Time-Travel Duo

by James Paddock

  “I’m all ears, Mrs. Waring.”

  “I guess you could say I was a child prodigy in math and science, except I didn’t do much with it other than go to school. I graduated summa-cum-laude from a small private high school at the age of fifteen. I had been labeled a genius long before that. The only person I knew at that time who had an I.Q. higher than mine was my father. Despite his reservations concerning my age, he gave in to my applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With serious doubts on the part of the selection board, I was accepted to MIT, on a very probationary basis of course. MIT ended up being a bit of a shock. Instead of being the smartest one on campus, I was just one of the crowd.”

  The admiral lifted his eyebrows.

  “Still, I received my Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear science at eighteen and finished up my master’s in nuclear physics just after my twentieth birthday. My husband, who I married right after graduation, received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics. Oh! I forgot to mention. I double majored. I also hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history. I specifically concentrated my studies in the two world wars, writing two separate and very detailed papers on them. I know this war inside and out, from its precursory beginning when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor in nineteen thirty-three to its explosive ending four months after Roosevelt dies.

  “In addition, I’ve been accused of having a photographic memory. Not only do I remember every detail of every paper I wrote, but I can also call up pages from most all of the research I did to write those papers. Basically, Admiral, I’m a walking archive of information on this war, particularly the European Theater.”

  Anne went silent again, fearing she had said too much. The admiral’s expression hadn’t changed. She looked at James. He was looking at her, his mouth hanging open.

  The admiral said, “I get the impression you didn’t know these things about your friend, James.”

  Anne jumped to his defense. “Even in my day of women’s liberation, Admiral, we are not accustomed to displaying our intelligence in front of men. Men like women who are blonde and dumb, an act I have had to use heavily all my life, and now routinely do it without thinking. It’s not Mr. Lamric’s fault that he knows so little about me. I only let so much show.”

  The admiral sat back in his chair, and then turned and looked out his window toward the activity of the shipyard itself. His silence unnerved James, but Anne patiently waited, knowing that when he wanted more information he would ask for it. He cleared his throat again. “Go on, Mrs. Waring.”

  “So! How I got here. Apparently my husband was part of a team working on a time travel project.”

  “Apparently? I take it you did not know about it.”

  “No, Sir. I knew only that he was hired into some kind of highly classified research project. Beyond that I was in the dark.”

  “So, tell me how you wound up in your husband’s time machine.”

  “It was July 17. I was eight months pregnant and stuck with driving Steven’s truck because my car was in the shop.”

  “Steven?”

  “Steven is my husband.”

  “Okay, go on.” The admiral turned back toward her.

  “It was extremely hot and the truck didn’t have air conditioning. On top of that it was hard to handle and...”

  The admiral held up his hand. “Hold on. What is air conditioning?”

  “It’s a cooling system in the automobile which keeps the interior cool on hot days. We have the same thing for homes as well.”

  “Hmm! I look forward to that. Continue.”

  “Anyway, the truck was like driving a tank, and with the heat and my being pregnant, I was extremely miserable by the time I arrived at Steven’s work to pick him up. Normally he watches for me and comes right out. This time he didn’t. Because it was too hot to wait in the truck, I went on in.”

  “His work is highly classified yet you could go into the building?”

  “The only place the wives are allowed is a small room just inside the door. Everything after that is supposed to be secured with cipher locks.”

  “Cipher locks?”

  “An electronic lock that activates an unlocking mechanism when the proper code is entered. I waited a few minutes but didn’t see or hear anyone so I went looking. I found a door open but no one around.”

  “This is a door that should have been locked, I assume.”

  “Yes. I do remember thinking that myself. I knew I shouldn’t go in but I’m a sucker for animals.”

  “Animals?”

  “I spotted a rabbit in a glass cage or large box-like thing made of glass. It was big enough to accommodate a human being. I went in and sat down to pet it.”

  “You entered a room you knew to be off limits to you to pet a rabbit!”

  “Well, it isn’t like they would take me out and shoot me. I know everyone on the team and their families. We socialize together frequently.”

  “How many are there on the team?”

  “Seven men. It hasn’t changed since they came together four years ago.”

  “Your husband has been working on this project for four years and you had no idea what he was doing? That’s unbelievable I would think.”

  “I don’t think so. I asked only once and he told me he was sworn to secrecy. I never asked again.”

  “You must have had some idea, some suspicion.”

  “Sure. I thought his work had something to do with weapons, so I didn’t want to know any more. I believe strongly in nuclear power going toward peaceful uses, not toward weapons and potential war and destruction. It was an area we had disagreement in.”

  “This nuclear thing you speak of. It’s what you and your husband obtained your degrees in if I heard you right. Nuclear physics. Is this different from regular physics?”

  “Well, yes and no. You might say it’s another segment of physics. In addition to heat, light, mechanical, electrical, and so on, what you’re familiar with; we now have nuclear fission and fusion. With this we’re dealing directly with the atom and how it reacts in certain radioactive materials under certain conditions. Under controlled conditions, a nuclear reaction can be harnessed to provide power enough to replace hydroelectric dams. However, if started and left to its own devices, a nuclear reaction can result in an explosion large enough to wipe out all life for hundreds of square miles.”

  The admiral’s mind appeared to be somewhere else.

  “I’m sorry, Admiral. I got sidetracked.”

  “That’s fine, that’s fine. I’m just trying to imagine such a weapon. Unfathomable.” He stared between Anne and James for a time, then turned toward the window. “So. You were sitting with this rabbit, in this glass cage, and then what.”

  “There came a blinding white light and a high pitch noise. Then everything went black and the next thing I knew I was looking into faces I had never seen before in a room I had never been in before. Actually, it was the same room. I just didn’t recognize it.”

  “Where was this?”

  “Here on base, in building five twenty-four.”

  “You appeared before a bunch of my men on my base, like poof,” he threw his hands in the air, “out of thin air, and I didn’t hear about it?”

  “Actually, the barracks was empty at the exact time I appeared. When they discovered me, I was passed out on the floor.”

  “Humph,” snorted the admiral. He sat back down. “Go on.”

  “It didn’t seem at first that they knew what to do with me. I was very confused. I didn’t know where I was. I had no idea how I got to wherever I was. It was nearly a month before I began to guess what had happened.”

  “Guess! You mean this story is just a big guess?” the admiral said gruffly.

  “No! Of course not, Admiral. My suspicions were eventually confirmed, but that part of the story comes later. Let me continue.”

  “Sure, sure, why not.”

  “The person who found me, Chief Savage, called a doctor. A Lieutenant Martin showed u
p. While they were all off somewhere together discussing, I assume, how to dispose of me, my water broke.”

  He cleared his throat. “Your water broke?”

  “Remember that I was eight months pregnant. Apparently the whole process triggered my labor. The doctor called an ambulance. I was taken to Roper Hospital.”

  “And I assume you gave birth all right. Where is your baby?”

  “Elizabeth Anne is with friends.”

  “Elizabeth Anne. Pretty name.”

  “Thank you.”

  The admiral sat thoughtfully for a while. “So, you are in the hospital with your new baby, forty-four years out of your time. This must have seemed a bit strange.”

  “A bit!” Anne declared. “I was going out of my mind. I thought I had gone crazy. I didn’t know where I was or how I got there. Every time I said anything, people looked at me like I carried two heads. I couldn’t find my husband or even find evidence that he existed or evidence that I even existed. Then it suddenly became clear to me it was nineteen forty-three. If it weren’t for Elizabeth Anne, I probably would have receded into a shell to never come out.”

  “How did you go about figuring it all out?”

  “The next day, one of the nurses walked into my hospital room with my husband’s athletic bag. She said a Navy Chief had brought it by.”

  “Excuse me, Admiral,” James interrupted. “I’ve talked to Chief Savage about this.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “He told me that the bag showed up in the barracks sometime in the middle of the night a number of hours after Anne, Mrs. Waring, was taken to Roper.”

  “How did he know it was yours?” The admiral asked of Anne.

  “A piece of paper with my name on it was with it. The next night an envelope showed up in the barracks with my name on it as well. It was a letter from my husband but it didn’t make it to me for several months.”

  “Several months?”

  James spoke up again. “I discovered it among the effects of a common thief, purely by accident.”

  The admiral leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together over his stomach. “Okay, this story is getting longer and longer. Tell me how this letter from Mrs. Waring’s husband wound up in the hands of some thief.”

  “Once I got Sidney Searoark, the thief, to talking, it didn’t take a whole lot to put the whole thing together. It seems that when the letter was delivered to the hospital by Chief Savage, he gave it to Doctor Bronson.”

  The admiral held up his hand for James to stop. “Don’t tell me this is our spy! The one whose codebook got Norfolk all excited!”

  “Yes, Sir. Catching the thief also revealed that. Unfortunately, Bronson escaped before we could nab him, as you know. Doctor Bronson apparently read some significance in the letter and kept it. Early in September, Sidney broke into the Doctor’s home, taking a store of cash, among other things. It was a few days later, September 12, that I answered a call about someone going in a back window of a bar downtown. I arrived in time to nab our friend the thief coming out the same window with pockets full of cigarettes and cash. A subsequent search of his room uncovered a stash of not only American money but also German money. Of course you know all that already. We subsequently turned the code book over to you.”

  “Your discovery of that has been most beneficial. So, what about this letter?”

  “Well, in addition to the codebook we found an envelope with the name, Anne Waring, on it. He told us it came from the doctor’s house; said it was in the bag with the American and German money. He threw it and the codebook away because he saw no value in it. The rest about Doctor Bronson you already know. Apparently, when Bronson discovered he was burglarized, he feared he was found out and skipped town, or went into hiding. He was long gone by the time I collared the thief. The hospital said he hadn’t showed up in a week. We searched his house and it was empty.”

  The admiral held up his hand again. “Okay. Enough about Doctor Bronson. Everybody I know is on the lookout for him. So, Mrs. Waring, here is the picture I have so far. Somehow or other you accidentally walked in on an experiment by your husband and got yourself sent back in time from nineteen eighty-seven to nineteen forty-three. You did not know what happened and were very confused about where you were. About the same time you went into labor and delivered a little girl. A very emotional and physical strain, I’m sure, that added even more stress to your dilemma. Then a bag shows up out of nowhere, convincing you that maybe you aren’t totally crazy. What was in the bag and how did you figure it out from there?”

  “Well, actually, Admiral, there was nothing in the bag that led me to my conclusions. It just had personal things, clothing, underwear, and some jewelry. Nothing that I could look at and say, oh, here is what happened. I could put dates on much of the items as to when I acquired them, which of course added to the confusion of it all because all of the dates where in the future. It was three weeks later before James’ mother and the watch got me thinking along the lines of time-travel, even though I still thought it was crazy.”

  “The watch?”

  “Yes, Sir. Steven gave me a digital sports watch on my birthday the year before. The technology that this watch is based on won’t even be on the drawing table for another fifteen or twenty years, and then will not advance to the point of making such a watch until the mid seventies.”

  “May I see it?”

  “It didn’t occur to me to bring it with me. I wish I had. I don’t wear it because it could draw attention.”

  “Of course.”

  “Anyway, Ruth Lamric kept pestering me about being a time-traveler. She said, ‘Sounds like something from an H. G. Wells novel.’”

  “H. G. Wells?” said Admiral Harris. “Is that the same H. G. Wells having to do with the War of The Worlds fiasco a number of years ago?”

  “Same person. He also wrote a story called, The Time Machine, which will be made into a movie in nineteen sixty.”

  The admiral leaned back in his chair. Anne expected a comment but he only looked at her. She continued.

  “Initially, I couldn’t remember anything between when I got out of the truck in front of the building and when I awoke amongst a bunch of men. I could remember nothing of the pieces of time in the middle, even with Ruth’s comment about H. G. Wells. He wrote many stories, but he is best known for War of The Worlds and The Time Machine. I considered her words for a time and then came to the only logical conclusion. I was off my rocker.”

  Admiral Harris turned to James. “So what did you think of all this?”

  “Mrs. Waring didn’t share her thoughts with me about time travel, Admiral. I was dealing with what I thought was a woman who had received a head injury of some sort and had lost her memory.”

  “I’m a realist, Admiral,” Anne said. “I would not have gone off spouting something like my believing I’m a time traveler, even if I believed it. I would have probably wound up in a mental hospital never to come out. Anyway, I dropped the entire notion shortly after because the scientist side of me knew it wasn’t possible. How could it happen and I not know it? But, I eventually became a believer. On the morning of September 12, Mr. Lamric delivered the letter to me.”

  “And what did it tell you?”

  “It was from my husband, Steven. It explained that I had been accidentally sent back in time forty-four years and that they were working hard at trying to get me back. That he had sent me a few things, thus the bag, and more would be forthcoming.”

  “Has there been more?”

  “No!”

  Admiral Harris put his hands together like a steeple and touched both forefingers to his chin. “Do you have the letter with you?”

  “I saw no point in bringing it as it would prove nothing.”

  “These things that would be forthcoming. Were they just supposed to pop up again in front of Chief Savage and his men, who unfortunately for your story, never actually saw you or the bag arrive?”

  “No. Steven reminded me in
the letter of a place north of the City which we were both familiar with that would be relatively private. He gave me a day and time once a week to expect something. I go there faithfully but so far, nothing.”

  “It’s been more than three months.”

  “Yes, Sir. I’m terribly aware of that. But, if he sent something in the two months before I got the letter, someone could have walked across it and picked it up.”

  “What about this Bronson? He had the instructions. I would assume he went there and retrieved whatever was sent.”

  “I don’t think so. The instructions were coded in a way that only I would understand.”

  There was an intense period of silence. Anne didn’t know what more to say. She waited.

  “Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Conveniently impressive. You’re correct in that your claims would be difficult to prove.” He turned back toward her. “I suppose you studied our constitution at MIT, as well as possibly in high school. Am I correct in that assumption, Mrs. Waring?”

  The only sound in the room as he paused was that of an antique clock, antique in Anne’s day that is, sitting on a long table against one wall. Its ticking suddenly became very loud to Anne. The first sign of panic. She ignored it. “Some in high school. I took a course on the constitution as an undergraduate.”

  “Then certainly, with your burden of this photographic memory, as you called it, you should pretty well be able to recite any piece or part of it.”

  Anne didn’t respond. Her mind was racing. The clock boomed in her mental background. She knew he was about to put her on the spot. She had expected him to come back with asking her to recite something from her major, something scientific. But of course not. How could she prove what she was saying was true. But the war. He could ask about that. She could tell him anything. It had been seven – no, eight years since the last time she looked at the text of the Constitution. She thought she was pushing it to say she had a photographic memory. Everyone said she did but she never believed it. Yes, it was good, but not that good, she didn’t think. She could feel the tension building in her body, a low level panic creeping in. She remembered her orals as she was staring down the end of the tunnel of her master’s degree. The Panic! The spot light! She felt the same panic now as then, creeping up the back of her neck. She was sweating. The clock kept clanging from all around her. The admiral was staring at her, waiting.