The Traveler

Synopsis:   Pensare is from Qualia, a planet existing within the Andromeda system.   He was the first of his kind to become time itself through manipulation of its ebbs, flows and undulations.  He understands, like most other entities, it is energy, and he is intune with it resonance and frequency.  Against his parents’ Quo and Que’s wishes, he decides to ‘swipe’ his way through time and space, mostly the lone sojourner, meeting fellow time travelers along the way.

‘Yours is the cloth, mine is the hand that sews time

His is the force that lies within

Ours is the fire, all the warmth we can find

He is a feather in the wind’--Lyrics from All of My Love, Led Zeppelin

‘Cause every night I lie in bed

The brightest colors fill my head

A million dreams are keeping me awake

I think of what the world could be

A vision of the one I see

A million dreams is all it’s gonna take

A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make.’--Lyrics from A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman

Chapter 1--My Journey

Some may say I have always been Time.   No.  In fact, I have not.   It wasn’t always like this.   I was like any other Qualian.  Not very outstanding.   You might even go so far to say I was ‘run of the mill’ or ordinary.   My parents made certain I followed all the Rules of the Galaxy, attended Holy Sepulchre every Sun’s Day, worshipped for half the day and did nothing the rest of it.    I had a job keeping other Qualians safe.   From what I will never know.  We are peaceful people, in harmony with nature and technology.   We are a bit of a cyberpunk mixture in our world.  It is more tech than flora, but the two interlink fabulously.    

I was tending a tremunkular flower one day and I felt a shift within myself.   I couldn’t understand what occured but my third eye had opened.   I felt myself say, ‘Open your hand, you now hold Time and are Time.   Use this gift wisely.’    At first, I was completely addlepated.   I didn’t know what to think, let alone what to do.  I followed my own prompting, though with fear and trembling.   I had followed the edicts and laws for so long I didn’t know what rebelling felt like.   This was different, however.  I knew it wasn’t wrong, but that someone had to make history rather than continue to have history happening to them.    

Chapter 2--Time Swiping

Our prophecies had always foretold of me but I never took it as gospel or to inflate my ego.   My teachers always saw my ability within me but I pushed myself to become a Time Swiper.   I could visualize my clock appearing and having the ability to swipe to anywhere and anywhen.  One flick of my right index finger and SWHOOP !  I would be in my location, prepared for an adventure, or peril; whichever it was that waited for me.   

As I aforementioned, I wasn’t one to travel with a copilot or co-conspirator.   We would be the ‘rebels of the galaxy’, the ‘time pirates’, if you would.   Yes, I wore a jolly rodger on my left shoulder to indicate what I was and what I stood for.   I didn’t come to pillage and plunder.   I came to learn, help and motivate.   The jolly roger was just that.  A jolly symbol of hope.  My skull wasn’t menacing.  It was laughing, smiling, grinning, even in death’s guise !   Death was never the end, it was only the beginning !   

Swiping did take some practice but after a while, I got the hang of swiping.   At first my parents were surprised it didn’t take me longer to master but they were proud.   They wanted to protect me but knew it best to let me ‘fly like a remuk high in the silver clouds’.    

Chapter 3--The Guild of Travelers

Never did I suspect there would be ones similar to me.  I was the only swiper in the Universe though.  It made me stand out and others complimented me on my cyberpunk style.   I didn’t want to look conventional or predictable.  I was unique, but everyone knew that, and not just by my vestigments.  

On my way to Roncollia, I bumped, literally, into one of the most famous quantum jumpers ever.   This was the woman who had created her own self-sustaining, autonomous world.    She was something of a legend but to see her in person made my heart skip a beat.   Regina Sessitina Mach III.    Oh, her name, like bells pealing in the distance caused me to cartwheel a million times in my mind's’ eye.   Of course I knew she was a married woman and I respected that.    I wanted to bow a thousand times and squeal, ‘I’m not worthy !  I’m not worthy !’  

‘You are like me !   I never thought I would get to see another traveler.  It’s been so long.   Usually Tesla comes with me but he is tending to the garden on Xul.   We oversee it every so often.   I recently thought a gardener into existence.   That had been lacking, but with the many times great grandchildren running around, it’s challenging keeping another planet’s affairs in order.’, Regina said, humbly.   For a star gypsy, she was strikingly humble.  I could understand why the Cassanova of the Cosmos had been so entranced by her.   This had been a man who had all the wives he could’ve wanted and yet he tried wooing her.    I knew the stories, but I couldn’t overcome the fact that here she was, occupying the same patch of the Universe as myself.   

‘Time Swiper.  Never thought I would encounter one.   You’re indeed a unicorn.’, Regina complimented.   I could feel my face turning magenta.  I wanted to hide in a stern metal turtle shell to shield my face but it was no good.  

‘Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.  Have pride in your talent.   In fact, you mind it I take a selfie for the road ?  I was actually just passing through to Xul.   That is, unless you want to come with me ?   I can get you there a little quicker.’, she said.   Being a Guru, I knew she could be trusted.   How could I not pass this adventure ?    I grabbed her hands and concurred, probably a bit too avidly, but it seemed she wasn’t adverse to teaching a time traveler a few tips and tricks of the trade.   

Chapter 4--Eidetic Memory

My oculars were the finest cameras in evolutionary history.   Every blink I made downloaded the splendid scenery into our database cloud.   Now all my friends could see what I did and live vicariously through me.   

Regina was certainly in her element.  I felt like an infatuated fanboy being around her.   She told me of the cosmic surfer, Rift and the Cosmos himself, Rhys.   

‘We were with them, but I didn’t catch Rift surfing today.   She’s always traveling as a goodwill ambassador, spreading music and color where none existed.    I think the galaxy has her to thank for all its vivid array of hues and kaleidoscopic variety.   

I didn’t want to leave Regina.  She was one of those angelic entities that left their impact long on a person long after their encounter was through.   I felt I could do anything and my technique was improved.   I didn’t do quantum leaps as she did but my swipes became more fluid, graceful, austere and artistic with every movement I made.   I felt like a ballerina.   It is a delicate and precise way of life, but that is the measure of the pico.   I want to be like Regina in helping others live their best lives, even if others ridicule them for their dreams.   I never thought I would become a ‘time swiper’.  It wasn’t something I was born with.   Some people back home tend to put me on a pedestal for that but I remind them, I am ordinary but I have extraordinary gifts.   

Chapter 5--Rhythm and Rhys

Traveling through my element is inexplicable and elegant.   It is mysterious, chaotic, linear and mathematic.   It encompasses all things and like any other element, it pulsates and vibrates with a frequency that only fellow time travelers and star gypsies comprehend.   I met the star siren and fellow gypsy, Rhythm.   She is a cosmic surfer, which, like me, is rare.   She is fearless but she isn’t reckless with where she goes, even though Rhys shuttles her wherever he wishes.   He is not demanding, but he is a free spirit.    There are moments she goes off without him but he understands he cannot be by her side always.   They are one in the same.  Seeing them makes me realize I am not alone in my sojourn.   I didn’t know that at the beginning but I am becoming more awake and aware.   The energy is around me constantly.  I just have to be more connected to what I know is within me, without me and around me.   

Chapter 6--Roncollia

At long last along my musical pathway singing with the trumpeter, Rhythm, or as she is known more affectionately, Rift of the Cosmos, introduced me to her large family.   One of her other sisters took the role of Queen in their homeworld, knowing Rift longed to be free to surf and splash color all over the galaxy.  It’s a noble occupation.   Knowledge is what I am called to, what I am bound and determined to preserve.    If anything, what I record in my database will be shared by others like me.    Perhaps there will be another swiper to take my place when I pass into quintessence, but I don’t know, to be frank.  

Roncollia was everything I had hoped it would be and more.   I succumbed to my sense of childish awe and reverence.   There were so many libraries I knew I couldn’t process everything into my servers but I would be damned if I didn’t try.    

I came upon a librarian, perky and ebullient.  Her name was Artemis.  It suited her well after the Greek Goddess for which she was named.    Her sky-blue hair cascaded like waves down below her shoulders, bouncing when she chortled.   She was stunning and radiant.   Her wisdom held no end.  She was a perfect android in every sense of the word.   

‘So, tell me about time swiping.’, she said, once I was able to get her alone in the gardens outside the library while she was on her lunch break getting a charge from the sun.

I told her everything I knew and I knew from that moment on she and I were constant companions.    

Chapter 7--Retreat in Qualia

I didn’t have the luxury of auxiliary cords to plug into a power source or solar plates to absorb the sun’s rays like Artemis did.   I needed to recharge back at Qualia.   I didn’t want to leave Roncollia but Artemis seemed pleased that we were seeing other worlds and she had the chance to escape the doldrums of what she believed was a ‘humdrum, monotonous life’.   I suppose too much academia can seem rather stuffy and boring when that’s all you know.  

On my planet, there are silica beaches that glisten in the noonday dual suns.   It is not too terribly hot since there is always a pleasant breeze that keeps us from sweating too much.  The weather comes with its seasons.   We have a short winter, a long summer and a glorious autumn and spring.   Artemis surprised me in joining me, especially in becoming my lifelong companion.   We weren’t into traditional weddings, so we were united in a Sunbeam ceremony.  The two lovers stand on the beach as the sun rises, awash by sunbeams.   There is a presiding Priest who declares the lovers bound as one unit.   It is a spellbinding ceremony and the whole community is called to deliver presents to the newlyweds.   They come with advice, gifts, software upgrades and so on.   

Artemis and I take a trip to other worlds and times, taking it slow.   I don’t know if I will outlast her or she will outlast me, but I will never be apart from her.   She and I will be together through eternity.   Truthfully, death doesn’t frighten me.   It’s another chapter.   Should we have children, it’s possible they might succeed me.  One of them might become a Swiper and the legacy could be continued.   That is their path and I am not one to influence it.   I will simply raise them with compassion, kindness, faith, values and magnitude.   The Universe will expand, heal and become more harmonious.   That is the job of the Time Tailors after all.   

Chapter 8--Our Fraternal Twins

In the course of time, we always returned home, especially when our twins were ready to be born into the world.   I named the firstborn Camille, after Artemis’ mother.   The son was named Quo Vadis Hendricks.   There they were, pink and vulnerable, wrapped in warm blankets for the winter season, crying heartily until we held them.   It was as if they knew we would be taking care of them.   You never know how something so tiny can shift your whole life.   It seemed that pregnancy happened in a pico and WHAM, I’m a dad.

As the months and years progressed, I noticed Camille expressing interest in becoming a Swiper.  I taught her all she needed to become a Time Tailor.   She would come to succeed me someday, and with her mom’s immortality, it was likely she would be a Time Tailor until her gears wore out.   As for QVH, he was a  futurist architect.   He knew he would have to attend college to learn his trade but being a prodigy, he got in early and surpassed many of our masters.  In a few more months, he’ll have a PhD in architecture, anthropology and quantum physics.   I’m so elated for both of them.   Just yesterday they were learning how to walk and talk and today, I look at them, both so accomplished and far more brilliant than I could ever be.  

Chapter 9--Future So Bright

No one really knows what the future holds, not even someone like me.   All of it exists at the same instant.    I have control and I build my own reality.   Artie finds this fascinating and she has learned from the master.   Our kids are experts despite their youth.    As I stand beside my gorgeous partner and cohort I lightly graze her neck with my lips, whispering my affirmations of love to her.    Using her rollerblades, she speeds to our recuperation hammock and hovers there, beatifically, just waiting for me.   Her innocent gaze magnetizes me.   I end in her arms, between her breasts, listening to the thrum of her heart as I fall into delta sleep.  

Epilogue

My dreams are all made manifest.   I have everything I want and in this I am content.  The Universe and I work hand in hand but there are things I still want to understand.   I am learning every day, and showing bellicose beings there is a better way.    I am the Tailor of the Galaxy and know it’s the Sparkler in command and not me.    So I shall bid you a fond farewell, and whatever shape your story is taking, I hope it ends well.  

~*~From the digital logbooks of Pensare the Time Tailor

Time Swiper of Qualia, the planet of Tech and Data