The Time Bubble Box Set

by Jason Ayres

  “So did I,” said Josh. “I’ve seen them before and I know what they’re like.”

  “There’s no sign of the girls yet, I see,” said Peter. “Are you sure you said 8 o’clock?”

  “Yes, you heard me on the phone.”

  Rebecca had given them her phone number the previous day with instructions to ring her after she got home from work at 5pm.

  He had been an hour late making the phone call because Gran had refused to let him use the phone before 6. That was when it was cheap rate, apparently. Even so, she still made him give her 10p for the call.

  Josh had been completely unaware that phone calls used to cost different amounts according to the time of day. It was just another one of those things that people used to do in the old days that he had experienced during his time in 1992.

  “You don’t think they’ll stand us up, do you?” said Peter, mindful of his previous dating disasters.

  As if Josh was reading his mind, he replied, “This isn’t a date, you know. This is serious business.”

  It would be a pretty odd date, even if it was, thought Peter. His ex and a new girl he fancied wasn’t an ideal combination.

  “Yeah, fair enough,” he conceded. “I do fancy Rebecca, though.”

  “They’ll be here,” assured Josh, feeling more than a little concerned over Peter’s interest in Rebecca. “It’s a woman’s prerogative to be late, that’s what my mum always used to say.”

  The two girls were late, but not by much. As this conversation was going on they were just walking up George Street, past the Old Orleans restaurant. Rebecca had been into work on an early shift, leaving Christina to her own devices for the day.

  Relieved to discover her bank account still active, if a little low on funds, she had managed to get enough money together for a few essentials. This was just as well, as when she had attempted to return to her flat, it was to discover, as she had suspected, someone else living there.

  Having already given notice, the landlord had assumed she had already left on the final day of the lease. With no forwarding address he had given her meagre student possessions, including all her clothes, to a charity shop.

  Christina was effectively starting again from scratch. She had borrowed some clothes from Rebecca and bought a few other essentials bits such as underwear and toiletries. That would have to get her by in the short term.

  A trip to her college confirmed she had been removed from the course due to her failure to show up for the fourth year. Her first three years were safely intact, though, and they initially said she could start again the following September.

  She protested this and said she would work hard to catch up as she was desperate to graduate with the rest of the Class of ’92. The college were now considering this. If they didn’t allow her back this year, then she would have to get a job to tide her over.

  Surprisingly, her usually indifferent mother was overjoyed to hear from her on the phone, so it seemed she did care after all. Christina’s failure to come home or make contact at Christmas had finally set some alarm bells ringing.

  Having assured her that she was alright, blaming her long absence on getting stranded in Europe after losing her passport and railcard, she promised that she would visit soon, depending on whether she got back on her course or not.

  For the time being, she wanted to stick around to see what happened with this strange time bubble and this mysterious time-travelling man from the future. She was getting in pretty well with Rebecca so perhaps she would let her stay with her for a while.

  As for Peter, well, she was still fond of him, even if they had split up. She had never felt any real spark of desire for him in the way she had for certain other men. Perhaps they could settle for being just good friends. She told Rebecca as much as they talked on their way through town.

  “So, you and Peter used to be an item, huh?” asked Rebecca as they approached the pub.

  “Yeah, but it didn’t really work out,” replied Christina. “We’re better off as friends.”

  “And you’re completely over him now?”

  “There wasn’t much to get over, really, if I’m honest. It all just kind of fizzled out slowly, if you know what I mean?”

  Rebecca did know what she meant. It was the same reason she had split up from her previous boyfriend. He had been a reliable and safe option but the chemistry wasn’t there.

  It had been different with the boyfriend before that who had made her heart beat a little faster; unfortunately, he was also an unreliable, unemployed drinker. She had stayed with him for longer than she should have because he had excited her so much. Now she wasn’t sure which was best – safe and boring, or exciting and dangerous? Or was it possible to find the best of both worlds?

  She hadn’t figured that out yet, but she did know she liked Peter, even if Christina had found being with him boring. She didn’t think he was, quite the opposite in fact, but was that down to him or the situation? It was difficult to weigh up. When Christina had been with him, the two of them hadn’t been caught up in an exciting time travel mystery. Now he was, and life seemed exciting. Did that increase her attraction towards him?

  She thought about asking Christina if she would mind if Peter went out with somebody else, but decided to leave it for now. She didn’t think Christina would mind, she had said she was over him, after all, but she wouldn’t broach the subject until she had to.

  “You look lovely,” said Peter to her, as they met them at the bar. Rebecca had made a real effort with her hair and make-up, eager to make a good impression.

  “As do you,” he added to Christina, hurriedly, but it was just that split second too late to make it obvious he was saying it as an afterthought.

  She didn’t seem to mind, noted Rebecca, which was promising.

  Josh, who had noticed, threw Peter an annoyed look and quickly jumped in with the offer of drinks to change the subject. It wasn’t cheap in the Brewhouse, and he was aware his funds were ever dwindling. He really was going to have to try and get some sort of job soon.

  Drinks in hand, they walked down the stone steps into the lower level of the pub to the quiet table in the corner where they could discuss the issues surrounding the time bubbles.

  After a little small talk Josh decided it was a good time to sum up what they knew so far.

  “So this is where we’re at. We’ve got a time bubble by the river that is bringing people from the past into the present. This happens at four-day intervals. Each person is coming from further back in time than the one before and the gaps are increasing at a seemingly random rate.”

  “So we’ve no way of knowing if the next person is going to be from a year ago, or five years ago?” asked Christina. She was new to all this but catching on fast.

  “Exactly,” said Josh. “Now, Rebecca, did you manage to find any more missing people in the past from the police records?”

  “There are many,” she replied. “But I’ve dismissed most of them because I think they are genuine missing persons cases or suicides where the body has never been found. But there is one in particular that I’m very concerned about.”

  “Go on,” said Josh.

  “In 1972, Kevin Austin, a twelve-year-old boy disappeared on his way home from a nearby school and was never seen again. There were all sorts of theories at the time about what might have happened to him. It was only a few years after the Moors murders, and a lot of people believed he might have been abducted, but the police got nowhere with the investigation.”

  “That’s hardly surprising,” replied Peter. “If he fell in the time bubble there would be nothing to investigate.”

  “Exactly,” said Rebecca. “There would have been no body, no killer and no related crimes to link it to. There was a lot of media speculation about it at the time, and the police investigated everyone from the teachers at his school to the drivers and passengers on the bus he caught home, but in the end the case had to be closed. By now it’s been largely forgotten.”<
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  “Not by his family, I wouldn’t have thought,” remarked Christina.

  “Exactly,” said Rebecca. “I did some more investigating and discovered that his parents are still alive and have never given up hope that he might one day turn up. I went down to the Central Library yesterday and had a dig through the microfiche. It took a while but I eventually found an interview with their parents they gave to The Sunday Times about four years ago.”

  “It certainly sounds like he’s a prime candidate,” said Peter.

  “There’s plenty of evidence to assume so. Wait till you hear this next bit. He didn’t live in Oxford, he was from Abingdon. He was an extremely bright boy who had won a scholarship to the school and he used to catch the bus in and out every day. His bus stop was on St. Aldate’s and used to walk through Christ Church Meadow every day on his way home to catch it.”

  “He must be in there,” replied Peter.

  “OK, so we assume that this Kevin is in the bubble,” said Christina. “What do we do with him when he comes out?”

  “That’s the tricky bit,” said Josh.

  “How is it tricky?” asked Christina. “You told us before that you could travel in time and hope to again in the future. Can you not just take him back to 1972 and then none of this will have ever happened?”

  “If only it were that simple,” replied Josh, proceeding to explain about the multiverse.

  “So each time you travel in time you create a new universe?” asked Christina when he had finished.

  “Correct, which means that if I were to take this Kevin back through time to his parents, it wouldn’t be in this universe. His parents here would be no better off than they were before. And also as you know I can’t time-travel at the moment and don’t know if I ever will be able to again.”

  “I understand what you are saying,” said Rebecca. “He has to stay here.”

  “Believe me, I’m not happy about it,” replied Josh. “All this is going to be wreaking havoc with the timeline and further reducing my chances of being rescued.”

  “This is not all about you, you know,” said Rebecca. “What about this poor boy and his parents, not to mention goodness knows however many more people have been caught up in this thing.”

  She’d like it even less if she knew Josh had caused all this in the first place, thought Peter, but he kept that to himself. He didn’t want this descending into a row where he might have to choose sides.

  “It is what it is,” he said. “It’s important we all work together to decide what to do about it.”

  “Absolutely,” replied Josh. “But as far as possible, we need to keep this under wraps and not just from our perspective. Imagine what the media will do with this if they get hold of it. A missing boy from twenty years ago appears? I can’t see the family getting much peace if that happens.”

  “We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” replied Rebecca. “I really feel that if Kevin really is in the bubble, then we have a duty to reunite him with his parents even if there is no way we can explain the fact that twenty years have passed but he still looks like a twelve-year-old boy.”

  “We could try and keep the media out of it if we can get everyone involved to keep quiet,” suggested Josh.

  “I don’t see how you can possibly hide something like that,” said Rebecca.

  “Perhaps we should keep our involvement to a minimum, then,” said Josh. “Say he does turn up in the park. We could just be passers-by, offering to take him home. Or we could just do nothing at all and let him figure it all out for himself.”

  “Don’t we have a duty of care to help people who are caught in this thing?” asked Rebecca. “We are the only ones who know about it, after all. It does sort of make us responsible.”

  “The trouble is, if we’re hanging around every time someone appears, the police are going to make a connection, aren’t they?” asked Peter. “You should know – you are the police!”

  “I guess we probably would,” replied Rebecca. “But this is way beyond the realm of experience of anyone at the station. My boss wouldn’t know what to do and would either dismiss it or escalate it to a higher authority.”

  “But there is no higher authority,” said Josh. “Not that can deal with this sort of thing. I’m about the only authority on the subject, even in my day, and hardly anyone knows that as I keep it secret for my own protection.”

  “The truth is no one will have an explanation because there is none based on established science,” said Peter. “It will probably get dismissed as some sort of clever fake or filed away in the realms of the unexplained like on those Arthur C. Clarke programmes on the telly.”

  “I guess we will just have to deal with it as best we can,” said Rebecca. “Now, I’ll help you as much as I can, but it’s very important my involvement in this isn’t suspected.”

  “Having you in the force is a good thing,” said Josh. “We’ll have inside information about how the police are handling things.”

  “I’ll find out as much as I can,” said Rebecca. “But I’m not privy to conversations at a higher level. As far as what’s happened already goes, it’s not being taken seriously at all. People who disappeared have reappeared, so we’ve closed the cases. Of course that may change if people from years ago start appearing.”

  “The next one is due on Saturday,” said Peter. “What’s the plan of action?”

  “I suggest we watch from a distance, see who comes out, and then decide what to do on the day,” said Rebecca. “Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it. I’m working in the station in the morning and on match duty in the afternoon. Oxford United are playing Port Vale at home.”

  “I’m going to that,” said Peter. “I’m a season ticket-holder.”

  “Maybe I could come with you sometime when I’m not working,” suggested Rebecca. “I’m a fan, too, but I don’t have a season ticket as I get into most of the matches free. It’s a perk of the job.”

  “I’ll keep you to that,” he said, smiling and maintaining eye contact with her. It was something he was normally too shy to do with girls, nervously looking away, but it was easy with Rebecca. “It’s a date,” he added.

  She smiled back at him. Christina noticed, too, but she wasn’t bothered. She was definitely over him.

  “That’s all settled, then,” said Christina. “Can we talk about something else now? Say, why don’t we have a couple more drinks and go down to The Dolly? They sometimes have live music on Wednesday nights.”

  The others agreed, and before they knew it, the evening was turning into a bit of a pub crawl. There was indeed an excruciatingly loud rock band on at The Dolly. It made Josh wince with the assault on his ears, but his younger companions loved it.

  They ended up in Downtown Manhattan, a nightclub beneath The Apollo, where emboldened by alcohol, Peter plucked up the courage to kiss Rebecca. With Josh and Christina playing the roles of chaperones on the walk home, taking it further tonight was out of the question, but they made plans to meet up on Friday when the others weren’t around.

  Christina had seen the two of them kiss and wasn’t bothered. She told Rebecca as much when they went to the loo and gave her blessing.

  For Josh it was different. He had come to this time with the specific intention of not changing anything that might affect his personal timeline, but here it was, happening right in front of him.

  He knew that Peter and Rebecca should not be together.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Right on time, the next victim of the time bubble had appeared around 10.30am on Saturday morning as Josh, Peter and Christina observed from about fifty yards away.

  They were a little unsure what to expect. Christina had ventured the opinion that it might be the twelve-year-old Kevin Austin who appeared, but Josh felt that was unlikely due to the lengthy time since his disappearance. He felt that although Kevin might appear at some point it would be likely someone from more recent times would show up first. This proved to be correc
t.

  The man who did appear was a stout, middle-aged Japanese tourist, complete with large camera around his neck. Walking up from the riverbank, he wandered onto the path and ambled along the path that led to the St Aldates entrance.

  The man was dressed in clothes appropriate to the weather, cold and breezy, which suggested that he had come from a similar time of year, but which year? Josh and the others debated this as they followed him at a safe distance.

  “We really need to find out exactly when he has come from,” suggested Josh. “Just to try and give us a rough handle on how fast this thing is progressing.”

  “How are we going to do that?” asked Peter. “Go up to him and ask what year it is. Won’t that make us sound like lunatics?”

  “Do you have a better idea?” replied Josh.

  “Not really.”

  “I’ll do it,” said Christina enthusiastically, and ran to catch up with him, which didn’t take long as he was rambling along slowly, fiddling around with his camera lens. It was a pretty serious-looking piece of equipment, she observed, probably the latest top of the range Japanese model.

  She also noticed that the man didn’t seem in the least bit perturbed by his recent trip through time and she surmised that he hadn’t even realised it had happened.

  “Excuse me,” she said, “I don’t suppose you could tell me the date, could you?”

  The Japanese man slowly shook his head, then pointing to his lips, hesitatingly said the words, “No English.”

  “OK, sorry to trouble you,” said Christina.

  Returning to the others she burst out, “He doesn’t speak any English!”

  “Well, I guess that takes care of that, then!” said Peter. “He’s not going to be able to tell us anything.”

  “He’s not going to be able to tell anyone anything,” said Josh. “Not until he gets back to Japan, if he ever does.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Christina.

  “I mean he’s not going to have a valid plane ticket or anything else that he’s not got on his person. If he left his passport in his hotel room, it’s not going to be sitting around waiting for him years later, is it?”