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She kept a very particular kind of lighthouse, but that doesn’t mean the fundamentals don’t still apply. Upon seeing the man get buffeted against the rocks as he tried to climb the crumbling cliff to the safety of the Island, she quickly lowered the rescue line and had him cling to that instead. Once he had grabbed on, she started hauling him up competently but trepidatiously. The readings from several minutes ago, as the huge underwater wormhole had started its telltale green glow and the wall of CRT monitors in the offices had light up in correspondence, indicated that he was far older than the usual seaman that washed up on these shores. Most were from WWII with the occasional mariner from the 18th and 19th century, but based on the calculations spit out by the huge dot matrix printer that lurked in the corner this man had to be at least 500 years past his time for the wormhole to be this active.
Most don’t realize this but when you are truly lost at sea, you are also generally lost in time. Most don’t realize this because they drown in the featureless ocean regardless. Those that do get rescued rarely notice either. Most time slips of this nature are quite mild, only transporting you a few weeks in either direction, and of course, the smaller the time displacement, the sooner you get sucked back to your own time. This guy would be spending ages here if he was actually Medieval.
“Hello there, traveler!” I call to the man who I have almost finished hauling to the top of the cliff, ‘What is your name?”
“My name? What a vulgar question! To ask a man his name prior to asking him tif he would like to bathe his feet, to break bread, or to draw near his hearth?! Believe me, girl, I have shunned the gods before and it has brought me nothing but rueful regret and to this place. Cast not the ways of Zeus Xenios away.”
It was at this moment that Calypso realized that his man was far, far older than her typical clientele.
“Listen,” she raised an eyebrow at him. After a brief pause he said, “Odysseus”.
“Jesus Christ”
“No, as I just said, my name is Odysseus, I am the king of Ithaca, I have travelled long--
“FUCK!”
***
“Send me back!’
“For the last time, I can’t send you back! The sea will suck you back up when it’s good and ready. It could be tomorrow, it could be next month, but in your case, I’d settle down for a long wait.”
“What does that mean?”
“ Look, the wormhole is still a giant mystery, okay? But we do know for sure that this is the most active time distortion site in the world, only one person on this side at a time, and that the further back in time you are from, the longer you are going to stay here. And seeing as the war you are trying to return home from ended 15 centuries ago, you are going to be here a very, very long time.”
For a moment, Calypso feared he would try to strike her, but he quickly seemed to realise the futility of the action and turned sharply on his heel and walked directly into the pounding surf.
***
“ You claim you are not a witch and yet you live in a house of signs and wonders?”
“Dude, you have been living with me for five months. Stop asking me if I am a witch. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, matches are not a form of witchcraft.”
“Well, then if they are the product of purely natural forces as you claim, how do they work?”
“Well, I... Just because I can’t explain it doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Good.”
“You are an incompetent witch.”
***
“What are you doing?’ Odysseus called as he stepped out of the water.
“I’m writing a grant application,” Calypso replied. “Despite the fact that this facility is clearly necessary and doing vital work, I need to apply for funding every year. Especially this year, as no offense, I don’t know that we have ever had a guest stay with us for 14 months continuously and things are getting tight. I don’t think you will be heading back anytime soon.”
“You said when I first arrived that the further a man had been displaced from their own time, the longer they would stay on the island. If this has been occurring for generations, you must have figured out an algorithm to calculate how long I will be staying.”
“As I have previously explained—to both you and the funding committee—it is more complicated than that. What I do know pretty confidently is that it will probably be at least another year or two before you have to worry about getting sucked back home, so enjoy those swims while you can. Once we get closer to the estimated reconvergence date, I’ll have you test the water, as it were, every morning. Most of our other guests have found that swimming loses its appeal once you get to that point that you could be sucked into a giant underwater wormhole at any second,.”
“Remind me again what is to stop me from getting sucked down into the wormhole, drowning and having my corpse and not myself land back home?” Odysseus asked as he flung his dripping wet frame into the armchair beside Calypso and helped himself to some of her figs. He grimaced as he ate the first one, they were not very good as they were wildly out of season, but he thankfully refrained himself from going on one of his well-practiced rants about the unnaturalness of modern food. He did not, however, refrain himself from popping another fig in his mouth.
He seems awfully nonchalant for a man who is contemplating getting sucked into the sea by a supernatural force of nature. But then again, he is probably used to it. Calypso thought.
“Well, according to your wondrous tales of adventure, the goddess Athena should protect you. That is, if she hasn’t forgotten you.” This had the desired effect, as Odysseus visibly paled and stopped eating her figs. “Now, leave me in peace while I finish this grant application, otherwise you will eat us out of house and home.”
“I would be happy to leave if you need me to, but maybe I could help with this ‘grant application '—what is involved?”
“Umm, I basically have to write a letter convincing the federal government, which for the purposes of this discussion is kinda like a king, to give the project, and thus by extension, us money.”
“My dear Calypso, why did you not say so at once?” Odysseus was beaming now, “I excel in these matters. Let us begin.” Calypso smiled as she began quickly typing the smooth speech that seemingly flowed out of him. She could already tell she would get her funding increase.
***
Calypso had thought that Odysseus was asleep, as she herself almost was, when he roused her by asking dreamily, “Did you ever get lonely, before I came?” Knowing better than to try seeing him in the near total darkness, she scooched over and put her head on his shoulder.
“Sometimes, but that is part of the job. You can understand why the government wants to limit how many people know about the uncontrollable undersea time machine,” Calypso felt an inaudible laugh rumble through his chest, and then she went on. “Plus there were often other guests. Only one at a time of course, but that was nice in a way, because you got to meet them one-on-one and learn more about them. My aunt Stella had this job before me, she said it was nice not to have a man under foot all the time.” She felt him snort, “...present company excluded. But of course, she could not have seen this coming. A guest has never stayed seven years before.” Both of them knew they should mention it, that everyday, the day when he would be sucked back drew closer, but neither said a thing. They still had time yet, at least until tomorrow morning’s test in the changing tide, so instead of talking, they drew closer together and went to sleep.