face. “I know this as a historian -- all it takes is to transpose a couple of digits or misread something.” She held his face to her shoulder and caressed his hair. “It's all right -- we made it and nobody died.”

“I am happy we're married,” he said between sobs. “I wanted that a long time before.”

“I know. I know you did.” She held him until he grew drowsy.

“I don't know what happened,” Nyk said to Andra. “Either the genealogy is wrong -- or, we stumbled across an instance that disproves Quinn's Postulate.”

“Whatever did happen -- I'm delighted.”

“Do you have the transcript?”

“Yes -- right here.”

“Slip it into your vidisplay -- I want another look.” He scanned through the document. “Yes, it still says 1 September, 2001.”

“The good news is, Sukiko and her dad are safe.”

“But, for how long?” He shook his head. “I have to believe -- based on all our temporal studies -- the likely explanation is an error in the genealogy. The Roman cel is unreadable.” He slammed his fist into his palm.

“I still have the original data capsule,” she replied. “I could make arrangements with Korlo to have the data extracted. Do you want me to do that?”

“Yes. No. I don't know. Part of me says we're better off not knowing these things -- the rest of me wants to know.”

“You're better off knowing. Besides, there's no guarantee Korlo can read this capsule -- and, no guarantee what's in the capsule is what's on that transcript.”

“If you get a chance to go to Floran City -- drop the data capsule off with Korlo and let's see what he comes up with.”

Nyk jacked his laptop into the data circuit and opened his email. An urgent message from Andra awaited him. He opened his vidphone window and placed a call.

“Nyk -- what does dek unu mean in Esperanto?”

“Eleven, why?”

“That's what we thought. Nyk -- the date in the genealogy -- for George and Sukiko -- it's September eleven, not September one. Whoever transcribed the Roman characters made a mistake.”

“Unu septembro versus dek unu septembro. I can see that happening. I assume the same error was made transcribing the year.”

“No, Nykkyo. Sukiko and her father died on September 11, 2001.”

He sat in his chair, slack-jawed, then buried his face in his hands. “I have to go through it again! Are you sure -- are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes -- I met with Korlo. I took the original data capsule to him and he converted it.” She poked her touchscreen. “Here is the original genealogy in Roman characters.”

Nyk watched the material scroll on his screen. He shook his head and attempted to speak.

“There's more. I have the Encyclopedia entry for September eleven.”

“YOU have it? How did you get it?”

“From Korlo.”

“He told me even he had no access to the material.”

“Nykkyo -- he's in charge of the material. How can he not have access?”

“How did you get it?”

“I used my power of persuasion -- and, some guiles I learned at Vebinad Academy.”

“Andra -- you didn't...”

“Of course not -- do you think they taught us to be whores? No -- they taught us how to deal with people, and Korlo is one. I told him if he wanted the original data capsule for his collection, he needed to give me the entry for September 11. I swore to him I wouldn't divulge the contents until after that date. By the way, what's today?”

“September nine.”

“You know, the time and date conversion is SO confusing... Oh, well -- he swore to you he had no access to the material, so I guess fair is fair.” She leaned close to the camera. “Nyk -- on the morning of September 11, a band of terrorists commandeered four airliners. One crashed in Pennsylvania. One was flown into a government building in Washington, and two were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.”

“The World Trade Center?”

“You know the place?”

“How could I not -- the Twin Towers -- it's the premier landmark in New York -- like the Quad Towers of Government Center in Floran City. Suki's dad has his office there.”

“Nyk -- the attack demolished the structure. There were nearly three thousand casualties. I have the transcript here -- I'll transmit it to you.”

He reviewed the encyclopedia entry -- the description of the attack -- the images of the burning towers.

“There's video, too,” Andra said.

“I see it...” Nyk tapped his keyboard and a window opened. He saw images of smoke billowing from the gaping hole in the North tower and watched as the second airliner struck. A voice-over in Esperanto described the attack.

Next came images of the towers collapsing, of the debris on the ground and of victims and survivors. His mouth became dry. “Did ... did Korlo give you the statistics pack to go with the Encyclopedia entry?” he stammered.

“Yes -- it's here.”

“Transmit it, then.” He watched the file grow as it was received. A tap on the keyboard opened the new file. “List of casualties...” He scrolled down. “Here they are -- George Kyhana and