Time and Again

twentieth century?"
    A new smile tugged at his mouth. "No. J.T.'s out in his ship. It's about five kilometers northeast. Just follow the tracks." He caught her arm before she could rush off. "He's going through a bad time, Sunny.
    I've hurt him."
    "Not nearly as much as I'm going to."
    He started to speak again, but he remembered that Jacob had always been able to take care of himself.
    He went upstairs to his wife.
    She was still sitting on the bed, staring at, but not out of, the window. Her face was composed, her hands folded in her lap so that they pressed lightly against the life growing in her. Looking at her, Caleb felt a single stunning wave of love. "Hi."
    She jolted, struggled to smile. "Hi. Busy day." Before he could speak, she sprang up. "I've got a dozen things to do. I haven't finished unpacking, and I really ought to fix something special for dinner tonight."
    "Wait a minute." He took her arms before she could walk by, then simply brought her into his. "I love you, Libby."
    "I know." With her head on his shoulder, she held on.
    "No, I don't think you do." Gently he pulled her away to study her face. "Even after all this time, I don't think you do. How could you think I would leave? Then or now."
    She just shook her head.
    "Sit down," he murmured.
    "Caleb, I don't know what to say to you." She sat, twining her nervous fingers together. "I can only imagine how you must feel, having your brother here when you thought you'd never see him again. Being reminded of everything you gave up, and the people you left behind."
    "Are you finished?"
    Her only answer was a miserable shrug.
    "J.T. gave me a copy of a letter he found when he dug up our time capsule." He pulled her fingers apart to link them with his as he sat beside her. "He didn't read it," he continued "It was still in the envelope."
    "How did he copy it if it was still in-" She caught herself and managed a small laugh. "Stupid question."
    "You put it in the capsule so I'd be able to read it when I got back." He took it out of his pocket. Libby frowned at it. It looked precisely as it had when she'd slipped it into the box. And yet- the paper was different, she realized when she touched it. Thicker, stronger. And, she added to herself, probably not paper at all. At least not as she thought of paper.
    "I stopped on the way back from the ship to read it." He spread the letter in his lap. "If I had been crazy enough to leave you, this would have brought me back. Somehow."
    "It wasn't meant to do that."
    "I know," He took her hand, kissed it. "What it means is a great deal to me. Do you remember what you wrote?"
    "Some of it."
    "This part." He looked down at the letter. " 'I wanted you to know that in my heart I wanted you to be where you belonged.' " He set the letter aside. "Did you mean that?"
    "Yes."
    "Then you'll be happy to know that I'm exactly where I belong." With long, slow kisses, he eased her back on the bed. "And so are you."
    Sunny didn't have any trouble finding the tracks. There were only two sets, both from the Land Rover.
    One leading away from the cabin and one leading back. Her face grim, she kept her hands firm on the wheel and her mind empty.
    She wouldn't think, not yet. Once she had begun to think it would probably send her screaming off a cliff. True, she'd always had an affection for the unusual, but this- this was going a bit too far.
    When she saw the ship, nestled comfortably on a blanket of snow, she hit the brakes too hard and sent the Land Rover skidding sideways. It looked as big as a house.
    She imagined it was half the size of the cargo ship Cal had piloted. Probably sleeker, jazzier. Its smooth white finish gleamed in the sunlight. She saw what appeared to be a window that banded around the bow. As she gaped, Jacob stepped up to it and looked out at her.
    The sight of him inside it, inside of something that shouldn't even exist, turned her blank astonishment back into fury. Abandoning the Land Rover, she leaped out and stormed over to the ship.
    He released the hatch. The door slid silently open, and a set of stairs flowed out. She mounted them, moving a little slower now. Going over the speech he'd planned, Jacob reached out to take her hand and help her through the entranceway.
    "Sunny, I-" Whatever he had planned to say was interrupted when her fisted hand connected solidly with his jaw. Off balance and seeing stars, he stumbled back and landed hard on the deck.
    She loomed over him, righteous fury glowing in her