It seemed like only a few weeks since David first stood in the hallway by his dank office in the back of History Hall. He paused to glance at the fur jacket on exhibit in a glass case next to his door. He had worn that jacket in his previous life while trudging through the frigid north. His thick boots stood below the jacket, and his old goggles lay next to them. That jacket had served him well. It had kept him warm through the most horrid blizzards. One of those blizzards he had faced with Miri, which ultimately led him to Sana Mundi and the year 2171. Now he had been here for three years.

It was a relief not to have to gear up for the kind of weather he had to endure in the far north. The wind and temperatures he’d faced in Greenland and Alaska were enough to sap the energy from even the strongest of men, and David had never considered himself particularly strong. People mistakenly assumed he was, but what they saw was speed and cunning, as well as his ability to persevere. Being clever and stealthy counted for something—at least it did in the 1960s…back in his time.

These days, however, when he passed by that jacket, he would glance up, give a sigh, then move on. Life in Sana Mundi lacked the excitement and danger he’d faced back in his time, but it was comfortable here, and he supposed it held a different sort of thrill. He had Miri, the woman he loved. And he did love her, more and more each day. He also had his delightful and precocious daughter, Vida.

And now he had a son, Miles. That was thrill enough for any man.

Plus, his current vocation as a historian held a great deal of interest for him. Over the past three years, he had amassed an astounding amount of knowledge. The rise of Sana Mundi fascinated him the most. He was awed by the wisdom and power of the people who worked with the Silver Seven to establish this new world. He was particularly impressed with their leader, Garfield Mitchell.

David’s own life, and especially the life of his friend, Melinda, had actually made an impact on Garfield’s past—a fact that continually perplexed him. His and Melinda’s actions caused an unfathomable loop—almost as if history was a circle to be lived and re-lived. Of course, that would explain why sometimes he felt as if he truly had one soulmate, Miri, the woman he had married. It seemed Melinda had found her soulmate in John, David’s double. She had chosen to stay with John back in 1971, leaving her life in Sana Mundi behind.

Before Miri came into David’s life, he had believed he was who he was meant to be. She had changed his views on many things, opening his eyes to the depths of his own weaknesses. He was still fighting his demons, even now. And although he tried to incorporate the World Rules into his heart, he carried shreds of skepticism about some of the Sana Mundi beliefs. The people of this new world seemed almost naive. Their behavior went against human nature—well, against his nature, at least. But their philosophy of We live by rules, not by nature was a tough one for him to swallow.

David still held onto a great deal of his 1960s attitude, even after living in Sana Mundi for so long. Sometimes he found himself bristling at the Rules. He would repeat them to himself in sour whispers, trying to force his brain into accepting them. He wanted to absorb the beliefs that Miri so strongly identified with.

We will put others’ interests ahead of our own.

No one may kill except the government.

We will not harm anyone physically, emotionally, or materially.

We will seek first to listen and then to be heard.

We will seek first to understand and then to be understood.

We will seek first to love and then to be loved.

And to do that, we will share our joys, sorrows, anger, and forgiveness.

It wasn’t that he didn’t care to put others first, he just believed his loved ones should come before strangers. After all, shouldn’t his wife and children always be first? He wanted to give them everything they desired, convinced it was only natural for men to want that. But again, in Sana Mundi, one didn’t live by their nature, one lived by the rules.

He’d struggled with the Rules when he first got here, and it was an effort still to fully comply. Of course, when he’d first arrived, his attempts were more difficult due to the absence of cigarettes and whiskey…the things that had always soothed him in the past. Facing an entirely different lifestyle while shaking off two addictions almost had him begging to return to the old world. But he would never make that decision. Never! Nothing would part him from his wife and children.

Even now, he still missed the whiskey, but he was glad to be done with the cigarettes. To be honest, he had to admit he hadn’t exactly settled in here. He continued to offend people from time to time, and things were vastly different from where he came from. In the sixties, women didn’t run things, diverse races didn’t mingle, and same-gender relationships were consigned to broken-down movie houses and back-alley bars.

It wasn’t that David couldn’t accept these kinds of changes. That wasn’t the problem at all. He had actually been quite a progressive thinker in his time. Still, he was considered an antiquated thinker now. And while Miri and some of her friends found his old-fashioned reactions to things amusing, others sometimes saw him as nothing short of outrageous. Most people accepted his blunders with the typical Sana Mundi grace, correcting him gently, but some were left open-mouthed and quietly frowning.