The Watch – Part 115:

The clicking sound of the door’s mechanism echoed through the house, instantly putting a stop to what our past-selves were doing. Stepping into the living room, we found ourselves staring back at us. As expected, both of them at the same time, raised their eyebrows with shock. I could tell by my counterpart’s eyes that he was trying to figure out what was going on.

‘What’s going on?’ Amy’s parallel counterpart asked.

‘Um… I don’t know myself,’ my parallel counterpart said, still piecing together an answer that best suited with this situation. Then, after a second of silence, he figured it out and said.

‘You’re from the future, aren’t you,’ he said.

I nodded before starting to explain that we are here to deliver this piece of paper to them so that they can travel into the future and give it to us, therefore completing the bootstrap paradox, which my counterpart accepted, but Amy’s counterpart on the other hand, still feeling the effects of what happened back at the station, struggled to fully understand what was actually going on.

‘OK,’ Sebastian said, ‘So, you’re here to deliver that yellow piece of paper to us, so that we can travel into the future and deliver it to you, so that you can deliver it to what will become our past-selves, and so on, and so on, completing the bootstrap paradox,’ Sebastian said.

‘That’s about it,’ I said.

‘Doesn’t sound too difficult,’ Sebastian said. I handed him the piece of paper and rolled up his sleeve so that the watch was visible. He then fiddled with it for a few seconds, before saying.

‘Strange,’ he said.

‘What?’ I said.

‘I can’t travel in time.’

‘What?’ I repeated again, this time surprised.

‘My watch, it’s just ordinary. It will only display the time, and nothing else.’

‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ I said.

‘I know, right,’ Sebastian said.

‘What’s wrong?’ the Amy beside me asked.

‘It appears, that my past-self is unable to travel in time because his watch is just an ordinary watch,’ I explained.

‘I got that part,’ Amy said, ‘but why?’

‘I have no idea,’ I said.

‘Me neither,’ Sebastian agreed. ‘Which is really strange, considering you are my future-self, which means you must have had the watch to travel into the future to deliver it to yourself, and so on. You never had this problem, did you?’ Sebastian asked me. I hope he didn’t notice my small moment where I deliberately disconnected our eye contact.

Would it help if I explained that we’re not their future-selves? Well, maybe, but the Sebastian and Amy who is standing in front of me are our parallel counterparts, and therefore… no, that doesn’t make any sense because technically speaking they are our past-selves… but this is, officially, a new parallel universe… so my past-self not having the watch would be another difference between the two, and not just the paradox.

‘How about this then,’ Sebastian said. ‘This paradox needs to be resolved at some point, so why don’t you take us two in the future so that we can deliver this to you, then we can figure out what’s going on with my watch.’

‘That sounds like a pretty good idea, to me,’ I said. In truth, my head was really starting to hurt. This was really getting too complicated. Every time I go over it in my head, rewording it to see if I could simplify it better, but in the end, it always ends up completely and utterly the most complex thing.

At this point, I wanted this to be over and done with so that I can relax.

‘Hang on,’ the Amy’s parallel counterpart, ‘does this mean what I think it means. Am I going to take a trip through time?’

‘You are,’ Sebastian said.

‘Awesome,’ she said, shocked, but eager at the same time.

‘OK,’ I said and sighed at the same time whilst inputting the necessary commands into the watch before explaining that we both need to be linked together in order for all of us to travel in time. The Amy beside me immediately linked her arm with mine as a minor demonstration. Sebastian and the other Amy linked arms with me and Amy until we were both standing in a circle.

‘Ready?’ I asked everyone.

‘Ready,’ Sebastian said.

‘Ready,’ Said the other Amy.

‘You know I am,’ my Amy said.

‘Here we go, then,’ I said, pressing the button, sending us into the Space-Tome Vortex, arriving into the future. The other Amy was absolutely ecstatic with happiness, smiling broadly from cheek to cheek, saying that it was awesome and she wanted to do it again… just before losing her balance and nearly falling forward due to sudden disorientation. This version of Amy hasn’t travelled through time before. We were standing on the other side of the road, just to the left of the house so that the other us wouldn’t be able to see us and ruin the entire operation.

‘Was I really like that?’ Amy asked me.

I couldn’t help but grin teasingly. She didn’t look too happy about that.

‘So when are we?’ Sebastian asked me.

‘A half an hour into the future,’ I said.

‘That’s all,’ Sebastian said, clearly expecting a longer trip than that.

‘Just go in and deliver that piece of paper. That’s all you need to do,’ I explained.

‘Awesome,’ Sebastian said, turning on the spot. ‘After you,’ he said, letting Amy go first. They crossed the road, heading towards my/their front door.

‘And what do we do?’ my Amy asked.

‘Now we wait for the other us to disappear into the past,’ I answered. ‘However, whilst we wait, I want to know some answers. Interface,’ I called, ‘I need you.’ He appeared in front of me in his usual way.

‘How can I be of assistance,’ he said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)