Day 61 - Time Travel Story

 Time Travel Story 

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Of all their experiments, the most tragic was the attempt to live longer by only existing for fractions of any given second. Margaret and Michael theorized that skipping mere fractions of a second at a time would allow them to seemingly appear to exist as a constant, but would add on an extra third or more to their potential life span. Other people’s minds wouldn’t process their phasing in and out of time. It would work like an optical illusion because no one else’s mind would accept that the person across from them was glitching and blinking out of perceivable reality.

Conversation would be a different matter. Sound-waves would carry of course. If they properly enunciated and spoke loud and clear, then perhaps they would at worse appear to mumble or stutter. But the hope was that other people’s minds would fill in the gaps as well and the words would seem clear.

Margaret was worried that they might start to physically phase. While they were skipping time, the earth would spin, their car would drive, doors would close, and on and on. When they reappeared every object around them would be out of place. Their close could fall off them, or worse, shift ever so slightly and occupy the same space as their body reappeared into. The results could be bloody and painful or worse, deadly.

Michael was fairly certain that their bodies would emit the proper energy to carry their momentum forward and that even with the skips, they would stay on pace with the rest of reality. 

Their tests on objects and animals seemed to confirm this.

Neither considered that their disappearances would create miniature vacuums or wondered what might rush to fill in the voids. If their energy did create a sort of bubble for them to slid along with the rest of reality, then there could also be unforeseen energy ripple ramifications as all known and unknown energies across all spectrum would be bouncing off this bubble and affecting everything around them. If a chaos butterfly could cause a hurricane there was no way of knowing what they would be creating. They could be turning themselves into walking black holes or atomic bombs.

Still, that fear didn’t cross their minds. They could so they tried and that was that.

Never experiment on yourself. That can’t be stressed enough. Just a terrible terrible idea. Even if you’re trying to eventually benefit from the results. You never know what you’re setting yourself up for.

But I digress.

They tried. They did. They succeeded. Sort of.

Michael watched in horror as Margaret blinked out of existence.

Margaret watched in horror as Michael blinked out of existence.

Michael couldn’t understand what had happened or where she had gone. Perhaps he had miscalculated and she made a larger time leap and would appear minutes or days or weeks later. He would attempt to study the problem, look for a solution. He wouldn’t panic. There would be an explanation and in that he would find a solution.

Margaret wondered if Michael’s atoms had been dispersed in the process and he failed to re-materialize. Perhaps something was wrong with him on a subatomic level and his body could not retain its shape. It would be tragic, of course, but she marveled at her success. She had done it. She had made it and was a live and able to function properly with the world around her. That was a miracle. A one of a kind, world altering revelation. She would be famous. Her name would become historic.

Michael waited for Margaret to return, heartbroken. Then he began to notice the odd occurrences at their lab and at home. Food disappearing. Supplies running out. As if two people were consuming things, not just one. And the people, their co-workers, their friends. No one was sad. No one gave condolences or asked questions. People acted as if nothing was wrong.

And so, after a few days he asked, and people began to look at him like he was insane.

Yes, Margaret was there. No, they were not kidding. They had just spoken to her. She had been there. Or was still there. They were talking to her right now. But Michael didn’t see her or hear her.

Margaret was thrown when her co-workers began answering unasked questions. She looked at the strange at first, then thought perhaps they were having mental breakdowns of Michael’s death. Then she realized they were having full conversations with someone who wasn’t there, but the conversations seemed to be with Michael and seemed to be about her.

Slowly she realized that she and Michael both existed, but they were both existing during different fractions of each second. Whatever allowed everyone else to perceive them both, they had not gained that ability. Something in the process had pulled them apart and made it so they could never live at the same time. They might live in the same space, work in the same room, they might live a long long time, but they would never share anything together ever again.