Time Leap (20 page)

This was a little
problematic. We wanted to leave a contact number, but our mobile
phone numbers were not yet active in 1995, nor were our current
email addresses. Whilst we were dithering about this, Niki said to
the man, “Can we give you the details tomorrow?”

“
Certainly,”
the Butler replied.

As we walked away from
the house I hissed, “Why did you say that! Now we’ve got to come
back tomorrow!”

“
Oh, never
heard of time–travel then?”she replied.

“
Duh!” I said
slapping my forehead, as we stopped by the duck pond close to the
palace.

“
Why don’t we
give Mama and Baba’s address and phone number?” suggested
Nik.

I agreed this was a good
idea – but we should check the contents of our package first. We
were relieved to see that everything had been returned, plus there
was a card from Diana. On the outside, there was a beautiful winter
scene in Moscow, and inside a handwritten note from the
Princess.

‘
Dearest Joe
& Niki, words cannot describe the feelings I have for what you
have done for me. I still cannot really believe or understand what
happened in Moscow, but no doubt I will soon discover where my
future lies. Please keep in touch. Much love, Diana.’

We were very tempted at
that moment to jump to September 1997 to see if things had changed
for Diana, but resisted the thought. Instead, I set my phone to
just one day later.

“
This’ll be
interesting!” I said. And sure enough, it was.

“
Ah, Mr Joe
and Miss Niki – nice to see you again. I trust everything was in
order yesterday?”

For a moment, we were
stopped in our tracks. In our time frame, we had spoken to the
Butler less than ten minutes ago; but in his frame of reference, it
had been a whole day. We gave the man Niki’s parents’ contact
details, left the house and walked back across the park. It was a
clear June day and many couples were walking and enjoying the
sunshine and warm air. We found a secluded spot under a large oak
tree and I gave Niki the phone to set the date back to our present
time. We were in for a surprise when we arrived home.

***

Twenty–Nine

We were
standing in our lounge, suitcases by our sides. On the
mantle-shelf, there were cards marked ‘
Thank You’
, ‘
Invitation’
, and ‘
Happy Birthday’
, amongst other
things. When I looked inside, they were mostly from
Diana.

“
Nik – come
and look at this… Diana is our best friend now!”

Niki was in the kitchen
looking for food. She came out to see what I was talking
about.

“
Really?”

“
One of the
cards is dated this year, so it looks like she’s still
alive.”

“
Let me
see…”

There could be little
doubt about it. It seemed that we had received signed pictures of
the Princess of Wales, and several invitations to various functions
over the years – including her Wedding!

“
Oh-my-god!
She’s married that surgeon she dated!” exclaimed Nik.

“
What
surgeon?”

“
Don’t you
remember? When we were researching her life, we discovered she was
secretly seeing a Pakistani doctor.”

“
Oh yes! Dr
Hasnat Khan. Well I’ll be…”

I couldn’t resist
checking the internet for news of Diana’s life since 1995.
Everything had been pretty much the same as the history we knew
until August 1997. The Princess of Wales still gave her interview
on BBC’s Panorama programme, but the content was rather different –
more toned down you could say. After that, things changed: there
was no crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 for Diana and
Dodi.

*

We’d just finished a late
lunch, and were relaxing outside when Niki received a text from
Smirnoff. He wanted to see us as soon as possible, and was checking
if we were home.

“
Well, so much
for his ‘never the same place twice’ rule,” I said
wryly.

“
Smirnoff has
no rules,” Niki replied. “I wonder what’s so urgent?”

We found out soon enough.
Smirnoff entered the house almost dancing on air. He was carrying a
couple of bottles of red wine, Russian vodka, a bouquet of flowers
and chocolates.

“
For Nikita,
my Chinese Princess,” he said pushing the flowers and chocolates
into Niki’s hands and kissing her on both cheeks. “Joe, I don’t
know what to say… thank you!” He gave me a big bear hug, almost
suffocating me. I quizzically looked at Niki, who returned the same
surprised look.

“
Well, you
helped us,” I said at last, “we couldn’t have saved Diana without
you.”

“
Diana? Who
cares about Diana… I’m talking about mama!”

“
Oh, well
you’re welcome – I’m glad you had the opportunity to see your
mother before she died.”

“
Mama is
alive!”

“
Your mama –
she’s alive,
now?
”
Niki was incredulous.

“
I don’t know
how you did it, but thank you, thank you!” he hugged Niki
warmly.

“
Whoa – wait a
minute! Are you saying that at the current time, not 1995, your
mother is not dead?” I said.

“
Listen to
him!” Smirnoff said to Niki. “Such a modest man. You guys say you
go to St. Petersburg, but now I know what you were
really
doing.”

“
I think we
need to talk Smirnoff,” I said ushering him to an
armchair.

“
Okay, first
of all, if your mother is alive…”

“
There’s no
‘if’, Joe… I spoke to her this morning, on the phone. She talks as
if her death never happened.”

“
Right. Then I
have to tell you that although Niki and I are very, very happy
about this, we did nothing knowingly to make this happen.” Niki
nodded her confirmation.

“
Then, how can
this be?” the Russian asked. We sat in deep silence for a
moment.

“
I think I
know,” Niki said at last. “But it might be a little difficult to
accept.”

Smirnoff’s
mother undoubtedly had a very special connection with the Princess.
What if, Niki suggested, that connection was at a deep spiritual
level – what if they are actually part of the
same
Soul?
In which case, when one leaves the Earth, the other
follows–and if one stays, they both stay. This was clearly
difficult to take this in.

“
Well, I know
nothing about spiritual things, but mama is a strong believer in
this–so I suppose it’s is a possibility. Mama and Diana were
certainly close on more than just a physical level. But then what
about Dodi Al–Fayed? From what you say, he was not involved in the
car crash in Paris – what’s happened to him?”

Niki told Smirnoff about
Diana marrying the Pakistani surgeon, whilst I did a quick check on
the Internet. Dodi was very much alive, and now the new boss at
Harrods in Knightsbridge. It seemed to be consistent with Niki’s
hypothesis, though I had to admit it was difficult to go along with
her spiritual/Soul idea. But whatever the reason, the fact was that
Diana, Dodi Al–Fayed, and Smirnoff’s Mama were now once again
living and breathing on planet Earth. We opened one of Smirnoff’s
bottles of wine to celebrate the return of Mrs Smirnoff.

“
You never did
tell us your mother’s name,” I said to Smirnoff. “We can’t just
call her
‘Mrs
Smirnoff.’
”

“
Oh, I get it.
You think I’m in a good mood now, and yes I’m very happy. So I tell
you her family name, and then you know mine. Is that what you
want?”

“
I’ll think
about it,” I replied.

“
Well think
fast, my friend, because if I tell you my name, then I have to kill
you.
Na zdorov’ya!
”

“
Na
zdorov’ya!
” we repeated, toasting drinks
with Smirnoff.

“
And and I
guess that means cheers in Russian,” I said.

“
Actually, it
means ‘good health’. Look after yours my friends.”

***

Thirty

After our ‘Russian
Adventure’, as it became known, Niki didn’t want to change history
or save people’s lives for a while. She just wanted to take a break
and go on holiday.

“
Okay, good
idea,” I said as we were having breakfast a week after returning
from Moscow. “Where would you like to go?”

“
Ancient
Egypt.”

“
Ah! I
wondered when that would come up.”

Niki had studied History
and Archaeology as minor subjects at university, and both ancient
Egypt and ancient China still held strong fascinations for her. She
was particularly interested in the Egyptian pyramids, situated on
the Giza plateau just outside modern day Cairo. Unlike the tombs in
the Valleys of the Kings and Queens in Luxor, where the mummified
bodies and treasures of Tutankhamen and other pharaohs had been
discovered, the Giza pyramids had never revealed any signs of any
bodies or treasures. Consequently, it was Niki’s belief that the
pyramids had been constructed for some other, unknown,
purpose.

Both Niki and I were also
interested in learning how the ancient Egyptians had managed to
construct such magnificent structures. The large building blocks
were made of immensely heavy and incredibly hard granite, and with
just simple hand–tools at their disposal, it was difficult to
understand how the blocks could be cut, transported and then set in
place so precisely. Yes, there were theories about how this was
done – but modern day attempts to replicate the construction had
always ended in failure. (One such attempt resorted to using a
modern JCB tractor to make just a small–sized pyramid).

According to Nik,
archaeologists generally agreed that the Giza pyramids were built
during the Old Kingdom, probably between 2589 and 2504 BC – which
meant around 4550 years ago. Our plan, therefore, was to travel to
Egypt and then jump back to 2500 BC. After taking a look at the
pyramids – snapping a few photos of course – we would return home
before we’re noticed. No changing history this time – just Niki and
me as time tourists.

So one spring morning, we
took a flight to Cairo out of Heathrow, having booked a room in a
local hotel close to the Giza plateau. Our hope was to witness the
construction of at least one of the great pyramids – we could not
have imagined what we witnessed.

This was the first time
either of us had travelled to Egypt – and the first time we’d gone
this far back in time. Before we made the trip, I played around
with the phone to see if I could actually change to 2500 BC. I had
been using a mobile application to easily and quickly change the
date on my phone (developed by a friend of Niki’s) – instead of
laboriously scanning through the years. But the app wouldn’t let me
enter BC dates. I mentioned this to Niki.

“
No problem,
Micky in Shanghai will fix it.”

“
What,
tonight?”

“
I’ll email
him now.”

The next morning, I had
an update to my app waiting for download when I woke up. Good old
Micky! It worked great – he’d factored in all sorts of changes to
the calendar made over the centuries, taking into account the Roman
and Greek versions, and including the Julian calendar. He said it
wouldn’t be perfect, but if we were really only interested in
years, not specific days, it would work well. This meant no need
for any of that scrolling business – just enter the year and press
go.

I was dying to try this
out (better to make sure it worked in London before flying to
Egypt), and whilst Niki was busy cooking dinner that evening, I
changed the phone’s date to 2500 BC. I got a hell of a wobble, and
found myself sitting on damp grass in some sort of countryside area
(rather than our sofa in suburban London). This seemed to indicate
that I must have travelled backwards in time. In the distance, I
could detect some movement, so I changed the date back to the
present as quickly as I could. I didn’t particularly want to get
stuck in 2500 BC England on my own just then – even though I’m sure
it would have been rather interesting.

When I jumped back Niki
was in the lounge, looking very stern.

“
Joe – where
have you been?”

“
Ah… just
experimenting – making sure the app worked.”

“
And did
it?”

“
Four
thousand, five hundred year old grass,” I showed her, holding up
the wet strands in my hand.

Niki wasn’t
too pleased that I’d experimented on my own, but she was glad to
hear the app worked. She also thought it would be a good idea to
take a look at England in 2500 BC sometime – and maybe discover
what Stonehenge was
really
used for.

Having confirmed that we
could indeed jump so far back in time, we took the express train to
Heathrow two days’ later, and boarded our flight to Cairo.
Travelling first class is definitely the way to go if you’ve got
the money (or know how to win it) – and it was a very relaxed
five–hour flight to the capital of Egypt. With all the recent
troubles in the country, we didn’t want to hang around the city, so
we took a taxi from the airport directly to Le Meridien Pyramids
hotel in Giza on the outskirts of Cairo. We had an amazing view of
the huge structure from our bedroom window, and couldn’t wait to
take a closer look.