‘Hang on.’ I reached for my rucksack this time and took out the pieces of paper I’d printed at the library. ‘I found some things out.’
‘What sort of things?’
I smoothed the top piece of paper and stared at it, the words blurring. ‘I went to the library and did some research about time slips and time travel.’
‘Right?’
I glanced at her. I hoped I’d read this situation correctly. The last thing I wanted to do was be too intense and scare her off. I’d been so certain, but now I was saying it out loud I felt nervous, unsure of myself. I cleared my throat. I was a teacher, I could do this.
‘I was trying to find out what scientists know about time slips. I wanted to know what the explanations were for the phenomena, and how they were believed to occur.’ I picked up the first sheet and squinted at it. ‘Many people don’t believe time slips are possible. But we know they are because we’re living one, so I was looking for explanations on how theywouldwork, rather than whether theycould.’ I glanced at her, then back down at the paper in my hands. ‘One explanation is that they’re caused by electromagnetic fields which produce hallucinations in the brain. But we know this has to be more than a hallucination, otherwise we’re both going mad. Another possible explanation is that travelling at a certain speed can cause time to slow down, but unless we can work out how to travel faster than the speed of light then that didn’t seem to be helpful either.’ I cleared my throat again. ‘Have you heard of cosmic strings or wormholes?’
She shook her head.
‘Well, it seems like they’re both a sort of defect in space-time which, if they warp, might be able to create paths that loop back in time.’ I lowered my hands into my lap and looked at Emma. ‘I wondered whether that could be the explanation for what’s happening here.’
‘You really are a teacher, aren’t you?’ Her smile softened the words, but I still felt myself flushing.
‘Sorry,’ I said.
She shook her head. ‘I’m only teasing. It’s brilliant. But I don’t see how this helps us?’
‘Neither did I, at first.’
‘But now you do?’
‘I’m not sure. Probably not. I mean, scientists have never been able to deliberately recreate a time slip as far as I’m aware. But then they’ve never experienced what we’re experiencing either, so I thought, maybe, we could use our knowledge of that to help us.’
‘I’m listening.’ She closed the gap between us and I felt the buzz of electricity through my jeans from the press of her leg against mine. It made it hard to focus.
‘We don’t know how or why this is happening, just that it is, right?’
She nodded, a tendril of hair coming loose and sticking to her cheek. I wanted to brush it away but resisted.
‘I’ve been trying to think of a reason why it’s happening here, in this bandstand, and the only thing I could come up with was that we’ve both lost someone we love, and that we both live in the same house. So I wondered whether they could be the things that are causing a connection between us.’
Emma frowned. ‘But even if that’s true, how does that help us?’
I cleared my throat. ‘What if we could do something in the house that could somehow connect us there? Find some way that we could be together there, as well as here. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be something.’
Her eyes widened, her lips parted. ‘I love the idea,’ she said. ‘But I honestly don’t see how we could recreate this, however much we want it to happen.’
‘But what if we could? What if there was something we could try? Would you do it?’
‘Of course.’
Thank God. I wasn’t reading this wrong.
‘So, what are you suggesting? Do we need to concoct some sort of spell, or a weird ceremony?’ she said, a smile playing on her lips.
I shook my head, trying to stay focused. ‘My idea is actually simpler than that. Basically, as far as I can work out, a wormhole is a sort of short cut between two different parts of space and time. There’s clearly some unexplained force pulling the two of us through a wormhole here, in this bandstand, so what if we were able to create an artificial wormhole in the house?’
Emma frowned and tilted her head to one side.
‘How do you suggest we do that?’
I took a deep breath. This was it. The moment I’d find out whether she thought my idea was a good one – or completely insane.
‘I wondered whether, if we did exactly the same thing at exactly the same time in exactly the same part of the house, we might somehow be able to override the natural timeline, and it would let us be together there as well as here.’
