Can love follow a person through time? When Madoc meets a man from the  future he little realizes it will be the catalyst to change his world, nor that he will spend much of his life following that love through the future of his own.

The story has been published in 'Queer Dimensions' by QueeredFiction, an electronic and print publisher specialising in gay speculative and dark fiction. The anthology includes seventeen stories with a gay sf time theme, by a variety of new and established authors.

'Queer Dimensions is available in both electronic and print formats - see the sidebar for more details.

"Sorry, I'm just visiting." Madoc shook his head at the young bloke who was trying to pick him up. He wasn't at the bar for sex, although he was looking for a man - a very specific man, who so far wasn't here. It was odd how things had changed over the last thirty years, he thought, watching a gaggle of excited youngsters spill out of the timesex booths. If he'd gone into a bar and propositioned another man when he was this kid's age he'd have been jailed for sure, possibly even stoned. It happened from time to time round the docks where he used to work - guys caught with their pants round their knees and beaten half to death. Madoc himself had come close a couple of times, but always managed to slip away. Knowing the docks as well as he did meant he always chose an alley with another way out, but not being caught wasn't always enough. The caste gangs had suspected anyway and treated him rough.

"C'mon, four-eyes, haven't you finished that arsing manifest yet?" Mick the supervisor yelled, shoving him so hard he almost lost his balance and fell. "We've got time-travelers waiting to catch their blink and you're the only thing holding 'em up. They can't go without their belongings and they can't take their belongings till you've checked 'em off on the list." Rules were tight on the docks. Time travelers had to have every last scrap of their luggage checked, to make sure they weren't leaving with any more, or less, than they'd had when they'd arrived. Everyone was aware of time-loops and the havoc they could cause.

"Sorry, Mr Oates, I've nearly finished."

"Well make it quick - I've got a timetable to keep. If you spent less time staring at the men's arses and more doing your job you'd have finished by now. I see you ogling again and you'll catch the back of my hand." Mick held his fist up close to Madoc's face. Madoc stared back into the hate-tinged gaze with as much deference as he could. Last time Mick hit him he'd knocked the glasses clean off Madoc's face, and it had cost two weeks' wages to have them fixed. He didn't want to risk that again, so he ducked his head and said...

"You want a refill on that, mate?" It was the barman, pointing to his almost-empty glass.

"What? Oh, sorry, I was miles away. No, thanks, better not. I don't think the man I wanted to meet is coming."

The barman pulled a sympathetic face. "Yeah? Bad luck, mate. Blind date, was it?"

Madoc drained the last of his drink. "No, just someone I hoped would be here." Today, like every other day for the last few months, spent haunting one bar after another in the vain hope that familiar face would suddenly appear. It looked as though today would be no different to the rest.

Just visiting...

His own words echoed in his ears, sparking the memories again. That's what Josh had always said; the words alone could cast him thirty years into his past as though it was yesterday. The words Josh had repeated, over and over again, for the whole of the two months they were together. Words that even now were seared into Madoc's brain.

© 2009 Fiona Glass