Time Leap (17 page)

Twenty–Four

We were anxious to return
to London and talk to Yoyo and Mike. We wanted to know whether or
not the mission had achieved its objectives. Had it?

“
Well?” Niki
said as we opened the door and saw Mike and Yoyo sitting
comfortably in the lounge. “Did we prevent World War
Three?”

“
World War
Three?” questioned Yoyo.

“
It’s not
something you’d easily forget!” Niki exclaimed.

“
Well, no, I
wouldn’t think so,” replied Mike. “What’s this all
about?”

Niki and I
looked at each other. Did this mean that we
had
prevented the War and Yoyo and
Mike’s memories were now altered as a result, contrary to what we
previously thought?

“
Hey, had you
going for a minute!” beamed Mike. “Come and have a drink.” Mike
poured two more glasses of our favourite red wine, and we sat down
to chat.

“
Hope you
don’t mind us making ourselves at home,” Mike said.

“
Of course not
– it used to be your home!” replied Nik.

“
So?” I
queried.

“
We jumped
forward to our own time period to check, and it worked!” said Mike.
“There was no war with North Korea.”

“
Wow!”
exclaimed Niki. “So who’s the new US President?”

“
Sasha Obama,”
Yoyo replied.

“
You’re
kidding!” Niki exclaimed. “Obama’s youngest daughter!”

“
So Johnny
Clinton is now history?” I said.

“’
fraid so,”
replied Mike.

“
To the future
– our future.” Yoyo raised her glass and we toasted each other. It
all seemed so unreal. We were celebrating the avoidance of a World
War that versions of ourselves had said would happen forty–two
years in the future. Our plan had involved the killing of a young
man, previously destined to be an American President, by a hired
Russian hit–man. It was like something out of a Science Fiction
novel.

“
So, how did
it go with Smirnoff?” Mike asked.

“
It was great
– he’s a real professional,” I replied. “He said he made it look
like an accident.”

“
An accident!”
exclaimed Mike. “How do you accidently get your throat
cut?”

Niki and I looked at each
other.

“
According to
Yougle…” Yoyo started.

“
Yougle?
What’s that?” Niki asked.

“
You’ll find
out in about twenty years’ time,” Mike replied. “Personalised
version of Google.”

“
According to
Yougle,” Yoyo continued, “young Johnny Clinton was found dead in
his apartment on 29
^th
October 2024. His throat had been cut, and a
fellow student was arrested on suspicion of murder. He was released
when no evidence could be found linking him to the crime…. a crime
that was never solved.

“
Well, I
suppose that telling a small lie is nothing compared with the job
he does,” I said.

“
You’re right…
but it does show that you have to be careful with Smirnoff. Don’t
forget what he is, and that your lives are in his
hands.”

We were all quiet for
moment. Then Niki said, “So I guess Sasha Obama didn’t react to the
North Korean’s missiles the way Johnny Clinton would have
done?”

“
There were no
North Korean missiles,” replied Yoyo. “The whole sequence of events
changed from the moment Johnny was assassinated. Sasha was a very
different president from the one Johnny would have become. She
didn’t knowingly antagonise the North Koreans in any
way.”

“
So I guess no
American base in the Korean Peninsula then.” I stated.

“
That’s
right,” smiled Mike. “We really are creating new realities, new
universes, by our actions – and we should always be mindful of
that.

***

Twenty–Five

It had been strange
seeing ourselves in forty years’ time. It had also made me think
very carefully about what we could and should do with our ‘gift’ in
future.

Whilst our elder doubles
were with us, Niki had noticed a small scar on Yoyo’s right arm,
and asked her about it (naturally curious about the condition of
her own body in the future). Yoyo replied that it was from a
cycling accident around ten years ago (thirty or so years in our
future), which prompted Niki to thank her for the information.
After a short pause, she added, “Can you give me the exact date?
I’d like to make sure I don’t ride a bike that day.”

So it got me thinking:
apart from averting acts of terrorism, world wars, global disasters
and the like, could we also help on a more person level? Could we
use our time–travelling ability to change events which had lead to
some personal tragedy and thereby make a difference to peoples’
lives on this level? Or are some things just meant to be? Perhaps a
lesson has to be learned, and to remove the consequences of
someone’s actions or his or her way of thinking would contravene
the Laws of the Universe, or something like that.

To my mind, changing
physical events and changing states of mind are two different
things. For example, a man could lose a leg in an accident, and we
could go back in time and prevent that accident occurring. But if
the man does not change whatever habits or attitudes of mind had
caused him to have the accident, then we cannot guarantee that a
similar thing will not happen again. I relayed my thoughts on this
topic to Niki that evening.

“
I know what
you mean about changing habits, Joe, but we don’t need time–travel
for that. Just stop feeding me chocolate and ice–cream, and I’ll
lose weight.”

“
Haha! Yes,
obesity is a big problem these days.”

“
You’re
calling me obese!”

“
Well, let’s
have a look at you... oh, what have we got here? Spare
tyre?”

“
That’s not
funny .”

“
Of course
you’re not obese – you’re not even fat! You’re Chinese, you don’t
do fat. It’s all those vegetables you eat, and all the burgers and
chips you don’t. And it’s your metabolism. You’ve got a great
shape.”

“
Thanks baby,”
she said planting a kiss on my lips.

“
Clearly, I
should compliment you more often!”

We talked about the
different ways we could make people’s lives better. It was a little
like the story of the Genie and the Lamp. If you could have three
wishes to make the World a better place, what would they be? We
tried brainstorming this topic for ten minutes.

“
Eliminate
World Hunger!” started Niki.

“
Chelsea to
win the Champions League – again!” I said.

“
How does that
benefit anyone?” asked Niki incredulously.

“
It makes
Chelsea supporters feel good – and there’s a lot of us around the
World.”

“
Joe!”

We both went very quiet.
This wasn’t as easy as I thought. Then Niki said,

“
Okay, if we
want to make a lot of people feel good, let’s bring back Princess
Diana.”

“
Wow!” I said
slowly. “Could we really do
that?
”

“
Why not? You
brought Mama back to life, didn’t you?”

“
Yes, that’s
true… after killing her off… and I suppose we’d make Mr Al–Fayed a
very happy man too – assuming we can bring back his son Dodi at the
same time.”

“
Which he
won’t remember, of course. In fact, no–one will remember that
either of them died – it didn’t happen in their
universe.”

“
That’s a
bugger. I can forget about the knighthood then?”

“
Sorry
Joe.”

After putting forward
other ideas, neither of us could think of anything better than
bringing Diana, the ‘People’s Princess’ back to life. And so that
was our next target.

*

Where, when and exactly
how the Princess of Wales died was very well documented in the
history books and online, and at first it seemed a simple enough
job to reverse history and prevent her death. But there was
something we didn’t know.

We were sitting in our
sun lounge at the rear of the house. This house was the type you
would imagine multimillionaires owning – which of course we were.
Our garden was the size of a football pitch, and I had installed an
area for practising golf. In another part, Niki had a beautiful
Chinese Garden with a medium–sized pond, around which we would
often sit in the summer.

As we were talking, Nik
suddenly remembered something.

“
Joe, weren’t
we going to take Smirnoff to see his mother? We promised
him.”

“
Oh god, yes!
I’d forgotten about that. When did he say she died?” I
asked.

“
1997, I
think. Oh!”

“
What is it
Nik?”

“
That’s the
same year Diana died.”

“
Are you
sure?” I asked.

“
Yeah… I
remember it pretty well – not the sort of thing you forget. It was
the last day of August – a Sunday – and I was due to start year
nine at school the next day. Definitely August 1997, but you can
look it up if you like. Do we know what month Smirnoff’s Mama
died?”

“
I don’t
remember him telling us that. Does it matter?”

“
If he wants
to see her before she dies it does!”

Niki got in contact with
Smirnoff again. As usual, he would not take any direct calls, and
she had to leave a message then wait for him to reply. The answer
was one word: September. This meant that we could go to Paris, fix
the Princess, and then travel on to Moscow with Smirnoff to see his
mother. We thought it would be a good idea to set up a meeting with
the Russian to talk about our Diana idea, and also the arrangements
for travelling to Moscow. This time, Smirnoff chose St. Pancras
railway station for our rendezvous.

“
It’s a good
plan!” the big man said, drawing on one of his Russian cigarettes,
after we’d outlined our plans, “My mother would love the idea,
god–bless her soul.”

“
She would?” I
said.

“
Sure…
everyone loved Diana, and Mama used to talk about the Princess as
if she was her own daughter. She used to have pictures of Diana on
her wall… one of them was signed.”

“
Your mother
met Diana?” Niki asked, wide–eyed.

“
She did, yes.
When Diana visited a hospital in Moscow, Mama happened to be there
at the same time. It was a children’s hospital – Tushinskaya
Hospital I think – and Mama was there with Katrina, my sister’s
daughter. She had a throat infection, I remember, and Mama took her
to Tushinskaya… it’s a well–known children’s hospital in Moscow.
You can imagine her surprise when a British Princess came to visit!
It was the first time Mama had been so close to anyone like this
from your country, and it had a big affect on her. She thought
Diana was the most wonderful person on the planet, and couldn’t
stop talking about her. Diana sat on Katrina’s bed and held her
hand.”

“
So your
mother actually spoke with Diana?” I asked.

“
Sure she did
– for about twenty minutes. Mama was like that – you just couldn’t
shut her up when she got going. And if she liked someone, it was
impossible to tear them apart.”

Niki and I just looked at
each other. How spooky was this, I thought.

“
Anyway, Diana
sent her the signed photograph later on – someone from the British
Embassy delivered it in person, with a hand–written note from Diana
saying how much she’d enjoyed their talk. Mama couldn’t understand
English, but Ana, my sister, translated it for her.”

“
When was
this?” Niki asked. Although we’d done a lot of research into
Diana’s death, we’d missed anything about the visit to a Russian
hospital.

“
Let me see… I
know it was two years before Mama died, so that makes it 1995. And
I’m sure it was either May or June. You’ll find it on the internet…
Tushinskaya Children’s Hospital.” Smirnoff paused for a moment,
then continued. “You know, Mama was devastated after the
accident.”

We asked Smirnoff if he’d
think about our idea and draw up a plan. He wasn’t sure exactly
which location would be best for our next meeting, but it would be
either London or Paris. After that, we could all travel to
Moscow.

***

Twenty–Six

The next day over
breakfast, we reflected on the meeting with Smirnoff and our plan
to prevent the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Nik seemed a
little frosty for some reason.

“
It would be
great if we could bring Diana back to life–right Nik?”

“
Yes, of
course. That’s what we discussed.”

After a pause, I said,
“How about Smirnoff’s mother?”