Drive Time

by Matt Wilkinson

  By the end of the video, she was positive that this was no prank. She already wanted to know more about who these people were, she didn't need her interest piquing any further, but the email continued to anyway.

  No, you don't have a twin, these are just images of events that you can't remember, but we want to help you with that. My number is 07700900488, you can call me anytime. It's probably best not to ask for explanations if you call, I'm not sure I can explain well enough in words, I may need to show you. I can meet you in Harrogate in a public place of your choosing, and we can talk. There are more photos and videos below, please take a look through, as it's additional evidence that what I'm saying is true.

  I hope to hear from you soon,

  Victor.

  She continued to scroll through the photos, there were more of her and the attractive guy who was with her in the first picture, in various affectionate poses. Some of them had other strangers in shot, the same people who were in the video. One of the photos was of her with a man on her left and a woman on her right, she had her arms around their shoulders, and they were all smiling. Both the man and woman looked around twenty, near to her age, but Sarah looked older than she did right now, which was the main point of confusion for her. Could she have amnesia? Was that possible when she has no missing time? She would need to have gaps in her memory of at least a month to have forgotten these people who seemed to know her so well. Sarah had no absent days in her recollection so it couldn't be possible. Or could it, she thought. The question began to confound her perceptions, so she shook it off.

  Sarah watched a few more videos of birthday parties, this time, other members of the group being the subject. Here she learnt the names of the people she had been watching so intently. The one called Victor had a 'Happy Birthday Dad' banner at his party. She and he were the only ones with an additional poster. Did this mean that the man who wrote the email was her husband? Sarah recalled a Geena Davis movie from the nineties in which she played a housewife who'd created a new life from scratch after being afflicted with amnesia. Later, when the missing years reintroduced themselves to her, she was reminded of her life as a highly trained government assassin. Sarah was starting to see parallels between her and Ms Davis’ character of that movie. Hopefully, she wasn't about to find out that she was a murderer. Sarah laughed and slipped — slightly — back into denial. There had to be a reasonable explanation for all this, maybe they had the wrong woman and she was just a dead ringer for this other Sarah woman, she did look younger than her, so they weren’t identical. People say that everyone has their own doppelganger, right? But what about the Power Ranger thing? Could that also be a coincidence? She finished scrolling through the additional photos and found some more text beneath.

  P.S. Your favourite colour is purple, you love anchovy and olive pizza, your first pet was Pebbles the gerbil, and your father's pet name for you was Bunny since you had a penchant for raw carrots, you'd call him Doc.

  She couldn’t take any more and picked up her phone to call the number.

  Chapter 39

  Victor was putting the finishing touches to a modification of their cross-time video conferencing software; when it was complete video calls could then be relayed to his phone. Once his work finalised, he prepared the application for a test call, which he was about to execute when the phone began to jingle. The caller ID read Sarah and the background displayed her picture, but he didn’t require any visual confirmation as calls from her number played what he and his wife considered to be their song as a ringtone. Victor knew her number thanks to the latest merge and had programmed it into his handset. He hadn’t expected her to call so soon, though he’d hoped that she would. He accepted the call, and Stan Bush immediately stopped serenading him with assurances that he had the touch and the power.

  “Hi, Sarah.”

  “I’m not going to ask how you knew it was me.”

  “I’ve been waiting for your call.”

  “Do you know the coffee shop outside Victoria Shopping Centre?”

  “Of course, it’s our favourite. Sorry, your favourite. My favourite! I mean my favourite.”

  He could hear Sarah sigh from the other end of the line.

  “Can you be there in thirty minutes?”

  “Yes, I can do that, no problem.”

  “Okay.”

  The line went dead.

  “Okay then," Victor said to himself. “Here goes.”

  He gathered his composure, informed everyone of his conversation and said goodbye as he headed for the door.

  “Good luck, Dad," James called.

  “Thanks, kid," Victor replied with the air of a man about to embark on the most important job interview of his life.

  The rest of his friends shouted good luck as he left the building. HQ was close enough to town for him to walk to the coffee shop and still have time to spare before Sarah’s allotted half hour was over. The butterflies in his stomach grew in number with each step he took towards the coffee shop, he really needed this to go well. Now Victor had these new memories, there was no’ way for him to imagine a future with the kids and not Sarah. When he reached their rendezvous location, he thought about waiting outside for Sarah’s arrival, but when approaching the shop window, he noticed that she had also shown up early and was already seated inside. Sarah had spotted him, and she watched him carefully as he entered the cafe. Victor introduced himself and held out his hand to shake, immediately feeling awkward with it, it was too formal. He noticed that she didn’t have a drink.

  “Would you like something?” he asked, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the coffee menu. “Caramel macchiato?”

  Sarah’s eyes widened, surprised that he knew her favourite drink, then the look turned to confusion with a little anger. She sighed, her shoulders slumped, and she threw up her hands in lethargic surrender.

  “Sure," she said, equally resigned. Victor felt like she’d just gone through the five stages of grief, bar perhaps bargaining.

  He gave his order to the barista. While he was at the counter, Sarah was watching him like a hawk. She couldn’t intuit any trace of him being some kind of crazy person. He seemed very nice if she were to be honest with herself. Does a crazy person politely buy you a coffee? Probably, then they’d drug the drink. They do say it’s always the quiet ones. Sarah continued to observe him while he paid for the beverages. She’d collect the coffees when they were finished, to be polite, but mainly, so she had hers in her safekeeping immediately. He came back to the table.

  “When we have the drinks, maybe we can go upstairs and find a quiet corner, what we have to speak about is best not overheard.”

  “Okay.”

  He stood next to her and looked back at the counter to see if his drinks were finished. It was as uncomfortable as they had both expected.

  “Was it OK for you to leave school early?” he asked.

  Sarah sighed again. “Well, it was almost student leaving time anyway.”

  Victor cleared his throat, anything to fill the awkward silence. The barista called out their names, and he moved to collect the cups.

  “I’ll get them,” Sarah said. “you find a seat upstairs.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Victor said and climbed the stairs. Luckily, the coffee shop wasn’t too busy, and he found a long seat built into the corner of the room with a table and space for them both. A few moments later Sarah arrived with the coffee. He motioned to the seat he’d left for her; as they were in the corner, the position gave them the opportunity to remain discreet. The proximity made it difficult for Victor to avoid pulling his once-wife into a tight squeeze.

  “It’s best we sit close, there’ll be something I need to show you on my phone.” He said, intent on making her feel less awkward about having him in her personal space. “That’s not as creepy as it sounds.”

  Sarah actually found that moment quite endearing and relaxed into her edge of the table. Victor sighed and slumped against the table on his elbows.

 
“I’m trying to find a way to start that eases you into this. You’re going to find it hard to believe.”

  “Okay... I might be there already to be fair.”

  “By now you’ll have gathered that I know you pretty well.”

  “Ahuh...”

  “Well, I know that you keep up with science and new technologies and that you’ve heard of quantum entanglement and know how it works in theory.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Well, I and some of the people I work with managed to take quantum-entangled messaging past theory and into practice.”

  “With you so far.” she said, so it almost sounded like a question.

  “Well, here comes the part that you might find hard to believe.” he paused for breath. “We also figured out a way to send data back in time.”

  Suddenly everything was falling into place for Sarah, her older looks in the videos, everything that Victor knew about her. The most shocking thing to find from this new information was that she wasn’t finding it that hard to believe. Her subconscious was always telling her that there was something different about this man, she felt an immediate connection to him, right from the moment she saw his first video, despite the strange introduction and awkward first meeting. Even the ‘Mum and Dad’ part was feeling strangely natural. Though she wondered if she might have taken a short trip away from her senses.

  Victor could see that the penny was dropping for Sarah. He relaxed somewhat and was a little disappointed in himself for not having more faith in her. Victor decided to launch into the story so far, including their temporary deletion at the hands of Stan. He began with a warning that it was about to get complicated. He included everything about the merge process, so she’d be able to figure out where this might be going.

  “So, we have kids together? In the future.”

  “Yes.”

  “And they’re here now, in this time.”

  “Just across town, yes.”

  “But they’re as old as we are?”

  “Yes.”

  “But I don’t remember them.”

  “Not yet, no, but you could if you wanted to.”

  “I feel like the sane thing to do would be to walk out of here, quickly, and not look back. This is a lot to take in.”

  “I know. There’s one more thing I can do that may be the icing on the proof-cake for you.”

  “Okay.”

  He took out his phone and pushed a pair of earbud headphones into the jack. He passed Sarah an earpiece, and inserted the other into his ear, forcing them closer again. He opened the video call app and made a note of the time. The phone buzzed in his hand, and he answered the call. Victor appeared on the screen with Sarah in the frame right next to him. At first, she thought that it was simply their front facing camera until she noticed that the setting was different and people were passing behind them where, in the coffee shop, they had a wall.

  “Hi there.” the on-screen Sarah said.

  “Hey.” Screen Victor said.

  Even after hearing Victor’s whole story, this turn of events was surprising to Sarah.

  “I can vouch for Victor, which means that you vouch for Victor,” said the screen image of Sarah. “Can there be any more reliable seal of approval?”

  Sarah was feeling light-headed. “I suppose not.”

  “I can one hundred percent guarantee that you should undergo a mind merge, Two Days Younger Me.”

  “What?”

  “Agree to receive new memories, you won’t regret it.”

  “Okay…” Sarah’s mind was racing, the conversation with herself was barely registering.

  “Victor will walk you back to headquarters so that you can meet the others. You should then get a write performed immediately. I ummed and ahhed about it for a while, you should save yourself the trouble. Having your future-past back will be the best thing that’s happened to you in forever. Or you can go back to fixing the same network every day. I know you’re thinking that this could be a recording, so ask me the first question that comes into your head, something you already know the answer to.”

  Sarah was slow to respond since she was in a daze. “Erm… Okay… Why is six afraid of seven?”

  “Because seven eight nine.” Screen Sarah laughed. “I’m a future version of you, and even I didn’t expect that query.”

  Sarah looked at the Victor sitting next to her and then the one on screen. She didn’t believe it was possible for them to have her secret twin and one for Victor too, that would be a very elaborate plot and why would they bother? As of now, Sarah felt like nobody of importance. That might change if this was all true, as she was almost positive that it was, she and her new family might have some significance. The possibilities raced through her mind. If nothing else, it was fun to finally have some adventure in her life.

  “Okay, I’m in.” she said with a smile.

  Chapter 40

  Beth and James were busy fitting 3D printed silicone sheath parts to Isaac’s construction. The silicone would mainly cover the gaps in his assembly and attach quickly to the carbon or metal parts of his casing by pressing the spherical ends of pegs on the inside of the sheath into recesses on the skeletal frame of the android. The flexible sections were moulded perfectly, allowing secure attachment and a full range of motion without parts popping off. They had chosen a shade of blue silicone, giving Isaac a colourfully modern look; in the future they had experimented with flesh coloured parts, making him appear more human, but this resulted in a decidedly creepy looking mechanical servant. Once the silicone parts were in place the android could be dressed if required, and more customisations were available, such as wigs or imitation eyeballs with an authentic appearance. This would make the android pass for human at a distance, especially if the silicone parts were given the right paint job, for which the nanobots were more than adept. The bots could create realistic skin tones and even place pores and wrinkles. Sophisticated animatronics was an additional layer of intricate customisation, allowing for blinking eyes and accurate facial expressions. For most applications, a basic build was satisfactory, as was the case with Isaac. His exoskeleton had been given a glossy white paint finish, and his head exhibited a smooth, curved faceplate that doubled as an LCD screen, with cutouts for his camera eyes. The display would match the white of his chassis, adding customisable animated eyebrows and mouth. The scant facial features were currently styled on the old fashioned green dot matrix LED displays, providing a similar look to the digital pets of the nineties. Faceplates were interchangeable to suit the needs of the user.

  James’ mind wandered as he assembled the android, fixating on the unlikely — but entirely possible — notion that his mother may leave his life for good. He repeatedly glanced towards the door, checking for his father’s return, he would know immediately from Victor’s face if the outcome was good or bad. When his father did eventually appear at the door — in what felt like a year of real-time — he didn’t expect him to have company. He watched as his mother entered the building with a look of bewilderment, wanting to run to her and give her a hug, but he didn’t know how much she knew or how peculiar she might find that. His father raised his eyebrows at James, his expression revealing that he was as excited and surprised as James that his plan had succeeded so quickly.

  “Hey gang,” Victor said. “Best behaviour, we have a guest.”

  “Hi," Sarah said, trying to take in her strange surroundings.

  “Hello madam, may I bring you a cup of tea?” Isaac asked.

  Sarah stared at the robot man in front of her. If it wasn’t for his colourful appearance and cute smiley face, she might have felt a tinge of fear mixed in with her confusion. She looked at the others, mouth agape, they nodded.

  “Yes? Please," she said.

  “Right away, Madam.”

  The way that Isaac walked to the kettle made her chuckle a little, perfectly postured, but with small shuffling steps.

  “If I had any doubts about your story and mess
ages from the future, they’d be gone now.”

  “There’s more we could surprise you with, but if you’re really going forward with the write, it would be pointless, none of this will surprise you once you have your future memories.”

  “Okay, makes sense.” she looked at James. “So you’re my son.”