What if the Earth was the other way...?

22. The relief I Felt

Antony Faelliyo

Eric thought I was insane. He asked me why I would be investing my time recreating the "cursed" ship when his child is missing.

As much as I agree that both the incidents might not be connected, part of my gut said, I had to also consider this possibility. I hired some hands to build the ship. Eric was anxious and exhausted and Vanessa seemed at the brink of loosing all hope. Seeing them in that state was really heartbreaking as it bought back memories.

I asked Eric to be with her, to find some way to cheer her up and to not lose hope. No matter what, we will find Nathalia and that's a promise.

Since Eric was not in the condition to run the company, the burden fell on me. That hit my plan to build this ship a little bit slower. With maintaining the company, foreseeing the progress on the ship (I refused to let them work alone, since I wanted to witness everything happening about the ship) and helping with the investigation here, it took about eight (or more, I had lost track of time at this point) months to complete the ship.

In between I made sure to find time to console Eric and Vanessa and cheer them up. It was hard. Two loving parents, losing their child, is really a guilt trip. Sometimes, I feel if the circumstances that lead to Tommy disappearing could have been prevented, how would things go?

Would Nathalia and Tommy be best of friends? Would Tommy inherit my company or go hiking and pursue his dream of "conquering the world by travelling"? Would I be with Alicia, sipping tea on a French balcony overviewing the Eiffel tower, while stuffing macrons in our mouths?

Every time I saw Eric, I saw myself now. Every time I saw Vanessa, I wished she would not go through the same path as Alicia.

Vanessa looked crumpled like a paper, all wrinkled and her once well combed and maintained, lustrous black waterfall looked drenched and dried and haphazardly tied into a bun. Her sari hasn't been changed for weeks at worst and she always clutched one of Nathalia's hoodies in her hands.

Eric kept himself busy. He had been working with Brittany, Nathalia's friend on possible locations Nathalia could have been.

They had discovered that Brittany's father, an ex-pilot, had given Nathalia a 15-day course on piloting. Nathalia had been discrete with him and they had agreed upon him not knowing the reason for the course.

At first Brittany's dad seemed to be a promising lead but the hopes went down the drain when the lead didn't know the motive.

I on the other hand, found that lead to be very helpful. My theory about her building the ship became one-step to becoming sensible.

Now, with the ship ready, I also thought of adding an upgrade. The first design was meant to be a 10-day trip (as per calculation). Wherever it may have led, it would come back as soon as it travels from one side to the other side of the wormhole. But since the programming must have failed, I think that's why my son could not return within ten days. This would be true if he did the voyage and considering Nathalia's disappearance, I am also betting on the same explanation for my son.

I wanted to create a monitoring system. It would take me years to formulate it but I needed to make sure history doesn't repeat itself.

But I have no evidence that Nathalia and Tommy did travel, through the wormhole. This is frustrating!

Should I risk it? It could be a big blow to Eric and Vanessa if I also disappeared. It would also be stupid to not take precautions. If I get lost in the process of finding them, the mission would be a fool's errand.

My inner dilemma was interrupted by a panting Ms. Ahima.

"What is it? Why did you run?" I asked her.

Trying to take in a few breathes, her face all puffed up and red, her hair stood up a little out of the white hair of bun, she clenched her chest as she stood there for a minute.