To Kill a President (8 page)

“Wormholes are unpredictable, you saw what happened when you arrived David.  David could you grab some chairs from the living room I think it’s time we had a talk and we can’t leave the girl alone.”

“It’s Jane.”  Faraday stated.  Bobby offered a nod and David went to get the chairs.  Once he had returned the three men sat down and began to talk.

Chapter 15

Faraday was so full of questions he didn’t know where to start.  He held Jane’s hand in his, took a deep breath and then began. “What is the light?”

It was Bobby that answered “We don’t know.”

Not a good start Faraday thought he then stated. “You called it a wormhole just a minute ago.”

Bobby again was first to respond. “That’s what we think it is, a wormhole is like two black holes connected by a tunnel. So we all entered one end and arrived at the other.”

“But I thought black holes were only in space?” Faraday asked.

“Well I don’t think scientists can begin to explain wormholes, as far as I know the only people that have ever entered a wormhole and lived to tell the tale are all in this room.”

“So you both arrived through the wormhole too?”

David and Bobby nodded.  “How did it happen to you?” Faraday was looking at David as he asked the question.  A pained expression appeared on David’s face, he clearly did not want to share his story.  He paused briefly and then started talking in a soft voice, it was almost a whisper.

“I uh, it was 1993, I had been living in Los Angeles with my wife Sharon.  I was working as a forensic pathologist.  We were married in 1991, but between both of us working we had never had time to have a honeymoon.  So in 1993 we decided to head for Hawaii.  We had been having a great time, Sharon’s brother worked on the islands taking holiday makers on helicopter tours.  His name was Kenny Bloomberg, his wife was called Barbara.  One night Kenny offered to take us on a tour of the islands and so the next day we set off.  We had been flying towards the uninhabited island Kaho Olawe when Kenny lost control of the helicopter.”  David knew the next part of the story would be the hardest to tell so took a brief pause to compose himself.  “I don’t know what happened we started plummeting towards the water when the light appeared, next thing I knew I was here in Dallas.”

“What happened to the others?”  Faraday asked.

Bobby stepped in he knew this part was too difficult for David.  “Like I said earlier wormholes are unpredictable, they didn’t survive it. It seems to have a different effect on everyone.”

Once again Faraday had almost too many questions. “What effect did it have on you David?” David now looked almost vacant, he didn’t seem to hear the question.  Bobby again took control. “He doesn’t sleep anymore.”

“What like insomnia?”

David was back with them. “No, it’s not that I can’t sleep.  I no longer need to sleep.”

“So when did you get here?”

“1960” David replied.

“And what year is it now?”

“1963” Bobby responded. “It’s Friday 1
st
November 1963.”

“So you haven’t slept for three years?”

David nodded before looking towards Bobby and saying “You’re turn.”

Bobby lit a cigarette and then began.  “It was 2016, the night of my grandmother’s funeral.  My parents had died in 2001 and my grandmother was the only family I had.  Because of the medical costs I’d been forced into selling her house and I was unemployed. I had no money and nowhere to go.  The only thing I owned was my car, I had rented a steel storage container in order to keep my grandmother’s things so after the funeral that was the only place I’d had to go to.  I had a few drinks and suddenly I realised how severe my situation was. How can you get a job when you don’t have an address?  How can you get a home if you don’t have a job?  It was then that I’d decided to end it all.  I drove my car to the other side of the lot and went as fast as I could towards the container.  I was maybe 3 feet away from it when I saw the light.”

Faraday could feel both men’s pain, he had just been through a loss he knew what it was like to feel desperate and without hope.  Bobby continued. “Anyway next thing I knew there was a horse coming straight at me, I dove out of the way to stop myself being trampled.  As I looked round I saw the horse was pulling a cart.  It had come to a stop and a man I immediately recognized got out of the cart and invited me inside.  When I sat down inside the cart I was directly opposite a woman. When the man got back into the cart he sat beside her.  I had no idea where I was and I was still feeling a bit drunk, I thought that maybe I’d died and I was in heaven or something.”

“Who was the man?” Faraday interrupted.

“You won’t believe it.”  David interjected.

“The man was Abraham Lincoln.”  Bobby stated.

Faraday’s jaw dropped, he looked towards David who was grinning now clearly enjoying Faraday’s surprise.  “You met Abraham Lincoln?”

“I did a lot more than meet him.  Anyway he started asking me what I was doing in the middle of the street and saying that I should be more careful.  I had no idea what to say so I just asked if he was Abraham Lincoln, when he nodded I was sure I was dreaming or that I’d been drugged.  All I could manage was “But you’re dead?”

Again Faraday’s mouth fell open, David was still grinning he liked this story.

“Anyway my poor choice of words seemed to shock the woman and Lincoln told her to go inside and take her seat.  He didn’t seem flustered by what I’d said, he seemed more concerned for my well being.  He asked me if I was alright and if I’d been drinking, he could probably smell it on me.  When I nodded he seemed to think I was just hammered so I started asking questions a little more freely.  Firstly I asked him what date it was, when he answered April 14
th
I realised I had asked the wrong question so I asked what year it was.  He seemed very taken aback by this, most people would probably think I was crazy but he didn’t judge me and he told me that it was 1865.  I thought I was going to faint and he must have noticed because he started telling me things were going to be alright and tried to change the subject.  He asked me about my suit, he said it was cut in a strange way and he was sure it was tighter fitting than any he had seen before.  I just said it was slim fit and he seemed intrigued he had never heard of that style, he asked me who my tailor was but it was then that the date April 14
th
1865 became relevant in my mind.  So I asked him if that was the date he had told me and he nodded.”

Faraday again interrupted. “What’s so special about April 14
th
1865?”

Bobby was stunned. “Did they not teach you history at school?”

“I’m Scottish Bobby, we get taught about William Wallace and the World Wars not American politics.”

“Ah I see, sorry.  April 14
th
1865 is the day that Lincoln was assassinated.  I tried to warn him that he wasn’t safe and he should get his wife and return home.  But my credibility was already gone, I didn’t even know what year it was.”

Faraday couldn’t help but interject. “Wait so Lincoln and Kennedy were both killed in Dallas?”

“What?  No I never said that, Lincoln was killed in Washington.”

“So when you went through the wormhole you ended up in Washington?”

Bobby nodded and continued. “So as I was saying I tried to tell him he was in danger, his first question was “Who are you?” I told him my name and he asked me how I knew he was in danger, I didn’t have a clue how to respond so I just said that I couldn’t tell him.  He started to smile at me but it wasn’t patronising again was a smile of sympathy.  “Bobby I promise you I am in no danger, just the other day I walked through the centre of Richmond, Virginia and nobody showed any malice towards me.  I am perfectly safe here in Washington.  It’s odd my assistant John Kennedy warned me I was in danger tonight and I’ll tell you the same thing I told him.  Even if there was a danger of my being attacked, what could I do about that?  If someone is willing to lay down their life to kill me I’m afraid there is nothing I can do about that.  I will not hide out in the White House.” He said.  That was when he invited me to sit with him and watch the play he was attending at the Ford’s theatre, Our American Cousin.

I ended up sat in the Presidential booth alongside his wife Mary, Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris who was Henry’s fiancé.  Moments before he was assassinated he turned to me, he saw I was anxious and said. “Last week we had guests in the White House and over dinner the subject of conversation turned to dreams didn’t it Mary?”  Mary just nodded she seemed almost sad.  Lincoln went on to tell me that he had dreamt he was walking through the White House when he came across a group of people surrounding a casket, he asked what had happened and was told that the President had been killed by an assassins bullet.  “I must say I found it disconcerting for a few days, but after my trip to Richmond I can see that I am safe now, so please Bobby do not worry we are in a room with a thousand people just try and enjoy the play.”  He leant towards the edge of the balcony and looked over the railing and that was when the door sprung open.  John Wilkes Booth ran in and shot him, before I knew what was happening Rathbone threw himself at Booth and was stabbed in the shoulder.  Booth leapt from the balcony and made his way backstage.  I followed and I couldn’t believe the reaction of the audience, no one moved.  I caught up to Booth he seemed to be limping heavily, he stabbed a member of the orchestra and kept going.  I managed to grab the back of his coat and threw him to the ground.  The bastard leapt up and sunk the knife right into my hip, I fell to the ground and he got out the back of the theatre.

That was the day I realised that we cannot change the past, whatever happened will happen no matter how we try to change it.”  Bobby continued his story up until the present day only omitting the fact that he had murdered a man.

Faraday had no idea what to make of it all.  Before he could ask any more questions David stated that now they wanted some answers.  Faraday told them about what had happened when he had tried to propose and then that he had been admitted to hospital for attempting to commit suicide.  Whilst he was talking it dawned on him that he had not thought about how he would explain the fact that he had Bobby’s cane, he couldn’t tell the men they had died.  He then told them about their visit to the hospital and asked a question of his own.

“Bobby you looked exactly the same as you do now and you say you went to 1865 is that how the wormhole changed you?”  Bobby nodded.

“But don’t your friends in the mob wonder why you haven’t aged in like thirty years?”

Bobby laughed. “Yeah they do, Lansky in particular can’t fathom it, he seems to think I bathe in the fountain of youth.  But Faraday I have a few more pressing questions, why did we come to visit you?  And how did you acquire my cane?”

“I don’t know exactly why you came to see me.  David did most of the talking.  You told me that I had to follow the light, you seemed to know about a recurring dream I was having and you wanted me to help you fix things.”

“Did I mention Sharon?  Maybe that’s what we can change?”

Bobby interrupted.  “I’ve told you David we can’t change anything.  If we stopped that helicopter taking off you wouldn’t be here.  If you weren’t here then how could you stop the helicopter and if you were successful what would happen to you?”

“Well I would just carry on life with Sharon.”

“No David, that’s the other you. If you stopped it Sharon and the David of 1993, the David you once were would still be together but you, the you that is sitting in this room couldn’t possibly exist in 1993 if you hadn’t travelled through time.”

This seemed to stump David.  Faraday interjected. “Bobby I think you believed things could be changed as well.”

“What?  I’ve told you both its impossible!  If we try to change anything no matter what it is that we will fail.”

“You put a bookmark into one of my books trying to draw my attention to something.”

“What?  Why wouldn’t I have just shown you it?”

“I don’t know Bobby it was you that did it.  Maybe because I was drugged up to my eyeballs and you wanted me to be in a better state of mind.”

“What was the book?” David enquired.

“The Assassination of JFK.”   Faraday stated.

Bobby was silent.  It was David who asked what was on the page.  “There were two pictures, both of you Bobby.”

Bobby seemed furious. “Are you telling me I risked my life to save another President?  I’ve told you I was there when the first President to be assassinated died and all I got for trying to help was a knife in my hip.  Why would I try to save JFK?  That would be impossible. I knew who killed Lincoln and couldn’t stop it!  No one knows who killed Kennedy!”

“I didn’t say you tried to save him Bobby, I think you were involved in the conspiracy. I think that’s what you wanted me to change.”