Tempus Frangit Ch. 05

Generally, living with two common law wives... I found interesting and very different, until I got used to it. Oddly, most folks in the village, appeared to accept the situation quite quickly. Like it was an everyday occurrence to find a guy living with two very obvious wives. Ciera and Chaise were not shy about showing their affection for me in public.

Although most of my own family never could get their heads around the situation. But then again, they never could understand what had happened where Sylvia was concerned either. The religious community never did wash with any of them; as it had apparently done so successfully with Sylvia's own family.

-----

The first children -- Simul had mentioned -- arrived on the scene pretty quickly. After all the time Sylvia and I had spent trying to get her "in the family way" it really shook me, when -- after just a couple of months -- both Ciera and Chiase announced that they were "with-child" on the same day.

Even more surprising was the fact that not half-an-hour later, Doug and Myra came rushing into our cottage to give us the news that he was about to become a daddy as well.

I found myself looking at both of my wives with a questioning eye. Ciera chose to answer my unasked question after a brief mental exchange with Chaise. Yeah, I could tell instantly by then what they were doing mentally, possibly even sensing the interchange myself.

"All the females of our time are fertile, George," Ciera said, "but for hundreds of years our males, whilst... fully er, operational in all other respects, have proved to be effectively infertile. I think that we three, were possibly a little more fertile than we had realised."

"But if your men are infertile... then how..." I asked.

"Not infertile in actual fact, George, but they all have such low sperm counts and what little sperm that they did produce are... Well they're not known for their swimming capabilities, isn't that how you would put it, Douglas?

For some reason Doug looked a little embarrassed for a few seconds, as he appeared to agree with Ciera.

Whatever, the men of our time are effectively infertile. Many years ago... er, in fact in the future now, during the dark times, the human birth rate dropped dramatically; so drastically that something had to be done. By that time the scientists had perfected... well not only in-vitro fertilisation for all the livestock that they still consumed at that time, but they could and did gestate the poor creatures full-term under laboratory conditions. Nothing much could survive outside the protected areas in those days. Factory farming, I think you referred to it as, the other day, George."

"Jesus, I was talking about the chicken farm up the valley, not livestock, Ciera," I replied. I had no idea why, but a few days before Douglas had mentioned that he wanted to get his hands on an old WW2 airfield at the edge of the valley. The old hangar of which was at that time being used as a chicken farm.

"Unfortunately, the scientists were forced to go further, because the livestock didn't breed true. Eventually they moved over to cloning any animal they needed to, and growing them in the laboratories."

Ciera went silent, so Chaise continued.

"When the human birth rate got to its lowest ebb, the scientists turned to that same technology in an attempt to maintain, or increase the population. But once again, for some reason with in-vitro fertilisation, the babies.... well, they were often deformed, and didn't breed true, more often than not, being stillborn.

"Eventually... probably because they'd stopped eating animal flesh... it was thought that consumption of contaminated meat might have caused the drop in the birth-rate in the first place. The scientists turned to the cloning technology they had developed for the animals. George, none of our females has carried a child, or given birth for hundreds of years," she explained.

"You're all clones of each other?" I found myself blurting out, unintentionally I might add.

"No, George, not in the sense I believe you are talking about. Our reproduction scientists take genes from several people and kind of intermingle them to make a healthy embryo. Then that embryo is grown into a child in the brood centres. It was the only way that the human race could survive.

"Oh my god! But can you have babies..."

"Yes, our doctors are convinced that we should be able to carry a child full term without any difficulty. However in our own time no one has... had the experience. Or even knows what to expect really. Sylvia and Rose will be the first two women to give birth in our time for hundreds... possibly over a thousand years."

"Hold up! Are you saying that they are going to be implanted with...?"

"Oh no, George; they were both pregnant; didn't you know?"

"No, I bloody didn't, and I doubt Douglas did either."

"That's odd, I thought you knew. Its very specific in Thomas's chronicles, Sylvia and Rose give birth to the first two naturally created children in hundreds of years. They literally show the women of our time how it is done. Then Professor Pemberton comes to our time and very quickly solves the problem our males have with their almost insignificant sperm count. It had to be done that way around, because the females of our time are rather reticent about the whole idea of giving birth in the first place."

"But you three?" I asked.

"George, we are here in the twentieth century now; females give birth here everyday. The doctors of your time are held in high regard where human pregnancy is concerned, by the specialists in ours. We have no worries in that respect, and we trust you and Douglas completely."

I looked at Doug and he looked back at me.

I won't try to describe the expression of Douglas's face. But then he smiled and said.

"Shit, and the girls were always blaming us...".

"Got that wrong then, didn't they? I wonder why neither of them realised that they were up the duff," I mused.

"Perfect timing, I should imagine," Douglas grinned back at me.

"By who?" I asked.

"Christ, George, everyone! You remember that I said that you couldn't go back and change history?"

"Yes!"

"Well, I was bloody wrong, weren't I! Supposing someone... at some-time, comes back in time to our time and finds that Sylvia and Rose are pregnant, or about to give birth around the same time anyway. God knows how they came up with the idea, but then they then go back even further in time, to a couple of days after both women were fertilised. The night of the Drury's barbeque party I should imagine. That was some night I can tell you... and Rose and me heard you and Sylvia going at it, from our place as well."

"And, a couple of nights after that, they whisk us away into their own time," I added.

"You got it mate! The girls didn't know that they were pregnant when they started fooling around with Adona's people. What happened with us? Well, for my own sanity I have to believe, that originally it must have just happened. Remember that there had to be a first time for everything, before Thomas ever wrote those bloody chronicles or whatever you want to call them."

"Yeah, but that's the bit I can't get my head around, anyway. In their time, this has all happened, so they must have known what they were doing," I replied.

"Yeah, all very confusing, isn't it? I wish to hell I'd seen a copy of those damned chronicles."

-----

Did I get angry that the information that Sylvia was pregnant had been kept from me... and her? Of course I did. But I did not get angry with Chaise or Ciera, it was Simul and her cohorts who knew what was really going down.

Both Chaise and Ciera were kind-of innocents, really; they had just assumed that Douglas and I knew that our wives were pregnant. As Myra did as well, I suspect. You have to remember that with the way they were behaving at the time, neither Douglas nor I were in any mood to discuss our wives with anyone. Especially when we met the girls.

Eventually, I did forgive Simul for her part in separating me from what should have been my firstborn. But I'll come to that later. It's important that the reader understand that we... Douglas and myself did not hold our new partners responsible for the situation.

Anyway, at the time, I was far too busy reassuring both Ciera and Chaise about their pregnancies. Oh, they claimed that they were confident. But it was not without a lot of... apprehension that they approached their confinements. I think that I often picked up their concern via the same method they communicated their thoughts and anxieties to each other.

Ciera gave birth first, and named her daughter Ottilie, much to my surprise. Not the sort of futuristic name that I was expecting her to choose, I can assure you. But the other two girls -- and even Douglas -- seemed to take it as read without comment.

Much later I was to learn that there was significance in her choice of the name, though. Ciera, Chaise and Myra might not have known in advance that they were the females who were to travel back in time with Douglas and I. But they knew quite a lot about Thomas's chronicles.

For some inexplicable reason it seemed that I was the only member of my family who hadn't studied them. Douglas, for all his protestations that he'd never laid eyes on a copy, was forever surprising me with information from them. I kind-of deduced that his knowledge probably came second-hand from Myra. Most likely they talked about those records far more than I did with Ciera and Chaise. Er well remember I had two wives to er... no lets leave it there, shall we.

Whatever, I was somewhat perplexed when my extended family seemed to be nonplussed that the name meant nothing to me; although I'll add, that none of them enlightened me as to the why's and wherefores. Yeah well, I had kind-a suggested to the girls that I wasn't interested in knowing the future. I'd had enough of those kinds of surprises by then, thank you very much.

-----

About a week after Ciera had had Ottilie, Chaise and Myra gave birth to their babies on the same day. Chaise named her daughter Sian and Myra named hers Emily; I left the choice of the childrens names to the girls and I think Douglas did the same.

Life was absolute pandemonium for Douglas and I for the next couple of months or so. I must admit that I had been just a little concerned myself, about the babies and how the girls would cope; however, I needn't have worried. Chaise had been a paediatric nurse in her own time, after all. Possibly she knew a lot more about babies and children than most folks in the twentieth century. It was the pregnancy and childbirth bit that Chaise had been concerned about.

Pretty rapidly our two houses matured into the state of organised chaos that babies bring along with them. I suspect two babies in my own house made for more chaos than there was to be found in the Sugget household. Although it appeared to me that Myra and Emily spent a good proportion of their day in our cottage.

Especially, when Douglas went off on his business trips, disposing of those precious stones and setting-up offshore holding companies, to handle our proposed land acquisitions. Everything went very smoothly in that respect, apparently Douglas Sugget had a lot more business acumen than I'd ever imagined. And he must have been on good terms with some pretty questionable gemstone dealers as well.

------

Then one morning, late that summer, Douglas and I were out catching a few waves. I'd just missed out on a really good one that Douglas had had the ride of his life on. Well, relatively speaking, maybe I should say his ride of the day. Anyway I was sitting on my board hoping that there'd be another just as good as the one Doug had just rode in, when I noticed that there was a small congregation of people apparently waiting on the water's edge for Douglas to come out of the sea.

From what I could make out, it consisted of two children about ten years old, both in wet suits and holding surfboards, along with Myra, Chaise and Ciera, and a couple of other women who were holding babies in their arms. As Chaise was carrying little Sian, I supposed that the other women were holding Ottilie and Myra's child Emily. The point was, the two strangers, who I almost instantly recognised weren't actually strangers to Douglas and I, were dressed in purple... yeah, you got it.

I caught the next available wave, and rode the bugger in as best I could. Then ditching my board rushed out of the water -- somewhat surprisingly straight into Sylvia's arms and she planted a real humdinger on my lips as she enveloped me.

But the kiss didn't last but a second or two before she disentangled from me and stepped back.

"Sorry about that lover, but I just couldn't control myself. You always were the best... I'm sure Chaise and Ciera won't mind, they're used to sharing you anyway," she babbled, somewhat nervously.

"Sylvia, what are you doing here?" I found myself demanding.

"I've brought your son to meet his father. I would have thought that would have been obvious!"

I found myself looking at the two ten year olds, properly for the first time. Which was my son was instantly plain to see. Although he took after Sylvia; there was no mistaking that my genes had had more than a little influence in his features. Douglas's son was the absolute image of his father.

I have no idea what sort of expression I had on my face and managed to get a single "But..." out before Sylvia went prattling on.

"I'm sorry it's taken so long, but they've only just perfected the system. Simul had us sent to that police station in London first and then she said we could bring the children to meet their fathers. Little George has been so desperate to meet you."

"Give the lad a hug, George!" Douglas -- who was by then hugging his son -- instructed me.

"You want to hug a stranger?" I found myself asking my son.

"Rather, father!" the lad replied. All a little old fashioned and formal.

So I took him in my arms and gave him a big hug.

"Drop the father bit... son, I'm your dad, okay?"

"Yes... dad."

"A little better, but try to sound less formal about it, will you. Surely your mother has told you by now, that I don't go for that kind of thing."

"Give-over, George. The lad's probably in shock; who wouldn't be if they suddenly discovered what a reprobate beach-bum their old man was," Douglas interjected, "Come on, lads, let's see what you can do with those boards."

Then Douglas and his son raced off into the sea.

I glanced at Sylvia, who assured me, "He's good, George; almost as good as his father."

"You wanna show me what you can do?" I asked the lad.

He didn't reply, the boy just grinned at me, scooped up his board and raced off after Douglas and his boy. All three of them, kind-a catching me off-guard.

Sylvia was right, both boys were good and obviously very experienced surfers; which I found a little confusing at first. But during our very relaxed conversations sitting on our boards waiting for 'the next good wave', Doug and I learnt that quite a few things had changed since we'd been returned to our own time.

Sylvia and Rose for instance, were world famous and much respected as "the first mothers". Both travelled the world -- or what was left of it -- lecturing and assuring people that natural childbirth was safe and nothing to be afraid off. You could have fooled me on that one!

Apparently a small dome had been constructed in our valley, where Sylvia, Rose and a small community lived most of the time when they were not travelling. It had become a sort of holiday destination for people from the city, where Sylvia and Rose taught water sports when they were not assuring women of the world that it was safe to have babies the natural way.

When I got a chance to talk to Sylvia later, she informed me that sometime before our arrival there the Simuls had decided that their civilisation was going nowhere unless it returned to the basic family unit. i.e. husband, wife -- and two point five children, I suppose -- that had theoretically been the norm in our time. For that to happen, it was necessary for their society to return to natural methods of procreation.

It was difficult to deduce -- from Sylvia's ramblings -- where the family unit idea had materialised from in the first place. One has to wonder if it was something that the Simuls came up with between them, or something they read into Thomas's writings. The old "what came first; the chicken or the egg?" question, that always bugs mankind.

I was just about to ask about the low sperm count problem that the men of the future were suffering from, when Syliva said.

"Jean soon solved the sperm count problem; although it did call for a little unorthodox fiddling."

"Unorthodox?" I asked. I knew the Jean she was talking about was professor Pemberton, by then.

"A little bit of fiddling with the male populations' DNA as I understand it, George. Something to do with proteins as well... Honestly I could make neither head nor tail of it anyway. Jean's mother is a top expert in the field in your time, or she will be shortly and Jean herself has followed up on her mother's research. I think that Jean is due to drop in and see her grandfather as well, any day now. Oops, I don't think I was meant to tell you that. We brought the children to see you and Douglas as early as possible, we thought it only fair, considering.

"Anyway there're pregnant women all over the world now. It's a bit early to tell, but they do seem to be settling into nice family units. But George, I have to ask you, did you and Douglas know that Rose and I were pregnant before you returned?"

"Sylvia, do you really believe that I would abandon my child in the future by choice; or that Doug or I would have stood for your ruddy antics with... Jesus what were their names, those bloody two Neanderthals...?"

"No, I'm sorry; I knew that you wouldn't. Rose and I got really angry with Simul for a while. She knew you know, from Thomas's chronicles. But it makes sense that she didn't tell you and Douglas; she needed to make sure history followed its preordained path.

"But you have to believe that Rose and I thought it was some weird dream, until..."

"There's no point in crying over spilt milk, Sylvia!"

"Yes, you're right, George. And thank you for being so magnanimous about it. Rose and I made our own beds and we have no one to blame but ourselves... mind you, by the look of it, you and Douglas didn't do too badly out of our mistakes. Two wives who appear to adore you, George! I'm not sure if I'm jealous that they have you, or proud that it takes two of them to replace me."

"How about you and Rose... Bill and Ben the flowerpot men still sniffing around?"

"You must be joking, the shine soon wore off those two buggers. Rose has found herself a nice stable guy who works in the research labs. Working on the time shift devices actually. And I... Well one of Simuls close staff, a colleague of Adona's... He'd.... well he'd like me to... Well, take him as my life partner, to be honest. The equivalent to being my husband here. Young George gets on with him very well, but he's..."

"He's what?"

Well, he's one of those people who can read other peoples minds, like Simul."

"As can, Ciera and Chaise, Sylvia. But they can't exactly read people's minds you know. It's more like they sense your feelings or emotions. Actually, you'll probably find that you will be able to sense his emotions as well. It's just a mater of getting... I don't know, accustomed to being with them all the time I think. Christ, I can read Ciera and Chaise like a book now."

"You can..." she said with a surprised tone to her voice, "what do they think of me being here today then?"

"A little apprehensive, Sylvia. They know exactly how much I loved you."