Walking the Dog

This is an original work by Zeb_Carter and is protected under copyright by U.S. copyright law. It is only submitted at Literotica.Com and any submission to any other site has not been authorized by the Author.

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I was walking my dog slowly down the street on a calm winter evening just after the New Year. I remember because the weather was exceptionally nice. The night was clear and the air was cool, it was quiet, as we strolled along.

Suddenly...I was holding a rifle. Explosions were going off left and right. The sights of my rifle lined up on a soldier about thirty meters away. He was shooting in my general direction and bullets were whizzing past my head. In fright, I squeezed the trigger, the rifle kicked my shoulder, the soldiers head disappeared in a cloud of red haze. I shook my head to clear it of that image.

Standing up I rushed forward ten meters and flopped down on the ground behind a log. It was as if I did not have control of my body. Looking around, the men on either side of me were doing the same. Looking out over the landscape in front of me, I picked out an enemy target and lined him up in my sights. My finger squeezed the trigger. The enemy soldier fell, blood spurting, in an arc from his neck.

I yelled in pain as an enemy bullet slammed into my leg. The force of the bullet flipped me onto my back. I was screaming up at the dark grey clouds above me. A medic was by my side in an instant. He applied pressure to my wound.

"You're gonna be fine buddy, just relax," he said as he pressed on my leg.

I stumbled as the dog pulled on the lead. I shook my head to clear it of the daze. I looked around and saw I was back. Where I had went, I do not know. The dog tugged on her leash again. I took a step forward, then another and another. I stayed, the dog walking ahead of me.

As we walked, I thought about what I had done and where I had went. What I had done was not that amazing to me. I had been a warrior in the past and the two people I had killed were, I assume, enemy combatants, they were, had been, trying to kill me or those on my side of the conflict.

I was lying in a hospital bed. I could see several IV bottles with clear plastic tubes running down to my left arm. There were nurses and doctors hustling this way and that, yelling orders or words of encouragement to each other. My vision was fuzzy and I had a headache. Suddenly there was a nurse by my side.

"Just relax soldier you're going to be fine," she said as she grabbed my wrist to take my pulse.

"Do I know you Ma'am?" I asked. She looked like someone I knew. She was short of stature, thin in a healthy way, long dark, curly hair pulled back to keep it out of her face. Her brown eyes set her pretty face off. When she smiled, my heart melted.

"I don't think so soldier. Now you just relax and I'll be back in a short while."

She turned and walked across the room to check on another patient.

The dog pulling on the lead again jerked my arm. I was short of breath and my knees were weak. I squatted down where I was to think and clear my mind. Jaz, my dog, came over and started to lick my face. She must have sensed something was wrong.

Rising slowly, I started for home. Jaz followed, not bothering to stop and sniff at almost everything as she usually does. She could tell I was anxious and wanted to get home as quick as possible.

We were home and I disconnected the lead from her collar. She went running off to other parts of the house. I turned...I was lying in bed looking up at the ceiling. It was quiet. A soft glow was coming from the doorway to my room.

As I watched, a shadow filled the door. She walked in slowly and quietly. She came over to my bed and gently took my wrist in her hand. She smiled down at me when she realized I was awake. Once she finished taking my pulse, she wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my upper arm.

I carefully watched her face as she watched the gauge on the cuff and listened to my blood flow through my arm. She was so familiar. Then she looked at me as she took the cuff off. Bam, I knew where I knew her from.

"Doctor Bajek?" Her eyes widened at my query. "Doctor Susan Bajek?" Her mouth opened in amazement.

"I don't know you soldier," she stated flatly.

"I know you, Susan. You are my doctor."

"I'm not a doctor...yet, and it's Captain Bajek, sergeant. Now keep your voice down or you'll wake the others. I'll be back in a minute, now keep quiet."

"No..." was all I could say, before she turned and went across the room to check on the other patients.

I rose up on my elbow and watched her afraid if I lost sight of her either she or I would be gone. She checked the other three soldiers in the room, all of whom were asleep. She then came back just as she said she would.

"How do you know my name...Sergeant? And why do you think I'm a doctor?"

"I know you in another life. A life where there is no war, where you have become a Doctor, where you care for me and my family, where you are married and have several children."

"Good lord, what kind of nonsense are you talking about soldier?"

"It's not nonsense. It's the truth. In another life, you are my doctor. What year is it here?"

"Year? It's nineteen-forty-two."

"Nineteen-forty-two? In my other life it's two-thousand-nine."

"Two-thousand-nine? Now I know you're a section eight soldier."

"No, no, I'm quite sane, I assure you. Quite sane."

"What's your name in two-thousand and nine?"

"John Abernathy. Why, what's my name here?"

"Let's see," Nurse Susan replied, picking up his chart, "Sergeant William Jennings, do you know him?"

"No, name doesn't ring a bell. However, like I said I have been transported or something to here and now in his body or not. Why? I don't have the slightest. But your name is Susan M. Bajek isn't it?"

"Yes and I would still like to know how you know that?"

"I told you. In my time, you are my doctor. Do you know a John Abernathy?"

"No. And what do you do in your time Mister Abernathy?"

"Among other things I program computers. But I also study Time Dilation Theory."

"I'm not even going to ask what you're talking about. Now go to sleep, I have a lot to do before the end of my shift."

I plopped back onto his bed as Susan left the ward. I lay there a long time, deep in thought before I finally fell asleep.

* * * *

I became aware that it was morning. I was in my own bed and Jaz was licking my face. I looked at the clock and saw that it was only six in the morning. Looking down at myself, I saw that I was still in my clothes from last night. Getting up I went downstairs and let Jaz out the back door into the backyard. I shook my head as I started the coffee maker. That had been one dozy of a dream last night. As I stood watching the coffee maker gurgle, a far away noise started to get closer and closer. Explosions are what they were and they were getting closer.

I was laying in a bed, still hooked up to the IV's I had been last night. I looked around as the explosions went off outside the building. Susan came running into the room. I was the only one left. She rushed to my side, grabbed the IV handing it to me. She then helped me get to my one good leg. She was very strong as she shouldered me out of the room and into a wheel chair in the hall. She then quickly pushed me down the hall to a stairway leading to the cellar.

"I can't walk down those," I said.

"I'll help you soldier." She pulled me to my feet and with her and the handrail; we were able to get to the bottom of the stairs and possible safety. I looked around the cellar and found that we were the only ones down here.

"Where is everyone else?"

"In the bunker across the street, this should be just as safe." She smiled at me weakly.

"Yeah, and I have some swamp land in Florida for sale," I quipped.

"You do!" she yelled over the explosions going off above us.

I shook my head as I smiled at her. She smiled back as we sat against a wall. Looking into her eyes, I put my hand behind her neck and pulled her lips to mine. At first, she resisted but then her lips softened and her hand came up to caress my face. After a few seconds, she pushed me away and scowled at me.

"At ease, there soldier, what do you think you're doing?"

"I have always wanted to kiss you, Doctor," I told her smiling.

"I'm not a doctor soldier. And I don't know you!"

An explosion went off causing dust moats to float down and the concussion wave to whip up the dirt off the floor. Susan jumped and snuggled into me as I tried to clear my ears of the ringing. I put my arm around her pulling her tightly to me. She was shivering as she pressed into me. Several more explosions went off very close to us, part of the cellar at the other end of the building collapse. Susan's arms tightened around me. Leaning my head down I kissed her forehead. She looked up into my eyes and pressed her lips to mine.

As our lips pressed together harder the explosion started to move away from us. My free hand was caressing her head as our kiss continued. Pulling away, she looked into my eyes with wonder.

"What am I like where you come from?"

"You are a Doctor. You are special, compassionate and caring. You are smart and very beautiful."

"And you are in love with me, her?"

"Yes. Very much."

"But...she is your doctor and therefore cannot have those feeling for you?"

"Yes."

"She is also married with children?"

"Yes."

"Yet you still love her with all your heart?"

"Yes."

"It must be hard for you?"

"It is, but I will survive, there. Here I don't know about."

"You have been a soldier in your life back there?"

"Yes, I have."

"What rank did you hold?"

"Captain."

"What branch?"

"Air Force."

"You mean the Air Corps don't you?"

"No, in my time it is a separate branch and is called the Air Force."

"Did you fly?"

"No, I was a cop."

"Oh."

A noise came from upstairs. Susan moved out of my embrace, rose and went to the bottom of the stairs.

"Down here, we need some help down here!" she yelled up the stairs. She started to climb them to get us help.

The coffee maker was finished and Jaz was yipping at the back door. I shook my head to clear the thoughts that were swirling around in my head. I went to the back door and let Jaz in. I then poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. Was I losing my mind? It all seemed so real. Could it be dreams? I picked up the phone and dialed the doctor's office and got a recording, looking up at the clock I saw only twenty minutes had gone by, I hung up the phone. No one would be in the office until eight, almost two hours from now.

I sipped my coffee and stared out the window. The sky had turned grey and foreboding overnight. It looked like snow. I sat there thinking about what I had been through with Nurse Bajek, was it just a few minutes ago? In all my experience with my research into TDT, what I experienced had never been documented. No one had reported shifts like the ones I have experienced.

I was lying in bed again. The IV's hung on the metal pole. Looking around I could see that there were only a few patients in the room with me.

"You're awake again," Susan's voice came from my side.

Looking over at her, I smiled nodding.

"I am and I'm him again."

"Who?"

"John Abernathy. I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee waiting until your office opened so I could make an appointment with you."

"Why do you want an appointment with me, her?"

"To find out what is wrong with me?"

"Oh. And what do you think is wrong with you?"

"I don't know. I really don't know."

"What will you tell her?"

"Everything."

Susan, Nurse Susan, rose from her chair leaned over me looking into my eyes. She smiled down at me moving closer. Her lips bushed mine for an instant as she moved to my ear.

"I hope everything works out for you. When you see her, give her a kiss for me."

"What?"

"Give her a kiss for me." Susan pulled back from me looking into my eyes again. "I have to assume that she is a distant relative of mine."

"Could be, could be. I never thought of that. I'll have to ask her when next I see her."

"Good. And if I am, let me know, it will nice to have a doctor in the family and someone named after me? Wait you said she was married..."

"Bajek is her maiden name."

"Oh, good. Why do you call her Doctor Bajek then?"

"She kept her maiden name for her practice."

"Ah, good to know."

She turned and walked away waving in the air at me. I watched as she disappeared out the door. I closed my eyes.

I found myself, head propped up, staring out the window as snowflakes fell from the sky. My coffee was cold. I looked at the clock. It was half past seven. Picking up the phone, I called the doctor's office again. Someone picked up on the second ring.

"Does Doctor Bajek have an opening today, I really need to see her?"

"She has an opening at five-fifteen this afternoon. Is that okay?"

"Yes perfect, put me down for that one. John Abernathy."

"Yes Mister Abernathy. Five-fifteen today. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that's it, see you at five-fifteen." I hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.

* * * *

I arrived at exactly five in the evening. Checked in and had a seat in the lobby. At ten after five, Cindy, Doctor Bajek's nurse, called my name. I followed her to an exam room. She took my temperature, blood pressure and pulse. She then asked me why I was here, so I told her. I told her about my visions. I didn't tell her everything, I called them waking dreams and left it at that. She left telling me the Doctor would be there in a minute.

Five minutes later Doctor Bajek entered and sat down with a concerned look on her face.

"Cindy said you are having hallucinations?"

"Not really, more like dreams when I'm awake."

"Tell me about them."

So I did. An hour later, she sat there with her mouth open and eyes wide.

"Do you have a relative who you were named after?" I asked finally.

"Yes, my great aunt Suzie, she was a nurse during the war, World War II."

I leaned in quickly and kissed Doctor Bajek on the cheek. She jerked back.

"What are you doing?"

"Your aunt asked me to give you that. Did she ever mention a Sergeant William Jennings?"

"Yes she did. She said he was a strange man who she came to like very much."

"I see. Did she also happen to mention John Abernathy?"

"No, why would she mention you? I see, because you think your dreams are real? No she never mentioned your name."

"Does she happen to still be living?"

"Yes, she is. I saw her just the other day. Why would you ask that?"

"I'm just wondering and I'll understand if you say no, could I meet her? Could you introduce me to her? Please?"

"I don't think so."

"Susan, please, it may stop the dreams I'm having. Think of it as therapy."

"I don't know, let me give her a call." I handed her my cell phone.

"No don't go, if she says no I will understand."

Susan punched the numbers into the phone and pressed send. She waited for her aunt to answer.

"Aunt Suzie, Susan. Yes, yes, I'm fine. There is a gentleman with me who would like to meet you. His name? John Abernathy, why?"

Susan listened for a long time looking up at me as her aunt talked.

"Okay, we can be there in twenty minutes, see you then."

Susan closed the phone and handed it back to me with a funny look on her face.

"What?" I asked.

"My aunt very rarely allows visitors to come to her house. For some reason she took a liking to me after I was born and has allowed only me to visit her. She has had me help her stay fit and looks much younger than her age. For some reason, when I mentioned you name, she became very excited. She wants us both to come over as soon as we can."

"Do you have any more appointments?"

"No, you are my last. Wait here while I get finished up here, then we'll go. I just don't understand what's going on."

Susan was muttering to herself as she went out the door. She didn't close it behind her so I could sit and watch her as she typed some things into the computer in front of her. She then collected some papers and slipped her lab coat off. Turning to look at me, she held up a finger and walk back into the office space.

I was sitting up in bed watching Susan, Captain Bajek work. I was surprised at how much she looked like her great niece. When she looked my way, I waved and nodded. She hurried over looking into my eyes.

"John," she whispered.

"Yes, it is I. I was just watching your great niece working."

"You were. What did she tell you?"

"She told me about you, you're still living in my time here. She told me how you only allow her to visit you. You have also asked her to help you keep in shape."

"I'll have to remember that. When is she born?"

"Her birthday is in July, I don't know which day. In nineteen-sixty-six, she will be born to your niece on your mother's side, Patricia I believe."

"She told you all that?"

"Goodness no. In my time there are, there is technology that will let you search public records in the blink of an eye."

"Oh my."

"She will be born Susan Marie, don't forget."

"What else did she tell you?"

"As soon as she is finished with work we are going to see you. She called and you said you wanted to meet me."

"I do. The real you, not this you, I will be looking forward to that meeting."

"If only I had known..."

"Know what? Come on we can go now."

I was back in the exam room, Susan was standing in the doorway.

"Was I talking?"

"Yes, more mumbling though, I could hardly understand you. Why?"

"I was with your aunt Susan again."

"Damn. I wish I could have been here when you went there."

"It seems as if there is someone here talking to me or in the case of me walking the dog and her pulling on the leash draws me back to the here and now."

"Okay, then let's go. If you don't mind, I'll drive. I'll bring you back here to get your car."

"That's fine."

We walked to the car in silence. She unlocked the doors and I climbed in the passenger's side. The drive to her aunts started out uneventful. I was looking out the window watching the fighter planes take off heading south. I turned my head looking around the room. There standing in the doorway was Nurse Susan. She was smiling as I looked into her eyes. I nodded. She quickly entered, closed, and locked the door behind her. She rushed to my side, sitting on the bed. Leaning forward she pushed her lips against mine. Her lips were burning with passion as I enjoyed their soft warmth.

"Are you still with my niece?" she asked pushing away from me.

"Yes, she is sitting right next to me in the car."

"Car? She is driving?"

"A lot has changed."

"Right. Is she taking you to see me?"

"Yes."

"Good. I just hope..."

"John, we're here."

I shook my head as I looked into her eyes. Her shoulders sagged as she realized I had been somewhere else for the drive over to her aunts. I opened my door and got out. I followed Susan up the path to the door of the quaint one story house set back from the street. Susan pushed the doorbell. After a few seconds, her older twin opened the door. I staggered a little as I looked into those eyes I had just seen not three minutes ago. Nurse Susan stepped back letting us enter. As I turned, she grabbed my face and looked into my eyes.

"Much prettier, much prettier," she muttered softly.

"Aunt Suzie I would like to introduce..."

"No need child, we met a long time ago and not more than three minutes ago. I have been dreaming about this meeting for forty odd years. And now here we are."

She still held my face in her hands. I started the motion to lean forward, she pushed back, just looking into my eyes.