by S G Read
‘Yes and I have been visiting the nineteenth century but in doing so I have altered history slightly and I want to go back and change what happened.’ William answered.
‘Can you do that?’ James asked. ‘According to Wells if you do something purely to go back and change history then you cannot change it or you would not have made the machine in the first place.’
‘But as I already had a time machine working and it was my fault for meddling with history then I argue that I can.’ William answered. ‘Even if it means that this workshop never happened, it will mean that Sarah will still be alive.’
‘A girlfriend?’ James asked.
‘No just a friend but she died because of her link to me and I aim to change that.’
‘From what I can work out about all this, that altered resistor does all the work and as I can’t make it adjustable, all I can do is to make a lot of resistors the same and try them all. Do you know what date it is though there?’
‘I don’t but I know how to find out, I will climb through and ask.’ William answered.
William climbed through into the nineteenth century. He needed to know what year it was and what day it was, his foray into the nineteenth century meant he knew what was in the area. He started walking but it suddenly struck him that he was in his normal clothes a few seconds later he was back in the workshop.
‘That was close, I need to change into Victorian clothes.’ He explained to James and took a taxi back to his flat.
When he returned he had his Victorian clothes in a carrier bag. He changed, selected what he was going to wear and put it on. He also had a bag of Victorian money and put some in his pocket. Now when he climbed through, he looked every inch a Victorian gentleman. He made sure that no one was looking when he stepped out into the street and walked along it. He felt at home, he walked into a shop and spent some money, which was a good way of breaking the ice.
‘I was talking to my friend and he was sure it was the fourteenth of July but I argued that it was earlier than the fourteenth.’ William said idly. ‘We have been away in Paris and I cannot speak French.’
‘A traveller, are you?’ The shopkeeper asked.
‘Yes, I have been out of England for a while.’
‘Tell your friend he is a few days out, this is the twelfth.’ The shopkeeper explained.
William returned to the derelict building, which the door from the twenty first century led to and made sure no one saw him walk inside. Now he could climb back through into the twenty first century.
‘It is the twelfth today in Victorian times and that means it is three days before today, therefore we can produce a resistor that will take us back far enough but we need to do it quickly.’ He declared.
‘If you think about it William, we do not have to do it quickly at all. Sarah is dead and she will not become any deader. When you get back and change things, she will never have died in the first place so no one will remember about it.’ James argued. ‘I will repeat the experiment I did on the resistor, here using the same current and voltage but vary each one as I do it, to try to change the outcome.’
They worked together to create as many different resistors as they could and then soldered in ten of them to test them. Four worked but when William looked through he could see his footprints from his first trip through so all ten were scrapped. The next ten were soldered into their respective televisions and they were turned on, when sound came through one of them both James and William walked over to it.
‘What do you think?’ James whispered.
‘There are people there so it is either a lot earlier or a lot later, I will look up the history of the place again to see just what it was and when.’ William answered at the same level.
William opened his lap top and returned to the website which had shown him that the workshop site was a disused building in Lombard Street. He delved deeper into the website and read up about the area, it mentioned a workhouse which closed down two years before he had gone through. That meant he could do what he wanted but he had to wait two years to do it.
‘Leave that one running in case we have no luck with any of the other televisions,’ William declared, ‘I will go through and find out what the date is as it is at least two years before the date we want.’
‘How are you going to find that out?’ James asked.
‘I will ask, as it is a workhouse, I will dress accordingly, to dress shabbily will find me working but to dress in toff’s gear will make them take note and answer questions.’ William answered. ‘To do that I will need better clothes so I will have to go through the other television and buy some.’
William left James working and made his way to the flat and into the nineteenth century to buy his new clothes. He kept well away from the tavern and chose to walk over London Bridge to find a shop. He bought two complete outfits and had them wrapped up for his journey back. Now he chose a cabbie, making sure that it was not Gus. When he returned to the workshop he had his clothes with him and changed ready to go through the new opening. He walked out of the toilet in his new nineteenth century attire and twirled in front of James. He had hoped to keep what the television did secret from James but soon realised just how impractical that idea was.
‘You look like Brownlow in Oliver Twist.’ James declared.
‘That is the sort of impression I want to make and this wodge of cash will help as well.’ William added.
He held out a thick wad of five pound notes.
‘I want to look the part and have the menials jump when I bark at them.’
He climbed through the television and found himself in the private rooms, probably those of the man in charge. He thought back to Oliver Twist, this might be the beadle’s room; he considered what to do next. With him he had a small book and a pencil to write in it. He decided to wait for the beadle’s return. It did not take long for the beadle to walk into his rooms.
‘Who the devil are you, sir.’ The beadle asked when he saw William.
‘I, sir, am the man sent to see how things are run round here and as you can see I walked right in without anyone seeing me. That in itself is not good for my report, kindly show me round the rest of the workhouse and let me see just what else you are managing to do badly.’ William answered. ‘The name is Just, William Just.’
‘Glad to make your acquaintance I am sure, Mr. Just but I think that apart from the fact that you were able to get in unchallenged, you will find the rest of the workhouse is well controlled.’ The beadle answered.
The beadle led the way out into the workhouse, he showed him the workers working and what they were doing, then he showed him round the rest of the site, including the land behind which was an orchard. When they returned to the beadle’s private rooms for a sherry William was quite impressed and showed it.
‘You do indeed seem to be completely in charge, Mr. Galbraith, I commend you for the way you run things, I am sure the lack of challenge was purely because they could see that I was a dignitary.’ William declared.
He opened the book.
‘I will make a few notes on what I saw to report to my superiors.’
He started writing but when it came to the date he stopped.
‘I always seem to get the date wrong, Mr. Galbraith, do you have note of it somewhere.’ William asked.
Mr. Galbraith, eager to please, furnished him with the date and William made note of it in the book. All he had to do was to get back through the television but it was in the same room they were in, not an easy thing to do with a man watching your every move.
‘I do not have a note of your staff, could you assemble them for me please?’
When the beadle left the room to comply, it gave William his chance to leave. He left a note that he had written earlier and two five pound notes on the chair he was sitting on and when the beadle returned to let him know that the staff were assembled, that was all he found.
The television was left working but locked in another room out of the
way so that no one could hear them and no one coming through could get any further. Now they concentrated on the other televisions and it took over their lives, both of them. To get the date as close as possible to the date they wanted was the target but it was all hit and miss. With each failure came a resolve to make the next one work but for the next two years they met failure.
When the date approached of the confrontation according to the only working television they examined it, to make sure it was still working and it was. The workhouse was now closed but still in good condition.
‘It will soon be time to right an injustice and change things but I don’t care, the way I see it, Sarah would not have died if I had never gone back in time so it is the right thing to do, it might mean that I am stuck in the nineteenth century, if that is the case, so be it.’ William exclaimed.
‘But your original door should still be working.’ James argued.
‘Yes it will but it was working on a prepaid meter and the money might have run out when I try to go through it.’ William explained.
‘Give me the address and I will go and feed the meter for you.’ James offered.
‘If you do actually remember anything about what we have been doing,’ William countered, ‘and I am not sure you will.’
‘This causality lark takes a lot of thinking about,’ James complained, ‘what about writing yourself a letter to tell you to change to a normal meter and pay by direct debit?’
‘By the time I receive it I will be very old if I am not already dead and buried.’ William answered.
‘There is that,’ James replied, ‘but I meant for you to leave a note for yourself where you went through the first time, as early as you can but now we have waited this long for this window then I should have mentioned it before.’
‘It would have been a good idea to leave a note on the floor for me to see when I first looked through but it might have freaked me out to see a note for me from me waiting there.’ William declared. ‘Still what will be, will be. I have a Taser here which I will throw into the Thames as soon as I have freed Sarah, after that fate will take control.’
As the day approached William made all the preparations he could for his confrontation with Tom Barber, it was a little worrying but he was going to save Sarah, whatever happened. He dressed in his Victorian clothes and made sure he had money with him and a list of winners to ensure he could live a life of leisure, just in case he was marooned there.
With a final wave to James he stepped through for what he thought would be his last time, he walked out of the disused building and up the road towards the meeting place. He knew Barber would be waiting for him but he had something Baber did not, a Taser. He walked on confidently but suddenly two burly men grabbed hold of him and he had no chance to do anything. They forced him into a nearby building where Barber was waiting. Sarah was there and she was still alive but she was tied up and gagged, to stop her warning him.
‘We had to change the meeting place,’ Barber explained, ‘the man from the tavern put the thief taker on me, he is about and looking for me.’
The two men did not release their hold on William which meant that he had no chance to use the Taser in his pocket. Barber walked over to where they were holding him, knowing that he was unable to defend himself.
‘You will die slow but as you came, I will make her death very quick.’ He growled.
‘You said you would release her if I came.’ William argued.
‘She would only go blabbing to the thief taker, so she has to die but she can watch you die before I kill her.’ Barber answered.
‘You are worse than an animal, Mary was right I should have shot you dead when you tried to rob me.’ William declared.
‘That is the first sensible thing you have said since you have been here.’ Barber cried.
William struggled with the men who held him but he could not get a hand free to get the Taser out, Barber pulled out his knife.
‘Struggle all you like, it is better than going out quietly, I shall be kicking and screaming when I die.’ Barber acknowledged.
‘I shall be there when they hang you.’ William shouted defiantly.
‘I doubt that very much.’ Barber argued and moved close enough to stab him.
There was a thudding sound and the man holding William’s right arm groaned then fell to the floor, the man on his left arm looked round to see the baseball bat as it hit him in the face. Barber thrust the knife forward to make sure of the kill but with his hand free William drew out the Taser and thrust it against Barber’s arm, as he twisted to avoid the knife. Barber collapsed in a heap and William kicked the knife away. Before he went over to untie Sarah he looked round to see who his saviour was.
‘You do understand just what you have done by coming through after me, don’t you James?’ He asked.
‘It looks like we are both taking a chance on fate,’ James answered, ‘I will go and attract the thief taker’s attention while you free the girl.’
Before he left to find the thief taker, James threw his baseball bat into the corner out of sight, it was a twenty first century baseball bat and had no place here and now. William walked over to where Sarah was lying and untied her. She pulled the dirty rag which had been used to gag her.
‘I knew you would come,’ She said quietly, as she climbed to her feet.
She threw her arms round William and hugged him for all she was worth.
‘I thought he was going to kill you.’ She said without releasing her grip.
‘So did I, Sarah, so did I.’ William answered.
‘Who was that man who helped you?’
‘A friend, Sarah, a good friend.’ William answered.
Over William’s shoulder Sarah saw James walk into the building with four other men, including Goliath.
‘The thief taker is here,’ she announced, ‘and Goliath is with him.’
The embrace parted and Sarah was soon hugging Goliath while the thief taker and his men threw the three villains into their cart. The cart trundled away with the men locked inside and their captors riding alongside.
‘We have been trying to let you know that Barber had Sarah and was willing to swap her for you.’ Goliath explained to William, when the cart had left.
‘It turns out that he intended to kill me anyway, Goliath,’ Sarah explained, ‘that is what he said when he was going to kill Mr. Just.’
‘Yes and now I must go, I have a rather important errand to run.’ William answered.
Sarah looked at him hopefully.
‘You have to go home to your mother, Sarah, she has been through a lot and needs to see you in the flesh,’ William explained, ‘and it might be a trifle risky to say the least.’
William and James hurried away, they needed to see if things had reverted. If they had then they had to hurry, just in case the television was still working.
‘Gus is round the corner, he’ll give us all a ride back to the tavern.’ Goliath offered.
As it was quicker than walking back, they all squeezed into the chaise. The horse whinnied when it pulled away but the streets were fairly flat and they were soon back at the tavern. William led James across the street and into the partly rebuilt house that his door used to be in. He hurried through the house and out the back to see if the door to the twenty first century was still there.
There was no finesse in the search, William grovelled on his knees looking up to see if there was an opening above him. He had a rough idea where the opening should be, if it was still there. His hand disappeared when he pushed it above his head.
‘There it is.’ James shouted.
‘Right I am going through, don’t follow in case it cuts out, if it does cut out after I am through it, the opening will reappear in the backroom.’ He pointed to the room he meant then climbed through the television.
As he climbed through the lights in the flat went out which, he assumed, meant that the meter had just run out. William pulled his trailing foot through, as
fast as he could and stood up, he was back and the power was out. He had to get some pound coins and feed the meter so that he could let James back through to modern times. He walked away from the television toward the house and nearly fell over, something was badly wrong with his feet. He looked down and saw that the soul of one shoe was missing completely and he was leaking blood onto the ground.
He limped inside and staunched the blood flow with a towel, then limped to the meter. The pay as you go meter was gone; it was just a power cut. As there was nothing more that he could do he concentrated on his bleeding foot. He took off the ruined shoe and sock to examine his foot, it had been stripped of the skin, leaving a foot that was just bleeding flesh. Now he started to panic, he wrapped it up as best he could and phoned for an ambulance. While he was waiting for the ambulance to come, he changed into modern garb, which was not easy with a bleeding foot, he also made sure his private medical insurance was up to date.
James saw the sole of William’s shoe fall back through the hole and when he examined it he saw that it had skin inside it. He realised that if he had followed William, it would probably have cut part of his head off. Not a nice thought. He waited a few hours and then walked over to the tavern for company.
‘James is it not?’ Goliath greeted when he walked in. ‘Sit down and I will fetch you something to drink. Sarah told me of your part in her rescue and you are my guest until you see fit to move on.’
‘Thank you, Mr. Flint.’
‘The name is Goliath, James.’
James sat down and was soon eating one of the best meals he had eaten for a long while.
‘I can see why William likes to eat here,’ He called over to where Gus and Goliath were talking, ‘excellent food.’
They both acknowledged him and Gus nodded in agreement.
‘That’s why I come here, James.’ He called back.
James reached into his jacket pocket for his handkerchief and found the money he had hurriedly thrust into it before he followed William through the television, at least he had funds.