The History Channel

by S G Read

  ‘If you don’t have any fares I would like a tour of London while I am visiting but I insist I pay you.’ He called back to Gus.

  ‘I will take you wherever you want to go, James.’

  William waited for the ambulance and was on his way to hospital and hour later having lost a lot of blood. He was conscious of the siren, as they drove through London but did not remember getting to hospital. He was unconscious when they started working on him and stayed that way for some time.

  ‘Good morning, Mr. Just, I see you have re-joined the land of the living.’ the nurse greeted when William woke up.

  ‘Good morning, have I been asleep long?’ William asked as he looked round the hospital room he was in.

  He had no memory of the trip in the ambulance and had only a hazy memory of what had happened previous to his injury, he knew it was his foot and looked down to make sure it was still there.

  ‘It is still there, although you had lost the skin off the sole somehow.’ The nurse assured him. ‘You were asleep for three days, although they did sedate you while they did the skin graph.’

  ‘Three days,’ William repeated, ‘where did they get the skin from?’

  ‘Your thigh, that is why it is bandaged.’ The nurse answered.

  ‘Am I allowed out of bed?’ William asked.

  ‘Not yet, the skin has to adhere fully to the foot before you can walk on it.’ The nurse explained.

  As he lay there it all slowly came back to him, the fight to go back in time, saving Sarah and making sure Tom Barber went to prison. He remembered James’ part in it all and he was now stuck in the nineteenth century for his trouble. The television was still outside of his flat and now there was no cover over it so it was at the mercy of the weather; that was not good.

  ‘I need to make a phone call, nurse.’ He said as she was going through her routine.

  ‘There is one by your bed but it will have to wait until I have finished.’ The nurse answered.

  William looked at the cupboard beside him and saw the phone on it, he was in a private room which meant that he must have shown them his card before he passed out. A few more minutes did not matter, as soon as he could, he needed to phone his neighbour and get him to bring the television inside. The thought did occur that was his neighbour the same as before and did he have a key to his flat for emergencies but there was only one way to find out.

  Finally the nurse left and William phoned his neighbour, before he had discovered the way into the past, they had passed the time together enough to swap keys. Not that they were drinking binges, as neither could afford such things. William had not seen him for some time but he was sure that he still lived in the same flat. The phone rang and finally the answer phone took the message about the television. It may already be too late but if it was in the dry it would at least dry out and be ready for him to try it. At least with the power off, it would not go bang in the rain.

  Then he remembered that it was a power cut which had made the television cut out as he was coming through it, now he was worried. He had no idea what the weather had been like since his return so anything could have happened when the power came back on. He would only find out the truth when he was out of hospital and he could get back to the flat.

  A meal arrived and he ate it, he had not ordered it but he soon realised how hungry he was when he started eating it. He emptied the plate and drank the tea which accompanied it. Then he lay back but it was hard to settle when he thought of the television out in the weather.

  He lay there for an hour in anguish, unable to even get out of bed. He phoned his neighbour again and left a second message on his answering machine but it did not help. When he looked up and saw Sarah come into the room with a carrier bag in her hand he felt a lot better. She was dressed in modern attire and looked like any other twenty first century teenager.

  ‘I had to borrow some money from you to buy this fruit, everything cost so much here.’ She said when he saw her.

  ‘It is the thought that counts,’ William answered and relaxed on the bed, ‘I take it you came through after me?’

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘I thought that you would get it working again and just popped over to see if it was working and there it was. I asked your neighbour how to put money in the meter, I was going to make sure there was a lot in there so I could get home but we found out it had been changed. When I could not find you I asked him where you were and he told me you were in hospital.’ Sarah explained. ‘Isn’t it clean in here.’

  ‘It has to be, it is a hospital, Sarah, I will be laid up for a while until my foot heals.’

  ‘But there was skin and other stuff on the sole of the shoe which fell down,’ Sarah argued, ‘I thought they would have to cut your foot off.’

  ‘No, they just took a layer of skin from my thigh and fixed it to my foot somehow, I was unconscious at the time so I don’t know how they went about it.’ William explained. ‘How is James?’

  ‘He went up to bed that night but was gone in the morning and his bed had not been slept in.’ Sarah explained. ‘We don’t know what happened to him or where he is.’

  ‘Time is an awkward thing to play with, anything can happen.’ William replied.

  ‘Like what?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Are you are sure you want to know the answer?’ William asked.

  ‘How bad can it be?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘I will tell you what has happened to me in the last two years, it might be worth sitting down, as it is a long story.’ William answered.

  William recounted the events that transpired after his week in the twenty first century while Barber had her prisoner, he did not tell her what her mother had seen on the last day. Then he went on to explain his attempts to alter his machine to go back far enough to change things, his final reckoning with Tom Barber and the unexpected interference before he could act; to the timely arrival of James and his baseball bat.

  ‘You had to wait two years to come back and save me,’ Sarah asked incredulously, ‘but I was only there four days, what happened to the rest of the time?’

  ‘As I said time is not easy to understand and predict.’ William explained.

  ‘Hold on, you said you were away for a week that means you didn’t come and save me.’ Sarah declared. ‘So what happened to me?’

  ‘I found out why the house I lived in was never rebuilt,’ William said, changing the subject, ‘it was turned into a park.’

  ‘You are avoiding the question, Mr. Just.’ Sarah observed.

  ‘I am not sure you are ready to hear the answer, Sarah.’

  ‘Oh, well I trust you, so maybe I don’t need to hear it then, not yet anyway.’ Sarah replied. ‘Where is the other machine?’

  ‘I don’t know if it still exists, Sarah, I built it to go back and face Tom Barber so I don’t know what happened to it after I was successful. When I am fit enough I will go to my new workshop and see if it is still there.’

  ‘Why should it not be there?’ Sarah asked a little puzzled.

  ‘If James has returned to how he was before he met me, then the workshop will not be there now.’ William explained as best he could.

  ‘I do not understand but I will take your word for it and wait until we can go and look.’ Sarah replied.

  William ate fruit and offered some to Sarah, she did not have fresh fruit very often but before they knew Goliath and William they never had fresh fruit. She spent some time peeling an orange, following William’s directions on how to do it, what to eat and which parts are not for eating. The result was a big smile and lots of juice running down her chin. William supplied a tissue to wipe it, as she slurped her way right through the orange.

  ‘Did you enjoy that?’ William asked, really knowing the answer.

  ‘Yes thank you, it was lovely.’ Sarah answered.

  ‘Well while you are here you can have lots of fresh fruit but the knowledge has to stop here when you go back.’ William warned. ‘To mention fresh fruit would c
ertainly surprise them back there.’

  ‘Could I not take some back and say we went somewhere to get it?’ Sarah asked. ‘I would love to see my mother’s face when she eats an orange.’

  ‘With all the juice running down her chin, while she eats it.’ William added.

  ‘There is that as well.’ Sarah agreed.

  ‘When I am fit, we will go and see what we can buy in London then I will know how to answer that, to take something through that cannot be bought in London at that time would be a mistake, although I know there were a few pineapples about then.’

  ‘They cost too much, even for the rich, I heard they rent them for their dinner parties and then it goes back to the owner again.’ Sarah replied.

  ‘Rent out a pineapple?’ William cried in disbelief.

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘Not that I ever saw one until I came here, this is like a dream world. That is how I explain anything I say which is odd, I say I dreamed it, mother knows I have vivid dreams. I always have had and that was before I met you Mr. Just.’ Sarah answered.

  ‘I will have to look that up on my computer when I can get to it.’ William declared.

  ‘That little flat thing that opens up?’ Sarah asked. ‘I could bring it in for you.’

  ‘I don’t know if there is an internet connection available and if I would be allowed to use it Sarah, it can wait until I am up and about.’

  Sarah looked up at the clock on the wall.

  ‘I have to go now, I have chores to do but I will see you tomorrow as long as I can use some of the money in the flat again.’ She exclaimed.

  ‘Use it all, I have plenty and I am not spending any in here.’

  ‘Is this all free then?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘I pay a monthly fee and then when I am ill or injured they look after me for free and it is all done quicker than it would be normally.’ William explained.

  Sarah bent down and kissed him on the cheek and then she was gone.

  William relaxed on his bed but the physiotherapist had other ideas, he had to exercise even though he had to stay in bed. The same thing happened every day until he was allowed out of bed and he was able to start walking. The only thing that brightened his days were the visits from Sarah. He remembered her telling him she was soon to be fourteen and wondered if her birthday had passed. There was very little he could do about it until he was fit, then he would find out.

  Slowly he become more and more mobile until he was discharged from hospital and returned to his flat. He did not know what to expect but the flat was empty although the television was still on. The flat was clean and the bed was made ready for him to use, he was still walking on crutches to keep some pressure off his bad foot. He considered going through to the nineteenth century but ruled it out, he settled on ordering a take away meal and ate it alone.

  Sarah visited him occasionally while he was getting back to full mobility until the day he risked going out without his crutches. He chose to go to the building that he had rented to set up his workshop in. He was amazed to find it up and running still and James was there working on more resistors.

  ‘Hello William.’ James greeted when he saw William. ‘This project is really interesting, which year are you from?’

  ‘I thought it was today and I am surprised to find this workshop still here and working, I thought that when we saved Sarah it would all disappear and you would not have even started the project.’ William answered.

  ‘I thought that but when you think about it, there was no way you could save Sarah without making this machine, so it will have to still be here when you have saved her.’

  ‘So, does that mean that you are not the James who went through to help me?’

  ‘No, I am the James who is trying to get more machines working.’

  ‘Then how do you know that I am from the future?’ William asked.

  ‘Because the you from now has just gone through this television to find out what year it is.’ James answered. ‘I must admit I don’t understand the ins and outs of it but I am sure that it is a good idea if you two don’t meet each other.’

  ‘So what should I do if there is two of us running about?’ William asked.

  ‘For some reason this time line is still going as well as the other one but I don’t know why.’ James answered.

  ‘I think I do,’ William said confidently but I can’t really explain it to you at the moment, ‘but if I am right then my foot will soon heal.’

  ‘Foot, what’s wrong with your foot?’ James asked.

  ‘No time to explain, and don’t mention this to the other me.’ William answered.

  He took a taxi back to the flat and before going through to the nineteenth century he sat and thought about what was going to happen. When he returned to the future the time line he was in would cease to exist and therefore he would not remember anything about it. Finding James was a great leap forward but he only sought him out because he wanted to save Sarah, could he leave a reason for him to contact James and start it all in motion again. He thought deeply and wrote a detailed note for his alter ego to read when it arrived. Instead of leaving it where it could be read by anyone, he wrote his own name and address, stuck a stamp on it then walked down to the post box and posted it. When he was in the nineteenth century he walked across to see Gus and Gus took him across town to the site of the confrontation with Tom Barber and dropped him off.

  ‘I’ll wait if you want me to.’ Gus offered.

  ‘No need, Gus.’ William answered and tried to pay him.

  ‘You will never pay for a ride in my chaise again William Just.’ Gus declared and refused to take the money.

  William nodded to him and Gus drove away. When Gus was out of sight William started walking towards the disused workhouse. He did not hurry as it was probably his last walk in this time line for him. He reached the workhouse and passed an old tramp sitting in the doorway.

  ‘You took you time.’ The old tramp complained.

  William looked back to see that it was James.

  ‘You have realised that we have to go back through then.’ James asked.

  ‘I have and it will be the last thing we do in this time line.’ William answered.

  ‘There is no need to now but will you set up the workshop anyway?’ James asked. ‘I have to admit I really enjoyed the work.’

  ‘Oh yes, you will be getting a call, I posted a note for the other me to my flat.’ William answered.

  ‘If that does not disappear as well.’ James replied.

  ‘There is that possibility of course but if it does arrive, we can take the working tellies apart just to see what makes them tick, I am interested in just how far back we can go. We might even see a real live dinosaur.’

  ‘At least no dinosaurs can get through the television screen, well no big ones.’ James answered.

  They walked to the opening, shook hands and climbed through into the workshop.

  Chapter 9

  Life continued as it had done before with William reinforcing his position in both times and enjoying watching Sarah grow up. He took her on trips in the twenty first century to show her what it was like then. One day he picked up his post, an uncommon occurrence now, as his money was usually paid straight into the bank by the auction houses. He looked through the pile of junk mail and saw a letter, he recognised his handwriting but could not remember posting it. He opened it and read it through twice then left it on the table. It sounded farfetched as he could remember nothing about any of it but it was worth following up, what if the television went wrong, another route might be handy.

  He looked on his computer and found the place mentioned in the note, he arranged to rent the property and then phoned the man mentioned in the note. For James it was a call out of the blue and he was interested as he was looking to stop going round to houses and fixing televisions. They arranged to meet at what was to be the new workshop at the weekend.

  William spent some time in the nineteenth century during
the week but returned to the twenty first century to meet James at the new workshop. Despite having worked together neither could remember anything about it.

  ‘I intend to turn this into a workshop and I understand you can get hold of some plasma televisions, I have the make and model written down and details of the fault which it had and the circuit I made to try to make the television work again with strange results.’

  ‘What sort of strange result?’ James asked.

  ‘That is hard to explain without it sounding too fantastic,’ William answered, ‘but I want you to recreate the fault by subjecting the resistor to the overload which caused it to fail to see if we can’t recreate the same sort of result.’

  ‘When will I know that I have succeeded?’ James asked.

  ‘That I can show you, I have the television in my flat and you can see the strange result for yourself.’

  They took a taxi to the flat and William showed him the television in the bathroom. James looked down into it and saw the floor below.

  ‘Why is it on its back?’ He asked.

  William picked up the ladder and passed it through the television and it made James gasp.

  ‘It is like this so I can climb through it, follow me down.’ William answered.

  They both climbed down and walked out of the room to find themselves in a building which was being rebuilt.

  ‘We can go out there but first we have to go back and change our clothes.’ William announced.

  ‘Change our clothes?’ James echoed.

  William led him to the window and they looked out to see horse drawn carriages going by and cobbled streets.

  ‘We are now in the nineteenth century.’ William explained.

  James mouth fell open.

  ‘The nineteenth century,’ he echoed, ‘though a television!’

  ‘Yes, I fell upon it by accident and went through. We have met before but neither of us have any recollection of it but I left myself a note about it, quite a long note.’