The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 15

It was Sunday and Alice wanted Josh to take the day off andcome to Kaylee and Charlie’s legendary annual barbecue.

“You have to come,” Kaylee had implored her on the phonelast night. “Both the boys are going to be here. You haven’t seen them forages. And Jess is bringing a new boyfriend apparently – you’ll have to meethim.”

It was true, Alice hadn’t seen Charlie and Kaylee’s boys,both now grown-up, for a couple of years. It was also a good while since shehad seen Jess, Peter and Hannah’s daughter, who had also flown the nest. Timeseemed to be flying by so fast and there were days she still regretted nothaving kids of her own.

After much haranguing of her husband the previous evening,Josh had compromised and said he would go later in the afternoon once they’dfinished a crucial test that apparently had to be completed today. She had madehim promise but she knew what he was like, and by 3pm Alice was frustratedlywatching the three of them crouched around a large monitor screen showing nosigns of packing up for the day.

This had been the routine for much of the previous threemonths, and Alice was not happy. There had been too many meals missed, too manylate nights and too little attention of any sort from her husband, both sexualand otherwise. He had even forgotten their wedding anniversary.

She couldn’t deny that the commitment of the three of themto the project meant that they had made huge progress, but Alice just wasn’t asinvested in it as they were, even if the idea of extending her life wasappealing.

They had reached the point where they were almost ready toexperiment with projecting consciousness back in time, but Alice couldn’tunderstand the huge urgency about it all. It wasn’t as if any of them werelikely to die anytime soon. If they really were going to cheat death by takingrefuge in their earlier selves, surely they had a good couple of decades beforethey’d have to start worrying about it.

She felt that all work and no play was making Josh a dullboy. What was the point of being alive if you couldn’t take time out to enjoyit? Knowing Josh, even if they succeeded in the experiment and he got a secondchance at life, he would probably still spend it all in the lab. His work/lifebalance was all wrong and it was time she put her foot down about it.

“Look, Josh, this isn’t on,” she said. “I promised Kayleelast night we would go, and it starts at three and it’s gone that already.”

“It won’t be much longer,” said Josh, “an hour or two atmost.”

“You said that last Friday, remember, when we had ticketsfor the theatre? And we missed the whole of the first act. And what is it youare even doing? It looks to me like you’re just watching numbers on a screen.”

“There are a huge number of calculations to process,” saidHenry, who was dressed in a lurid pink and yellow concoction which was coveredin various designs of sunglasses. “It runs into the trillions of trillionswhich is a lot even with the processing power we’re packing here. When itfinishes, we’ll have a definitive answer as to whether or not this is going towork.”

“And does it require you to be here when it does?” askedAlice. “Can’t you just monitor it remotely?”

“We could,” said Josh. “But this is a momentous occasion,the equivalent of the apple falling on Newton’s head. We need to be here.”

“Alice does have a point, though,” said Vanessa, unusuallyoffering Alice some support. “We don’t all need to be here watching over it, dowe? Henry, why don’t you take Alice to the party and we’ll follow on after you?You are dressed for it, after all.”

“I’m permanently dressed for a party,” replied Henry. “Andyou’re right – we don’t all need to be here, especially as the result is prettymuch a foregone conclusion. And I must say I could just fancy a barbie. Wehaven’t had many opportunities for them since we’ve been over here.”

The British summer had been dull and damp up until the lastweek when the hot weather had finally arrived.

“I’m surprised you’d even noticed the weather had warmedup,” said Alice. “All three of you have barely been outside for the past week.”

“I’ve noticed,” said Henry. “What are all these bloodylittle insects that keep crawling over me?”

As he spoke, he brushed several tiny flies off his arm.

“They’re thunderbugs: don’t you get them down under?” askedAlice.

“We do, but they’re a lot bigger than this,” said Henry.

“Thunderbugs, that means a thunderstorm’s coming, right?”asked Vanessa.

“Possibly,” said Alice.

“I thought your friend Kaylee was the country’s top weatherexpert,” said Vanessa. “Seems like pretty poor planning to organise a barbie ifit’s going to get washed out.”

“Kaylee planned this party weeks ago,” replied Alice. “Evenshe can’t forecast the weather that far ahead.”

“OK, well, I think that you and Henry should go to the partythen and we’ll follow on as soon as it’s done. We’ll be alright here, won’t we,Josh?”

Alice saw the look that Vanessa gave her husband and didn’tlike it. She had more than a sneaking suspicion that Vanessa had a soft spotfor Josh and wondered if it was wise to leave them alone together.

It didn’t help that over the past few months Vanessa andHenry’s relationship hadn’t improved; if anything, it had got worse. Theyweren’t too bad when they were focused on the project, but in any socialsituation they had shown increasing signs of the mutual loathing that had beenapparent ever since that first day in Canberra.

She wasn’t comfortable with leaving Josh and Vanessa alone,but it was too late to back down now as Henry was already getting to his feet.She could have insisted that Josh came with her instead, leaving Henry andVanessa alone in the lab, but she didn’t trust them enough to suggest that. Shewouldn’t put it past them to snoop around, even steal some of their technology.

“Promise you’ll call me as soon as it finishes to let meknow the outcome?” said Henry to Josh.

“I will,” said Josh. “And tell Charlie to put plenty of beerin the