Free The Crystal Child by Theodore Roszak Page A

word.  Julia.
    One morning, as if he had always done so, Aaron called her “Julia.”  “Do you have the Halverstam book, Julia?” he asked.
    She did.  She handed it to him, studying him closely.  It was the first time he had not called her “doctor.”  As much as the name, his voice struck her.  It had been changing steadily.  It was no longer the soft, wheezy murmur she knew from the past.  His tone was distinctly stronger, more forceful, “older” in those respects, yet youthful in its ring.  She noted the change and then waited.  He used the name again and then again.  “Doctor Stein” had dropped out of his vocabulary.
    A week later she came upon him reading without his glasses.  When she mentioned it, he smiled and nodded.  “My eyes seem to have improved.”
    “Why are you calling me ‘Julia’?” she asked.
    “Am I? I guess I am.  Is that okay?”
    “Of course.”
    “I mean, after all the time we’ve worked together, it seems natural enough.”
    Worked together was also new.  Up until then, she had been “taking care” of him.  She preferred “worked together.”  She preferred “Julia.”  But the casual confidence with which he announced their new relationship was jarring.  It was as if another person were wearing Aaron’s skin like a suit of clothes.  Inside was an assertive, often combative young man who now began to emerge more and more rapidly.  A very new relationship was arising between them, some different set of assumptions they would have to adjust to.  Or rather Julia would have to adjust.  Aaron, wholly absorbed in his new life, showed no signs of making any concessions.
     
    ***
     
    It started coming back to me a few days ago — Friday night.  All these images raining in.  Not in order, just a jumble — like a mixed up jigsaw puzzle.  The bridge, the boy, the old man … then it started running backwards, like rewinding.   I was in the game again.  Not looking at it, but in it like one of the characters.  When I woke from the coma, my mind was blank.  Everything that happened from the time Julia came to say good-night and the moment I awoke in intensive care with her at my side had simply been deleted.  But now I remember this:
    I was some place that looked like a scene from HyperionQuest.   A place of castles and enchanted forests and unearthly beings, but now in three dimensions and looking so very real.  I had entered the courtyard of a palace that stood high as the clouds, a vast citadel of sparkling granite and bright marble, the sun reflecting off it.  There was nobody there except me, waiting.  I waited and waited, my eyes fixed on the gate that opened into the castle.  Above the gate there was the face of a clock that had no hands and whose numerals I could not read.  I had come on a mission, but I couldn’t remember what it was.  I was tired and thirsty; I could feel my heart beating to an irregular rhythm.  Every muscle in my body ached, but still I waited.
    Then the gate opened and a man appeared descending a long staircase.  He was tall and strong.  He was wearing a hood, but I could see a cold, hard face beneath it.  He walked up to me, his expression dark with disapproval.  “Look at yourself,” he said.  He held up his hand.  The palm of his hand shone like a mirror.  I saw an old man in the mirror, so old he was barely able to stand.  This was me !  It was Aaron Lacey come to the end of his days.  I turned my eyes away.  There was a woman standing beside the man; my mother I assumed, though she looked far younger than I did.  But when I looked closer, I saw it was Julia.  I asked Julia who the man was.  She looked embarrassed to have to tell me.  She said, “He is Cronos, your true father.  And this is his palace.”
    Then it came back to me. In the game, Cronos, Lord of Time, once offered me a thousand years of life.  And I knew, this is what would have happened if Julia had not found a way to save