[This message has been edited by Civis Romanus (edited 05-10-2004 @ 03:23 PM).]
"You are being recruited by The Trust. We are a covert but benevolent society dedicated to the preservation of history."
I started to laugh. "The National Trust? Why didn't you just tell me that up front when this all began. I know about you and the museums. A great organization, I..." But Godfrey didn't let me finish.
"Not "Like what?" I asked, my curiousity as well as my interest growing. "Unattached, for instance. No families. Unmarried. Free to commit. You understand what I mean?" I thought for a minute. Yes, I understood, as only an orphan could. I nodded to let them know I did. Godfrey looked at May. "Sometimes our recruits participate in our operations, other times they serve as recruiters themselves. May here is a recruiter. "I don't always want to be, you know," said May attaching a frown to her words. "Yes, I know," acknowledged Godfrey. "But you're so very good at it." May shrugged. "There are others. Besides, I spent enough time on this assignment you'd think I'd get my choice in this next time." I interrupted their exchange. "So how much time did you spend on me, May? A week or two?" "Months," came her surprising reply. "I've been observing you for over six months." I was amazed. "How is it I didn't see you or recognize you in a crowd or something like that?" Godfrey chuckled. "I told you she was very good at it." "It wasn't hard," May added. "Besides..." She looked down at her hands and then out of the window at the terrain passing by. "I found you to be... compelling. A challenge." I'm not sure but I think her cheeks turned slightly pink at that moment. "Right. Well, to make a long story short," interrupted Godfrey, "your archery skills attracted us. You see we organize these little contests simply to find people like you. It's not that we want just the gold medal winner mind you, it's more a case of wanting to see if the skills we need are there and the person has the mindset to use them in the way they may be needed." "Did I pass your tests?" I asked skeptical of what the answer might be and surprised to a degree when he said, "You passed well beyond our fondest hopes." I glanced at May who was smiling at me when Godfrey said this. I wished in that moment she wouldn't do that. I started to rebuild the defenses so readily destroyed by her dimples. Trying to recover myself I started to say, "Well, the props you used were excellent. The actors were superb. The settings magnificent and the stunts were so realistic I thought I might actually have..." Godfrey sighed. "Robert, we already told you what you encountered was real. The sheriff was real, the earl was real, the guests were real. There were no props or actors. The men you killed who were chasing us on horseback are dead. Your arrows caused their death one way or another. And you needn't worry about Scotland Yard either, because it didn't exist in the place we were." I just couldn't accept this. Irritation found its way solidly into my tone. "Then where in bloody hell were we?!" I said no longer able to contain myself. Godfrey looked me straight in the eyes when he said, "Right here, Robert; but more appropriately you should have asked when were we. The answer to that question is 'the 12th Century, back in time,' that's where we were." Something emotional rather than logical gripped my throat and prevented any words I might have said from escaping. [This message has been edited by Civis Romanus (edited 06-12-2004 @ 12:24 PM).]
I could talk again. " "In the pub in Edwinstowe. Of course. You don't remember it very well." "No," I replied. "That's because we slipped you a little something to make you forget. It was too early for you to be cognizant of what was happening to you. It was a test. You passed it perfectly." "Thanks, I think," was all my mind could muster up to say. Godfrey smiled. "You are probably thinking this is an elaborate hoax?" "Not exactly," I countered, actually beginning to believe some of what I was told. I had to. Logic failed me as I tried desperately to convince myself it was indeed a hoax. "Good. Let me tell you how we do it. We discovered, just as scientists discovered about carbon-14 dating, that residual traces exist mirroring the impact of time, like growth rings in a tree, and can be found in all organic material that once had biological life. Unlike carbon-14 which is measured by degradation over time, the organic relics are measured on the basis of compiled time, up to the moment when the material ceases to have life. We take these pieces of time-marked organic material and through an ingenious array of sophisticated electronics, sensors and applied electrical power, generate a portal back in time the length and breadth of the time etched into the organic material. We make it behave like an oscillating crystal, so to speak. "How far back in time can you go?" I asked. "As far back as the origin of organic item. Right now we have objects that take us back to about the 900's. New discoveries are being made every day. Trees are our best source." I changed subjects on Godfrey just to let his revelation sink in and to fill in a troubling gap in my memory. "Tell me about the pub in Edwinstowe," I requested. May picked up the conversation from there. I learned of the confrontation over poaching, my role in the the ensuing dispute and the action I took against the soldiers. "If you use organic material, what did you use to send me back in time." Godfrey nodded. "Excellent question. The pub is supported by its original wooden pillars, is it not? These were used to set up the portal. The wood of the bow, an authentic yew wood bow brought back from the time period, was the catalyst." "I see," I commented. "And the manor house?" "The wooden handle on the door in the entry." "I guess the Major Tree is a catalyst as well?" I said making connections between all of the events. "You are beginning to understand," offered Godfrey with a smile. The driver spoke up at that moment. "Sorry about the power failure, Sir Godfrey. Couldn't be helped." Then the driver went silent and returned to his driving. "Alright," I said. "If I accept all of what you just told me, then I must also accept that I'm being recruited for an assignment." "Right. And it is not to be a recruiter," confirmed Godfrey. I noticed May looked away with an odd expression. I wasn't sure what it meant. There was no slight in Godfrey's tone. There seemed to be no offense taken by May. The look seemed, well it seemed, unhappy. Godfrey began to tell me my assignment, the things I would need to personally do to further qualify and how I would need to arrange my personal affairs in this time. As my eyes became larger and the involuntary flow of adrenalin increased, I couldn't help but notice that May's eyes were not just liquid bright, they were watery bright. She was close to tears, and for the first time I thought I might know the reason why, but I put this aside in favor of asking one more question, one that fiction writers have had inordinate fun with over the years. "Won't what you do, what I might do, possibly change historical events unfavorably?" "Ah, I am so glad you asked that question," Godfrey replied. His answer was totally unexpected.
Godfrey looked out of the window once before turning back to me. "We thought so at first, Robert. It turned out to be a groundless fear. Historical time is an amazing dimension. It is so broadly based across people and actions, what we call subjects and events, that should one aspect of historical time be altered, then the flow rectifies itself in a massive jumbling of subjects and events that fundamentally yields the same long term result. Think of it as a hole dug at ocean's edge on some sandy beach in the south of England. As you know, water will seep into the hole, cause the sands to collapse around the perimeter of the hole and as the sand comingles with the water, the hole disappears. The beach, even without a breaker striking its surface, resumes its appearance as if the hole never existed. That's how changes in historical time affect later ages."
"That's not what the experts say should happen," I countered.
"You've travelled with us back into time. You have been a subject and you caused an event. Who then are the real experts? Those who have no concept of what we are doing and have never experienced what you experienced?"
That caught me by surprise. I had forgotten my role in the pub and when fleeing the mounted soldiers. "I guess they're not experts at all."
"Right. We have succeeded in proving 'fate' is not a fabrication in the minds of the ancients. It is real, in a broad sense. These portals we've created are doorways into the foundations of what we would call our fate in this time. We travel not to alter what cannot be altered, but to learn the truth about what occurred so we can accurately understand the nature of the path we are following. Because Robert," Godfrey freely continued, "As well as we can traverse the past, we have no ability to see the future, except through the eyes of the past."
"No future time travel?" I said, echoing Godfrey's confession.
"No. We need organic catalysts. The organic materials of the future aren't created yet. We cannot go forward, only backwards. 'Tis a great pity."
I looked at the floor of the car. I noted as I listened to Godfrey that we were making reasonable time driving first, it appeared, to the place where I live. "Then Godfrey, if you can tell me, what is the role I can play."
Godfrey looked at May. "You tell him May, if you please."
May nodded. "There is a subject needed to stimulate the process that results in the signing of the Magna Carta. We know there is such a person who will oppose the King, but we cannot locate him. He at first is an enemy of the Normans, but later he plays a critical role in making allies of remaining Saxon nobles and Normans who are opposed to the policies of the King. His activities seem to occur mostly in the area of the nearby forest. The event at Runneymede we think depends upon this person. We need an observer who can locate the individual and accurately remember and record the events and note the subjects as the events occur. We have agents in place already. Will was one of them. There are three others besides Will. One is a burly recruit from the steelyard. Another is posing as a man of the cloth. And the third is a musician. You are to be their leader."
"Me? Their leader? You cannot expect that I would be..."
May pursed her lips. "You are the only one we can find who closely meets all of the criteria. There seems to be only one you lack."
"What's that," I asked a little irritated.
"Desire for adventure."
I felt insulted. "That's not true," I argued. "I mean, look at what I've done these last two days. I've never given up or I think embarrassed you. You can't say I have no desire for adventure. You think I'm afraid of what you are asking? No, May, I'm not! I mean, what's in this age for me. Nothing! That's what! I tolerate it because it's all that I know. I've wanted nothing more than to be free of its bindings. You've just shown me a way I never dreamed could be possible!"
May's expression seemed to turn a little odd. "Nothing in this age to hold you back is there?" she repeated.
"Nothing!" I stated emphatically. "Well, except tomorrow's contest... And one other..."
"Yes?" May asked almost mechanically, her eyes not looking at mine.
"Uhh. Well. Ahem. Are you really just a recruiter, May?"
Godfrey turned his head, I noticed, and refused to look at us until after May answered. "Yes," said May. "Just a recruiter. Nothing else." She turned around in her seat and stared out of the window. "When we get you back, about a block from here, I won't be leaving the auto, Robert. My job is done. Good luck tomorrow." Her voice sounded almost melancholy. "I hope you'll join The Trust." May refused to look at me the rest of the brief distance to my home.
"We shall need your answer tomorrow, Robert," reiterated Godfrey. The autombile stopped in front of the entrance to my residence.
"Aren't you competing?" I asked.
"No. I never registered for equestrian archery. Not my type of contest. But I'll be there. Tomorrow, then, Robert. And good luck." He offered his hand. I took it and gave it a proper shake. As I closed the door to my residence I heard the car's engine rev as the vehicle left for wherever it was bound, Godfrey and May inside.
I slept fitfully with my thoughts, but at least I did sleep. The next morning, reasonably rested for my 1:00 pm event, I received a phone call to tell me I would be picked up and taken to the contest. To my great disappointment the driver was the same man who picked us up at Major Tree, not May, who I hoped would be my escort.
Hours later I was standing on the stage, applause ringing out around me, holding in my hand the gold medal for Equestrian Archery. It dawned on me that the decision I would have to make next would be far more difficult than winning the medal I had sought ever since I learned to ride a horse and pull the string of a bow all at the same time.
Yet overriding all of what faced me in my moment of fame and decision, a convergence of the flow of fate that I mused about as the other medals were handed out, was one ever present realization. There was absolutely no denying it, no possible way to dispute it, no means to void its impact. Unquestionably... I missed May more than I ever imagined possible.
When Godfrey approached me after the ceremony and asked me for my answer, it was as if a disembodied voice somewhere in the vicinity of my lips spoke for me. The voice spoke only one word because only one word was needed. "Yes," said the voice. I followed it bodily without thinking about it any further.
[This message has been edited by Civis Romanus (edited 06-14-2004 @ 10:01 PM).]
I saw May on a few separate occasions. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. It seemed she did too. The underlying melancholy of our pending separation seemed to continue to be an influencing factor and I saw her struggling to hold back tears as we ended an hour, an evening or a day together.
We saw each other briefly one last time the day before I was scheduled to begin my assignment. She seemed to be beaming, light dancing in her eyes, the biggest smile I ever saw manifesting itself between her engaging dimples.
"You seem very happy today," I observed.
"Uh huh," she said, obviously agreeing with me.
"Why so happy?" I asked, caught in the throes of unbridled curiousity.
"Just am," she answered cryptically. I stared at her hoping to induce her to elaborate. She finally relented and added, "Got a new assignment, and it's not recruitment." She beamed some more.
I could not generate the same level of 'happy' as could May. The separation I expected was becoming a serious bother to me. "My congratulations," I said with little enthusiasm. My attitude seemed not to bother her at all. "It's what you wanted all along."
"Yes, eversince..." she paused, hesitating, searching it seemed for a way to say what she meant. "Eversince my last recruiting assignment."
I nodded. "Yes, you said so to me. Best of luck to you, May. I wish you every success." I knew she couldn't tell me her assignment for security purposes so I didn't ask. Besides, in that moment she smiled and stepped into my arms placing an affectionate kiss on my cheek and then a very welcome kiss on my lips that caused me to stop thinking and revel in her closeness, a closeness that I knew I would miss very quickly after my assignment begins.
"Same to you, Robert," she said. Then she released me and hurried off to who knows where... or when. This would be the last time I would see her I told myself, trying to steel my feelings for the day to come.
In the morning light of the following day I stood in front of the Major Tree, checked my clothing and prepared to climb into the trigger branch, the one that would convey me back to the time of Saxons and Normans. The brownish green woolen clothing I wore itched a little so I paused to scratch one particularly irritated area. I scratched it just a little longer because it felt rather good and it helped take my mind off May.
Now sitting on the branch, I felt again the familiar touch of an army of ants crawling up my skin from my feet. Just that quickly, I was once again perched in a very young oak looking out upon a thick forest that had not been there before the ants began to march.
I lowered myself out of the oak tree and onto the open ground at its base and began walking towards the three men who left the edge of the forest and were coming forward to greet me. Just as Godfrey described, one was a burly man carrying a quarterstaff, one was a monk with a sword hanging from the side of his monastic robe and the last man was Will in his muted scarlett clothing.
"At last you've arrived!" shouted Will seemingly unafraid of being overheard by anyone other then the four of us. "We wondered if you'd ever get here. I have your bow and quiver. Here." He handed the weapons to me after handshakes all around.
"Well, let's go then," I said, hardly as enthusiastic about being there as Will seemed to be in greeting me.
"Not yet," said Will. "We must wait awhile longer."
"But why?" I asked. Will only smiled. His eyes turned to the young tree that would become Major Oak centuries later.
"That's why," he said.
I turned to see what it was he was staring at and heard someone or something in the tree, then saw a figure in a hooded robe maneuver off the lowest branch and drop gently to the ground. The person hurried to where we stood, a smallish person, shorter in heighth than any of us, even shorter than our well armed monk. The others didn't seem alarmed and so neither was I, just confused. "There wasn't supposed to be anyone else on this assignment."
"No, not that you knew of. Regardless, meet the last of our agents on this assignment," invited Will. The newly arrived diminuitive person pulled back the hood of the cloak to reveal...
"May!" I cried out, incredibly surprised yet ecstatic over seeing her again. She said nothing but closed the distance between us, and ignoring the presence of the other three planted a spectacular kiss on my lips while she crushed me with a vigorous hug that was totally unexpected, yet wonderful to feel.
Will started to laugh that jaunty laugh of his and when finally May let me go, he slapped me on the back saying, "Well, at last we have you both among us. Welcome Robin and Marian! Welcome to Sherwood Forest!"
[This message has been edited by Civis Romanus (edited 06-15-2004 @ 10:07 PM).]
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