A Question of Time

A Question of Time


“I was wondering when you’d get here,” the curious old man declared anxiously then corrected himself. “Well, then again, I suppose I wasn’t. I knew exactly when you’d get here!” He chuckled. “I guess you could say that I’ve been waiting for you for quite some time. Well, not really.”

“Where am I?” I asked, disoriented.

“The best answer to that question is that you’re everywhere…and nowhere.” He stroked his long white beard, evaluating my reaction to his answer.

“What the heck does that mean?” I wondered and surveyed my surroundings. We were, the two of us, atop a mountainous outcropping, overlooking a vast wooded valley. The air smelled fresh and the wind, clean.

My elderly companion had a crooked posture and his experienced eyes still held the twinkle of a youthful wonder. “I see you got my message,” he noted and motioned to my hand.

I’d truly forgotten about it, the tiny microchip still gripped in my palm. It dropped from the envelope when I opened the mail and I barely caught it before it hit the counter. As soon as I did, I was transported to this place, talking to a stranger whom I’d never met before. “How did I get here?”

“I’d like to tell you it was by U.S. mail,” he giggled. “But that would be an oversimplification. Welcome to the end…or the beginning.”

“Who are you?”

“For the purposes of introductions, it’s easiest to explain that I’m you.”

“Me?” I doubted then peered closely, finding myself in the old man before me. “That’s impossible!”

“Says who?” the elderly me replied. “Yes, yes. Go ahead and pinch yourself. Slap yourself in the face if it’ll convince you. You’re not dreaming.”

Following a long considering pause, I queried, “Why am I here?”

The old man who shared my identity took my hand and shook it sincerely. His was cold, likely the effect of poor circulation and thinned skin that comes with age. "This is the end of the Earth. Tomorrow, all of this will be gone,” he said and turned to the lush green valley stretching as far as the eye could see.

“Gone? You mean the Earth will be destroyed?”

“Tomorrow, December the 17th, 3864, at 5:34am a rogue asteroid about the size of a small planetoid, will hit this exact location, decimating the entire planet down to the last microbe.”

“How could you possibly know that?” I wondered.

“Because I’ve seen it coming with my own eyes, of course!” he declared plainly.

I figured out his game. “You’re talking about time travel. There’s just no way!”

Without warning, a second version of the older me materialized, “Then I’ll reappear,” he explained.

The first older me followed with, “To prove it to you without a doubt, I’ll disappear,” and he did exactly that!

“How…how did you do that?” I was stunned.

The remaining elderly me replied with a smile, “What can I say? It’s a gift.”

“Did you bring me here, then?”

“I didn’t. You did.”

“Okay, you lost me,” I noted and held out the chip in the palm of my hand. “How does it work?”

“That’s just it, you see?” he explained. “It doesn’t. You do. The chip is just a trigger…a quantum actuator with a set of coordinates for this place. It activated the power to shift within you. We have a rare gift indeed, the ability to travel to any when we want, at the speed of thought. And we’re not alone,” he added. “There are more like us, each with their own marvelous gifts. Now,” he said, “there’s a lot to do, a lot of lives to save, and I’m getting too old for this. I need to get you up to speed if you’re to replace me. The question is, are you ready?”

“Wait” I said, “if you’re an older me, then haven’t you already done all these things we’re supposed to do?”

“That’s lesson number one: stop thinking so linearly,” he chuckled. “Do you really think that with infinite possibilities and timelines that we’re the only versions of us? And are there only a finite number of lives to save?” He extended his hand once more. “So, I’ll ask you again. Are you ready to step into a much larger universe?”

“Where will we go?”

“Into the future…or the past.”

“Is it safe?”

“Ha! No,” he snickered. “But it’s a helluva ride!”

So, I took his hand and we disappeared.