Time and Again

about popping corn over an open fire.
    She seemed to have the hang of it, he thought, as she shook the long-handled box over the flames. The scent was enough to make his mouth water as the kernels began to pop and batter the screened metal lid.
    Though he could have explained scientifically how the hard seeds exploded into fluffy white pieces, it was more fun just to watch.
    "We'd always make popcorn this way here," she murmured, watching the flames. "Even in the summer, when we were sweltering, Mom or Dad would build a fire and we'd fight over who got to hold the popper." Her lips curved at the memory.
    "You were happy here."
    "Sure. I probably would have gone on being happy here, but I discovered the world. What do you think of the world, J.T.?"
    "Which one?"
    With a laugh, she gave the popper an extra shake. "I should have known better than to ask an astro-whatever. Your mind's probably in space half the time."
    "At least."
    She sat cross-legged on the floor, the firelight glowing on her face and hair. That face, he thought, with its exquisite bones and angles, was perfectly relaxed. She was obviously taking the truce seriously, rambling on, as friendly as a longtime friend, about whatever came to mind.
    He sipped his beer and listened, though he knew next to nothing about the movies and music she spoke of. Or the books. Some of the titles were vaguely familiar, but he had spent very little of his time reading fiction.
    He'd touched on some twentieth-century entertainment in his research, but not enough to make him an expert in the areas Sunny seemed so well versed in.
    "You don't like movies?" she asked at length.
    "I didn't say that."
    "You haven't seen any of the flicks I've mentioned that have been popular in the last eighteen months."
    He wondered what she'd say if he told her that the last video he'd seen had been produced in 2250. "It's just that I've been busy in the lab for quite a while."
    She felt a tug of sympathy for him. Sunny didn't mind working, and working hard, but she expected plenty of time for fun. "Don't they ever give you a break?"
    "Who?"
    "The people you work for." She switched hands and continued to shake the popper.
    That made nun smile a little, since for the past five years he had been in the position of calling his own shots and hiring his own people. "It's more a matter of me being obsessed with the project I've been working on."
    "Which is?"
    He waited a beat, then decided that the truth couldn't hurt. In fact, he wanted to see her reaction. "Time travel."
    She laughed, but then she saw his face and cleared her throat. "You're not joking."
    "No." He glanced at the popper. "I think you're burning it."
    "Oh." She jerked it out of the flames and set it down on the hearth. "You really mean time travel, like H.
    G. Wells?"
    "Not precisely." He stretched out his legs so that the fire warmed the soles of his feet. "Time and space are relative-in simple terms. It's a matter of finding the proper equations and implementing them."
    "Sure. E equals MC squared, but really, J.T., bopping around through time?" She shook her head, obviously amused. "Like Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the Wayback machine."
    "Who?"
    "You obviously had a deprived childhood. It's a cartoon, you know? And this dog scientist-"
    He held up a hand, his eyes narrowed to green slits. "A dog was a scientist?"
    "In the cartoon," she said patiently. "And he had this boy, Sherman. Never mind," she added when she saw his expression. "It's just that they would set the dates on this big machine."
    "The Wayback."
    "Exactly. Then they would travel back, like to Nero's Rome or Arthur's Britain."
    "Fascinating."
    "Entertaining. It was a cartoon, J.T. You can't really believe it."
    He sent her a slow, enigmatic smile. "Do you only believe what you can see?"
    "No." She frowned, using a hot pad to remove the lid from the popper. "I guess not." Then she laughed and sampled the popcorn. "Maybe I do. I'm a realist. We really needed one in the family."
    "Even a realist has to accept certain possibilities."
    "I suppose." She took another handful and decided to get into the spirit of things. "Okay. So, we're in Mr. Peabody's Wayback machine. Where would you go-or when, I suppose I should say? When would you go, if you really could?"
    He looked at her, sitting in the firelight, laughter still in her eyes. "The possibilities are endless. What about you?"
    "I wonder." She held the beer loosely in her hand as she considered. "I imagine Libby would