The History Channel

by S G Read

  ‘I heard her scream.’ James said quietly.

  ‘And you just so happened to have a hunting rifle on hand and were able to help?’ William asked.

  ‘That is just in case we end up in a world run by dinosaurs,’ James explained, ‘I am not going to stand for that. She was screaming for help and I heard her, I could not stand by and do nothing now could I, a sabre toothed tiger was going to eat her.’

  ‘No you could not.’ Sarah declared. ‘You did the right thing, James.’

  She walked over and took charge of the girl. Taking her by the hand and taking her into the toilet to wash her, later she dressed her in some of her clothes and started to try to teach her to speak. The Stone Age girl had not used words before but just uttered sounds, now Sarah tried to get her to speak. She soon realised that it was not going to be easy.

  James returned to his televisions, and William spent his time either helping James or helping Goliath back in the nineteenth century. Sarah was either doing her chores or trying to teach the Stone Age girl to speak. The day she walked out of the office with Sarah and said ‘hello’, was the turning point. The ‘hello’ was laboured but she spoke and it was to be the start of her education. Everyday her speech improved and she learned more words to add to her vocabulary.

  A month after the girl followed James through the television, she was able to hold simple conversations with the other three. Her names had no translation but it sounded like Marge so she was now known as Marge. For a Stone Age girl she picked up things quite quickly, not on a par with Sarah but quite good. She showed a great deal of interest in the television that they had come through, how it worked and what it did. James did not understand it completely but demonstrated on the latest television how it worked.

  Sarah took her out shopping and bought her clothes, using a credit card supplied by William and even took her to meet her mother in Victorian England. Again she went shopping but now in Sarah’s time line.

  Now that Marge could communicate, Sarah started teaching her to read, write and count. She knew it would be hard but Marge could not stay in the twenty first century without being able to read and write.

  They both fed the triceratops but soon it had to be returned to the right era, as it was growing quickly. Both cried when it was lowered though the television to roam in its own time. The triceratops walked away and soon found something to eat, it instinctively ate from the right bushes.

  With two working time windows and one of them adjustable, not counting the original window which was still working in his flat, William decided to stop work on more windows. James now concentrated on honing the existing circuits, to make sure they did not fail.

  ‘If they are adjustable,’ Sarah asked, ‘can we go into the future? I know I am already in the future and so is Marge but can you go into your future?’

  ‘The question is, do we want to,’ James answered, ‘I am fifty three now and by going twenty years into the future I might find that I am already dead.’

  ‘We would also find out what is happening with this workshop, as we can only see what is at this point, if we don’t go through and walk around.’ William added.

  ‘But walking round in the future is amazing, I am dead in this time or I would be very old, just think how old Marge would be now. For her to see all this, is amazing in itself, so you should be amazed by what is happening in your future. If you aim for a time when you know you are dead then surely it will not matter what you find, it will just be the future that you should be have no part it, like this is for me. How amazing would that be to see what it was like after you have been dead a long time?’

  ‘The problem is that we have no idea what it is like then,’ James argued, ‘if we go on polluting the planet like we do and the ozone layer collapses, it might all be desert and man might be living below ground, just to survive.’

  ‘At least you would know,’ Marge added, ‘if I had known that the beast would kill my father then come back for my mother when it was hungry again, I would have insisted that we moved away. It would have eaten me if James had not killed it.’

  They all turned to look at Marge, that was the most she had said since she had learned to speak and it was a terrible story, to watch the sabre tooth tiger kill her father and carry him away to eat him, at the tiger’s leisure was bad enough. To have it return to where they lived and carry away her mother, to meet the same fate, leaving her there to be the next on the list. If James had not interfered and killed the sabre tooth tiger then Marge would have been eaten. There was nothing they could say, Sarah walked over and put her arms round Marge, for her it was an unusual display of affection.

  That evening William took them all for a meal at his favourite restaurant, the tavern in Tooley road, the Victorian Tavern run by Goliath and Mary. As Marge was there Mary allowed Sarah to be a customer and she sat while Mary and Goliath waited on the tables.

  That night Marge settled down to sleep on the put-you-up in the office at the workshop where she usually slept when she was in the twenty first century. The bed was softer than anything she had slept on before and she had no problem being alone but that night she cried for her parents.

  Life continued for six more weeks with Marge learning more and more every day. She asked a lot of questions during the day when she was with one or all of the others, she was hungry to learn. She asked James questions about the adjustments on the machine and about time itself but his answer to one question seemed to interest her. Marge asked what happened if you went back and changed what happened. James could only explain about time lines and probabilities as he had no recollection of the actual events he had taken part in.

  Marge continued to ask the odd question, including the rifle and how it worked. James explained in words she might understand and assumed that that was the end of it. Nothing untoward happened for three weeks, then one morning they could not find Marge. The rifle was standing where James had stood it when he had first come into the workshop with it. William had insisted that it was moved out of sight and now it was back where James had first put it.

  ‘That’s odd,’ James declared, ‘I never leave it there now.’

  ‘Look at this, all the eggs are back in nest,’ Sarah cried, ‘how did that happen?’

  They all looked at the Stone Age nest, all the eggs were there, the nest was untouched and what is more there were no footsteps from James or Marge in the soft earth round the nest.

  ‘It has returned to a time sometime before I saved Marge!’ James cried.

  He checked the number of bullets.

  ‘And one of the bullets is missing.’ He added.

  They sat and stared at the opening with the nest just sitting there.

  ‘I do not understand,’ Sarah admitted, ‘what happened?’

  ‘I think I know,’ James answered, ‘Marge was asking me about changing things that have already happened, I told her all I know about what we did but I could not really explain it all I as I have no memory of it.’

  ‘No memory of what?’ Sarah asked. ‘When have you gone back and changed something, you did not tell me about it!’

  ‘You should tell her, it might help her understand if Marge has tried to change things and save her parents.’ James suggested.

  ‘What did you do?’ Sarah asked. ‘Did it involve me?’

  ‘I did tell you, has that been erased as well?’ William asked.

  ‘Has what been erased?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Come with me to the flat, there is something you should read.’ William answered.

  They left James working in the workshop and took a taxi back to William’s flat, to where the letter was. William took the letter out of the desk and gave it to Sarah.

  ‘This is your handwriting William, did you send yourself a letter?’

  ‘The letter will explain it all when you read it.’ William answered.

  ‘I do not understand, William.’ Sarah replied.

  ‘Read the letter, Sarah.’ William ordered.


  Sarah sat on the bed and read William’s letter, neither spoke while she read it and after reading it once, she read it again.

  ‘They named a park after me?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Yes.’ William answered.

  ‘That’s so nice, so is the fact that you changed the future so that I did not die, I thought you just came along when that horrible man Barber took me prisoner.’

  Sarah folded the letter and returned it to the envelope. When it was safely back in the desk, she walked over and threw her arms round William.

  ‘My hero.’

  ‘That is not what your mother and Goliath thought when Barber killed you and left you in the house they were rebuilding, that it why it was never finished and that is why I had to go looking for a way back to before you were dead.’ William explained.

  ‘At least Barber got what he deserved,’ Sarah replied, ‘he will never come back for another try at killing you, or me for that matter. So are you saying that Marge learned enough to alter the time window to go back and kill the tiger before it killed her father?’

  ‘I think she might have tried, the fact that she came back through with the rifle means that she was successful, the time line must have stopped as soon as she was back so that she did not have time to go back into the cabin and alter the settings back to where they were,’ William answered, ‘but we will never know for sure.’

  ‘We could go in there and see if she is alright.’ Sarah suggested.

  ‘She would not recognise us if we did and her father might attack us,’ William replied, ‘it would be sad if we killed him just checking on Marge.’

  Sarah laughed.

  ‘She would not be best pleased.’

  Two days later a card arrived at the flat to inform William that a letter had been posted with insufficient stamps on it. He had the choice of posting the card back to them with the required payment or he could go in person and collect it, paying for it when he did so. He dropped it into the bin as he did with all such letters but something made him pick it back out again. He took a taxi to the sorting office on the card and waited in line. The taxi cost him seven pounds, plus a tip and his time waiting in line was worth a lot more than that to him. When the postie brought the letter from the storage room, it was not the advertising blurb he expected, where it had somehow missed the franking machine. The handwriting on the front was unmistakeable as Marge’s, she wrote like a six year old but he could understand the short message it contained. He drove to the office and waited until Sarah arrived before he pulled the letter out.

  ‘We have a note from Marge.’ He announced and waved it in the air.

  Sarah pounced on the letter before James could, she opened the now unsealed letter carefully and read it aloud.

  ‘I saw you with your mother and wanted mine back, if I did not kill the tiger then I am dead as well.’

  ‘So she did go back to change things,’ James retorted, ‘I hope she was successful.’

  ‘What do we do now?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Well we can bring the television in from the trailer and either reset it or turn it off, we know she will not remember anything about us, she might remember the person who saved her parents, she would be dressed in the clothes we gave her when she went through to kill the tiger and if Marge is there watching what happens, it is unlikely that she will recognize herself. It might be the first time they think of a higher being, there to protect them from harm.’

  ‘Marge as their God?’ James asked in amazement.

  ‘You never know, it might be the start of belief in a God.’ William answered.

  They carried the television into the workshop and William locked the back door, he decided to keep the room there in case they needed it. They turned the television off and left it off, the latest window was bigger than the one they turned off so that any visit they decided to go on, to any time frame was a lot easier, they just had to make sure that it was safe to go through.

  ‘So where do we want to be?’ James asked when he turned the larger television on.

  ‘The future, I am already dead now so it doesn’t matter to, me how far we go forward, you might want to make sure you are well dead so that you don’t run into yourself.’ Sarah answered.

  ‘Well it is 2011 now, so do we want 2050 or shall I aim for later?’ James asked.

  ‘The year 3000,’ Sarah answered, ‘that is a nice round figure.’

  ‘If the young lady wants 3000, we’ll go to 3000.’ William declared.

  James adjusted the television to what should be the year 3000 or close to it and then they had to wait. Eventually they walked away and found other things to occupy their mind while the television warmed up.

  ‘Is it me or is it hot in here?’ James asked as he sat reading the paper. ‘And it has only been two hours since I switched it on.’

  They both looked at him, it was getting hot in the workshop. As one they moved to the television to see if that was the cause. Through it they could see a sea of sand, no buildings, just sand.

  ‘Global warming has certainly laid waste to London.’ James declared. ‘Do we want to go through there?’

  Sarah produced a thermometer and laid it on the sand just to see what the temperature was that side of the screen. She pulled in back after a few minute and read it.

  ‘One hundred and ten degrees, is that hot?

  ‘Quite hot but no hotter that the Sahara Desert during the day,’ James answered, ‘do we go through and find out what the future holds for London?’

  ‘Why not, we might see a landmark or two,’ William answered, ‘but I will turn on the generator in case there is a power cut.’

  William turned the generator to stand by in case the power went out, it did mean they would be stuck there until the television came back on but they could stand two hours in the desert. They stepped through the big screen on the new television and looked about.

  ‘No landmarks,’ James remarked, ‘unless you call a sand dune a landmark.’

  They looked round at the sand dunes around them, where they could see the sand went on for miles with nothing or no one to be seen, save for a few white bones.

  ‘Not a lot to see,’ Sarah complained, ‘what happened to all the houses?’

  ‘If the area dried up, people would move to where there is accessible water,’ William answered, ‘the area was left deserted, so it has turned into desert.’

  ‘I’m not so sure.’ James declared and walked back to the opening.

  The others looked at him and then at each other, before they followed him back through. James walked into the workshop and then out the front door. They followed, intrigued by his actions and found him standing outside looking up where the sun was shining brightly.

  ‘I am now facing in the same direction that the screen is facing,’ he announced when they arrived, ‘when we stepped out, where was the sun?’

  ‘Behind us.’ Sarah answered.

  ‘Now it is in front of us.’ James declared.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘It means we did not step through into London in the year 3000, it must have been somewhere else.’ James answered.

  ‘How is that possible?’ Sarah answered. ‘I thought it just changed the year you went through into.’

  ‘So did I Sarah, somehow the new circuits have changed position as well.’ James explained.

  ‘Is that good or bad?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘I have no idea.’ James answered. ‘I do not know if it is in the year 3000 as there is nothing to get a date from unless we do carbon dating from the bones we saw. I don’t know where the hell it was, apart from the fact that it was a desert somewhere.’

  ‘Would it help if we did carbon date those bones?’ William asked.

  ‘Yes it would, the settings are wrong but if we can date and locate each place and time we go to I will be able to pin point the time and place we arrive at each time. I will be able to work out if the controls are linear or non-linear. I will b
e able to make a graph of the controls to increase the accuracy.’

  ‘Do we know when the animal died though and how long it had been dead?’ William asked.

  ‘No, but then carbon dating is not that accurate,’ James answered.

  ‘Why do we not adjust the television to come out somewhere else and buy a newspaper?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Or we could do that.’ James declared.

  ‘We’ll try that and see what happens, pick any date and try again.’ William ordered.

  James adjusted the television, she screen took on a green hue, then turned red before a picture appeared. It was like watching a western with Indians fighting white men but when an arrow flew through screen and skidded across the concrete floor William unplugged the television.

  ‘That was the wild west so we know where and when roughly but I decided not to step through to buy a paper.’ He said quietly.

  James made notes on a chart he had drawn up, adjusted the controls again and plugged the television back in. Now they had two hours to wait before the time window materialized but no one went far away from it, they were all interested in what would appear when it started working again.

  Two hours later they were alerted to the fact that is was working by the sound of a ship’s foghorn. They moved to see where it had opened but a large wave hit the open screen and soaked them all. The television fizzed and went bang, announcing in no uncertain terms that it did not like that one bit. They stood looking at the blank screen with smoke drifting up from the workings at the back of the screen.

  ‘I think we need a new television.’ Sarah observed.

  James wheeled the dead television away and now they had to wait for him to make another television work.

  ‘A funny name that?’ Sarah noted.

  ‘What had a funny name?’ William asked.

  ‘That ship, the one using the foghorn.’ Sarah answered.

  ‘What was it then?’ James asked, he had not seen the ship at all.