Time-Travel Duo

by James Paddock

  Annie could only cry.

  “Understood?”

  She nodded her head. “Yes.”

  Annie and her father stood on the porch in the chilled night air and watched Aunt Gracy and Uncle Henry drive away.

  “Do you have any idea what time it is in my head right now?” her father said. “It’s after midnight in Boston and my bones are whipped.”

  Annie didn’t say anything, her mind elsewhere, running a mile a minute.

  “I think I’m going to turn in.”

  “Use the upstairs bedroom, Dad,” she said.

  “No. The sofa bed is good enough for me.”

  “No, really, Dad. I don’t much like that bed; don’t sleep well in it. You take it. I’ve been thinking about trying the sofa out anyway.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes. I’m positive.”

  “Okay, then.” He picked up his suitcase which had yet to make it past the porch, and kissed her on the cheek. “Goodnight. See you in the morning.”

  “Goodnight, Dad.”

  Annie remained on the porch listening to the crickets and thinking. After a time she went inside and inspected the contents of her backpack. Small adjustments were needed before she decided that it was fine. She plugged in her computer and opened her journal.

  Mom,

  It appears to be now or never. At a moment of weakness I opened my mouth to Aunt Gracy and now it is all falling apart. Dad showed up – WOW, what a surprise? – and then Aunt Gracy and Uncle Henry. Bigger surprise. I should have known, shouldn’t have I?

  Whatever other ideas Grandfather has for his time machine will likely never come to pass. I’m sure Aunt Gracy will camp on the trailer’s doorstep and personally supervise its dismantling and destruction. In his weakened condition he will not be able to stand up against her, even with his buddy scientists on his side. I haven’t told you yet that he has cancer, have I?

  He’s dying.

  Aunt Gracy will do whatever it takes to ensure that the time machine never gets built again, at least not in her lifetime. That is probably good, don’t you think? I’ve known it was stupid from the beginning when I showed up at their meeting. If I’ve known it is so stupid why am I still planning on doing it myself? Am I truly flirting with disaster? Will I send the world into an irreversible time warp vortex? That kind of thought is crazy, of course. But could I create enough change that I’d get stuck there? That certainly does seem realistic. Would it really be all that bad a thing? I’d just re-live this last semester. That would be weird. I’d know everything that would happen.

  Annie looked up as her father came down the stairs and into the bathroom. She considered the implications of knowing everything that was going to happen before it happened and understood how just that in itself would change things. She’d already know what Grae wanted when he sat down to talk to her. She’d already know about Beth and Mikhail having a fight and him wanting to join the Marines. She’d already know she’d meet Patrick. She’d know Tony was dead before the Marine officers showed up in her driveway. There is no way she could stand re-living that again, nor the funeral.

  It wouldn’t work. I can’t get stuck there. I don’t think it’s possible to get stuck, to permanently replace myself. I’d have to fake everything, surprise, anger, tears. It wouldn’t be hard to fake the tears over Tony’s death. I’m ready to tear up right now just thinking about it.

  The reason it wouldn’t work is because it would be impossible to fake everything, to do things the exact same way as the first time around. One slip and history would change, however slightly. Many slips and the changes would start cascading.

  That didn’t happen to you because you went back far enough that you didn’t replace yourself? I wish you could tell me about it. Maybe I ought to travel back to 1943 and ask for your advice.

  Annie leaned back and thought about that for a moment before returning to her computer. Her dad came out of the bathroom and went back upstairs.

  I was going to say maybe I did, but as I think about it, I doubt it. I was already there, after all, as a baby. If I landed in South Carolina during that time I would replace my baby self. You’d have gone nuts if I’d disappeared right out of your arms, leaving you holding only a diaper. And then there I’d be claiming to be your 19-year-old daughter. No, that wouldn’t work, would it?

  Dad is still making noises. Wish he’d hurry up and go to sleep.

  Annie saved and closed her journal, slipped her computer into her backpack and turned off the lights. A glow still shown down the stairs from the bedroom above. She closed her eyes, thought about what she was about to do, and waited.

  Chapter 61

  June 16, 2007

  When Annie opened her eyes again it was dark. Her watch glowed 11:38. Damn! Wasn’t supposed to fall asleep. As quiet as she could she slipped into her jacket, pulled the backpack over her shoulder and eased out the door. Once clear of all the cabins and yard lights, she pulled out her Maglite and headlamp and hurried north along the riverbank.

  “Hey!” Annie yelled as she entered the camp of mad scientists. She banged against the side of the RV. “Hey! You’re about to be raided.”

  “What the hell!” came Professor Bradshaw’s voice from the tent.

  “Everybody up!” she called. “We’ve got a problem.” There was a thud from inside the RV, and then voices. Annie walked over to her chair and sat down to wait.

  The light next to the RV door came on and Charles the Dweeb emerged wrapped in a robe the size of a small city. He stared at her, puzzled but not at all angry. “Should I make coffee?” he said.

  “Would be a good idea.”

  He retreated inside as Professor Grae appeared from the tent completely dressed, pulling on a coat. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell it when everyone is here.”

  She said nothing more. Her arms rested on top of her backpack as though using it as a shield, which she worried might actually become the case. Her grandfather was the last out, coughing hard as he sat down, appearing tired . . . sick. He also looked angry as though he already knew what she was about to say. She wished the coffee was ready so they’d all have something to hold onto, something hot to warm their insides.

  “We’re here,” her grandfather said. “We’re waiting.”

  She looked at him and then at Charles. Finally she looked up at the gas lantern that Professor Grae had lit. “Aunt Gracy and Uncle Henry will be here in the morning.” Annie considered for a split second on how to soften the rest of it, how to keep out of the path of their rage. She concluded that it would be best to simply take a share of the ownership, to enter, as a victim, into solidarity with them. “They intend on shutting us down.”

  “They what?” Bradshaw said, coming halfway out of his chair.

  “How did they find out?” Grae said.

  “What did you do?” her grandfather said, his voice low but angry.

  “I called Aunt Gracy. I didn’t tell her anything, though. She just figured it out. You know how she is.”

  “You called your Aunt Gracy and told her!”

  Annie shook her head. “No! I didn’t tell her anything. I just asked a question. And it was Wednesday, before I really knew anything about it, before I really understood what you were doing, why you were doing it. You just showed up here and I stumbled onto you. I had questions . . . suspicions. I don’t know why I called her, but honest, all I did was ask what happened to the equipment after Broad Horizons was no more.”

  “What else?” Robert demanded.

  “What do you mean, what else?”

  “What else did you ask her? That one question wasn’t enough to lead her here.”

  “I asked if there was anything in Atlantic Horizons bylaws about . . . about time travel. I should have known there wasn’t. That was all I asked.”

  “But she certainly wanted to know why you asked.”

  “Sure, but I didn’t tell her anything. I swear.”

  “Then why the
hell is she here?”

  Robert started coughing again and Annie worried that she may be sending him into his final, downward spiral, that he might not live through the night.

  “I don’t know. Maybe she heard something in my voice. They just suddenly showed up about six hours ago intent on fixing whatever trouble I was in. She started asking questions, threatening to call a board meeting right there on my doorstep if I didn’t fess up. She was in my face and I was having a hard enough time keeping my dad out of it after he showed up. If she calls the board he’ll def . . .”

  “Your father’s here?” Again Bradshaw came halfway out of his chair.

  Annie slunk further down in hers trying to get smaller behind her pack. “He surprised me, was at my cabin when I returned yesterday. He doesn’t know a thing, though. He’s on vacation.”

  “Holy crap!” Grae said.

  “I made Aunt Gracy promise to keep him out of it.”

  “You shouldn’t have called her,” Charles said.

  Annie looked at him, her own anger rising. Who the hell was he to judge her? He was a newbie, a freshman in the project. He had no right to voice an opinion, the fat, slob, dweeb! She looked away from him before her thoughts spit out of her mouth of their own accord. Her eyes stopped at her grandfather.

  “What was I supposed to do? I discovered, by accident, that you guys had followed me on my vacation with this disaster on wheels at a time when all I wanted was to be alone, to get away from everything that reminded me of who I was, of what I was, of Tony, of school, of you. You probably don’t know that it was the meeting that night at professor Grae’s house that prompted me to come here, to get away from it all.”

  “You ran away,” Robert said.

  She spread her arms about her. “Yes! I ran away, and everything I ran away from, plus some, followed me here. And then I wanted to know how you did it, wanted to know if anyone else knew about it. I was angry and I wanted some answers. I certainly couldn’t call my father and there was no one in the family that I’m close to except Aunt Gracy and Uncle Henry. So I called and asked a simple, innocent question. Meanwhile I allowed myself to get sucked into this thing even as I fought it.”

  There was silence for a time as the four men all looked at each other.

  “How much time do we have?” Robert said.

  “They’re picking me up at 8:00. We’re going to tell dad we’re just going for a drive and then I’m to take them here.”

  “Less than eight hours.”

  “What if we pack it all up and leave?” Bradshaw said. “If Annie doesn’t know where we’ve gone they couldn’t do a thing.”

  “It’s the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere,” Robert argued. “Where in the hell do you plan on finding a truck with which to tow it out of here? Even if you could find something it’d do nothing more than postpone the inevitable.”

  “What are they going to do anyway?” Grae said. “They can’t call authorities. What would they tell them? There are some crazy old men conducting time-travel experiments?”

  “They’ll call the board members and hold a meeting here,” Annie said.

  “Broad Horizons is gone and Atlantic Horizons has nothing to do with this. It’s privately financed by your grandfather. And who is on the board anyway? A couple of over-the-hill politicians, a long since retired police officer and his wife, a retired Navy captain, and who else?”

  “My dad and my grandfather.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Ying and Yang.”

  Robert turned his glare onto Howard Grae. “It’s those two over-the-hill politicians who found us out, one of which is chairman of the board and not nearly as far over-the-hill as you think, and who has a lot of political strings she can still pull that has nothing to do with this project, but everything to do with our research funding, i.e., our jobs. And if she can’t pull them, her husband can.”

  “What the hell do you care? You won’t be alive to see the next term. Have you given notice to President Hockfield yet, Doctor Hair?”

  There was a deathly silence. Robert coughed and turned away.

  Annie wanted to comfort him, to hold him, tell him it was all right, but there wasn’t time now. And it definitely wasn’t all right. She put her pack aside and stood. “Now is not the time to beat up on each other. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine, but I’m not going to take all the blame because it’s you guys who started it. You’ve brought it this far and someone is damn well going to get something out of it. You built this for a reason, maybe several reasons I’ll bet. The main one was stopping 9/11. I think we’ve concluded that will not happen. Professor Grae, the best you could do is ask me to visit with your wife before her death. I can’t imagine what I would say. Maybe you had visions of going yourself and were probably greatly disappointed when you couldn’t achieve the power necessary. Am I right?”

  Grae nodded. “Yes.”

  “You knew that when you talked to me after class that day, didn’t you?”

  Grae nodded again. “Afraid so. I couldn’t give up the hope.”

  “I’m sorry.” She turned to Bradshaw and Charles. “I have no idea why you guys are here, Why did you come on board?”

  “For the pure science, I’m afraid,” Bradshaw said. “Other than the fact that it concluded with your mother’s death, the highest point in my life was during the mid-eighties when we first built this under your father’s genius. I couldn’t turn down a chance to do it again under your grandfather’s. I’m here for the pure joy in the science. If I could make a trip myself, it would be the cherry on the top of the joy. Much doubtful, though.”

  When Charles didn’t immediately provide a reason, Annie turned to her grandfather. “What about you, Grandfather? Why are you here? Why did you start this whole thing back up? If I was told correctly, you were adamantly against this twenty years ago, this that killed my mother?”

  Without lifting his glassy-eyed gaze from the ground, his fit of coughs temporarily abated, Robert said, “It’s not important anymore.”

  Annie stared at him for a time, wondering what exactly he had in mind for her to do for him. Whatever it was he didn’t want to air it in front of everybody. She could certainly understand that. She’d talk to him about it later. There’d be plenty of time later.

  She sat back down in her chair. “I feel a bit selfish asking you guys to help me with what I want after convincing you all that what you want can’t be done.”

  “Camp Lejeune?” Charles said.

  “Just south of there, yes. And please don’t ask me why. Just trust me when I say I believe strongly that history will not be affected. It will not turn the world upside down. I figure an hour, two on the outside. You’ll have me back in time to shut down and even get a few hours of sleep.”

  “I don’t think so,” Bradshaw said.

  “I agree with my colleague,” Grae said.

  “I’m okay with it,” Charles said.

  Surprised by Charles’ vote of confidence, Annie said, “Thanks, Charles. It doesn’t really make any difference what the rest of you guys say. The fact is I’m going to do it because I already know I did.”

  There was a long silence while everyone looked at her. “Expound on that, please,” her grandfather finally said. Annie looked to see that he appeared to have pulled himself out of his depressive stupor.

  “Tony was due to deploy the morning of January 25th. I did not go because I had classes and we said our goodbyes on the twenty-second at the airport in Boston, if you call fighting until he went through security a goodbye. About 4:30 that morning I awoke on top of my blankets, naked. I found my nightgown between the sheets. Although puzzled by it, I figured it was a combination of dreams and stress over my fight with Tony. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I didn’t remember it until just a few hours ago.”

  “So you think you time traveled that night,” Charles said.

  “Yes.”

  He looked at the older men. “If you’re not going to
say it I will.” He looked back at Annie. “You were probably having an erotic dream.”

  Annie glared at him and then turned her face away and up at the stars. After she’d sucked up the courage to continue she said, “I also sleep in my panties, which I found inside my nightgown. It was as though I dematerialized out of my clothes and then rematerialized on top of them, which, just like the other night, is exactly what I did.” She looked between the three men who were not Charles. “Other than the dweeb’s stupid comment, do you have any other explanations?”

  “You think you can talk us into this based on the fact that you think you actually already made the trip.”

  “I don’t think I made the trip; I know I did.” She pointed off into the night. “Wednesday night I dematerialized before your eyes as my future self materialized. And then you watched as it all reversed. Yesterday morning could you have possibly decided to the nix the whole thing? Could you have possibly decided not to send me back 12 hours?” She stared at them. “Well?”

  “Not sending you back would, in that case, have changed history.”

  She jumped to her feet and pointed at her grandfather. “Exactly! Not sending me back to January 25th would also change history.”

  They sat staring at her as though unable to make a decision or come to the obvious conclusion.

  “We have seven hours to get this done and I’m tired, so let’s get on with it.”

  Still no one moved. She looked from one to the other, ending with Charles.

  “Well?”

  Charles shrugged his shoulders and looked off into the trees.

  “I’m sorry I called you a dweeb.”

  As though weighing his decision he sat perfectly still for a time and then slowly rose to his feet. To Professor Grae he said, “I’m going to put some decent clothes on. You want to start the plant ramping up?”

  Grae considered it for a few seconds and then looked over at Bradshaw and Robert. “I’d like to have done a few more tests first.”

  “I don’t think we have that luxury,” Robert said. “We either do this for her or we don’t. It sounds to me like we already did. In that case do we have any choice?”