The Watch - Part 24

'Er…,’ I said to myself. I struggled to comprehend what I was seeing. I was standing in front of me. I know a lot about Time Travel, I have read about it in science books, science fiction books, watched a load of TV and films based around Time Travel, and have read up on it on the Internet, so I know a lot about how it works and the paradoxes associated with it. Although it was hard to believe that I was on the other side of the door, but a small part of me was very happy that I was.

After the first shock of seeing myself in front of me, my mind was able to settle down a bit and realise what must have happened. Considering I don’t remember this in the past, this must be my future-self, and that must mean that I travel into the past and somehow end up at my front door. At some point, I will have to complete this paradox by going into the past. I must have tested my watch. Also, I knew that it was OK for me to meet myself because he/I must have met myself/himself at the front door before travelling in time to eventually be the person standing in front of my front door. Ok, I’m going to stop saying, ‘him/I’ from now on as that is just getting confusing now.

‘This is the part where you let me in,’ he said, smiling at me.

‘Er…’ I said again, ‘yeah, sure, please come in,’ I said stepping to one side letting him in. He walked past me and entered the living room. At first I thought it was rude he done that, but then I realised that he must have done that to himself before he travelled in time to meet me. Now things are starting to get complicated. I might be able to understand Time Travel and its paradoxes off by heart, but when it is actually happening to you, your brain struggles to comprehend it all.

I shut the door and followed him into the living room where he sat down on my sofa and offered me a seat beside him. I sat down and he immediately began explaining stuff.

‘As you have already worked out, I am your future self,’ he said, ‘eighteen minutes older than you. After I have finished my explanation, I am going to head upstairs where you will proceed to leave through the back door, go down to the bottom of the back garden and travel into the past eighteen minutes. There you will wait until Tom has left and wait two and a half minutes before making your way around to the front of the house where you will wait out the remaining time, and at precisely eighteen minutes, you will ring the doorbell, where your past-self will greet you and you will have this exact conversation as we are having now,’ he said.

I listened intently to every single word he was saying, just so that I wouldn’t miss out a thing for when it’s my turn to explain things, although I was very nervous that I would screw things up. However, I also knew that he was also feeling very nervous about having to explain all of this. Why wouldn’t he be, he’s me after all.

‘And when will you go upstairs?’ I asked.

‘In about a half a minute’s time,’ he said checking his watch.

‘How will I remember everything you’ve just said to me?’ I asked even though I had just said to myself in my head that everything was going to be fine. I guess this was something that had to happen to fulfil the paradox properly.

‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said standing up. I followed him. We stood in front of each other, ‘everything will come naturally to you once you become me,’ he made his way into the hallway. I stood in the doorway, watching him ascend the stairs.

‘Remember,’ he called down, ‘eighteen minutes into the past,’ then he was gone.

I did exactly as I was told and left the house via the backdoor and made my way down to the bottom of the garden. The air felt cool and still, allowing me to gather my thoughts. I didn’t have to stress myself out over what I was going to say when I eventually meet myself, because I’ve already said it, multiple times, possibly even infinite amount of times.

I brought up the main menu on my watch and navigated through to the Time Travel section, which brought up a set of dates. I selected today’s date, then the time I wish to travel to. Then I hesitated. Why? I wasn’t sure. Maybe my brain had to take a couple of minutes to register what exactly is going on.

I paused for a half a minute before pressing the button on the watch. It was an immediate reaction. It was an entirely different experience from travelling through the Void. This time, I was travelling through the Space-Time Vortex, with a lot more than just my consciousness. I still had my body and I was able to see and feel my body as I travelled through the blue swirling electrical fog that is the Vortex. Because I was only travelling a short distance into the past, I didn’t spend that long in the Vortex meaning I couldn’t study it for as long as I would have liked, and I came out of the other end feeling pretty good. I didn’t feel weak as if I was torn apart and reassembled again. I felt like I did before I travelled in time. I was able to stand on my own two feet without losing my balance, and so meant that I was able to walk without stumbling over myself. I’m sure if I travel further into the past or future, I would feel some side-effects, though.

But I have no need to walk anywhere, because my instructions were to wait here for fifteen minutes before making my way round to the front of the house. Even though I was right at the bottom of the garden, I could see movement in the house. We had just finished watching the film and was talking about it, before we both stood up and made our way to the front door. It was nearly time before I made my way to the front of the house. I heard the faint echo of the front door shutting. This was my que to head around.

By now, my past-self would be making his way upstairs and getting ready for bed. After all this is over, I can finish doing what I started before all of this happened: Going to bed.

I stood in front of the door and waited for the eighteen-minute mark before ringing the doorbell.

I heard myself coming down the stairs before opening the door by a crack, calling through.

‘Who is it?’

‘You wouldn’t believe it even if you saw me,’ I said knowing he had just heard an awfully familiar voice. He opened the door and stared at me.

‘Here we go,’ I thought.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)