Call Me Ishmael

Chapter 33 (and a third)

Thank you. 

My father said we would know the device had worked by where we found ourselves afterward.

When I finally pulled my lips from Finnie's perfect lips, we were alone. There was no Base; there was no computer terminal. There was no glowing blue metal device. My father was gone, Bety was gone, and Splice and Niles were gone. I looked deeply into Finnie's eyes and saw the reflection of me; of myself as I wanted to be and determined to be, for her: stronger, braver, and happier than I knew. I could do all those things for her, because of her. I hoped that Niles would have some of the same feeling, but maybe that's not for him. As for Bety, I knew he would be happy, but with his huge, ugly wife and her burned cooking. Some people are made for each other, and although I hadn't seen his wife, I had a feeling he had described her just as truly as he could.

We were alone, and there was no Base. There was only a smooth wooden floor; not a floor, I realized. It was a deck. I held Finnie at arm's length.

Her lips moved, and I watched with fascination. "I love you," she said.

"Well, I love you, too. I wish I could say it stronger, but right now, I'm having a lot of trouble forming words."

She closed my lips with her fingertip. The steel nail was gone. "Poor Ishmael. You just can't stop talking, even when you think you're not. And who thinks that's cute? Me, that's who."

I looked around for a few seconds before my thirsty eyes returned to her. Even that moment's glance told me that we were aboard a fine sloop, a perfect one, in fact, on a perfect day. With the perfect woman in my arms, who cares what dimension we were in? Call me Ishmael, but call me Finnie's.

The Finish Line

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