Remembering The Times
an Ultimate Potion story
by Tal Greywolf
---
The sound of boxes falling from the closet shelves brought Tyler Adams' head up
in surprise. Almost immediately there followed a stream of curses in French,
Spanish, German, Polish, Czech and English, all mixed together. Felice's voice
was clear, along with her meaning.
"Sohn einer hundin. Degage do haje to mi smierdzi..." Tyler listened to the
string of curses, Felice never once repeating herself as she let loose her
feelings. Only when she started to slow down did he wander into the spare
bedroom and ask the question.
"Problems, hun?"
Her litany on foreign languages may have ended, but not her feelings toward the
boxes that fell to the floor. "Some days I wish I could make them all
disappear, or at least turn lighter than they are. Why do they have to be so
damned heavy?"
"They aren't that heavy," Tyler replied. Reaching down, he lifted the boxes, a
collection of mementos and memories from days past. Quickly he put the boxes on
shelves and sighed.
"So when are we going to get rid of some of these things?" Felice sifted
through one box, pulling out some old photographs from the late 1800's. "There
are museums who'd start a bidding war for some of these photographs."
Looking at one picture, Tyler remembered the time it was taken. June 9th, 1883,
at a bordello in Baltimore. In the picture was two young ladies, dressed in
their finest outfits for the time. The fact that the image was of Felice and
Tyler, and their dress was representative of what a pair of high class whores
would have worn didn't matter. Neither did their sex, Tyler being a blond
female while Felice was a raven-haired lady. But their sex never mattered much,
given the mutual love they shared.
Putting the picture away, he sighed. "I'll tell you what," he said in a
straight voice. "Figure out what you want to get rid of, and we'll dispose of
them. And part of what we make from the sale can go to your favorite charity."
"Deal."
---
"Tyler! What are you doing here?"
Tyler grinned a bit. "Oh. Felice is in one of her 'cleaning' moods, and I
figured getting out of the house would be the best way to survive.
Lance Wintergreen, proprietor of the 'Poiton Palace', let out a hearty laugh.
"I know how you feel, Barbara isn't quite as bad as Felice. But I sympathize
with you. Want something to drink or nibble?"
"Sure." Putting out the 'out to lunch' sign, Tyler and Lance went over to the
mall's food court. "Soon they had lunch out of the local italian restaurant and
settled down.
Despite his enjoying lunch, Lance could tell that something was bothering Tyler,
something deep inside. Years of dealing with his occasional mood swings gave
Lance some idea of what was bothering his friend. "What's the problem?" he
said, catching Tyler slightly off-guard.
"Who said ther's a problem?" Tyler replied, a touch too quickly. Lance let out
a snort and shook his head.
"Don't give me that 'what problem?' bit. I know something is bothering you, you
can tell me. As long as I've known you..." His voice died down as Tyler gave
him a long look, sighing audibly.
"Lance, I don't know how long you think Felice and I have known each other, but
it's been a very long time. Decades, Centuries, it doesn't matter. "Or maybe
it does, I don't know."
Lance remained silent while his mind considered the situation. Truth was, Lance
knew Tyler for quite a number of years. And he had known Felice at least three
centuries, since they arrived back in the early days of the country. It's
amazing just how long they'd been together...
He wondered if there was something wrong with their relationship, but Tyler
shook his head suddenly. "No, there's nothing wrong with us. It's just Felice
was cleaning house, and I came across an old photograph. Of us, from 1883."
"And that brought back some memories, didn't it?" Lance started to understand
what Tyler was experiencing. "Good memories or bad ones?"
"A mixture," Tyler replied. "A few bad, but mostly good. I was female back
then, with Felice."
A bit more understanding came to Lance. "And the photoograph?"
"Was of us as a pair of whores, workingin a bordello." Tyler grinned a bit.
"Those were fun days. But Felice wants to get rid of some things, and the
photograph was in a box to be gotten rid of.
Lance nodded, taking a sip from his coke. "You can't keep everything," he
pointed out. You just need to learn to pace things a little better. Not that
you don't do a good job of keeeping memories, you just need to take time to
really sort things out."
"I know, I know." Tyler sighed. "I just don't want to lose the important
stuff."
"You won't" Lance grinned warmly. "As long as you have folks like us around,
you won't lose anything important."
Tyler smiled slowly. "Thanks, and I mean it."
"You're welcome. You going to finish that?"
"Tyler laughed. "What, Barbara doesn't feed you enough?"
---
As Tyler walked into the living room, he was instantly hit by Felice. Their
resulting kiss lasted a while, then Felice siighed against Tyler's chest.
Tyler hugged her warmly. "What brought this on?" he asked, curiously.
"I found the picture you were looing at, and it made me remember the time. So I
visited Barbara, and we had a long talk about the past."
Tyler snickered a bit. "I dod the same thing with Lance. Great minds think
alike?"
She laughed. Whose? Ours or theirs?"
"I think both, in this case."
Felice nodded. "I think so as well. Well, Barbara put a little sense into my
head, helping me understand why you liked the picture."
"It was a good time for both of us," Tyler said. "Like back then wasn't quite
as complicated..."
"But there wre some very good times," Felice supplied. "We couldn't complain,
could we?"
"Not one bit," he replied, kissimg her again. "So what's on tap for tonight?"
Felice just smiled.
===
Late at night, and Tyler and Felice lay in bed, their bodies showing signs of
exhaustion. Their lovemaking was long lasting and intense, and their appearance
didn't matter to them. The fact that they were in the same shape they had in
Baltimore, a pair of ladies of the night only asses to their pleasures.
Felice sighed and looked once again at Tyler, now taking the same blond-haired
beauty as before. Being female didn't matter, nor did the oral ravishing they
gave each other, bring them to a mutual clinax. All that mattered, deep inside
both, was the love they had for each other, a love that had lasted and showed no
signs of relenting.
They said the words that meant much more to them, words that were a truth beyond
reality, words that summed up over 300 years of existence.
"I love you."