has made possible this and other places of beauty.
I look away, take a breath and then read it again. I smile. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” I whisper to myself. “No one has given me more surprises than you.” I read it one last time and then turn to walk back toward the path.
It’s then that I see her. It’s her, unmistakably. She’s standing by a park bench and she’s looking at me. My pace quickens to a jog, and then a sprint. I grab Gallie and hold her to me. Then I pull back to look into her face. It’s a face that I see aged by my single month apart from her rather than by the years she must have counted. The second kiss lasts longer–much longer.
“I was terrified you wouldn’t come,” I say. She smiles and strokes my cheek.
“So was I–that you wouldn’t.” We sit down on the bench together, eyes locked, holding hands.
“Don’t tell me anything yet, I just want to look at you.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “Can I tell you just one thing?” She looks away from me and I realize after a few moments that she’s looking at the man approaching us. Oh no. No, no. It’s the husband of twenty years. But as he approaches, I see he’s a young man in no more than his twenties. He’s slender and his gait is graceful and fluid. His light brown hair is drawn up into a bun on the crown of his head and his eyes are blue and sharp. I look at Gallie in surprise and then stand to be introduced. He holds out his hand and I grasp it. I look into his eyes. They’re the eyes in my mirror. And no introduction is needed.
“Gallie,” I whisper. She stands.
“Are you okay?” she asks. I look at her, then back at this young guy.
“Come on, let’s go” she says and the three of us walk toward the park gate.
“Any other surprises for me?” I ask as we follow our son along the path.
“No,” she says. “Oh, the cat died.”
“That’s sad,” I say, and we begin to catch up, one second per second.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
S. D. Unwin started out as a theoretical physicist searching for the Holy Grail of a quantum theory of gravity. He later turned his mathematical skills to analyzing and communicating catastrophic risk, from nuclear mishaps to climate change. One Second Per Second is his first science fiction novel. He lives on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound.
SDUnwin.com
