by Clark Graham
“Yes. I have no problem with it.”
“Good. I see a drive in her that I haven’t seen in a while. She’s alive and passionate, like she has something to live for. Keep up the good work.”
“Thank you, I will.”
As he stepped outside Diana was waiting for him. “I saw you and Daddy talking. What did you find to talk about?”
“You.”
“Humph, what about me?”
“He’s being protective. Tell me about this previous marriage. You haven’t talked about him at all.”
“We had a nice little apartment on the east side. I was deeply in love, but all he talked about was going to sea. One day, he left without a word. I was devastated. I waited and waited for him to return, but he never did, so I filed for divorce.”
“You never found out what happened to him?”
“Yes, I know. He left me.”
On his off hours, Felix went down to the library and studied up on companies that built ships and manufactured munitions. He then invested his left-over money in those industries.
The snow flew as winter held its grip on the eastern seaboard. That didn’t stop Diana. She wanted to know more. One day, after work, she took Felix aside. “I need to talk to Dalton. Do you know where he lives?”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. He’d be very upset at me for telling you all this.”
“He would love all the good I can do with the knowledge he can give me. Please, take me to him.”
He knew it was a bad idea, but found himself saying, “Yes,” to the pleading eyes.
Two days later, on a Sunday when the restaurant was closed, he bought a couple of train tickets to the Hamptons. It was a blustery day, and the snow covered over some of the landmarks he tried to use to get back to Dalton’s house, but after few inquiries with the neighbors and he found it.
When he knocked on the door, David answered.
“Uncle, it’s the guy from the future and he brought a girl with him.”
Dalton scowled when he reached the door. “What are you doing back here?”
Felix opened his mouth to answer, but Diana spoke first. “I want to use your knowledge of the future to save mankind from devastating wars and financial difficulties.”
Dalton looked at her, then looked back at Felix, then looked at her again. He sighed, “Come in.”
He led them through the entryway and into the living room. He bid them sit. A few minutes later, Mary came out with coffee and pastries and set them down before them.
When they were all settled, Dalton looked deep into Diana’s eyes and said, “We can’t change the future without destroying the timeline.”
“But, we can stop bad things from happening.”
“Yes, but what if we make it worse? I let a little boy die. He would grow up to be a monster, so they had me go back in time to stop his rescuer from saving him. When I came back to the present, the war I tried to prevent was still going on. Billions had died instead of millions. I went back and restored the timeline. The millions who had died were better than the billions who were going to. You can’t change the timeline without a way to fix it if it all goes wrong. I don’t have a way to fix it, so I won’t change it.”
“But we could do so much good.”
He shook his head. “You’re not listening to me. That little boy you save, what will become of him when he grows up? Will he be a regular person, or will he cause worldwide destruction? We don’t know. It’s an unknown. If you save ten, then you have ten unknowns. Will they change the timeline for the better or the worse? You can multiply that unknown by a thousand, or a million. You have that many more unknowns. And if one of those is able to change history, well, you don’t exist and you never did.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
New York, New York
1913
Mary, Dalton, Diana, and Felix ate at the long table in Dalton’s formal dining room. The conversation was muted after the discussions of the afternoon.
David rushed in right as they began to eat. “Sorry, Uncle, I had some errands in town. Oh, it’s the man from the future. He’s still here.” David sat down.
“What did you do with the plane?” Felix asked. He still had bad memories of that night.
“We melted it down. It no longer exists.”
Diana set her fork down. “Aren’t you changing the future by being here and bringing children into the world?”
“Yes and no. I’ll be in this house over a hundred years from now. I was invited by the general who will own it in the future, that night I found out that I would be stuck in time. The historian asked me if I had a rich ancestor because a man named Dalton built this house. Only, it wasn’t my ancestor, it was me and I knew it. I know how the timeline works with my being here.”
She picked up a fork and didn’t say another word for a few minutes. Remembering her manners, she engaged in small talk the rest of the evening and didn’t bring up time travel anymore.
Diana and Felix took the late train home. She had to work the early shift for breakfast. He walked her from the train station to her apartment and said goodnight there. He didn’t go home right away but enjoyed the night air. In his time, neighborhoods like this one would have drug dealers and violence, but tonight it was peaceful and calm.
Despite being relaxed, he tossed and turned all night. At one point, he got out of bed and looked himself in the mirror. Why can’t I sleep? What’s bothering me? Then it dawned on him. Dalton’s sitting in the fancy mansion of his, dictating what I can and can’t do. He hatched a plan right there and then. He doesn’t control my future.
In the morning he rushed down to the café. Diana was there waiting tables.
“What are you doing here? Your shift doesn’t start until noon.” she asked.
“We can do it. We can change history any way we want. We can stop wars. We can stop recessions. We’ll do it together.”
“I thought you said we couldn’t mess with the timeline.”
“Dalton won’t mess with the timeline, but we can. If I get to the time machine before he does, I can hide it and send a message to the future to tell them to come get me, come get us. Then we change time, if it doesn’t work, we change it back. We can do it over and over again until we get it perfect.”
“Oh, it sounds wonderful!” she hugged him.
Her father’s voice, from behind the bar, grunted. “Get back to work.”
“Right away, Dad.”
Felix started working early. Every time Diana would come into the back, they would plot and stew again.
“How do we get the money to bring the plane up from the bottom of the ocean?”
“We don’t. I’ll contact the guy who actually did it, but I’ll have him do it now, not in 1925. If we can beat Dalton to the plane, we can keep him from destroying it.”
“Yes!” Her smile was back.
It took him a while to locate Ted Hart. The man liked his privacy. Rich from listening to Dalton’s stock picks, Ted had retired from the stock market to live in a New York penthouse. Security was tight and you would have to have a very good reason to talk to Ted. Only Ted decided if the reason was good enough.
Felix walked up to the front desk of the hotel. “I need to see Ted Hart.” It had taken him several weeks to find out where the man lived. He was proud of his detective skills.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” The man behind the desk turned to the next customer.
“But it’s important.”
“Sorry, Sir, you must have the wrong hotel.”
He was sure of his research. Then it dawned on him. He slipped the man a twenty. “If a Ted Hart ever checks in here, please give him this message.” He scrawled out a note on the hotel’s stationery.
I am from the same time and place R. Adalwolf Dalton is. If you’re interested in the machine of his, I can help you get it, and help you figure out how it works. Then Felix wrote down his address.
“Yes, Sir,” the r
eceptionist said. “If any Ted Hart checks in here, I’ll make sure to get him this message.” With a wink, the man stuffed it in his pocket.
Chapter Thirty-Three
New York, New York
1913
A loud knock shook Felix’s door in the morning. He checked the time. It was six, and he rolled over and tried to ignore it. Kids.
Louder knocking forced him to get up. He jerked open the door only to see three large men in black suits looming over him. Their hats were pulled down so far over their eyes that Felix couldn’t tell what color they were.
“You need to come with us. Get dressed.”
“Who are you?”
The largest one walked into the room, pushing Felix out of the way. “You have five minutes.”
Felix threw on some clothes, then walked back out. The tall one led the way while the other two stood on each side of him. After heading down the stairs and out the door, he was shoved into the back of a big green car with plush leather seats. The goons, as Felix thought of them, sat on either side while the large guy drove.
They arrived at the same hotel he had been a couple of days before. The elevator took them to the penthouse level. When the doors opened, the largest goon pushed Felix into the room. “Here he is, boss.”
A man in a brown terrycloth bathroom, sporting short hair and a pipe looked Felix up and down. “I’m Ted. Tell me what you want.”
“The time machine. I can help you find it.”
“I don’t know what you're talking about.” Ted turned around and started to walk away.
“You will find it in 1925 without my help, but you can do it much sooner if you have my help.”
Ted spun back around, “What year does World War I start?”
“Next year, but the United States doesn’t enter the war until around 1918.”
Checking his list, Ted replied, “It doesn’t tell me when the United States enters, just it starts in 1914. When does World War II start?”
“I’m not a history buff, but I think it was 1938. I know the U. S. enters the war on December 7, 1941.”
“The war starts in 1939, but close enough. Where is the time machine?”
“It’s on the bottom of the ocean. I need you to save it before Dalton destroys it.”
“Then you’ll help me fix it so I can move back and forth through history?” Ted smiled.
“Yes, of course.” Felix knew it would never happen, but if Ted knew that the machine would be worthless to him, he’d never agree to find it.
“Tell me how I find it and bring it up.”
“You contact this salvage company,” Felix wrote a note on a piece of paper. “They find it by watching ships go around an obstruction on the ocean floor.”
“Hmm,” Ted scratched his chin. “I’ll have to pay them a visit.”
Felix made it to work on time, despite the interruption in his life. When Diana brought back some dishes into the kitchen, he pulled her aside. “It’s all set. I’ve talked to Ted. Soon we’ll be rescued from this timeline and start going back in forth in time.”
She clapped her hands for joy. “You did it. I’m so proud. Imagine, we can stop all wars before they start.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
Several weeks passed by before Felix heard from Ted. It was the banging on the door at six in the morning that roused him. He flung open the door, dressed this time. “Do we need to keep doing this?”
The large goon didn’t even speak this time. He grunted. Pointing down the stairs.
Felix led the way this time. They climbed into the same car for the trip to the hotel. Ted was wearing the same bathrobe he had before. “There’s a problem. The guy doesn’t have a big enough crane to pick up whatever is down there.”
“So, buy him a bigger crane. Imagine, going to your broker and knowing how much a stock is going to sell for in a few months. You would know what to buy and when to sell it without ever losing a dime. You’ll be able to buy hundreds of cranes.” The first step, in Felix’s mind, was to get the machine off the sea floor. He’d figure out the details later.
Chapter Thirty-Four
New York, New York
1914
Winter snows and rough seas prevented any salvage operations until early May. Felix stayed working in the diner so he could be close to Diana. They would whisper plans back and forth to each other of how they would change the timeline to create a better world.
One morning early in June, a knock came on his door. It wasn’t the jolt you out of bed knock that the goons did, but a normal knock. Felix pulled on the robe he had learned to put on the bed for these occasions. To his surprise, the goons were standing there.
“Today’s the day,” the big one said. After Felix was dressed, they headed down to the car and drove straight out to the docks.
Ted was there, smiling like a kid in a candy store. “We’ve located it. I thought you might want to be here when we raise it up.”
Felix swallowed hard. He knew that Ted wouldn’t be happy when he saw what state the time machine was in. “Oh,” was all he could squeak out.
Boarding a tug boat, they sailed out to two barges. A large crane sat on the one. The tugboat tied up to the other barge.
A salty old sea captain came up to them. He had a faded, sweat-stained hat and a grey stubble of a beard. “She’s down there, all right. It’s large, too. Had to get a bigger crane. I’ve got divers lashing it to the crane hook. Should be done any moment now.” The man smiled, showing his chewing tobacco stained teeth.
“Good, Felix here is going to fix it and then I’ll be all set.” Ted folded his arms. “Aren’t you, Felix.”
“May take a few months, depending on what shape she’s in, but sure.” He wasn’t a good liar and seeing how Ted was giving him a sideways glance, he knew this time was no exception. He didn’t know he’d be dragged out to the salvage operation. He had to figure out a different plan that didn’t include trying to fix an irreparable time machine.
Divers were wrenched to the surface. Large helmets covered their head. It was bolted on to a suit and had airlines protruding out the back. All three of the men had someone helping them out of their equipment.
“She’s ready.” One of the men reported to the captain.
The captain shouted at the crane operator. “Bring her up.”
Smoke billowed out of the steam engine as the lines grew taut. The machine struggled under the load. The barge began to tip dangerously to the one side.
“Stop.” The captain rushed up the cab of the crane. “Stop!”
The lines went slack and the barge righted itself.
“It’s too heavy. I’ll need another barge.”
In a quiet corner bar, in the back corner, sat Adalwolf Dalton and one of Ted’s goons named Peter. Dalton scowled as he listened.
“They almost brought it up, but the thing was too heavy. It came close to taking the barge down. The captain is gonna need a bigger crane and larger barges. It’ll take a couple of weeks before he’s ready.”
“Thank you.” Dalton slipped him an envelope. “Keep me posted.”
Peter smiled as he looked inside.
“Not here.” Dalton snapped. “Wait until you’re alone. Leave now so I can. We can’t leave together.”
“Yes, Sir.” Peter rushed out the door.
Where does Ted get these idiots? Dalton stood up and made his way to the bar.
“Your usual, Mr. Dalton?”
“Yes.”
“Coming right up.” Dalton didn’t have an office so he conducted all his business in the corner booth. The bartender never gave it a second thought of who Dalton was talking to. All he knew was, Dalton was good for business.
Dalton walked into the office of Smithfield Salvage company. The owner was tightening a bolt on a dive suit. “How can I help you?”
The equipment was all around, there was only a small space on the nearly buried desk for Dalton to set down a map. “How far is the continental slope from th
is spot?” He pointed to it on the map.
“About three miles. I’ve seen that spot before. A guy name, Tim, or Tom, wanted me to do some work there, but he got a cheaper bid from someone else.”
“His name was Ted.”
“Yep, that’s it.”
“You see, what’s down there belongs to me, not Ted. I don’t want him getting it.”
“Ted has all the heavy equipment tied up. I guess what he took with him the first time wasn’t large enough. I’d have to go to Boston to get the right equipment.”
“The equipment he brought back will work just fine. I don’t need to pick it up, I need it moved off the continental shelf.”
“I see. I’m pretty pricey compared to those other guys.”
“I know, that’s why I’m here. I need the job done right.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
New York, New York
1914
The same equipment Ted used was back over the wreck. Dalton stood on the deck of the barge as the crane lowered the chains.
Wilson stood next to him. “My divers have it all strapped up and we’ll begin dragging it as soon as we have the chains hooked up.”
“Has Ted found out we’re here?” Dalton asked.
“Not yet. I rented the equipment he needs for the week. I had my guys take it out a mile and sit there. Ted and his guys are in Boston waiting for it to come back. They have no idea we’re here.”
“Good.”
The chain went taut as the crane bellowed out smoke. “Got her. The dive boat will pick up my divers. We can start hauling.”
With the barges strapped together, two large tugs pulled on them. The barges dipped down at a steep angle. A wide-eyed Dalton grabbed on to a post.
Wilson smiled. “No worries. I’ve calculated this all out. The barges won’t tip over.”
The angle of the deck decreased as the tugs picked up speed. “I do admit, I was a little worried.”
