Timeshock - I Want My Life Back

by Timothy Michael Lewis

  Eventually Nigel stumbled across a bargain hotel that maintained the concept of rooms. Most of the cheapest “hotels” now seemed to induce sleep in a pod and then stack you up with the other “guests” in a vault somewhere until the morning when you were fished out and artificially woken up. Apparently space was at such a premium that most economy tourists stayed this way.

  The bargain hotel Nigel had found offered him a room the size of a broom cupboard with a folding toilet, folding bed and a folding shower. However this met Nigel’s needs as he didn’t fancy being stowed in a vault overnight.

  The tiny room had an entertainment and information unit that Nigel struggled to use. It seemed to assume that everyone had some kind of brain implant installed that could directly control it and only offered a very basic voice operated interface for everyone else. The voice interface seemed to have been added as an afterthought and was very poor. What Nigel did manage to establish was that it was possible to get a flight to London quite cheaply.

  It would take an hour and there was no longer any immigration as North and South America and Europe had long since formed one nation. Peace with the Pan-Asian League and African Union had held for several years and international travel had become commonplace again.

  The next day Nigel went to the airport. Due to the much shorter length of flights in this century there were no lounges or much in the way of facilities - Nigel breezed through security and on to the flight to London. The pilot apologised that due to strike action, Weather Control in London was down again and to expect rain in the daytime. Nigel smiled at the thought.

  The flight was brief and uneventful. Again, the in-flight entertainment system assumed you had a brain implant and was unavailable to Nigel. He was not too bothered and just looked out of the window. Virtually all of the continental US was now covered with buildings - you could see areas like the Grand Canyon that had been preserved but they were few and far between. Even flying across the Atlantic there was evidence of large artificial islands full of settlements. Reaching the British Isles, again Nigel noticed that even Scotland was now mostly covered in high-rise buildings. Again there were occasional deliberate parkland areas but not that many.

  Touching down in London, Nigel left the airport relatively quickly and found a map of London on display. He was looking for somewhere that existed in his time that was still the same, like the Golden Gate Bridge had been in San Francisco. St Paul’s Cathedral still existed though would probably be too public. Very few of the parks had survived - a small area of the old Regent’s Park and Clapham Common looked much the same.

  He made an impulse decision to head for Clapham Common. Then he noticed that he was being followed. He realised that the authorities had let him go as they thought he was a Mindoan spy and they thought he would take them to his “handler”. He needed to get the locater implant out of his hand somehow and give the guy the slip before he could safely travel back in time again unmolested.

  He got to Clapham Common and then sat and thought for a while. The woman sitting next to him on the bench was viewing something on a tablet on her lap. Nigel noticed that there was an advert for Reptile Regrowth Compound. Apparently it could “grow back fingers and toes lost in minor accidents.”

  Nigel hoped that if he got some of the Compound he could cut out the locater implant and then regrow the removed flesh on his hand. He headed for a nearby shopping mall and purchased some Reptile Regrowth Compound and a knife. He then went to the toilets inside the mall, drew his breath and hacked out the locater implant.

  It hurt so much Nigel screamed in pain, and blood spurted everywhere. He then applied the Reptile Regrowth Compound and waited. Nothing happened for about a minute, then miraculously the flesh of his hand started to grow over the wound and seal up.

  Nigel thought for a while as to what to do with the implant. He wanted to give his pursuers a false trail to follow. He looked around for someone similar-looking to himself and saw a man wearing virtually identical clothes. Nigel walked towards him quickly, followed him and then deliberately bumped into him, slipping the locater into his coat pocket. He then slowly moved into a nearby crowd of people. He looked back to see his pursuer following the other man.

  Quickly Nigel returned to Clapham Common and retrieved the time machine from his storage diamond and set it to go back to the 21st century. Nigel activated the machine and time started to go back once again.

  Chapter 15

  It took quite a while to reach the 21st century, in perceived time to Nigel - while Clapham Common seemed to stay more or less the same he could see a transforming cityscape and at least one or two major wars or disasters take place. He had grown much more selfish - he had already saved mankind and he knew he couldn’t right every wrong - he just had to look out for himself. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to find in this reality.

  Eventually time began to return to normal and Nigel found himself sitting on a time machine on Clapham Common in the middle of the night. He quickly jumped off the machine and stowed it and walked off the common as quickly as possible. It wasn’t a place to be late at night - he knew that as he rushed past several men “enjoying the night”.

  Getting to the tube station he suddenly realised he had also stowed all his present day currency in the storage diamond. He couldn’t use the storage diamond in public, so he headed towards an alleyway next to the station. He almost immediately regretted this decision. He was attacked by two men who proceeded to rob him of all his possessions, including the storage diamond. They also beat him to the ground.

  While kicking Nigel on the ground, Nigel heard them talking. Strangely he knew they weren’t speaking in English but he still understood what they said. Then he remembered the translation implant.

  “This guy has virtually nothing - he hasn’t even got any money, only this tacky diamond shaped sculpture thing,” said one of the robbers.

  “Let’s give the diamond thing to Altran - maybe as a toy for his kid or something,” said the other robber.

  “He’s got nothing else - let’s get out of here!” With that the two robbers ran away leaving Nigel in a bleeding heap in the alleyway.

  Nigel woke up in a bed in a local NHS hospital. It was a grim 1950s style ward with expensive pay-as-you-go entertainment units about the only modern amenity. But he was glad to be alive and not have to pay for treatment. He asked a nurse how long he had been there. The nurse didn’t seem to know but then looked at his chart and said it was two days.

  Over the next few days Nigel recovered close to the point of being able to leave. He had a hazy memory of being asked his name and he had said Nigel Saunders - he hoped this wouldn’t come back to haunt him.

  The hospital itself was not much better than the ward. The canteen was dirty and ironically served quite unhealthy food. The communal areas weren’t that clean either.

  On the day before Nigel was due to be discharged he was told he would have visitors. Visitors - he didn’t think he knew anyone in this time? He was concerned but endeavoured to get through it.

  Walking into the ward, Nigel recognised two familiar figures - Raymond Deville and Natalie. It looked like they were a couple, but from their body language not in a particularly good way. Nigel was horrified at the thought but he managed to regain control of himself before they arrived at his bedside.

  “We thought we had lost you forever!” said Raymond.

  “Yes, well I’ve been away,” said Nigel, trying to work out what was actually happening while not showing that he didn’t know.

  “Both of us thought you were lost forever after you went on that machine.” Natalie spoke in a quieter voice.

  “Well, it took me a while to get back, and then I was robbed.” Nigel was having to think fast.

  “Well it’s great to see you back!” said Raymond, seeming genuinely happy. Nigel supposed they were friends in this reality.

  Natalie wandered off to talk to a nurse leaving Raymond and Nigel alone.

  “
Raymond - I think the journey has scrambled some of my memories a bit - how are you involved with Natalie?”

  “She’s my wife, you idiot! Though as you know things aren’t going too well between us. Is there anything else you want to know?”

  “A silly question, but I am not sure where I live at the moment - everything is all mixed up.”

  “The flat in Cross Harbour - like you have been the last ten years! That time travel must have had a real effect on you. Actually talking about the flat, I brought you a spare set of keys as I heard you had lost everything in the robbery.”

  “Thanks Raymond” - for the first time in his life Nigel was genuinely thankful for Raymond’s help.

  “You couldn’t lend me some money, could you?” Raymond handed Nigel fifty pounds but then said he wanted to be paid back.

  Soon afterwards Raymond and Natalie left and Nigel had quite a lot to ponder. Unless he retrieved the storage diamond, he was stuck in this reality. Obviously this reality’s Nigel had used the time machine as well, but Raymond didn’t for some reason. At least he could be Nigel Saunders though - that was something.

  Chapter 16

  On being discharged, Nigel got a cab to his flat in Cross Harbour. His confused demeanour trying to find his own flat concerned the taxi driver. Eventually they found it and Nigel opened up the flat’s door and went inside.

  It was quite a compact flat in a modern tower block. It had a decent view of the docks and was clean and modern. The decor smacked of bachelor though. The main item in the living room was one of the biggest TVs Nigel had ever seen. The rest of room was a whole series of boxes full of bits and pieces.

  On the keyring Raymond had given him was another key, which opened an internal door to a very small study room. Inside he found a computer. All the walls were covered with photographs and hand drawn diagrams.

  Most of the pictures were of Hitler at various stages of his life. From the diagrams it was clear this Nigel planned to travel back to when Hitler was young, presumably to kill him or do something else to try and change the past - presumably to stop the Holocaust.

  This Nigel admired the other Nigel’s ambition, but really worried what had happened to him. Even without trying he had made major changes to the future - what had happened to the other Nigel who was trying to change the past? Nigel tried not to think about it.

  Sadly there seemed to be something wrong with the computer as the hard disk did not work. Nigel was really hoping there were stored plans for the time machine on it - he would rather build a new one than try and track down this Altran character who had his storage diamond. While he could remember most of how to do it he just couldn’t remember some crucial components.

  He turned his attention instead to trying to find Altran. He bought a new PC on a credit card he found at the flat and started looking up anyone with the name of Altran. Apart from a French company he found no references at all. He wasn’t sure if it was a first name or a last name, or even a nick name.

  As he was searching for Altran online the doorbell rung. It was Natalie. She was alone. She seemed nervous. Nigel couldn’t help admiring her curvy frame and long dark hair. He had forgotten how attractive he had found her.

  “Hello Nigel.”

  “Hello Natalie.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yes.” With that Natalie reached forward to kiss Nigel vigorously. Nigel loved it but was shocked.

  “I’ve so missed you,” Natalie continued.

  It was becoming clear to Nigel that in this reality the other Nigel had been close to Natalie too. Probably too close.

  “What about Raymond?” asked Nigel.

  Natalie pulled back. “I don’t care any more.”

  “Well, he’s been so good since I’ve been back.” Nigel was shocked by the whole situation.

  Natalie got angry “Are you rejecting me?!?”

  “No, No - I’m not, I’m just saying we should take it slow - that’s all.”

  “I’ve waited so long for you Nigel!” Natalie started crying.

  Nigel felt the best thing to do was to come clean.

  “I’m not your Nigel. I’m a different one. We were married in the reality I came from. This whole reality is a real shock to me.”

  Natalie stood back and thought for a moment. It sounded unbelievable, but then she had known all about her Nigel’s time travel machine and the risks involved. She decided for now to believe.

  “Well, if we were married how can there be anything wrong with us being lovers?” asked Natalie with peculiar logic.

  “Nothing I guess, though if you loved your Nigel so much why are you married to Raymond and not him?” asked Nigel.

  Again Natalie stood back and thought. “You really are a different Nigel, aren’t you? The other Nigel was too frightened of Raymond.”

  “I can understand that - it was Raymond who killed the Natalie in my reality and our kids.”

  “Kids?!? You had children with me?” Natalie started crying again.

  Nigel consoled Natalie. He had assumed she and Raymond had had children and he had never asked.

  “Raymond always said it was my fault we couldn’t have any. I believed him.” Natalie was sobbing even more now.

  Nigel just cuddled Natalie as she cried. He wasn’t really expecting to end up having an affair with his wife, or more accurately someone else’s wife who was his wife in a different reality. This was all getting very confusing. If he slept with this Natalie was he committing adultery? It probably wasn’t best to take advantage of her in this state though.

  “I think you need time to think - I know I do,” said Nigel. Natalie agreed and left.

  A strange thought occurred to Nigel - maybe he could elope with this Natalie to a different time-line and live out a happy existence with her. The morality of that left him very confused but the idea really appealed. But he would need a bigger machine - and he needed his old one back. He desperately needed to find Altran!

  Over the next few days Nigel pondered the situation. He told Natalie about Altran and the storage diamond. They talked about how she had met Raymond. It turned out that on the very night he had met his Natalie she had met her Nigel and her Raymond. It seemed like Raymond muscled her Nigel out of the way.

  As in the original reality Raymond was dead, Nigel ended up with Natalie rather than Raymond. The car crash killing Raymond had been caused by Raymond travelling back in time. He had tried to save his sister but killed his younger self. Raymond had been the reason Nigel and Natalie had been together in the original time-line.

  It did occur to Nigel that it made the Raymond who killed his Natalie even more sick - he killed someone who was his wife. Nigel guessed the fact that she had had his children probably made Raymond hate her.

  Gradually a deeper relationship developed between Nigel and this Natalie. Nigel was unexpectedly wracked with guilt as this Raymond had done nothing to him and he was sleeping with his wife. He hated the fact he had to do everything surreptitiously - he couldn’t walk out holding her hand or kiss her in public.

  He told Natalie of his plan to elope with her. They both wondered who this Altran guy was. Nigel was beginning to give up hope of ever tracking him down. He wasn’t sure what to do.

  One evening while alone Nigel sat in his flat watching TV when a news report came on. “Today in other news, Mafia boss Altran Del Frisco has been captured in Sicily. Italian sources say that this is the biggest Mafia arrest made in 30 years. In other news…”

  With that Nigel rushed onto his computer and searched for Altran Del Frisco - and discovered that he had been on the run from the Italian authorities for several years and was believed to have been on the run in both Holland and London previously. Clearly he was the boss of the two men who mugged him. He searched for information about any children he had but he found nothing. They were still on the run or hidden.

  He needed to visit Altran in prison and find out what he had done with the storage diamond. Nigel had a more immediate
problem before going to Italy though - he was running out of money. There had been some in the flat but he had spent that and he had maxed out his credit card. Nigel’s bank account was in overdraft as it had been paying his mortgage for 6 months with no income coming in. Nigel was glad it wasn’t being repossessed though.