In a World of Strangers: A Michael Jackson Love Story

Chapter Four

"I'd like that too, obviously, but I'll have to discuss it with my friend. Without him I have no chance of getting home." It was the truth. If he left me here, I'd be stuck in 1988 and forced to take the long way round to get back to my time. If I'd wanted to continue my travels with him I might have struck a deal to come back here every now and again, but I was tired of travelling, and he's not someone I can just call when the whim arises. He'd never do that. But since I'd sat down on that sidewalk with Michael a sensation had arisen in me. A sense of belonging. I had always had good instincts and I could usually rely on them to point the way, this time I wasn't so sure however. I was torn and I was scared. I was feeling this pull from either side and I didn't know which one to give in to. "Besides, I'd have nowhere to go if I stayed" I added.

"I have an apartment in town, you can stay with me," he suggested.

I argued that I'd be an inconvenience and would only be in his way but he insisted he'd be happy to have me.

"Why? You don't even know me, not really" I said.

"I don't know, it's a feeling. I like you, and I feel like we can really talk, you know. I don't really get that...ever." there was that sadness in his voice again.

I guess my instinct wasn't misguided. I think that feeling of our gravitating towards one another was mutual.

"Well, I need to have my friend come pick me up if I'm going to stay longer. It's a weird story, but I can't get home without him. How long are we talking here? A week?" I was beginning to really want to make this work somehow. This was my one shot. Once I'm home there's no going back; he'd be dead and I would never see him ever again. Just then I saw my companion turn the corner.

"How about a month?" he suggested and for a second I thought he was pulling my leg. As if... I asked him if he was serious but his expression didn't change.

"You're pushing it, but I'll see what I can do" I grinned.

We were just looking at each other as my friend joined us. Michael introduced himself as 'Mike', and I think my friend knew, but he didn't let on. I don't even think he cared. I nodded towards Michael as I walked away with him and into his machine. I told him about wanting to stay and asked if he could come pick me up in one month.

He stopped dead in his tracks, "I'm not a taxi, you know"

"I know, and it would just be this once. After that I'm going home anyway and you'll be rid of me."

He chuckled callously "That's not what I meant, but it is a bit of an inconvenience."

"Remember when you said you owed me after Craim?" I pointed my finger at him and he gave in with an exasperated sigh.

"Alright fine, but this is a one time thing, okay?" he threw his hands in the air "Meet here in one month at two o'clock. I'll try to be on time"

I thanked him and went to get my backpack and jacket. I turned to him to say goodbye, but he didn't even look up from his console table.
As much as he could be kind, funny, sometimes even goofy, he could be just as cold and insensitive. In some ways we did have a relationship, it just wasn't romantic. We had one moment on this planet, somewhere in the outer rim of our own universe, the inhabitants had this initiation ceremony where we were given a dish – I can only describe it as jelly, or a mousse kind of thing, very bitter – that really intoxicated us. I wouldn't say we were drunk, but it was something along those lines. We were laughing like we'd never laughed before, stumbling through an iron forest. It awakened something deep inside us, and before we knew it we were having sex. It was quite something, but neither of us acknowledged it afterwards and we went about business as usual. We never mentioned it again, and I didn't really want to either. Perhaps if he wasn't so alien it would've turned out differently, but I just couldn't get past his callousness. He simply didn't experience emotions the way humans do. At first it didn't bother me as much, but as time went on he annoyed me more than he did anything else. And now even all the novelties and foreign planets didn't do it for me. I just wanted to go home. But these two hours I'd spent with Michael really made me question everything again.
Maybe that was my problem. I hopped into a space-time machine with a man I'd known hardly a day and now I was near ready to stay stranded in the 1980s with a man I'd spent all but two hours with. I didn't want to delve too deep into my own issues, and I nearly changed my mind and contemplated getting back into the machine. But the thought of spending more time with Michael made me stay put. I still had the chance to go home once the month was over. I watched it disappear and made my way back to Michael.