First line challenge from Pete Sutton
And that's when the time machine decided to stop working.
So there I was, trying to make a living, a few deals here and there. Nothing big. Enough to keep myself in beer and keep the van running.
It was a Tuesday, just after lunch. The van was empty, my only job for the day had just been delivered and I was heading home. Then this old fella appeared in front of me.
Not stepped in front of me, not ran or jumped. He appeared, out of thin air. One second the road was empty and the next there he was. I braked but he was so close I hit him anyway.
So I jumped out to see how bad he was hurt, I didn’t need another insurance rise, it was hard enough to pay the current rate, Insurance costs, bloody rip off merchants.
Anyway this fella was alive, didn’t seem to badly hurt, just bruised and knocked down. Funny clothing, looked like he had escaped from the sixties, jump suit and spangle covered shirt, long hair, silver necklace with some serious sized bling hanging off it.
He was moaning about we have to stop him, stop the death. That got my attention, I didn’t have nothing to do with the heavies round here, strictly small time me. Killings were right out. But this fella was pointing at some kid playing on the pavement, don’t let him die he was saying.
Die, the kid was behind a row of cars and next to the shops, nothing dangerous there.
Then I saw it happen, slow motion like. The kid turned and waved to someone across the road, then he started to run between the parked cars. The bus was going about twenty but the kid was too short, the driver would never see him over the parked cars.
I was running before I knew it, me, running like some sort of hero. I grabbed the kid and pushed him back between the cars just before the bus bumped me.
Next thing I knew I’m lying on the pavement with a bunch of people standing over me calling me a hero. Me, a hero, firkin hell.
~
Anyhow after a trip to the hospital I grabbed a lift home, the rossers had collected my van and locked it up somewhere leaving me walking. Still I got home and collapsed in a chair, getting hit by a bus, this hero thing leaves a lot of bruises.
That’s when the fella appeared again. Right out of thin air. Only this time he was like some twenties wide boy, suit with lapels a foot wide, shiny shoes, the whole works.
So there I am sitting there while this fella is thanking me and telling me he is some sort of time traveller, yea right a time traveller. Though it seems he wasn’t travelling in one time, it was sort of complex, alternate time lines, divergence points. Most of it went right over my head but the thing was that every time something happens in our timeline that has two outcomes both happen, the one in our time line and the other in a new parallel timeline.
So he could jump from one to the next, how freakin cool is that.
He was even showing me how his time machine worked, it was that huge piece of bling round his neck. Then it went ping and he went white like he had seen a ghost.
And that's when the time machine decided to stop working.
It was bad, real bad, something to do with a divergence point where he was dead and alive. Problem was the time machine got confused by both possibilities and stopped working, but he was fine, alive and everything so what had happened.
Then he dropped dead.
~
I told the police he was a mate, in town and going to a costume party. They were suspicious till the autopsy. A massive cerebral hermitage or some such. Something to do with exposure to an unknown radiation. Didn’t understand it myself but he was dead, the police let me go and best of all.
I had a firkin time machine.
It took me a while to get going but after that there was no stopping me. I could hop to the closest alternate time lines ahead a bit or back a bit. I tried to get the lottery numbers but something kept going wrong. Too many variables I guessed because the numbers were never the same. If it was yes or no that would be the same but the lottery, all those spinning balls. That never worked.
Still I was a dealer, when I went to some place that was back a few weeks in time I remembered, there was going to be a real bad storm, typhoon, thousands of people homeless. Hey if I could buy up a load of tents and bottled water I could make a killing.
So I did.
It was fantastic, I could go someplace where a disaster was going to happen and buy up all the stuff people needed then sell it back for twice the money. That crash in the price of silver, I bought up a van load cheap then went back to where the prices were still high before the crash happened and cashed in.
I was making so much money; a few time jumps every day. I didn’t know what to do with the money. I had some warehouses, three big new vans and some drivers. A nice four bed detached out in the suburbs.
I was minted. It was hard work, I was knackered at the end of the day, getting old. Used to be a few months ago I could make three or four jumps a day, now two left me exhausted. Still getting time to retire. Hell I was a millionaire, me, a couple of million in the bank. Who would have thought?
~
Then I heard a Ping and that's when the time machine decided to stop working.
And that's when the time machine decided to stop working.
So there I was, trying to make a living, a few deals here and there. Nothing big. Enough to keep myself in beer and keep the van running.
It was a Tuesday, just after lunch. The van was empty, my only job for the day had just been delivered and I was heading home. Then this old fella appeared in front of me.
Not stepped in front of me, not ran or jumped. He appeared, out of thin air. One second the road was empty and the next there he was. I braked but he was so close I hit him anyway.
So I jumped out to see how bad he was hurt, I didn’t need another insurance rise, it was hard enough to pay the current rate, Insurance costs, bloody rip off merchants.
Anyway this fella was alive, didn’t seem to badly hurt, just bruised and knocked down. Funny clothing, looked like he had escaped from the sixties, jump suit and spangle covered shirt, long hair, silver necklace with some serious sized bling hanging off it.
He was moaning about we have to stop him, stop the death. That got my attention, I didn’t have nothing to do with the heavies round here, strictly small time me. Killings were right out. But this fella was pointing at some kid playing on the pavement, don’t let him die he was saying.
Die, the kid was behind a row of cars and next to the shops, nothing dangerous there.
Then I saw it happen, slow motion like. The kid turned and waved to someone across the road, then he started to run between the parked cars. The bus was going about twenty but the kid was too short, the driver would never see him over the parked cars.
I was running before I knew it, me, running like some sort of hero. I grabbed the kid and pushed him back between the cars just before the bus bumped me.
Next thing I knew I’m lying on the pavement with a bunch of people standing over me calling me a hero. Me, a hero, firkin hell.
~
Anyhow after a trip to the hospital I grabbed a lift home, the rossers had collected my van and locked it up somewhere leaving me walking. Still I got home and collapsed in a chair, getting hit by a bus, this hero thing leaves a lot of bruises.
That’s when the fella appeared again. Right out of thin air. Only this time he was like some twenties wide boy, suit with lapels a foot wide, shiny shoes, the whole works.
So there I am sitting there while this fella is thanking me and telling me he is some sort of time traveller, yea right a time traveller. Though it seems he wasn’t travelling in one time, it was sort of complex, alternate time lines, divergence points. Most of it went right over my head but the thing was that every time something happens in our timeline that has two outcomes both happen, the one in our time line and the other in a new parallel timeline.
So he could jump from one to the next, how freakin cool is that.
He was even showing me how his time machine worked, it was that huge piece of bling round his neck. Then it went ping and he went white like he had seen a ghost.
And that's when the time machine decided to stop working.
It was bad, real bad, something to do with a divergence point where he was dead and alive. Problem was the time machine got confused by both possibilities and stopped working, but he was fine, alive and everything so what had happened.
Then he dropped dead.
~
I told the police he was a mate, in town and going to a costume party. They were suspicious till the autopsy. A massive cerebral hermitage or some such. Something to do with exposure to an unknown radiation. Didn’t understand it myself but he was dead, the police let me go and best of all.
I had a firkin time machine.
It took me a while to get going but after that there was no stopping me. I could hop to the closest alternate time lines ahead a bit or back a bit. I tried to get the lottery numbers but something kept going wrong. Too many variables I guessed because the numbers were never the same. If it was yes or no that would be the same but the lottery, all those spinning balls. That never worked.
Still I was a dealer, when I went to some place that was back a few weeks in time I remembered, there was going to be a real bad storm, typhoon, thousands of people homeless. Hey if I could buy up a load of tents and bottled water I could make a killing.
So I did.
It was fantastic, I could go someplace where a disaster was going to happen and buy up all the stuff people needed then sell it back for twice the money. That crash in the price of silver, I bought up a van load cheap then went back to where the prices were still high before the crash happened and cashed in.
I was making so much money; a few time jumps every day. I didn’t know what to do with the money. I had some warehouses, three big new vans and some drivers. A nice four bed detached out in the suburbs.
I was minted. It was hard work, I was knackered at the end of the day, getting old. Used to be a few months ago I could make three or four jumps a day, now two left me exhausted. Still getting time to retire. Hell I was a millionaire, me, a couple of million in the bank. Who would have thought?
~
Then I heard a Ping and that's when the time machine decided to stop working.