20. Time and tide await no man

39

Nora and Marcus had another task while they waited for what they hoped would be an Imbolc window of opportunity: keeping Kenneth Owens alive virtually. They of course did not really know if he were alive in the ‘normal’ sense, but since he seemed to live in abnormal times, they didn’t want him to return to their present and find himself dead. That was not a very difficult task, since Kenneth was pretty much a hermit. His Home did all of his shopping. It was not at all unusual for him to leave the Hyundai in the garage for months. All of his bills were paid and his income deposited  electronically. So, they hoped to make  him seem to be around by doing a few things for him. Nora would go over twice a week to take in deliveries from his locker, and Marcus, with Min-seo, published a paper naming him a co-author. It described printing techniques for nano-antennae, with emphasis on applications for wearable electronic devices. There was no mention of space travel. Ken had not bothered to post anything on any social sites for years, and most of his correspondence before his disappearance had been to either Min or Marcus, so none of his colleagues noticed any lack of activity. Nora called Home every Sunday and talked to the smart house. She found the internet of things more and more normal each week.

40

In the old country, Kenneth and Aidan were also preparing for Imbolc. Attila the Hyundai had large batteries, and there were some solar panels, but the panels were small compared to the area of the car because of elaborate antennae Marcus had printed on the roof. If they were going to be able to make the leap back to the future in any sort of controlled manner, it might not be possible to delay it much longer than three months. Kenneth had to admit to himself that he wasn’t really sure that his trip had been in any way controlled. He had just put himself in  spot where he thought time waves might break and hoped he could ride one. Since he had landed where and when he had, he hoped the break might happen twice. He did hope that he might be able to publish his work in a time that would understand it. Aidan found the possibility of time travel far more exciting than fighting in French-English-Welsh wars, but he wasn’t sure to whom he might tell his tales. He did hope that if they made a leap, it would be into the future. He had already lived in the past, and he was certain that his family and friends thought he was dead. His return would be really hard to explain.