The Time Bubble

by Jason Ayres

  Between them they agreed it was the best course of action and spent the rest of the afternoon working out how they were going to implement it.

  Chapter Eighteen – 30th October 2018

  On Tuesday morning a postman heading for the tunnel stopped short about ten yards from the entrance.

  In front of him was a crudely bricked-up wall.

  “Bloody kids”, he exclaimed, turned around and rode his bike off in the opposite direction.

  This was exactly the sort of reaction The Time Bubble team had been hoping for, that the bricked-up tunnel would be put down to some sort of student prank.

  The plan had gone remarkably well. Josh had managed to persuade his older brother to help out, saying he was doing it for a bet. His brother already worked in the family firm and had his own van, so it wasn’t difficult to get him down there to help with the job.

  Together with Charlie’s help, they had bricked up the town end of the tunnel first, and then gone round to the other end to do the same. At that end they left a two-foot gap at the top of the wall to give Peter room to get out.

  They had even left a stepladder inside the tunnel for him to climb up. Every possible angle had been covered.

  Early the following morning, Hannah had used her pass to get into the CCTV monitoring station in Oxford. She used her knowledge of the system to overwrite that night’s recording with the one from the previous day.

  If anyone checked now they wouldn’t see anything. It would be a mystery, and might possibly set some alarm bells ringing, but there would be nothing to trace any of it back to her.

  The only slight concern she had was that the CCTV room would be monitored at the time Peter was due to emerge. If anyone happened to be looking at that particular camera at the time Peter crawled out, they might send someone down.

  She figured that it was a risk worth taking, though, because the chances of it happening were low. At that time of night they were far more likely to be concentrating their attention on the cameras in Oxford city centre.

  As more people discovered the bricked-up tunnel during Tuesday there was much moaning from those inconvenienced by it. As the team had rightly predicted though, nobody came to do anything about it.

  Kaylee and Charlie, meanwhile, had other things on their minds. For the first time since all of this had begun, they found themselves alone together at last.

  Sarah had gone to work early on Tuesday morning, leaving Charlie to sleep in after his late-night bricklaying stint. He was up by 11am and Kaylee came round at lunchtime.

  At last they had the time together they’d been craving for so long. There was little need for words when he opened the door to let her in. They immediately fell into each other’s arms and kissed passionately at the foot of the stairs.

  She knew in her heart the time was right for them to take things further. Amazed at her own boldness she suggested that they go upstairs. Charlie certainly didn’t offer any resistance. He took her hand and led her up to his bedroom.

  Three hours later, when it was time for her to leave, they reluctantly parted, their relationship consummated at last.

  Kaylee went home to have her tea, feeling amazing and fulfilled inside. Lauren had been right, it had been the best. She knew that she’d made the right choice – Charlie really was “the one”. Nothing anyone could say now, not even Liv who was her usual sarcastic self during the meal, could spoil it.

  The team had arranged to meet up at the tunnel again around 8pm to prepare for Peter’s reappearance which was scheduled to occur at 8.55pm.

  But there was one small detail that they had failed to take into account. As a consequence, Peter did in fact emerge at 7:55pm into a deserted tunnel.

  “Hello?” he called out. There was no response. He looked both ways up the brightly lit tunnel and saw the brick walls at either end. So that’s how they’d done it.

  He was impressed. It was a pretty ingenious solution. Maybe that was why there was no-one there to meet him, they couldn’t get in because the tunnel was blocked off.

  He could see the stepladder in front of the wall, so clearly that was the way he was meant to go. He was certainly not going to walk up towards the town end. If he did that he’d fall straight back into the Time Bubble, lose eight days and miss his hospital appointment.

  Instead he walked towards the stepladder. Clearly they must be waiting on the other side of the wall for him. He reached the end and began to climb the ladder. Once he reached the top of the wall he looked over, but there was still nobody there. What had happened?

  He hauled himself over the wall and jumped down to the other side. And then he saw all five of them coming towards him.

  “Hey look,” said Josh, noticing him first. “He’s early”.

  They walked towards him, and Hannah greeted him with an extremely warm hug that took him by surprise – a very nice surprise. “How come you are so early?” she asked. “Did we get the timings wrong?”

  “I hope not”, replied Peter. “All of our calculations have been based on it doubling exactly each time. If that’s not the case it could make future projections as to when I’ll appear difficult”.

  It was Josh who came up with the answer. “I know what’s happened” he said. “The clocks went back on Saturday night. So you are not an hour early, only the clocks are”.

  Of course, that was it, thought Peter. “That’s a relief”, he said. “So we’re still on track?”

  “Looks like it”, replied Josh.

  “So, what do we do now?” asked Charlie.

  “Well, I think you and Josh are going to take me and Kaylee to J’s for milkshakes”, said Lauren. “And I think Hannah and Mr Grant have got some things to sort out”.

  She wasn’t just referring to the logistics of his future trips through the Time Bubble. Perceptive as ever, Lauren had detected a hint of potential romance between the two of them, and thought it was time they left nature to take its course.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us, sir?” asked Charlie.

  “We’ll be fine”, answered Hannah for him. They did have a lot of things to sort out and besides, she wanted some time to herself with him. “We’ll contact you again tomorrow after we get back from the hospital”.

  They said their farewells and headed in their respective directions.

  Back at Peter’s house, they opened a bottle of wine and started to go through all the paperwork that needed to be dealt with that would enable Hannah to manage his affairs.

  As they worked, they drank, talked and laughed. Soon the paperwork was forgotten. They were having too good a time. When the time came to go to bed there was no falling asleep on his shoulder this time.

  She came with him to the hospital the following day, stayed with him during the tests, and comforted him when they gave him the bad news they’d been expecting. Back home in the afternoon they read up everything they could on the internet about his condition and the pioneering treatments that could prove to be his salvation.

  Although the two of them were falling in love, they knew that they had no choice but to part again soon. The hospital had only given him around three months to live, and predicted he would start to feel ill quite soon.

  Much as they would have loved to have had more time to explore their new feelings for each other, they knew that every day they delayed was one day further for his illness to progress. And there was also the ever-present risk that someone could get into the tunnel and put the Time Bubble out of action for a further eight days. It would be eight days that they could ill afford.

  They decided to go out for the evening and have a romantic meal at a new Italian restaurant in town. The streets were full of kids dressed up for Halloween, trick-or-treating. Many of the houses were lit up with hollowed-out pumpkins.

  Peter and Hannah talked about how much people’s lives were governed by the calendar, defined by the events that made up the year. For him it would be different from now on. In just a few trips through
the Time Bubble he could be basking in midsummer sun or plunged into the depths of midwinter. It all depended how long it would take for his miracle cure to become a reality. Five years, ten years, even twenty?

  As they ate by candlelight she assured him she’d be there for him each time he emerged from the Bubble. She would keep up to date with the medical situation, and advise him each time he emerged.

  He realised as he looked into her eyes that this was going to be much harder for her than it was for him. For him it would all be over in an instant, but she would be waiting for increasingly long intervals to see him. Was it fair to ask her to wait for him that long? He felt at ease enough with her to express all these concerns over the meal, but she had already thought it all out for herself.

  Hannah hadn’t really had anything much in the way of a serious relationship for some years, and she certainly hadn’t had any feelings for anyone such as she had developed for Peter. Her heart belonged with him, and even though they’d be parted she would be counting down the days and months until she saw him again.

  They decided that he would go in the middle of the following night. It was better at that time because it meant when he emerged again it would still be the middle of the night. There was unlikely to be anyone around at that time, so they would be able to spend a little bit of time together each time before he’d have to leave.

  They’d have to ration it, though. They couldn’t run the risk of him turning up during the daytime and someone else falling into the Bubble before he could jump back in. That could prove fatal to him if it put the Bubble out of action for a lengthy period.

  All the other details and any other issues or problems that might arise she could deal with in his absence. She was going to have plenty of time on her hands.

  It was a strange state of affairs. Their relationship was going to be quite unlike anyone else’s, but it didn’t matter. She was happy.

  Chapter Nineteen – 1st November 2018

  The day had come for Peter’s big trip into the future. He and Hannah had spent the day making the final preparations and he felt ready to go.

  He had written a letter of resignation to his school, explaining that he was terminally ill and wanted to leave immediately. He explained that he wanted to spend his last few months travelling the world and hence he was leaving that night. He didn’t think they’d mind him not working out his notice under the circumstances.

  He also wrote to his doctor telling him the same. He dealt with bank accounts, utility bills, and everything else he could think of. By the evening he was all set to leave.

  It seemed rather weird because, although he was in theory going on this lengthy journey, from his point of view he wasn’t really going anywhere at all. There was no luggage to pack, in fact nothing to take with him at all.

  As he left his house he reflected how strange it all was that, although he would be back here tomorrow, from his perspective it would actually be years in the future.

  It was going to be far tougher on Hannah. He thought of the piece of A4 paper he’d initially used to demonstrate his theory of time travel. He thought of Hannah moving painfully slowly across it, whilst he leapt directly from one end to the other.

  They had one last long, romantic evening together, planning for him to make the jump at precisely midnight. The rest of the team came round to wish him farewell, and Josh gave him a piece of card with the exact dates for the Time Bubble over the next century or more.

  Peter certainly hoped it wouldn’t take that long for the treatments he needed. It was a cliché, but only time would tell. Now he had as much of it at his disposal as he could ever possibly want.

  He and Hannah made it down to the tunnel just before midnight and scrambled over the wall to get inside. There was no sign that anybody else had been in there. All the brickwork was still intact and the stepladder was exactly where he’d left it. They walked on down to the centre of the tunnel and prepared to say their farewells.

  “Well, I guess this is it”, said Hannah. She pulled him close to her and they embraced. “I’m going to miss you so much”, she said. “I’ll see you in eight days’ time”.

  “From my point of view it’s more a case of see you in eight seconds’ time”, replied Peter.

  “It’s certainly going to seem odd”, said Hannah.

  “Right, you had better step back then. We don’t want you falling in by mistake”.

  “Agreed – I’ve already done that once”, she said. Hannah looked at her watch. It was one minute past midnight. “Go on, you need to go”.

  “I don’t want to leave you”, said Peter. He couldn’t bear the thought of her being left all alone.

  “You’ve got no choice. If we’ve any hope of being together in the future you have to do this now”, she said.

  “I know”, he conceded. “Well, here goes”. He stepped into the Bubble and vanished, leaving her alone in the tunnel.

  She felt very cold and very alone. She walked back along the tunnel, climbed over the wall and went back to her new home. The house seemed very empty without him there. She put on one of his T-shirts and got into bed, beginning the first of many long, lonely nights that lay ahead.

  The eight days passed slowly. She went back to work and life returned to normal. Ironically the first job Kent put her on when she went back to work was investigating who was responsible for bricking up the tunnel. This enabled her to keep a close eye on things down there, but there was little to worry about.

  Kaylee and the others returned to school to the announcement that Mr Grant had left and they would have a temporary teacher in charge until Christmas. She and Charlie’s relationship continued to blossom, much to the annoyance of Dan who was insanely jealous.

  With Charlie and Kaylee spending so much time together, Lauren and Josh inevitably found themselves as the second couple in an impromptu foursome. Despite their casual attitude to relationships, they felt themselves increasingly drawn to each other.

  Lauren even admitted to Kaylee that perhaps she quite liked the idea of having a proper boyfriend after all. Being part of the Time Bubble team had brought her and Josh closer together.

  At a party the following Friday night, the two of them found themselves again upstairs in a bedroom together, but it was different this time. She felt strong feelings towards him. Perhaps this time it would turn out to be more than just a one-night stand.

  On that same Friday night, Hannah had made her way down to the still bricked-up tunnel and got herself over the wall in good time to meet Peter. There were no mix-ups with the clocks to worry about this time, and he appeared right on schedule.

  They embraced and talked for a while. She had brought him some post that needed dealing with, and she kept him up to date with the latest news. They had rationed themselves to just half an hour together and all too soon it was over. They reluctantly parted again as he headed once more into the Bubble.

  Eight days had seemed a long time and now she had to wait another sixteen. Life went on. She ticked off the days on the calendar, threw herself into work, and got on with life.

  During that sixteen days Kent announced that he was taking voluntary redundancy. The whole business with Kaylee had just about finished him off, and both she and Adrian were invited to apply for his job.

  It was very cold in the early hours of Monday 26th November when Hannah went to meet Peter again.

  “I see they’ve still not unbricked the tunnel then” was his first observation after they’d spent the first thirty seconds or so kissing deeply.

  “No”, replied Hannah. “There’s a lot of wrangling going on about it. The council say it’s the railway contractors’ responsibility and vice versa. Looks like it could be a while”.

  “At least it means we can spend some time uninterrupted”, replied Peter. “A pity it’s so cold”, he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  Hannah guessed what he was hinting at. “Well maybe I should bring a blanket some time. Give us the chance to get a l
ittle more comfortable”.

  “Maybe you should. It will be summer soon - for me, anyway”. He consulted the list of dates on the card Josh had given him. “Three more trips and it’ll be July”.

  They continued to talk and she told him about her possible promotion at work. She certainly wasn’t going anywhere in the next few years, so this was an ideal opportunity for her.

  It came with the bonus that if she was in charge of the police station in the town she could use her influence if required, should there be any future issues over use of the tunnel.

  After their customary half-hour he departed once more. When he returned on the 28th December she had a surprise for him.

  “Here you are” she said, handing him a card and a small gift-wrapped box. “Merry Christmas”.

  “It seems to come round earlier every year!” he joked. “Sorry, I didn’t get the chance to get you anything, but I’ve been a bit tied up.

  “Well, you can make it up to me in Christmas 2031”, she said. “Or whenever you eventually get out of this thing”.

  “You’ve got a deal”, he said. “I’ll be able to buy you several years’ worth of Christmas presents all in one go when I get out of here”.

  “I’ll keep you to that”, she said.

  He opened the gift box to find a very sophisticated looking watch inside. “Ah – just the thing”, he said. “Very useful for the man who needs to keep track of time!”

  “It’s got the latest technology in it”, she said. “It should automatically adjust the date and time via satellite control. Wherever or, in your case, whenever you are, it should update itself and tell you”.

  “Thank-you”, he said. “It’s perfect”.

  They kissed and he headed off for the last time in 2018.

  The gaps between his visits grew longer. As the New Year dawned she was aware she’d see him only twice in 2019. Keeping up with his condition, she joined countless websites, subscribed to all manner of medical journals, and scoured the internet every day to keep up with the latest developments.