“I know a guy who knows a guy.” I responded sheepishly. They looked up from the bag and I could just barely make out a frown from the face hidden in the shadow of the hood. “Okay, in all seriousness, it was difficult as all hell to get my hands on that.” I spoke softly in a serious tone.

“Is this the real thing? I didn’t think it was possible…” The hooded figure remarked. I could tell they were churning some pretty heavy stuff around in their head right now, as one would when faced with something that completely alters your perception of reality.

“It isn’t possible, at least, not here on this plane. I had to go to some pretty bizarre places to be able to make that happen.” I sat back in the booth and studied the body language of my hooded guest. I wanted to find an opportunity to get some info on who their mysterious client was that need the object and what they planned on doing with it.

Bringing something from another plane of existence is no easy feat, and technically, by the rules that govern our world (according to observable scientific inquiry) is not possible. But there is so much more to it all and the tools and technology on our current Earth is far too primitive to detect the myriad of layers and connections that are always around us. “I’ve done my part,” I started, “now it’s time for payment.” I kept a close eye on the figures movements. “Or, we could cut a deal.” I posited.

“And what kind of deal would that be?” They tried responding in a disinterested tone, but I could sense they were eager to hear what I had in mind.

“Look, I know _that_ is an incredibly useful thing, far more useful than anyone knows. But,” I strongly accentuated “for as useful as it can be the consequences of using it without proper knowledge of the object and what it does and the ripples and side effects it will cause with each and every use, it can quickly get out of hand.” I looked for a reaction, very mild. “On the level of completely wiping entire civilizations off the planet, off every planet… Even off every plane of existence they are a part of.” I could see the hooded figure squirm at the thought of something that powerful and destructive, that was the reaction I was looking for. “So, in lieu of payment right now, I’d like to offer my services as a seasoned user. You’ll still be paying me, of course, but if I find whatever your little project is that needs this thing so badly intriguing, you can cut me in on the action with the peace of mind that you won’t be destroying any universes or civilizations in them.”

The hooded figure started to squirm a bit more and almost jumped up out of their seat as they looked up beyond me. At that same time I heard a voice coming from where the figure was looking. “Interesting proposal.” The words rang clearly in my head, I knew that voice, it had been many years since I heard it, but there was no doubt in my mind it was her. “Can you absolutely say for sure that if we use you as the user of TIME, we won’t lose something? Something important?” Those words cut deep… I felt a welling of sorrow and grief and loneliness overwhelm me and tears started to form in my eyes.

I looked down to my hands and glanced at the ring on my finger, I never took it off, even after all these years, “I’m sorry…” I said weakly.

“Ah, don’t be like that!” She slapped me on the back as she strolled by and plopped herself down next to the hooded figure. “I know it still hurts, and every time I see you I have to remind you that it wasn’t your fault. Lord knows I wanted someone to blame when TIME took my daughter away, but I know you would have never done anything to intentionally hurt her in any way. There are many things that we may never be able to figure out about TIME, but that means there are more things to discover!”

“I should have been more careful, I should have checked, I should have seen the abnormality on the unit!” I tried to reason.

“Lotta ‘shoulds’ in there, but you didn’t.” She chuckled and those words felt like daggers in my heart, “Look, I’m not here to try and make you feel bad, in fact, I hope to instill a little, well, hope in you.” I looked at her quizzically. “I’ve been traveling, a lot, and I came across a TIME monastery out on the edges,”

“You’ve been to the edges?! That’s dangerous!” I exclaimed.

“I know, but you know me!” I did know her, my mother-in-law, she was a strong woman, and very stubborn. You were not going to talk her out of something she had set her mind to, and you especially were not going to be able to physically stop her. “Anyways, back to the story: I came across an abandoned TIME monastery so I finally got a chance to look at some of the forbidden literature that was thankfully still there. In fact, I don’t think anyone else had been there since the original occupants had left, or rather, vanished.”

“Vanished?” I questioned.

“Yes, vanished. There were signs all over the place that it was in use with coffee mugs on desks, sludge that was probably at some point a half-eaten sandwich, papers laid out like someone was working on something and no defense, emergency or signal beacons lit up. It wasn’t like they had to quickly leave; you would have seen the result of that chaos with stuff thrown everywhere and the place in disarray, and there was no sign of any attack. Just like they were there, going about their day one second, then POOF!” She made a loud sound and expressioned dramatically with her arms elbowing our hooded friend in the process. “Ah, sorry Lem!” She quickly apologized and made sure they were alright. “Oh! By the way, this is Lem. Lem,” she turned to face him and extended her arm towards me “this is your father.” Lem pulled the hood down and revealed his face and this indescribable feeling came over me, he looked like me! But also like Echo! What in the fuck was going on?!

I froze and stared at Lem with my mouth agape.

“Well, that’s certainly a reaction to finding out you’ve had a kid with your long lost wife!” She threw her head back and gave out a hearty laugh. “As good as I hoped it would be!” She continued to laugh as Lem started to squirm a bit with his face starting to flush red.

“B, b, but how?!” I exasperatedly asked while still staring at Lem who now seemed so much younger than when he first came to me with the job of finding TIME. The shadow of the hood hid his boyish features, but he was also quite tall for what I suspected was his age. I guess he got that from me, or maybe his mom’s parents as Echo was actually quite short compared to everyone else in her family. All her sisters and brothers are over six feet. Her mother, sitting right across from me, is an imposing woman, coming in at 6’3” and well toned. Not beefcake muscular like a body builder or anything, but she, in all honesty, could probably lift more than those guys. Echo’s father was also tall at 6’2” coming in just shy of his formidable wife. He is also a lot lankier and probably can’t lift anything more than the stacks and boxes of books he has as a writer and researcher. He would typically stay home to research something, or write one of his best-selling novels based on the adventures of his wife. She would come home with hours of stories and he would transcribe everything and spend time editing it all into compelling works of almost non-fiction but have been released as fiction novels.

“I ended up in a world where natural child-birth was no longer part of the evolution of the people there. In fact, they had gone so long without doing the horizontal mambo that their sexual organs just sorta vanished like they were Ken and Barbie dolls. They did everything through genetic matching and would pair 2 individuals with highly compatible and complementary DNA and would grow them a child.” She continued, “I spent a decent amount of time there seeing if any of the technology they had was compatible with what we currently have and may have popped in some DNA I happened to have.” She gave a devilish smile.

“I’m at a loss for words. I know you were looking forward to grandkids, but this…” I trailed off.

She chuckled. “There was something else I discovered in the process,” she paused and gave me a quick once-over.

_Uh-oh_ I thought, this is where she reveals that I’m not a match for Echo and she would have been better off with someone more, well, not me. My head started spinning and heart pounding when suddenly she gave me a little kick to the shin. “Ouch!” I exclaimed and came back to the present moment.

“I know that look.” She said as she frowned at me. “You were thinking something along the lines of ‘she’s too good for me’ I know that self-doubt you have.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “You gotta stop that, you are incredibly skilled and have everything to offer and I am proud to have you as a son-in-law.” My face began to flush red after hearing that, and my heart warmed at her still thinking of me as family after what happened and after the years that had passed. She continued. “Actually, it turned out that you and Echo had off-the-charts compatibility, it was the highest they had ever seen by a huge margin. They had gotten ahold of the data and were eager to pour over it, since there were wild possibilities of never-before seen traits and abilities, but didn’t know I had already brought Lem into the world. When they found out, they wanted to experiment on him and I had to book it the hell out of there, little baby Lemmy in tow!” She reached her arm around and gave Lem a big hug.

“This is just so much” I was trying to process everything. “So why do you need TIME?” I finally asked.

She brought her arm back around and cupped my hands in hers and leaned in. She intently stared into my eyes and very seriously said “I found something in that monastery, something that could bring Echo back.”

TO BE CONTINUED (maybe?)