Chapter 5

The next morning, we got down to business.

“Now that we have an almost unlimited ability to alter our future, which areas seem to be within our purview, given that we now understand a bit better about the impact of unexpected side effects?”

“We could do stuff like go to Dallas just before JFK is shot and keep an eye on the ‘grassy knoll’, for instance.”

“What good would that do? Most people know who shot JFK and the presentation of hard proof would only make them want to shoot us.”

“Good point. Ok, how about learning where somebody buried a treasure? Then we can go dig it up and become celebrities. Rich celebrities.”

“I can think of a couple of problems with that. The first one is that it would draw a lot of interest to us, which could have unpleasant side effects. The second one is that there may still be those who want the treasures to remain hidden. I remember reading an excellent book by Jakob Walz about the Lost Dutchman gold mine. He said that they still find headless bodies on the slopes of Superstition Mountain. They suspect that these people were getting too close to the secret.”

“We could hide out on the set and see who really killed J.R.”

“Nobody gives a shit any more. That show has been off the air for years.”

“Oh, yeah? I saw it last night.”

“That was a rerun.”

“Oh.”

“Come on. Try to think of a serious thing that we could discover the truth about by going back to the right place at the right time.”

“Hey! Maybe we are making a mistake by thinking only of things many years ago that would involve a lot of things we don’t know about or have any way to control. Even if we went back to the night Marilyn Monroe was murdered and camped out near her house in order to film her visitors, it might be a terrible mistake to carry modern recording devices with us. Surveillance was not as easy then as it is now.”

“You got that right. Besides, the Secret Service would be all over the place, anyway.”

“I mean why don’t we simply go back a month or so? There must be many things that would be useful to know if someone had the foresight to record a conversation or an illegal act.”

“We could even go back just far enough to select someone other than you for the test subject. Then you could have your previous life, and your foot, back again.”

“I like the way you are thinking, but I have already committed to this new life and am comfortable with my condition. Didn’t you hear the part when I explained how important you are to me?”

“I heard it, but you don’t even know for certain whether I am real.”

“Real, schmiel! Reality can’t hold a candle to perception. Regardless of who or what you are, my perception of you is as someone who answers my emotional needs and I will fight to maintain our relationship, even if there are steam pipes and gears behind that pretty face.”

“Awww.”

“Ok, so we are homing in on something, I think.”

“What about something to do with the election?”

“Oh, hell no! There are too many raw feelings on both sides to bring that up.”

“You have a point. All right, how about if we infiltrate board rooms and place recording/listening devices in them? We could make a fortune from advance notice of mergers and other plans. We might also find out that a very powerful company is behind the reliability problems of their largest competitor.”

“None of those things really appeals to me. Now that we have accepted the fact that the past need not be a long time ago, what is the shortest time previous to this that is still considered to be in the past? Would it be one second? A microsecond? A nanosecond?”

“What are you getting at?”

“You were able to not only put my consciousness back in high school, but you moved me several hundred miles to the school I went to at the time.”

“So?”

“Why not use the machine as a transportation device? Move me back in time by one second, but put me on the other side of the room.”

“But that would cause you to exist in two places at once, at least for the one second.”

“Ok. Is that bad? What difference will it make?”

“Hmmmh. Good point. Are you really willing to take that chance?”

“Hey, I took a chance before and some would say it went badly, but I am content, so why should I be afraid to explore some more?”

“Ok. Brace yourself, but first I want to set up a camera to record you in two places at once. If this works, I have a treat for you.”

Ishtar fumbled around a bit, setting things up, then without waiting for a countdown or warning, simply pushed the button and | was treated to the unusual sight of seeing myself from the back. Before I could really embrace the reality, my consciousness shifted to the new location and I no longer existed at the previous position.

“Wow! Now that was a trip!”

“Unhuh. That brings up many interesting possibilities.”

“Doesn’t it? Let’s do a tougher test. Hand me the camera and send me to London for a couple of minutes. I’ll take a picture of Big Ben to prove when I was there.”

“Good idea.” She handed me the camera after making sure it was set to record properly, then pushed the button again after entering the coordinate information.

Materializing on the London street might not have been so dramatic if she had remembered to look right. Before I had time to check my bearings, the doubledecker slammed into me, tossing my body high in the air. Luckily for me, the two seconds expired before I touched down.