Finally I had an idea. Xanthros would know what to do. The time machine was attuned to my future self but was his brain really any different from mine? If I could control it maybe I could guide it to where this bug was. He must have the answers I need. I felt the ripple pass through the station and hoped I was there.
I stood before the corridor unsure what to expect. I walked down the passageway. I soon came to the end but instead of opening up into a new world I found myself back in the same central chamber again. I looked around and then I saw it. An insect form turned to face me. It looked at me and made a rapid clicking noise with its mandibles. I shrank back. It looked like it was twelve feet tall. Then I noticed a smell of peppermint. The creature backed away from me. One of its appendages shot out and seized a large box with a cone coming out of the top. The creature paused and I looked at it intently, ready to make a hasty getaway. As I started to calm down I realized that it was shorter than me.
I was blasted with a rapid succession of smells. I looked around, trying to figure out what was causing this. Then the box began to make a shuddering, creaky noise. I looked at the creature and then at the box. The machine was making a wavering English speech that I could understand with some effort.
“I am Xanthros,” it said. “I have been learning about your kind for many years. My people live in a time far away. I came here to learn about you but for this my people hate me.”
The barrage of smells was distracting. The box seemed to short out, spitting gibberish for a few moments. I looked at Xanthros and shook my head. He used his claw-like appendages to manipulate some of the controls on the machine, and it said more clearly, “My people communicate with smells as you use sounds. This machine translates my language but it is difficult. How did you come here?”
I wasn’t even sure myself. “I came in this same time machine,” I said.
The bug spent five minutes tweaking the machine. I thought he was trying to understand my answer.
“I was born millions of years from your time. My people have been the dominant species on this planet for thousands of generations. The elders who burrowed our cities prohibited all inquiry into the past. I rebelled. I adapted our technology to explore time. I stole aboard an experimental pocket universe and hijacked it. I have spent years studying your species and identifying the vast periods of history. I realized that I would never be able to return to my people. I had violated our greatest taboo and there was no place for me to return to.”
I shook my head. As weird a story as it was, it seemed like this was some boilerplate speech this guy had been working on for a while. “Hey I was hoping we could talk about my situation,” I said.
“I have long dreamed of establishing communications between myself and your species,” the box continued. “Know that throughout time it is always the lives of individuals that matter. Though I am an outcast from my people forever, I am happy to have found you, another curious one exploring the limits of our shared world. Remember me, friend, and know it is a happy time for me to share these words.”
"Wow,” I said. “Look, there are monsters stalking me through time. Can you even understand me?”
Again the insect spent some time apparently interpreting my response and then the machine uttered, “We are organisms stretched out through time but we only perceive a small part of ourselves, the part in what we call now. But our being streams into the past and future.”
I shook my head. Was it even trying to answer me? “So what if something is changed in my past as a result of my actions?” I said.
The insect clicked its mandibles as the room filled with the strange odors. The box spoke up again, “You should not do that. It will increase bifurcations. You will discover completely different universes and time lines. You may become stranded. Fourth dimensional travel allows access to the past and future but if you change events then it is lemon avocado mannequin. The fifth dimension apple orange banana dangerous rain parka lampshade.”
“What,” I said.
The creature fiddled with the box, scratching at it with jerky motions. “The translation device is incapable of communicating these concepts,” it said. “There are beings outside the fifth dimension. They are watching. I have been very careful to only observe the events of the past. Even unintended alterations of events in the past can cause disruption.”
“Well that’s bad. I only got into this time machine because the events of my time stream were altered by my future self,” I said.
The insect again manipulated the box. “I do not understand,” it said. “You should leave. I will contact you again when my communication technology is adequate for this level of discussion.”
“That didn’t go as planned”, I thought as I turned and walked through the corridor. The buzzing noise seemed normal now. Maybe the best thing to do was to hide out in the time dome. I could probably make short stops to get supplies from different time zones. But I already knew how that would turn out. “I have to do something,” I thought, and turned around.
The flickering tunnel seemed to disappear into a field of different possibilities. I stumbled back into Xanthros’s time machine. His talking machine whirred to life again and said, “You should not be here.”
But I kept walking. Xanthros shrank back and the box spoke again, “I must return to my research.”
My hands wrapped around the talking box and lifted it. It was heavy. The box started shooting out a dark liquid and making a chattering noise. Arms shaking, I raised it above my head and smashed the talking box down on the central orb. Shards of broken machine and crystal shot out in all directions. I staggered back covering my face with my arms. A volcano of sparks exploded in front of me. The room started to tremble. Xanthros was scrambling away from me in a frenetic flashing of spindly limbs.
I got to my feet and ran toward the tunnel. The light was fading. I ran through. There was a dark red shadow following me like a warning at my heels. I was disintegrating, like I might disappear forever. The saw-like noise felt like it might overwhelm me. Then I entered the chamber and it was as I left it. I turned and the time tunnel had grown a deep red. I wondered if I had broken everything and I was stranded here.
Unsure what to do next, I looked around the room. “Time to go home,” I thought.
I approached the orb again and laid my hands upon it. Everything shook slightly. This time I had to do something different. How long until the world falls into the sun, I thought. I told the crystal to wait until I was gone before its departure. Goodbye.
I turned and ran toward the long hallway for the last time. Its lights changed to a brilliant blue as I passed through. I felt like someone else was running through the corridor and I was left far behind. But when I left the hallway I was back in my own room. I felt a blast of heat as the portal closed behind me. Everything looked exactly as I’d left it. Empty beer bottles from my fruitless gaming session, balled up foils from my dinner by the computer.
The only thing I could think to do was sleep. I unlaced my shoes and pulled them off. I collapsed in my bed, still wearing the rest of my clothes.
My alarm went off in the morning on time. Should I go to work, or what should I do? If I still had a job. If any people existed that I worked with. I didn’t really give myself time to think too hard on the situation. I ran through my morning routine of preparing for a job that I hated. I stripped off my clothes that felt like I had been wearing for days and got in the shower. I wanted to stay there forever. Finally, I got out, dried off, brushed my teeth and got dressed.
Once I was ready I found myself walking through the streets and I was happy to see the faces of strangers passing back and forth. I went down onto the subway platform. I waited for my train. There was no sign of ominous odors or fogs. There were no stickers on the train.
When I walked into the office I saw that nothing was out of place, everything was as it should be. There was Brandon waiting for me to come through the door. He stood up when he saw me. He wore a look on his
face that said, “I can’t believe you’re even showing up right now.”
Out of the periphery of my vision, I saw Melinda approach. He turned from me to look at her, in shock. She looked him in the face and said, “I quit.”
She didn’t even pause and just walked towards the exit. She was passing me when Brandon looked my way. Rage was in his eyes
“Me too,” I said.
Melinda looked at me and smiled. “You too?” she said.
I didn’t wait for Brandon’s response and turned to walk toward the elevator with Melinda. “Yeah,” I said. “If I don’t get out of here now, maybe I never will.”
She nodded and we walked into the elevator. “Would you like to grab a cup of coffee,” I said.
“I could go for a coffee,” she said.
We went to a coffee shop nearby. It was mostly business-types and students with laptops. We sat down at a table outside. I drank a simple black coffee and she had a latte. There was a moment of brief silence between us. Knowing I should speak up, I said, “Why did you quit?”
“I need to build a real career,” she said. “I have a temp job lined up writing some grant proposals for a non-profit. I’m psyched to be out of that place.”
“Me too,” I said.
“Why did you leave?” she said. “It seemed pretty random. You didn’t leave because of me did you?”
“You inspired me,” I said. I paused, not quite sure what to say next. “If I stay too long, I’ll regret it.”
She nodded. “It’s a bad place but the paycheck is decent. Do you know what you’re doing next?”
“No,” I said. “I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll play the lottery.”
She laughed.
“So what’s your new job all about?” I said.
She explained her new job but I couldn’t really pay attention. I tried not to look around the room for dreadful smoke or corridors into the future. I struggled to maintain conversational awareness and finally we exchanged numbers and agreed to hang out again some time. I told her we would probably see each other again at Emily’s party. I wasn’t really sure we would, though.
I decided I should go see my mom. I hoped she was OK. If everything else here was working out she probably would be, but I wanted to be sure.
I took the bus to her place and looked at the door. Such a small house, I thought. She deserves more. At least she was alive. I approached the door and started picking around for the key in my pocket.
I stopped again. The place looked like it was in better condition than when I left it. Maybe it was just a trick of the morning light. I put my key in the lock and opened the door. “Mom, I’m here,” I yelled.
A familiar-looking, older man came into the front hallway and said, “Frank, what are you doing here today?”
“Who are you?” I said.
He snorted and said, “You don’t recognize your own father now?”
I grabbed him in my arms, tears leaking from my eyes.
Unlucky Numbers Page 5
