Chapter 10

Jack Dunn placed the paper plate with a sandwich on the picnic table before taking a seat across from Ed Taylor. With no clouds in the sky, the overhead sun beat down relentlessly on the two men. Hats kept their heads from baking and sunglasses prevented eyestrain. The soft breeze kept them cool.

“I see that you’re still eating bologna sandwiches,” Ed said while pointing at the paper plate in front of Jack.

“What can I say? I like them,” Jack said with a smile.

Jack picked up his sandwich and took a bite out of it. He emitted a small groan of contentment while chewing it. He liked the subtle flavors of the sandwich. There was the blandness of the white bread, the oiliness of the bologna, the slight sourness of the mayonnaise, and the watery bite of the lettuce. None of those flavors had been present in the foods of his timeline.

Ed watched Jack in disbelief, before he turned his attention to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the paper plate in front of him. He chuckled at the thought that it wasn’t that much better of a sandwich than bologna. His wife was always talking about comfort foods. After hundreds of rubber chicken dinners, a simple PBJ had become his comfort food of choice.

“So who is the crazy lady that tried to attack me?” Ed asked.

“A time traveler,” Jack answered, deciding honesty was the best policy.

Ed stared at Jack for a full fifteen seconds, trying to decide if the older man was kidding. Finally, he said, “You’re kidding.”

“No. I’m as serious as a heart attack,” Jack replied. He picked up a potato chip and popped it into his mouth.

Deciding to play along, Ed said, “I take it that she wasn’t too pleased with the future and my role in making it come about.”

“You might say that,” Jack replied. “I suspect she is here to kill you.”

“That’s not very friendly,” Ed said while putting down his sandwich.

He had suddenly lost his appetite at the idea that Jack might actually be telling the truth. It was a particularly unsettling thought that the future would send a person back in time to eliminate him.

Ed asked, “Am I only one she’s here to kill?”

“I think she’s here to kill me, too,” Jack answered.

“Why you?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Jack answered, “I guess it is because I was the one who created her future.”

A small sparrow landed at the end of the picnic table. It had learned that after people ate at the table there would be crumbs available to eat. When Ed turned to look at the bird, it flew away. He stared at the spot where the bird had been, thinking about the hints Jack was giving him.

One of the reasons Ed enjoyed his conversations with Jack was that the older man discussed politics with a very different perspective from how others approached it. He would describe how ugly the future could become if men of proper conscience didn’t step up to the plate in the current time. It was the kind of message that Ed understood. He liked the idea of a country filled with men of conscience working hard to create a good future.

There were times when discussions suddenly went in overly serious directions. Every time there was some controversial piece of legislation, Jack would point out all of its unintended consequences. Some of the things he talked about were pretty horrific, but made sense once one thought through the matter. Jack would often talk about consequences as though he had lived through them.

These discussions were unsettling; but Ed enjoyed them, if only because they forced him to think about things in a much deeper manner. Simple solutions to problems suddenly became the source of even more problems. Everything was about consequences, and every act of legislation had unintended consequences. It made voting for things much more difficult than voting against them.

Over time, Ed had slowly become convinced that Jack knew something that he didn’t. There were odd little hints about things that didn’t exist and events that wouldn’t come to pass. Time travel would explain a lot about Jack’s comments concerning possible futures. Of course, the idea of time travel was too bizarre to accept as reality.

“I take it you are a time traveler, too,” Ed said.

“Yes,” Jack answered.

Surprised at the simple answer, Ed asked, “Who wins the world series this year?”

“I have no idea. One of the casualties of my timeline was sporting events,” Jack answered.

Sports were viewed as being too expensive for public healthcare to afford. Broken bones, pulled muscles, and concussions tied up medical resources that just weren’t available any longer. Baseball, basketball, soccer, football, and tennis were slowly eliminated. It had been far easier to manage than one might expect. With the state raising all children it was just a matter of not exposing them to those sports. Exercise replaced sports.

“Who is going to be the next president?” Ed asked thinking that a time traveler should know something so obvious.

Jack answered, “I don’t know. The man who was the next president in my original timeline isn’t in the running.”

“Why not?” Ed asked.

“Some of the people who helped him get elected were killed a couple of years ago,” Jack answered without the smile that could have taken the hard edge off of his words.

Not sure what to make of Jack’s statement, Ed pushed his paper plate to the side while watching Jack carefully. If he wasn’t mistaken, the man had just admitted to murdering some people. Of course, his answer could be a way to deflect questions that would prove that he wasn’t a time traveler. It was impossible to imagine sports disappearing from the American landscape.

Jack said, “I know nothing of what is going to happen in the future. The future I knew is gone because the majority of people who created it are gone.”

Ed realized that Jack was definitely admitting to having murdered people. He wondered what had happened to the woman who had tried to attack him.

As if reading Ed’s thoughts, Jack said, “Don’t worry, she’s alive.”

“Good,” Ed said. At least he wasn’t going to have to explain to some inquisitive reporter why some strange woman disappeared after attacking him.

Gesturing to the paper plate that held the untouched sandwich, Jack said, “Eat your lunch. I’ll take you to talk to her when we’re done. You need to hear what she has to say before you get elected to the oval office.”

Ed thought about what Jack had said. Despite previous hints that he could achieve his political ambitions, this was the first time that Jack had directly asserted he would become president. He made a mental note to ask about it, later. For now, he wanted to know what was so important about the woman. He asked, “Why do I need to listen to her?”

“You might end up doing things with a little more subtlety after hearing what she has to say about the timeline she experienced,” Jack answered.

“Like what?”

Jack answered, “Like nuking Iran.”

“I nuke Iran?” Ed asked raising an eyebrow in surprise. It wasn’t every day that you learned that you nuked a foreign country.

“In her timeline you do,” Jack answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

Ed looked thoughtful for a second and then said, “So I take it that I’m not supposed to nuke Iran.”

“I didn’t say that. You just need to be a little more circumspect when you do it. You might want to wait until after Iran launches its nukes,” Jack said while waving a hand in a dismissive manner. “That would change public opinion from how they reacted to the preemptive strike you performed in her timeline.”

“Anything else I should know before taking office?” Ed asked.

“You’ll need to talk to Jane about that. Her timeline was the result of your actions, not mine. You were never even elected to congress in my timeline,” Jack answered.

Remembering the hate filled expression on Jane’s face when she tried to attack him, Ed said, “She doesn’t like me.”

“No shit,” Jack said with a grin.