CHAPTER 73 - Changing the past
THE NEXT MORNING, EVERYTHINGwas ready to undertake the last leg of their journey. They had packed all their clothing and belongings and placed them in front of them. No food or anything that could spoil remained in the house, and they had drawn shut the blackout drapes. Not a sliver of light penetrated the absolute darkness inside the townhouse. That was necessary. If no light from the outside creeped in, it meant the explosion of light their time travel generated couldn’t get out either.
They sat at the table while Roys finished preparing the machine that would transport them in time. Spherical in shape, no bigger than an apple, the device sat in the middle of the round table between them. Having gone through this procedure several times, Dale was familiar with the steps. Not much longer now until they were ready to depart. It was time to bring it up.
Dale took a deep breath and decided to be direct.. “I would like to prevent Olivia’s sister’s death.”
The other man predictably bristled. “You can’t do that Dale! I thought we had already discussed this.”
“No, we talked about me contacting Olivia, which is not the same. I will not contact her or let her know I’m here. I’m talking about us preventing that accident. Anonymously.”
Roys looked up to the ceiling in annoyance. “Besides the fact it would add another stop or two to our already busy schedule, don’t you realize the implications?”
“What implications?” Dale countered. “A young couple will survive to see their baby daughter grow up.”
“I can’t believe I still have to explain this. Dale, if you mess with events, you don’t know how that might change the future.”
“How could their survival have any negative impact in the future?”
“I don’t know!” Roys got up to pace in agitation. “That is the great mystery. Nobody has done that. I was supposed to carry out small experiments. Changing minor events to see the effect they have.” He turned and pinned Dale with a glare. “Preventing the death of two people is not what I call small.”
“None of what we have done is small Roys. We have made innumerable trips, we have created documents. Heck, you transported me and have created a whole new persona in this time period.” Dale reasoned.
“Yes, but all we have done so far involves only you and people who are already dead. We have not interfered in the life and events of people who are living right now. What you suggest would change people’s lives. This would change the present and will surely have consequences in the future. Let me see if I can explain this. If we change events that happened in Olivia’s life before she traveled back in time and met you, she may not travel back in time and meet you at all.”
“How can that be? She did it. It already happened. She was there. We met.”
“Yes, and so it also happened that her sister died before that. What if once we interfere and her sister doesn’t die, she doesn’t get a divorce, she never makes that trip to England when she did, and therefore never meets you? We could have done all of this for nothing. You may get to her and she may still be married and have no idea who you are.”
That stunned Dale for a moment. Time travel logic was very convoluted, but he could sort of understand Roys’s point. What if he arrived at Livvy’s doorstep and her life had changed as a result of his interference? What if she was still married and happy and had no memory of their time together because it didn’t exist for her?
The idea was too painful to bear. It would devastate him. He would have lost her for good this time. But she would be happy. She would have her sister and her marriage. Even if the idiotic bastard could never love her as he did, she wouldn’t know that. She would not have had to go through the pain of a divorce, and she wouldn’t experience the pain of their separation, either.
He could still remember her expression the day she left him. How sad she looked, how her face had crumbled and her eyes overflowed with tears. Her unhappiness tortured him just as much as his own. That firmed his resolve.
“If that happens, I will win her over again. Even if she has no previous memory of me.”
Roys exhaled in exasperation. “I am beginning to regret this entire mission,” he said, but without heat. “All we wanted was for the two of you to be happy together. I don’t like the odds if this doesn’t work.”
