Read The Sphere: A Journey In Time for Free Online

If I was facing a window that meant my back was to the back of the couch. That was a good start. I rolled off the couch onto my hands and knees, keeping my eyes closed. Pond.
     
    I tried to get my bearings. The bathroom would be down at the end of the hall. I shuffled forward on my hands and knees to the end of the rug and pulled myself upright on the lounge chair. With my eyes still closed I felt my way down the hall. I left the bathroom light off, opened the medicine cabinet, then opened my eyes slightly. Through the bleary slits I could see the bottle of phenederil and managed to fumble the lid off. I tossed one in my mouth and turned the tap on. I hated trying to swallow a pill without a glass of water, but I didn’t want to try and make the trip back to the kitchen without some drugs in my system. I managed to get enough water from my hand into my mouth to get the pill down and plugged the sink. I watched the tap water fill the basin and thought back to the pond. I splashed some of the water on my face and gave it a good rub before looking down at the water again. Some dirt was floating on the surface of the sink water. I watched it float around for a minute before the idea finally came back to me. Sailing!
     
    That was what I wanted to do with my two weeks. Learning to sail in a private tropical paradise seemed like a great way to expand my mind, yet still have fun. Besides, it might come in handy someday. I dried my face off and took a deep breath. The drugs were already doing their magic. I strutted back to my living room and said to the space, "Message to Jim, I want to learn sailing. Send." A soft beep let me know the message had been sent. I went into the kitchen and put some water on to boil. I pulled a serving of steel cut oats out of a cabinet. "Mail." A screen appeared in the air over the back of the range. The most recent message was from the planters. The one before that was from Noah, another librarian. Noah was one of my better friends in the complex. We were discouraged from mixing with people not in our field. I focused my eyes on his message and said, "Read." Noah's voice filled my kitchen.
     
    "Hey Addy, my guess is you're either making yourself a grilled cheese sandwich with some of that horrible processed cheese substitute you seem to love, or you did the right thing and left business off till the morning, in which case you're stirring your oatmeal. Either way, when you have some free time during the next day or two I could use a little help with my prep for next week. I need a woman's opinion on something, and you're the closest thing around. Missed ya!"
     
    I couldn’t help but laugh at his message. We frequently made up excuses to consult on each other’s prep work so we could force ourselves to have some fun and not get burnt out. Not that we often had missions we weren’t looking forward to. Often another perspective helped with the prep work though. It was strange, I hadn’t seen Noah in over five months, but for him it had only been a few days. I heard another soft beep as I stirred my oatmeal. Jim had responded to my message. It was barely 6am, and I wondered if the man ever slept. "Read."
     
    "Sailing sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll see if I can set that up. You should have your files from the planters by now. Remember, one week. If you finish early I'll make you translate it into another language."
     
    I knew he was not joking and somehow doubted he would let me pick the language. I mixed some brown sugar in with my oatmeal and poured a glass of orange juice before retiring to the couch. "Mail." The screen disappeared from the kitchen and reappeared in the air over the coffee table. My eyes rested on the message from the planters. "Open." The message opened on the screen and the attachment showed up as a smaller document on the side. I read through the first sentence and decided I did not want that sort of formality with my breakfast. I focused on the attachment of my