“Shit, I can’t believe I’m doing it”, I said to myself entering the house.
tuk tuk tuk tuk I recognised a familiar sound; Natalie was chopping something in the kitchen.
I closed the front door and looked to the right, where I saw her standing behind the kitchen island dicing potatoes with her favourite Misen knife.
“Hello darling”, she was still upset after our conversation a couple of days ago, so I tried being as gentle as possible but you could easily sense tightness in my voice. I had more bad news to deliver today.
She could read me like an open book and knew I had troubling updates for her.
Another tuk tuk tuk tuk, and then the sound stopped as she lifted the chopping board and slid the knife along. Another diced potato landed in a pot full of water where a big and greasy chunk of raw smoked bacon, garlic cloves and marjoram were already boiling. She was making my favourite soup.
She didn’t say hello back nor looked at me.
“Natalie, listen, I’m pretty sure you know what I am about to say so I’ll just say it”, tuktuking stopped and now she was just holding another potato in her hand, staring at it and waiting to see what I had to say. “You know how much it meant to me to bring our son back. Nathan died because of me and… I’ve never forgiven myself for that.”, corners of my lips dropped as I exhaled gently; the thought of this distant tragedy always brings sadness into my heart.
We share this pain and memories of our son rushed back into her mind too, so it was only natural that she’d become more vulnerable and receptive to what I had to say.
She let the potato go and put the knife down.
“Jack, we both want Nathan back and you’d made incredible progress on the Blue Hole, but you and I know that it’s not possible to open a time-space tunnel”, she didn’t know what I knew and was still gripped by the doubt, “limitations of the current technology are far too great, you know that Jack”.
“They were Natalie, but that was before I met Jamie, the new coworker.” I contradicted her and despite the excitement, I kept my voice calm, “Natalie, something tells me that her expertise in miniaturization and energy fields is the key to opening the doors of the Blue Hole! Her knowledge may be exactly what I lacked to open the vortex!”
I took a deep breath, looked my wife deep into her eyes and said:
“Natalie, I can’t miss that chance. Rashmoor took Nathan away from us, and now it’s time I bring our son back home. I’ve decided to stay on the project, and I promise you – with Jamie’s expertise and the use of all the technological advantages that the new lab offers, I will open that goddamn time-space tunnel and bring Nate back! We are going to be a happy family again. I know it won’t be easy, but I’ll fly under Rashmoor’s radar and take back what he took from me. What he took from us.”
She was looking at me knowing that I was either coming back home with Nathan, or no one was coming back home at all..
