Time Leap (3 page)

“
What are you
talking about? How could it be you? You never knew me then – it was
years before we met. But this guy definitely knew me – no
question.” This was fantastic… my mind was doing summersaults… the
implications of this were staggering. Niki noticed that my mind was
suddenly in a very different place from hers. “Joe?”

“
That man –
did he give you his name?”

“
I don’t think
so – not that I remember. He just said he was a friend of my
father’s. But that was the weird thing, when I talked to Baba later
he’d no idea who that could be. None of his friends would know
which school I was in… and no–one asked him. Anyway, the attack
never happened, so he must have been a crank.”

“
Or the man
convinced the authorities that it was a real threat, and they
stopped it happening.”

“
Yeah, well,
they didn’t stop the assassinations, did they?”

“
Assassinations? What assassinations?”

“
Bush and
Blair of course.”

I suddenly froze. I sat
and listened whilst Niki explained how US President George W. Bush
and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had been killed by terrorists
in 2002. The two leaders met at Bush’s Texas Ranch in April that
year, and were killed instantly when suicide bombers breached
security.

“
But why am I
telling you this Joe – how could you have forgotten
that?

“
So what about
the Iraq invasion?”

“
What Iraq
invasion?”

“
The one to
look for weapons of mass destruction?”

“
Joe, you’ve
been totally weird since you got back. I think you need a
rest.”

My intervention had had a
lot more impact than I could have imagined – and I was just
learning the extent of it. Everything is connected: change one
thing, you change many others. No Bush or Blair meant no Iraq
invasion, which implied that Saddam Hussein was still very much
alive – and still in power. Gordon Brown became Prime Minister
after Blair’s death until 2005, when David Cameron was elected
leader of the country. In the US, Hilary Clinton was now President
– no Barack Obama. But at least there was no change to our personal
lives – or so I thought.

As we walked home, I
changed the subject and asked Niki how her parents were. She gave
me an incredulous look.

“
Parents?”

“
Mum and
dad.”

“
If this is
sick joke Joe, it’s really not funny…”

“
I don’t
understand,” I said. She stopped and looked at me, staring intently
at my face.

“
You really
don’t know, do you?”

“
Know
what?”

“
That Mama
died in 2005.”

When we got home, I
listened with a mixture of horror and amazement whilst Niki told me
how her mother had been shopping in the City in July 2005 when
terrorist bombs were detonated on buses and underground trains. The
July bombings were part of the history I knew. But by changing a
leader, you can change other things – including responses to
terrorist threats. One of the bombs detected and immobilized by the
Special Branch under the government I had known, was missed by the
British authorities in the new history version, and it was that
particular bomb that had killed Niki’s mother Gloria.

“
Niki, I know
this will sound
completely
crazy,” I said, “but I think there’s a way we can
bring Gloria back.”

***

Three

That night I reflected on
what had been an unbelievable day. I still had no real idea of how
I’d been able to go back in time and impact World events; yet the
undeniable truth was that I’d done exactly that. The twin towers of
the World Trade Center in New York City stood as concrete proof of
my intervention, and the three thousand or so lives that had been
saved indicated to me that my actions had been completely
justified.

On the other
hand, I had just killed one US President, a British Prime Minister,
Niki’s mother Gloria – and god knows who else. Then there was an
Iraq with Saddam Hussein still in power. Was that for the best? If
this extraordinary experience was not just a one–off, and I could
travel back in time and alter history at will, I must consider all
the possible consequences before playing god in
future
.

My first
priority now, though, was to undo the death of Gloria – and that of
the fifty other people who died on 7
^th
July, 2005 in London. I
suppose I should also try to stop the assassination of Bush and
Blair in 2002… but there was no rush for that.

The fact that Niki was
blissfully unaware of the World changes I’d engineered made me
realize that I could continually change the course of history, and
no–one would be any the wiser. In fact, if someone other than me
travelled back in time and changed the past, I’d also be totally
unaware of anything amiss. It was as if there were many alternate
versions of reality, and each one was as valid as the next.
Mindboggling.

The next question was how
to explain all this to Niki. However hard it was, I just had to try
to tell her what had happened at the airport – and what was
possible.

*

Niki was born
in Shanghai and moved to England with her parents when her father
landed a job at the Chinese Embassy in London. She was just seven
years old when they emigrated and consequently grew up with both
British and Chinese cultures. She attended British schools in
London, and was soon fluent in both
Putonghua
(Mandarin Chinese) and
English. Early on, she developed an avid interest in Western
literature, and devoured books written by the likes of Kafka,
Somerset Maugham, TS Eliot, and Milan Kundera. She is far wider
read than I am – and will ever be. It was through an interest in
books that we met one February evening in 2007 – at the Institute
Francais in South Kensington. We were both attending the launch of
a French Psychologist’s book ‘
Talking of
Love on the Edge of a Precipice.
’ Niki was
there because of her love of words, and I was there because of my
love of free French wine.

When I spotted
her in the front row, the wine suddenly took a back seat. What was
an attractive Chinese twenty–something doing at a French book
launch, I wondered? A few dates later, I knew exactly why she was
there – for passion. Ling Ling (her Chinese name) was the most
thoughtful and passionate woman I had ever met, and I wanted to
spend every waking moment with her. It didn’t take me long to
realize that she was
the
One
.

Getting to know her
parents took longer. They were fairly traditional, and my
suggestion that I could meet them on Chinese New Year’s Eve later
that month, was greeted with an icy stare and shake of Niki’s head.
“Only if you marry me first,” she said. And so I did, spending
Chinese New Year 2008 as part of the family. Her mum and dad were
fluent in English, fortunately, but I thought I should try out some
of the Mandarin Chinese Niki had taught me. Calling her mother a
horse might not have been the best start, but they seemed to take
it well.

*

“
Just
imagine,” I said as we sat having coffee the morning after I’d been
to Heathrow, “if you could go back in time and change history. Say,
for instance, you could stop Columbus sailing for America, or
assassinate Adolf Hitler before he came to power. If you later
returned to the present, do you think that anyone would realise
that things had changed? I mean, supposing Hitler had been stopped
very early on, say he died in his twenties, there couldn’t be any
movies or photographs of the Nazi atrocities that took place –
because in the new version of history, they didn’t happen! ” Niki
looked serious for a moment, contemplating the idea. She was used
to my hare–brained way of thinking, and had learned when she should
take me seriously and when she shouldn’t. On this occasion, she
knew my idea was completely bonkers, but considered it just the
same.

“
Well, if
someone killed Hitler before the second World War, and they was
no–one to replace him, then I guess the war would never happen.”
Niki observed.

“
So people’s
memories would have to be different?” I added.

“
I guess so.
But this is just speculation based on the idea of time travel Joe…
and we know that can’t happen!”

Just then I received a
text message on my mobile.

“
What are you
doing with
that?
”
Niki asked.

“
With
what?”

“
That old
phone.”

“
What do you
mean ‘old’ – you bought it for me two weeks ago – for my
birthday.”

“
No no, not
that one. Let me see…” She curiously handled the phone as if it was
an ancient artefact. “This must be at least five years old – where
did you get it?”

I then realized that I’d
changed not just events, but technology too. By showing my phone to
the security officer at the airport, the idea for Android phones
had leapt six years ahead of time. If mobile phone technology could
be pushed forward five or six years just by someone seeing my
smart–phone, what else could I inadvertently change?

“
Let me look
at yours,” I said. I was gobsmacked. Niki’s
Xtreme99
, as it was called, was out
of this World. I was completely bedazzled by its functions,
simplicity of design and appearance.

“
You look as
though you’ve never seen one before Joe!” I had to admit I hadn’t.
Then it was time to tell Nik my idea.

“
I’d like to
take you on a trip,” I said.

“
Where
to?”

“
To London…
July 2005.”

“
Okay, I’ve
got a good imagination.”

“
Great! Well,
just give me a second…” I altered the date on my phone from 12
September 2014 to 6 July 2005 – one day before the July bombings in
London. I experienced the same wobble as at the airport, and the
next thing I knew I was sitting in the lounge of our apartment – on
my own! What did I do wrong? I changed the date back to the
present.

“
Joe! Where
did you go?”

“
Into the
future.”

“
Don’t say
that… it sounds crazy.”

“
What happened
after I said, ‘Just give me a second’?” I asked.

“
You were
doing something on your phone, and I looked out the window. Then
when I looked back you were gone. Something’s happened to you Joe
and I’m worried. You’ve been very strange ever since you came back
from the airport. Did you bang your head when you were away
yesterday? Maybe you should see a doctor.”

I then realised that only
things physically connected to the phone would be transported in
time. “Ok, take my hand, will you.”

“
Are we going
to the hospital?”

With the other hand I
changed the date on the phone again to 6/7/2005.

“
No, I’m going
to show you that I’m not crazy…”

***

Four

“
What was
that?”

“
You mean the
wobble?”

“
Yes.”

“
That’s what
happens. Take a look outside…”

Niki went to the window.
“What am I looking for?”

“
I dunno… look
at the cars. Anything unusual?”

“
Something’s
not right… but I don’t know what.”

“
Look at the
registration plates,” I said. “What year are we on?”

“
The latest
code is sixty–two, I think. Yes, I’m sure of it:
sixty–two.”

“
See
any?”

“
No – not
yet.”

Whilst Niki was looking
at car registration plates, I took a look around the apartment. It
seemed very different – like a bachelor pad. A tad messy. Mmm… beer
cans on the floor, and rubbish bins overflowing. Niki would never
allow that. Things were ‘missing’ – no recent CD’s or videos, no
flat–screen TV, and no plants. We’d definitely gone back in time.
“Any luck Niki?” I called to her.

“
No – the
latest I can see is fifty–five.”

“
Ok, have a
look around the flat for any of your things...”

“
What do you
mean? What sort of things?”

“
Anything –
clothes, plants – anything you brought with you when you moved
in.”

She gave me a very
quizzical look, and then noticed the television.”

“
Where’s our
new TV? And my plants?”

“
Exactly. Just
take a look, will you?”

She came back after a few
minutes. “There’s nothing there! Where have you put
them?”

“
I’ll tell you
later. We’ve got to go and see your dad now – and we don’t have
much time.

*

Niki’s parents lived in
South Kensington, near Hyde Park. As usual, we took the Northern
line and changed at King’s Cross to the Circle line. Niki was
increasingly getting agitated. What she’d seen in the apartment
didn’t make any sense to her, and she was troubled. On top of that,
it was a very warm July in 2005, and we had left a rather cool
September in 2014. On the tube, I tried to tell her gently what had
happened, but naturally it was difficult for her to assimilate – as
it had been for me. After all, it’s not every day that you travel
back in time. As we walked out of South Kensington Station into the
warm July air, I grabbed a morning paper.