Time-Travel Duo

by James Paddock

  “We step up to something midrange. A dog. Twenty-five to thirty kilograms.”

  She pointed to the X. “Where is it then?”

  “Obviously we’d have to get to a pet store first.”

  “If we did . . .do, I’d insist we send it back to this time, this place. Unless I’ve gone blind, I don’t see it. Could there be a reason why we couldn’t do the event at exactly 8:15, say it got delayed for some reason?”

  “If I saw power fluctuations, I’d hold it up,” Bradshaw said.

  Annie held out her hand. “There! That’s an explanation.”

  “But this plant has been stable. We’ve never had a significant fluctuation.”

  “What else could it be?” she asked of the four men.

  “Some other system malfunction,” Professor Grae said. “Could be any number of things. We wouldn’t take anything to chance with you.”

  “Okay,” she said, her hands now clasped behind her back, her head down. “If it’s a short delay we’d likely leave the time at twelve hours.” She looked at her grandfather. “Would that be a correct conclusion?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I’d say so.”

  “If it was a major malfunction that delayed it a number of hours or days, or if you talked me into procuring a dog, we’d reset the time to bring me, it, back to this time right now because that would be what I’d insist upon knowing that I’d be standing here waiting. Any reason you’d find an argument against that?”

  “No.”

  “Therefore it is only a delay whether 8:15 in the morning or a week later, like a power fluctuation. The minutes are ticking by while I’m sitting in the chamber.”

  “Or the dog is sitting in the chamber,” Charles said.

  Annie waved her hand in the air. “Whatever. While we’re waiting, tell me what happens on the other end. Here we get the light and the wind. What happens there?

  “The light is very bright and there is a high-pitched whine for a short period, and then the light flares. Just like what we just saw here with the hamsters except there is the whine. Takes fifteen, twenty seconds.”

  “Twenty seconds for the hamsters. What about something larger?”

  “Of course!” Professor Grae said. “Considerably longer.”

  “Is it linear?”

  “No. Ten seconds plus about four seconds per kilogram to start, and it drops. We haven’t run an event with anything of major mass, but I’d estimate it to be less than three seconds per kilogram past 30.”

  “Saying I’m 50 kilograms, give or take, that’d be three minutes on the outside.” She glanced at her watch. “We’re past that now. Has to be something else.” She turned around to face the X again. “What is holding things up?”

  “We’re back to the power fluctuation,” Charles said.

  “I don’t think so,” Bradshaw said.

  “What about weather?” Robert said.

  “Rain is forecast for tonight,” Grae said, “but I wouldn’t think that would be an issue. Hasn’t been before.”

  “Unless there’s lightning,” Bradshaw said. “We’d definitely delay for that.”

  “No forecast of electrical disturbances; just light showers.”

  They all looked up at the sky. Cloud cover was heavy and the evening light had faded to a dusk-like gray even though sunset was still an hour away. “Feels like it could rain at any moment,” Charles said.

  Annie’s gaze dropped back down to the X. “I think it’s something else we haven’t thought of. We wait.”

  “How long,” her grandfather said.

  “Until we do it.”

  After a few seconds, Annie started a slow, short pace. She was nervous and fidgety. She tried to imagine how this would play out with Tony. Would she want to show up while they were at the airport, just before her final words? No. It’d be better at the apartment, during the night while he was sleeping and without witnesses. She’d crawl into bed with him, snuggle, make love, tell him how much she loved him, was proud of him. At the airport she would apologize for the fight; see him off with a loving smile. It would be better, so much better.

  But could she do all that knowing he would die? Could she keep from wanting to tell him, from trying to keep him from going? She had to, didn’t she? She had no choice.

  Something moved between the slats under the steps again. This time she was sure of it . . . yes! There it was again; a lighter color against the darkness.

  Damn you, Patrick! Annie started to open her mouth to call him out.

  “It’s starting!” Charles said.

  Annie closed her mouth, turned on her heel and directed her attention at the faint glow, dead center on the X this time and much larger. She began to tremble with anticipation, not sure if she should remain standing, sit down, or go prone. Was this going to be her or a dog? The tremble turned into a tingle and in that instant she understood that it wasn’t excitement or nervousness this time. It was her body preparing to depart, to migrate from here to there, to evaporate, to dematerialize, to do something to allow her future self to arrive. But it was taking so long . . . so long. She closed her eyes and listened to the fuzz growing in her head, like a television station gone bad, and had a sudden thought that it wasn’t all that unfamiliar, that she had felt this before. The fuzz and the thought were then drowned out by a high-pitched whine. And then the world went silent.

  “Annie!”

  Annie opened her eyes to her grandfather’s call. He and all the others were on their feet looking between her and something piled up on the ground. She unwrapped her arms from around her knees, pulled off her goggles and ear protection, rose from her seated position on the X and walked over to gaze down at what had half their attention. They were the clothes she was wearing the night before. “As soon as I crawled into the chamber and got settled, I had to pee. That wasn’t a chance worth taking so that was the reason for the delay. Mister Walshe, go in and get a blanket.”

  Charles just stared at her, his mouth hanging open.

  “Mister Walshe!”

  “What?”

  “Go in and get a blanket. When I return Grandfather is going to be standing here with it because I’m going to be buck-naked.”

  Robert put his hands on her shoulders and then ran them down her arms. “How do you feel?”

  “Fine. I feel fine. Walshe!” She stopped him at the RV steps. “Don’t forget the medical box with the blood pressure kit and the thermometer. It’s in the closet next to the bathroom.”

  “How do you know where it is?” Charles said.

  “Well, duh. I figured this all out tomorrow morning.”

  He blinked at her and then continued on his errand.

  “So,” Bradshaw said, “we never thought about the clothes, but you would have known. Why didn’t you just wear the same clothes?”

  “Professor Grae was wrong about the weather. It wasn’t light showers. It was, or will be, a downpour and we get caught in it on the way back to my cabin. There was no way I was putting those back on. As it is I had to wear the shoes. You’ll probably notice that the boots are not in the pile. They fared better than my clothes so I’m wearing them.”

  “We? What do you mean we? Who’s going back with you?”

  “Sorry. I forgot.” She turned from her grandfather and walked over to the platform steps leading up to the door to the lab. She kicked at the slats. “Patrick! Get out here!” There was no movement, no indication that he was hiding underneath the steps. “Damn it, Patrick! You’ve watched everything and now you’re part of it. Get your ass out here.”

  There was a scratching, followed by a bump and a curse, and then Patrick appeared from under the trailer on his hands and knees, shocked and embarrassed.

  “Grandfather, this is Patrick O’Reilly. I thought he promised he wouldn’t follow me here. Apparently he did no such thing.”

  “You knew he was here?”

  “I saw something move under the steps just before the hamsters arrived. It was during the time I was p
acing that I spotted movement again. I figured it was either Patrick or that rabid raccoon returning.”

  Grae and Bradshaw snickered.

  “What?” Robert looked puzzled.

  “Never mind. By that time it was too late. My event was beginning.”

  Charles came out of the RV with the medical kit and a blanket, saw Patrick and froze.

  “He’s okay,” Annie said. She sat down. “Take my blood pressure, pulse and temperature. Professor Bradshaw got it before I left and he’ll do it again when I return. Also, get readings off of the other me when she returns.” She looked at Patrick. “You may wish you never followed me. Now you’re stuck with knowledge you can never tell anyone about.”

  “I . . .” Patrick said and then had to draw in saliva. “He rubbed at where he hit his head coming out from under the steps.

  “Little more than you bargained for when you started hitting on my granddaughter?” Robert said.

  “Yes sir. No sir. I mean I didn’t hit on her.”

  “Don’t go there, Patrick.” Annie presented her arm to Charles. “Let’s get on with it. You guys are going to pull me back in about eight minutes.” She watched as Charles pumped up the blood pressure cuff and then released the air. “Oh!” She jerked her head around. “Patrick! You need to sit down before you pass out.”

  Patrick mumbled something in response and then crumpled to the ground. Annie looked up at her grandfather. “Damn it! You guys told me that would happen. You even told me I’d tell him to sit down, but it’d be too late. We decided that as part of this test I’d try to change that outcome; get him to sit before he passed out. Obviously I didn’t.”

  Robert eased back down in his chair, coughed a couple of times and then said, “Or couldn’t.”

  “Or couldn’t. I remembered to send Mister Walshe for the medical kit but completely forgot about Patrick passing out until he was already into it.”

  “Will you stop talking for a minute?” Charles said, poked the thermometer into her mouth and started pumping up the blood pressure cuff again. For the next minute the only activity in the camp besides Charles trying to get a pressure reading was Patrick slowly stirring from where he lay on the ground. Nobody had moved to attend to him; all attention was on Annie. “125 over 80, pulse 120,” Charles said and pulled off the blood pressure cuff.

  “Pulse is high,” Professor Grae said. “What was it before you left?”

  Annie took the thermometer from her mouth, looked at it and handed it back to Charles. “Same pressure. Temperature was normal. Now it’s up a half degree. Pulse was 90.”

  “Considering that you were probably nervous before the event, and then the event itself,” Bradshaw said, “I wouldn’t find much significance in that.”

  “Why is it significant that you didn’t remember about Patrick?” Charles asked.

  “It means,” She turned her gaze directly on her grandfather,” I tried to change history, but couldn’t. Granted, it’s a small test, but it could be very significant if it proves to be the rule.” In the following seconds as the understanding of the statement settled on him, Annie watched more of her grandfather’s life seem to ebb away. She also noticed that even Walshe turned a little gray.

  She rose from her chair and knelt next to Patrick who was now sitting cross-legged with his head in his hands. “What happened?” he said.

  “A bump on the head and too much excitement. You’ll be fine in a few minutes.” She patted him on the shoulder and then stood and faced the scientists. “To continue raining on your parade, here is something else to think about . . . seriously think about. Let’s imagine if in the morning, five minutes after you guys send me back to here, the time machine, the entire lab, for that matter, catches fire and burns to the ground. In the process of trying to save it you all burn to death? That would mean you wouldn’t be able to bring me back which would mean that the other me,” she pointed to her pile of clothes, “is gone forever and the current me is stuck here. Possibly not that big a deal since the other me and the current me are only 12 hours different in age. Now suppose I go back to 2001 and stop 9/11 from taking place, as you guys envision. My little experiment here with Patrick tells me I can’t change history, but suppose I could. Upon my arrival in 2001 my 14-year-old self would disappear. I would go about changing history and then what? Would this lab exist anymore? Would you guys be together as a diabolical team, standing by to bring me back? What reason would you have? How would you know? My 19-year-old self would replace my 14-year-old self for the rest of my unnatural life. Somehow or other I don’t think that would work.”

  “You’re forgetting something.”

  They all turned to Patrick who was still sitting with his head in his hands. “What?” Annie said.

  Patrick looked up. “You’re here right now. If the time machine burns and you don’t get pulled back in a few minutes, what’s to stop you from waiting twelve hours to find out why, maybe stop the fire?”

  Speechless, they all looked at each other until the area around the X began glowing again. “That’s deep,” she said and walked over to the X. She settled onto it, pulling her knees in tight before putting on her goggles and ear protection. “See you all in the morning, or in a few minutes. Grandfather, get the blanket ready. Patrick, close your eyes or move over there.” She pointed

  “Why?”

  “Because I . . .”

  Chapter 48

  June 14, 2007

  The next time Annie was aware of her surroundings, her grandfather was wrapping a blanket around her. “What?” She stepped away, taking the blanket with her. She looked down at her clothes lying in a pile, and at her feet with boots, sans socks. “Oh!” Embarrassed only until she realized what took place, she said, “It worked, didn’t it?”

  “Yes. How do you feel?”

  “Except for the draft I feel fine. I never thought about the clothes, but I know now and therefore will know in the morning. How come I didn’t just wear the same clothes?”

  “You get caught in a rain storm,” Grae said.

  “Oh! So I made the choice to appear naked in front of you guys rather than wear wet clothes. How did you know to be ready with a blanket?”

  “You told me to.”

  She nodded her head. “Of course.” With that she unwrapped the blanket and held it straight out in front of her. “Hold this up, Grandfather, so I can get dressed.”

  “I don’t think you want to do that,” Professor Bradshaw said, pointing behind her.

  Annie looked over her shoulder. Patrick was still sitting on the ground: fully alert, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. “Patrick!” She whipped the blanket back around her and spun to face him. “You lied to me. You promised you wouldn’t follow me.”

  “That’s not true. You asked. I didn’t agree. And I didn’t promise.”

  “Semantics.”

  “You were acting weird. Even if I had promised, I couldn’t have let a greenhorn go running off into the woods without keeping an eye on her.”

  “Greenhorn! I wasn’t running and it was a well used trail.”

  “Semantics.”

  She glared at him for a few seconds and then gathered up her clothes. “What did he see?” she asked her grandfather.

  His eyebrows went up. “Well, let me see. You were standing there with your back to him, wearing hiking boots and a surprised look. I’d say he saw . . .”

  “I know that! I mean what did he see of this?” She swung one arm in a circle.

  Charles spoke up. “He saw a bunch of crazy men conducting time-travel experiments with a naked woman.”

  She rolled her eyes until they landed on Patrick. She shook her head and then turned to go into the RV.

  “Sit down first,” her grandfather said. “Let Charles get your blood pressure.”

  She looked at her chair and Mister Walshe standing next to it with a blood pressure cuff in his hand. “You’re the one who gave us the order to do this,” he said.

  “I did?” She s
at down. She remained silent while he went about getting her readings; the others moved their chairs around to face her.

  “While it’s still fresh we need to ask you what you felt, what you saw,” Professor Bradshaw said.

  “Not a lot. Just after the glow began there was a tingle, like every nerve ending in my body was vibrating. It didn’t last very long or it would have eventually driven me crazy. Then my head went fuzzy. It was sort of like being on the edge of sleep except that the tingle was keeping me awake.” Annie looked away for a second and thought about how familiar it had been. “Déjà vu.”

  “What?” Her grandfather said.

  She returned her focus to him. “Nothing. A high-pitched whine grew out of that and went on until I opened my eyes and you were standing in front of me with a blanket.”

  “How long did the whine last?”

  “I don’t know. Five seconds maybe.”

  “So, in your estimation, how much total time elapsed?” Bradshaw said.

  Annie thought about that and then said, “Twenty seconds. How long was I actually gone?”

  “Ten minutes.”

  She nodded her head. “Anything odd about the other me?”

  “When you arrived you took charge, started ordering everyone around. Blood pressure was normal, temperature was normal, pulse was high; your skin was dry. This time your pulse is not nearly as high, but your skin is damp.”

  “I was nervous, sweating before I left.”

  “You knew that Patrick was spying and went over and rousted him out from under the steps.”

  She looked at Patrick and then at the steps. “I kept seeing something there, figured it out just as the event started.”

  “You then hit us with a very interesting and disturbing theory, proven by what just took place.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If you go back and alter history, you may become stuck there, replacing yourself.”

  As the understanding of that statement grew, Annie saw how old her grandfather was suddenly looking. Before the event he had appeared chipper, optimistic; excited by the fact that she had come back. Now he was the color gray slumped against death’s door.