Time Leap (8 page)

“
Yes, she is,”
I said. “Just a sec…” I called towards the big tree. “Nik – I think
you’d better come over here…” She appeared cautiously, and then her
eyes popped: two Joes again!

“
Jeez… you
look so young – you both do,” Joe2 exclaimed.

“
How did you
find us?” Nik asked.

“
Not too
difficult kiddo. Would you like to meet Niki? I mean my Niki of
course.” Nik nodded and Joe2 took out his mobile phone, turning his
back towards us. Then we saw him shake his head, put the phone away
and turn back to face us. “Battery’s dead – can I use yours mate?”
At this point, alarm bells should have been ringing in my ears. But
this was Joe – me – and he’d just given me 500 Euros. How could
anything be wrong? I handed him my phone, and as soon as I did,
realisation hit me like a lead weight.

I’d caught a
glimpse of his phone when he removed it from his pocket. You get to
know your own phone, and it was definitely not mine he pulled out.
Somehow in my mind I had rationalised that his phone
should
be different –
we’d gone into the future and technology had moved on. And anyway,
how could there be two copies of my phone in the same place at the
same time: But… but… my phone is unique, isn’t it?

“
You’ve
noticed my phone, right? Well, you have to move with the times,
mate.”

“
Then how
about time–travel… how does that work now – if you’ve changed your
phone?” Nik asked.

“
Ah, well… you
really should have asked me that
before
giving me the mobile. About
five years ago, I had a problem with the phone. It kept locking…
the touch screen didn’t work, and it became more or less useless. I
didn’t want to take it for repair, but in the end I had to. After
it came back, it worked again – but only as an ordinary
phone.”

“
So, no time
jumps?” Nik asked.

“
No – that was
over. I did think of going back to the store and saying, ‘Hey,
you’ve messed up my phone: I can’t time–travel anymore’, but they’d
probably send me to the Funny Farm. In the end, I thought the only
solution was to meet up with you guys…”

“…
And steal my
phone,” I said heavily. Nik looked aghast.

“
Joe! Don’t
say that! He… you… wouldn’t do that!”

“
Sorry guys…”
he said pressing the phone’s screen.

“
Joe,
no
!” Nik shouted running
towards him. But too late – he was gone.

“
I don’t
believe what just happened,” I said shaking my head.

“
So now
what?”

“
I don’t know
– I really don’t know.”

*

We left the park and
found a Starbucks close by – at least that hadn’t changed. But, as
Joe2 had told us, everything was in Euros now. Fortunately, though,
I still had the 500 euro note he’d given me, and we used that to
buy two cups of coffee. As we sat looking out the window, we
reflected on what had just happened – and what we could do
next.

“
Unbelievable,
isn’t it? Here we are, millionaires, and we feel like we’ve lost
everything. How could I have been so stupid?”

“
You couldn’t
have known,” Nik said holding my arm.

“
I suppose I
might have done the same thing in his situation. In fact, I guess
I
did
do it – ten
years in the future.”

“
It doesn’t
matter – it’s done Joe. What we’ve got to do now is get the phone
back. I don’t want to stay here in this time zone – not with
another Joe and Niki, and not without the phone.”

Niki was right. Somehow,
we had to get the phone back from Joe – but how? Where would he go
next?

“
He’s got to
go back to Niki – he won’t leave her,” Nik continued. “And she
won’t be pleased with what he’s done, I can tell you.” I was still
staring out of the window. “Joe, snap out of it! We’ve got to solve
this… we’ve got
to find Joe!”

I looked back at her and
smiled. She was great in these situations – always positive. That
was one reason I loved her.

“
You’re right
– sorry. You go to your parents – and I’ll try our apartment.” I
doubted that they lived there anymore, but I might get a forwarding
address. And Gloria and Tang might have a spare key to Joe and
Niki’s new house.

***

Twelve

Our plans to see how the
World would change in the near future had suddenly been put on hold
- by my mistake. Without my phone, we were stranded in 2030,
sharing the planet with a couple of clones of ourselves. It was not
a satisfactory situation, to say the least. I suggested that Niki
talk to her parents to try to locate our double’s whereabouts,
whilst I returned to where we’d lived ten years earlier in the hope
of discovering the same information. We were both in for a
surprise.

*

Ten years previously, the
entrance to our second floor apartment was above a dress shop.
Today, it was above a vegetable store. Maybe a sign of the times. I
pressed the buzzer of our apartment, and a man’s voice answered. It
wasn’t mine.

“
Yeah?”

“
I’m a friend
of Joe Cooper,” I said. “He used to live in your apartment…
previous owner.”

“
Yeah, I
remember him. What’s the problem?”

“
I need some
information… can I come up?” The door buzzed and I pushed it open.
The entrance way and stairs seemed old and neglected – which was
not a surprise when I saw the apartment. The man who greeted me was
unshaven and smelled of alcohol – whisky I’d guess. The flat was in
a mess: plates of food on the floor, empty beer and whisky bottles,
and a rubbish bin overflowing. I recalled the man’s voice, and
thought that I’d met him in Finchley one time – but I could hardly
recognise him now. When we’d met, I’m sure he was newly married,
but I guessed that had ended some years ago. The flat definitely
lacked a woman’s touch.

“
A friend of
Joe’s you say? I’d swear you were his twin,” the man
said.

“
Younger
brother,” I replied, “Jim Cooper.” Normally I would do the social
thing and shake hands in such a situation; but seeing the state of
the man and the apartment, I kept my hands firmly in my pockets.
“I’ve lost touch with Joe, and wondered if you had a forwarding
address?”

The man, who introduced
himself as Ed, then said “Oh, just a sec…” and went to a desk
drawer, searching through a stack of papers. “I know it’s here
somewhere…” After a few minutes, he found a dirty looking
handwritten A4 sheet, which could well have been the paper Joe2
gave him several years ago. “This is it,” he said handing me the
sheet. I took it from Ed, making a mental note to disinfect my
hands later.

I thanked the man, wished
him well, and began walking down the stairs towards the ground
floor. But a few steps down, a thought struck me – right out of the
blue.

“
Ed,
if you could turn back time, what would you do
differently?” He said, without hesitation, “I wouldn’t have run
that red light.”

*

It was just a short walk
for Niki from Hyde Park to her parents’ home. She had hoped for
three things: first that they were still alive and well; second,
they hadn’t moved from the family home; and third, at least one of
them was home.

She rang the bell with
some trepidation. She was acutely aware that she was ten years
younger, and her parents ten years older, and that could be
difficult to explain. And what if Niki2 was with them? How would
Gloria deal with two Nikis? Fortunately, Niki wasn’t there – but
she was in for another shock.

“
Hello? Can I
help you?” Niki’s father, Tang, opened the door, but clearly didn’t
recognise her. Had she changed so much in all these
years?

“
It’s me, Ling
Ling, Baba.”

He looked very puzzled.
“Do I know you?” he asked.

Just then, she heard
Gloria’s voice from behind the door. “It’s okay Tang, it’s Ling
Ling – our daughter, remember… come in dear.”

Niki entered the house
and was hugged by her mother. “I’m sorry, but he’s not getting any
better. I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s exactly what the doctors
said would happen. But it’s hard to take. At least he still
recognises me. Anyway, come and sit down – I’ll make some tea.”
Niki took a seat in the lounge and looked around. Everything was
much the same as it was ten years before, except older looking. And
then came the second big shock. “I guess Joe’s looking after the
baby?”

Niki looked quickly
around the room, and saw a lot more pictures of Joe and herself –
and a baby girl! ‘Oh–my–god!’ she whispered. ‘She’s
beautiful!’

Gloria brought in a pot
of green tea and two cups. “Her birthday can’t be far away,” she
said.

“
No, that’s
right,” she bluffed. “Not long to go now.”

“
Are you
managing okay?” Gloria asked, pouring the tea. “I can always take
her for you.”

“
Thanks,” Niki
said, picking up her cup. And then Gloria saw her clearly for the
first time since she arrived.

“
Ling Ling –
you look wonderful… years younger! What have you been doing?” In
contrast, Gloria looked several years older.

“
Oh, you know,
that’s motherhood for you… and a new diet. And Joe treated me to a
weekend at a new health spa in Hampstead.”

“
Well, it’s
worked wonders… you must give me the address.”

Somehow, Niki had to find
out where Niki and Joe were living now – and Gloria had just given
her an idea.

“
Sure… in
fact, if you give me your address book, ma, I’ll write it down for
you.”

Gloria went over to a
desk and pulled out a black ring–bound book and handed it to Niki
with a smile. “And don’t forget the phone number,” she said. As
Niki opened the book, she managed to knock over her tea.

“
Oh, I’m
sorry!”

Gloria immediately leapt
up, and went to the kitchen to get a cloth, giving Niki time to
search the book for her future address. She ripped out the relevant
page, stuffing it into her pocket. “So clumsy of me, ma, thank
you,” she said as Gloria mopped up the tea from the
floor.

“
Not to worry,
dear – it happens.” Niki finished writing down a fictitious address
and phone number in Hampstead and handed the book back to her
mother. “Thank you – I’ll phone them later.”

“
Good – but
maybe not today,” Niki added quickly, “they’re closed on
Sundays.”

After some small talk
about the baby and Joe, which Niki did her best to deal with, she
made her excuses and left – heading off for her future home in West
Acton.

*

As I should have
expected, the house where Niki and I would live in the near future
was a big one. Well, we were multi–millionaires ten years ago – and
who knows how much money we’d accumulated in the intervening time.
I found my way to the front door, and rang the impressive bell.
After a few seconds, I heard footsteps, and Niki2 came to the door,
a little breathless.

“
Sorry, I was
feeding Mei Mei,” she said. (Mei Mei?) Okay, we must have bought a
cat, I thought. But I was in for a
big
shock. I followed Niki2 towards
what was a large living room, and there on the ample sofa sat a
baby girl in a pink jump suit!

“
Oh,
that
Mei Mei!” I
exclaimed.

For the first time, Niki
looked straight at me. “Joe, your hair… and your clothes…” and then
it dawned on her. “Oh my god – you’re not Joe! I mean, you are but
you’re not… where’s my Joe – and why are you here?”

“
I think we
need to talk,” I said. Just then, the doorbell rang. “That’s
probably him,” I said.

“
You’d better
hide,” Niki advised.

I heard the door open and
then Niki’s voice – and then Niki’s voice again, and I suddenly
realised it was my Niki.

The three of us sat in
the lounge with the two girls talking like twin sisters and
drooling over the baby, and Nik saying she couldn’t wait to have
one – and then realising that it was hers, but not for a few years
time. Phew!

“
Joe,” she
said to me,” can we have a baby as soon as we get back
home?”

“
No we can’t!”
I exclaimed.

“
Why
not?”

“
It’ll mess up
the future! Joe and Niki’s kid will suddenly be about nine years
older… and they might even end up with
two
children…”

“
That’s okay,”
Niki2 replied, with Nik nodding in agreement.

“
And anyway,
we’re not going anywhere if we can’t find Joe and get my phone
back.”

We told Niki all about
the meeting in the park, and how Joe had taken my phone, and how we
were now very much stuck in the future.

“
I told him
not to do it – he knew I was against the idea; but he kept saying
there was no other option. And he knows he shouldn’t use the phone
on his own. God knows where he is now…” Just then, there was the
sound of a key in the door. It was Joe.