A Jump in Time

This story was the 4/8/02 Winner in the "Writer's Cramp" contest, where the prompt was to write a 1,000 word story in 24 hours where:

Your main character is a male. The secondary character is a talking parrot. An important item is something "not of this world". The lack of a flashlight plays an important part in your story. The word "jumper" must appear in the story which, by the way is a sci-fi/fantasy.

A Jump In Time

The last thing Keith remembered was getting on the subway around midnight.

He remembered standing on the platform, waiting for the train, and stepping into an empty car when the train arrived. And as the doors to his car closed, he remembered several people still standing on the platform.

Then the train shot away and he must have blacked out, because now he was sitting on a stool in a dark, empty bar.

“Good to see you again, Keith,” said a voice from behind the bar.

Keith looked toward the voice, but only saw a large green parrot in the corner. He rubbed the back of his head. What happened? Why did his head hurt?

“What’s going on, where are you, how do you know me?” Keith asked, looking around, trying to get his bearings.

“Something must have gotten messed up again on your jump,” came the voice again. “You’d think they’d get this thing sorted out...” he muttered.

“What?!” Keith asked, looking around wildly.

“Over here," he waved a wing and laughed. “Why they don’t use a real bartender for this I’ll never understand. But I digress. Pay attention. The secondary transporter could come at any second, or in a week, who knows, but you have to be ready for it when it comes!”

Keith looked around, but it was difficult to see anything with only neon beer signs above the bar for light. “What’s going on, where am I? I got on the subway and...”

“Ah, a subway jump,” said the parrot. “Penn Station, midnight train, right?”

“Huh?” said Keith, who rubbed his head again and sat back down on the stool. “I don’t understand?”

“Let me try again. You got on a train that no one else was on, blacked out, and found yourself here, right?”

Keith nodded, dumb-stricken.

“It’s like I said, you are a jumper. You were jumping back in time, the subway was your transport. Something didn’t go right and you ended up here. The last time it was a phone booth screw up.”

“I’ve been here before?” Keith asked in disbelief.

“Yes, yes, but there’s no time for reminiscing, as much as I'd like to. This is a way station, a place for you to wait until another jumping window opens. Then you’ll jump again, either back to where you came from, or back in time, depends on whether or not your assignment can still be completed.”

“Am I dreaming?” Keith asked, still unconvinced.

“Look, there may not be much time,” the parrot now stood before Keith on the bar. “Do you have your flashlight?”

“Look if this is some kind of joke?” Keith stood up and backed away from the parrot.

“It’s NO joke and there is NO time, you have to pay attention or you’ll be stuck here until God knows when. And as much as I like your company..."

Keith sat back down, “I don’t...”

“Look, I’m wasting time with all of this talking! You are a jumper – you jump back and forth in time.” The parrot paced up and down the bar, talking fast.

“Whoa, wait a minute, now come on!” shouted Keith incredulously.

“Look I know how it sounds, but you have to trust me! I’m your only hope. You don’t remember because it’s a built-in part of the security system, there’s a chip in your head...”

“A chip in my head??!!”

The parrot sighed. “Look there really isn’t time for this, your head hurts because you missed your jump, probably a mishap on their end, and that triggered the memory block program in the chip in your head, and that’s why your head hurts. Now do you have your flashlight?” The parrot was agitated.

"Flashlight?" Keith shrieked, starting to panic. The parrot was making sense, which was scaring him.

“Let me try again,” soothed the parrot. “Whenever you miss a jump or something goes wrong, you come here. But your memory is gone, erased, until you make the right jump. It’s a security measure, in case you end up somewhere you aren’t supposed to be, to keep you from talking about your mission or the jumping...”

“What does a jumper do?"

“You go back in time to divert disasters or change events …”

“I go back in time and interfere with history? Is that what you mean? That’s impossible, not to mention unethical, I would never do that,” Keith scoffed.

The parrot laughed. “You are actually one of their best agents.”

A soft humming noise began to emit behind Keith. He turned toward the noise and saw a bright glow coming from behind a closed door. It was unlike any light or any sound he remembered, it was literally not of this world.

The parrot screeched and drew Keith’s attention back to him. “There is NO time left! Do you have your flashlight?”

The urgency of the parrot seemed familiar, and as crazy as it sounded, Keith sensed the gravity of his situation, and trusted the bird by instinct. He patted down his jacket and didn’t feel a flashlight.

“Good grief, how many is that now?” the parrot asked. “Oh never mind, you can’t answer, suffice to say they are not going to be pleased that you lost another one. If anyone found one...”

The humming grew louder.

“The flashlight is your locator,” the parrot was speaking quickly again. “They beam in on it to get your alignment right for the jump. But you’ll just have to take your chances without it, and hope they get you back all in one piece, so to speak.”

“What do I do now?” Keith asked calmly, a vague feeling of familiarity bolstering his courage.

The parrot squawked approvingly. “Go to the door, close your eyes tight, open the door and step through it. The rest is up to them. And you. But don’t worry about that part now, just get going, you don’t want to miss your chance. And keep your eyes closed! The emergency transporter, as you surmised, is NOT of this world, believe me, but it’s your only hope!”

“You read minds too?” Keith asked, moving toward the door.

“Just go,” shouted the parrot, “and good luck!”

Keith stood before the door. The humming sound was louder. He’d heard nothing like it before, it was strangely soothing and discomforting at the same time. And the light was so bright.

He closed his eyes, put his hand on the knob, opened the door, and stepped into the light.