Wine in Time

Wine in Time

Using the time portal took a tremendous leap of faith. It had been discovered quite by accident in 2093 when a member of a reconstruction detail accidentally fell through it after having been sent to the ruins of an old prior century single family dwelling to assess its utility as a museum. They wanted to show modern youth how life had been before single family dwellings had been abandoned. The land they were on was repurposed to accommodate an out of control worldwide population surge and climate changes which fueled massive migrations and required more efficient uses of space, air, water, and energy.

It had once been just one of dozens of similar looking semi-brick homes, built side by side with landscaped lawns all around, multiple bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and basements, typical suburban dwellings toward the end of the twentieth century. This solitaire one, alone, was now squeezed between two hyper high apartment cube stacked structures catering to the young and affluent, residents who had ever known only cube living.

Now, some thirty years after the reconstruction of the facility, Roj worked with the science team housed in the basement where the time portal was. Upstairs was the originally intended cultural museum. An historical search had disclosed that the original owner of the house had been a DARPA scientist, but the records were mute on what projects he might have worked on. However, given the existence of the time portal, it was assumed that he had worked on time travel and had used his home in his successful experiments.

Roj looked over to where the portal was, but all that could be seen was a solid brick wall. The portal itself was invisible and could only be entered by running at it from a 41 degree angle from the left. Any variance in the angle or the speed of the run resulted in bumps and bruises to the head, body and knees. Roj was practiced and could get it right about 90 percent of the time as could be attested by the faint outlines of the liquid healing paste applied to his forehead and elbows.

Today was special. He had learned after repeated failures how to jump through the portal and land within a four or five day, plus or minus, preselected time in the past. No one had figured out how to use the portal to go forward in time, except when returning to the current time.

On prior jumps he had gone back to 2021 when the house was in the suburbs. It was furnished but unoccupied, so he had on multiple occasions walked the neighborhood and had been befriended by an attractive young female, close to his age, who walked her dog each evening.

She was unlike any girl he had ever known, totally unknowledgeable about his world, but obviously intelligent and curious about him. He had never known a girl with long hair or painted nails, and he found this combination strangely exciting. And on this jump, assuming he got it just right, he had agreed to meet her at her house for a glass of wine. He had only read about wine made from real grapes. The only wine he had ever consumed was the product of a laboratory using chemicals that purported to mimic grapes, but which always seemed to fall short in the taste department.

He did it! He absolutely did it! He ran into the wall at a perfect angle and at perfect speed and entered the exact time he had calculated. Actually he entered five minutes early but he wrote that off as due to his high level of anticipation.

Minutes later, after pausing at a neighbor’s house to pick a small bouquet of blooming daffodils, he knocked at her door. She opened the door, but he could only stand there, his mouth agape, finally thrusting the daffodils to her. “For you,” he gurgled, standing there in near stupefaction. He was overwhelmed by the vision of loveliness evoked by her natural beauty buttressed by a professional hair styling, a clinging cocktail dress, a blush of makeup and a single strand of pearls. With the light behind her she looked decidedly angelic.

He looked down at his own plain, regular, clothing. “I, uh’” “Oh, come on in. You look great,” she interrupted, taking him by the hand and leading him into her living room. “I’m glad you could come.”

“I’ll get the wine, and then you can tell me how you’re getting along in your job that you have been so mysterious about. Help yourself to the cheese and crackers. There are macadamias as well.

She retrieved a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses from an antique walnut breakfront that doubled as a bar. “I think you will like this wine. It is a Merlot my parents got from an outfit called Bright Cellars. They have nothing but praise for the wines they have received so far, so I figured you and I should also partake of their favorite wine.”

Roj had been right in assuming wine made from real grapes would be better than the chemical concoction he was used to, but he could never have guessed how much better. He went through the evening almost in a trance, his emotions in a swirl, heady in the combination of glass after glass of Merlot and a beautiful beguiling woman who obviously cared for him, and the eye opening realization that he also cared for her.

The evening ended with a long soulful kiss at her front door. “You will come back?” she queried, ...and meet my parents?”

“Yes. I Promise.”

Roj worked very hard all the next week getting his affairs in order. Finally satisfied that he had done all he could do. He smiled, and with a half wave, said, “I go to a far better place.”

Roj then made his last leap through the portal. Thirty minutes after he had arrived in 2021, the small device he had armed exploded and destroyed the portal.