“What If?” by Jeff Caparula

“You never make any sense!” I told Rod.

“I do too!”

“No you don’t!”

“You’re just never around when I make sense!”

“I’m always around though!”

“Exactly!”

“Exactly what?”

“I just proved my point Stewart!”

“How?”

“I never make sense because you are always around and you are never not around to see me make perfect sense.”

“But if I was not around then I wouldn’t be able to see you make sense.”

“Now you’re not making sense.”

“GUYS!” Danni intervened from the other room, “I hate to break up this non-sensical BRO-mantic argument, but this is getting old.”

“Sorry.” We responded in our best Canadian impersonation.

What could I say? Danni knew how to calm us down. Rod and I were always arguing over something stupid (Like that time Rod said he could see air), but Danni knew all she had to do was talk and we would listen. It probably helped that both Rod and I are in love with her. We had already dated and somehow were able to stay friends after the break up, but soon after we broke up, I noticed Rod had started to develop feelings for her. It really sucked. It sucked a lot.

Danni walked in from the other room. “What are you two arguing about now?”

“Well,” Rod responded, “we were discussing how I never make sense when Stewart is around.”

“But you never make sense.” Danni quipped.

“HA! Told you!” I exclaimed in glorious victory.

“Ok fine!” Rod surprisingly agreed. “It’s only when neither of you are around that I make sense.”

“Oh brother!” Danni and I sighed.

Danni walked over and sat down on the couch, grabbing the remote from the coffee table, clicking the T.V. on.

“What do you guys want to watch?” She asked.

“Oh! Twilight Zone is on right now!” Rod suggested.

“Original, reboot series or the movie?” Danni asked. She was a nerd to the core. I loved her even the more for it.

“Original of course.” I answered.

“Alright I’m in! What channel”

We found the channel and turned it on. It was one of my favorite episodes of the original series.

“So what’s this one about?” Danni asked.

“This one is…” I looked at the info bar on the T.V. “Oh this one is the one were the senator is sent back in time and tries to save President Lincoln from being killed and only an Irish cop believes him, but he is thwarted by John Wilkes Booth himself.”

“Really another Time Travel storyline?” Rod recently had grown tired of Time Travel for some reason and always voiced his opinion on the subject quite loudly.

“Why do you hate time travel so much? You used to love it!” I said.

“Everyone and their mothers have done the time travel thing to death! It’s too popular now.”

“Well being a hipster is too mainstream too! Did you think about that?” Danni added sarcastically. (Did I mention I love her?)

“I’m just saying, nothing more can be done with this genre. Everything has been done with it and nothing original has come out of it for the past decade.”

“Well there is only so much you can do with it.” I told him.

“For once I would love to see a story unfold where the main character goes back in time and stops H.G. Well’s from writing THE TIME MACHINE and see if that alters the course of human interest in time travel.”

“That would be interesting, but you are forgetting one thing Rod.” Danni started to explain.

“What’s that?”

“H.G. Wells wasn’t the first author to explore the possibilities of Time Travel.” Danni continued, “You have many authors from earlier centuries who have written about the idea and notion of time and traveling through it. In 700 B.C. there was a Hindu story called, MAHABARATA about a king who goes to another world to meat the creator and then returns to an earth many ages in the future; Mark Twain’s A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT in 1889; The CLOCK THAT WENT BACKWARDS that appeared in the New York Sun in 1881” She paused for a second to think of some more titles. “Even Charles Dickens wrote about time travel!”

“What?” Rod and I asked puzzled.

“A CHRISTMAS STORY.”

“That doesn’t count!” I said turning to Rod. “Does it?”

“No, Scrooge doesn’t literally get transported back in time. He is taken back through visions by the ghosts exploring his thoughts and memories.” Rod surprisingly stated with confidence.

“Well, some people consider it to be an early time travel story.” Danni said whispering as if mildly embarrassed that she is one of those people.

“How do you even know this stuff?” I asked.

“I – I have a life outside of you guys.”

“Cough! NERD! Cough!” Rod joked.

“Shut Up! You’re a fan of My Little Pony; so you of all people shouldn’t be speaking.”

I began laughing hysterically.

“I have an idea!” I said while slowly catching my breath from laughing. “How about we build a time machine and go back in time and see what would happen if we stopped Well’s from writing the story. After all, it was the first story of time travel to use technology in a broader mainstream that audiences responded too.”

“Build a time machine?” Rod asked me as if I was losing my mind, “Are you Nuts?!”

 

It took a few weeks, but thankfully because of my job in engineering and auto mechanics, Rod’s knowledge in quantum mechanics and Danni’s ability to draw and design blueprints, we were able to form a working idea of what we were going for in the end; We were able build a working Time Machine with little doo-dads, whatca-ma-call-its and switches that we had no idea what they were for! It was pretty authentic if I do say so myself. Rod and I went out to grab supplies for the journey and let Danni stay home and put some finishing touches on the machine. We didn’t expect what we would arrive home too.

 

“IT’S PINK!” Rod exclaimed in horror.

“Danni,” I began to say before I lost my train of thought to the sight pink.

“Do you guys like it?” She said giddily.

“Like it?” Rod responded, “It’s PINK! You can’t paint a Time Machine pink!”

“You never said I couldn’t!”

“The issue never came up!” I rebuttled.

“Well it’s too late now!”

A few moments went by in silence.

“IT’S PINK!” Rod said once more breaking the awkward silence.

 

The next morning came and we were ready to travel back to…to…uh.

“So do we know what time we are traveling to? I forgot the date.” I asked Rod and Danni.

“Uh…” Rod responded.

“January 1895 was when it was published for the first time in serial format in The New Review (Probably somewhere in London), so I say we should go to the end of December in 1894.” Danni interjected.

Rod and I once again looked in complete shock and awe.

“What?” She said nervously looking at our blank expressions.

“That was so h–.” I hit Rod before he could finish that sentence.

“London, December 1894 it is!” I said as I typed it into the machines directory.

 

We strapped ourselves in for what could pretty much blow up in our faces. I hit the switch and nothing happened. We were still in the garage of Rod’s mother’s house.

“Well that was anti-climatic!” Rod sarcastically remarked.

“Calm down! Let me see what I can do.” I said trying to cool Rod down a bit.

“Stewart, the parking break wouldn’t happen to be on would it?” Danni smartly asked.

I casually and calmly switch the break off.

“So are you guys ready?” I asked embarrassed.

“Mhmmm!” Danni added.

I flipped the switch and we were transported into a black hole that had opened up in front of us. For a moment there was absolutely nothing! Just blackness; blackness so thick you could have felt it. Suddenly in a bright flash, we had arrived.

 

We were on the outskirts of London. A fresh blanket of snow had just fallen and is resting beautifully on the ground. It took us a few seconds to actually get up, for the trip left us in shock. We had just time traveled! SUCCESFULLY!

“I think it worked.” Rod said assuringly.

“Now what?” Danni asked not to sure of what to think of the whole ordeal yet.

“We find Wells.” I answered.

“There is only one problem with that,” Rod began to say, “we have the right time and location, but exactly where are we suppose to find him? Did either of you think to look up where we could possibly find him?”

We sat there for minutes pondering why we didn’t think of that before hand.

“Rod, did you think about this before we had left?” Danni asked him directly.

“Well yeah of course! Didn’t you?”

“I’m gonna hit him!” I said frustrated.

“Boys let’s not fight! Ok?”

“Ok.” We responded.

“Now lets just go into town and perhaps we’ll come across someone who knows him and can point us in the right direction.”

“We’re gonna need one heck of a coincidental miracle to pull that off!” Rod said pessimistically, “Now how are we going to hide a bright pink time machine in a field of white?”

 

We arrived into London about a half hour later or a quarter past five in the afternoon. To our surprise it was the day after Christmas. Some of the town’s people were taking down decorations while others were acting as if they were still celebrating.

“May I assist you?” a man said from behind us. “You three look a bit lost.”

“That’s because we are.” Rod was quick to respond rudely.

“Well I must say, the three of you are in the most interesting of garments.”

We had forgot to change into the costumes we rented back home.

“It’s the latest style from Italy.” Danni quickly responded. (Hopefully this guy had never been to Italy).

“I’ve heard about the style of clothes over there. Strange, but I guess if one likes it.”

“Ha-ha yes, yes.” I tried to do my best Italian impression, but it failed miserably. “Would you happen to know of an author named, H.G. Wells by chance?”

“Wells?” the man pondered for a moment, “AH! Yes Wells! I know of whom you speak.”

“Wonderful! Do you know where we can find him?”

“Well last I heard he was meeting with his editor about some new story dealing with time and science.”

“Do you know where we could find him? It’s very important we speak to him. It’s about the story he is about to write.”

“Well I’m sure you can find him right over there!” the man points to a man with a mustache and a beautiful woman on his arm, coming out of a newspaper building called, The New Review across the street. “Actually I do believe that’s him now! Wow what luck you guys have. I guess you could say the spirit of Christmas is still with ya’!”

“Yes perhaps so! Thank you so much!” Danni said thanking the man by giving him a quick little kiss on the cheek.

“Bless me soul!” The man said as he practically skipped away with his face bright red in merriment.

“You know when I said a miraculous coincidence,” Rod stated, “I didn’t actually think we would…you know.”

“Don’t worry about it!” I said pulling him along. “Let’s get over to him quickly!”

 

We went running down the street after him. We must have looked like crazy people wearing the latest fashion of the 21^st century that no one in their right mind would understand. So many people gave us the weirdest looks, but whatever.

“MR. WELLS! MR. WELLS!” We shouted while trying to catch up to him. Finally he turned around as we slipped on some ice and slid right towards him. Thankfully he moved rather quickly and we didn’t hurt him.

“My, my! Are you chaps alright?” He asked us as we started to get back up. “How about you miss?”

“Oh I’m quite alright Mr. Wells.” Danni responded.

“Now why are you three running down the street yelling my name?”

As soon as I could regain my breath I answered, “First of all, huge fan!”

“Why thank you! It’s always nice to meet –”

“Second, we need to talk to you about the story you are about to write.”

“What story would that be?”

“A time travel story sir.”

“How would you know about that?”

“You wouldn’t believe us.” Rod told him.

“Well then, if it is so important, then let me take my lovely lady here home and I shall come back to pick you up and we shall talk. Hmmm?”

“Very well sir.”

“I’ll be back here in an hour. I’ll see the three of you then.”

Mr. Wells walked off with the lady as the three of us stood watching in disbelief that we had actually just met Wells himself.

“Wait a second!” Rod said quickly. “Wasn’t he married?”

“I believe so.” I answered.

“That lady wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, but he was.”

“Did you too ever study Wells in school?” Danni quickly questioned us. “He was known for having many affairs. He even had illegitimate kids.”

“OHHHHH!” Rod and I responded.

“He actually winked at me too.” Danni said as she was fan-girling over the man and flattered.

 

An hour went by and a carriage came and picked us up. Inside the carriage was H.G. Wells himself.

“Now! Who are you three?”

“My name is Stewart and these are my friends Danni and Rod.”

“Friends uh?” He asked looking at Danni suggestively and winked.

Danni was turning red in the face.

“Yes sir, just friends.” Trying to not let my emotions out at that moment was very hard.

“Now about my story; what was you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Well sir,” Rod began to say, “We believe you shouldn’t write it.”

“And why in the devil should I not?”

“You see sir,” I was trying to think of anything I could tell him instead of telling him we were from the future, but that didn’t happen thanks to Rod.

“We’re from the future!” Rod added in an instant.

“Rod!” Danni yelled.

“The future? What in the devil are you talking about?”

“We came back in a Time Machine to stop you from writing the book because it—it…” My mind went blank.

“It becomes the basis for a time war amongst humans and the time space continuum has turned into a giant paradoxical black hole that unless we stop you from writing the story, the world as we know it will come to an end.” Danni was quick, as if she had thought and planned of it earlier.

“You’re all mad! I should have you three put into an sanatorium!”

The last thing we should do is show him the time machine…or so I thought.

“We can show you our time machine!” Rod insisted.

 

We arrived out on the field and there it was. Bright pink and blinding!

“By George!” Wells exclaimed!

“I know it’s hard to believe sir, but–” I began to say.

“No it’s the color! Who in their write minds would make it that color? It’s hideous!”

Danni this time was embarrassed she had painted it that color.

“If what you are saying is true then, I must not write this story.”

“That is correct sir!” I assured him deceptively.

“If I may add, if you do write it,” Rod said in a heartbroken demeanor, “a world war will break out in 1940 just as you predicted.”

“Oh my word! I promise lads, I will not write this story!”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” Danni said giving him a kiss on the cheeks, which made him way too happy!

 

Wells left us with our time machine as he traveled back into town. We couldn’t believe we had done it! At least we think we had; now we just had to travel back to the future and make sure. We got into the time machine and,

“It’s not working!” I yelled. “Something’s wrong! All the power is gone.”

“What are you talking about?” Danni fearfully asked. “Did you flip the little doo-dad or the whatcha-ma-call-it?”

“Guys!” Rod screamed from the back seat. “It’s disappearing!”

And in an instant we saw the machine fade away and we were sitting up to our waist in a mound of snow.

“You don’t think–” Danni stopped mid sentence.

“That since we stopped him from writing the story that we never had the idea to build the time machine in the future therefore—“ Rod stopped.

“The time machine never brought us here, but we opened a paradox that for some reason left us here and took away our ride instead of just erasing us from history all together?” I finished.

We sat in the snow thinking of what he had just done.

“Well, let’s go talk him into writing it now.” I said getting up out of the snow and helping Danni up. Rod just sat there,

“DANG!”