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In the Name of Love

It shouldn't have happened: Room 306

By Lamar WigginsPublished about a year ago Updated 10 months ago 16 min read
14
In the Name of Love
Photo by Joseph Chan on Unsplash

"That was truly an inspiring story, Guiseppi. Bravo! Bellissimo! In the light of all that has happened recently, you continue to impress and tantalize our imaginations. And I agree that progress is the key foundation to our future."

Bianca, an open-minded personality, was full of questions that night. She duly earned the respect she received from others. Her charisma was warm and inviting, like a fresh cashmere sweater on a chilly autumn night. Her intellect was that of a rising phenom. Everyone liked her. She turned her attention to Winston, a Harvard grad student of Economics.

"Tell me, Winston, do you believe in the second chance?"

She patiently waited for Winston's response to her on-the-spot question. Twelve pairs of mindful eyes were on him as the focus forced his wheels to turn. He looked up from the glossy black cover of the pamphlet he kept from the convention and responded.

"No! there are no second chances, and I'll tell you why. What's done is done. History cannot and should not be rewritten. The flow of time is a constant. To apply a second chance is to dam the river of time, like a beaver dams a waterway. However, this dam will overflow and branch off into different tangents, creating situations that will continue changing the course of history. We learn from our mistakes and consider the mistakes of others. If you take back those mistakes, you learn nothing.”

Winston paused to look at the group. They all displayed different expressions. Bianca tightened the muscles in her jaws, in order to conceal her true feelings about what he said. She turned to look at Guiseppi and their eye contact pushed the stiff moment over the edge. Uproarious laughter broke out within the group. Winston was left confused and perturbed as the echoing sounds of hilarity pierced his ego. Bianca cleared the air.

"I'm so sorry for laughing, Winston. What you said was amazing but what I was talking about was the Second Chance particles Guiseppi wrote about in his book. I guess you weren't paying attention."

"Yeah, I guess so." He responded, with a touch of embarrassment.

He laughed off the misunderstanding while turning as red as his ruby polo shirt. Sweat began to roll down his forehead and into his brow. Bianca looked him in the eyes and smiled with glee until his comfort level came to an end, and he looked away.

This fine group of future entrepreneurs congregated for discussion after the annual Charles Pickford event was over for the day. It was nearing the witching hour. They continued with small talk as they cleaned up the area of photos and paperwork they received at the convention. Winston was locking up his attaché case when Bianca came over to him.

"That thing you said about second chances reminds me of time travel."

"Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I hope we never figure out how to alter the past. It's strange enough that we can go back as observers. I don't want my past or my future altered. Do you?"

Bianca gazed at him like a child guilty of eating all the cookies. Her expression quickly shifted back to delight when a pleasant memory was triggered and says,

"I once traveled to see Beethoven and watched him as he was composing his ninth symphony. It was for a school project but turned into a personal endeavor to get to know him. I went there a handful of times to analyze his genius. I've come to the conclusion that no one can really know a person a hundred percent, unless you can experience the introspective quality of their thought processes. All we get to know are the results of that process."

"Very interesting... I wish I knew him."

"Hey! Ahh, can you keep a secret?" Bianca hesitantly asked.

"Yeah, sure."

"I mean really! Well, this will eventually get out but right now it's classified information. I only know because of my family."

"Yes, Bianca, I can keep a secret." Winston convincingly responded.

"Good! I'm only going to tell you this because it ties in with your opinion of second chances. Let's go somewhere where we can talk."

They gathered the rest of their belongings and said goodbye to the group they were with. They would see their vibrant faces again during the 2nd day of the business assembly which was held in the beautiful bustling city of Vienna, Austria.

They slowly chatted their way out the exit doors and walked to a nearby bus stop. Bianca sat down on a bench inside the partially enclosed glass structure of the depot, Winston followed. They sat their bags on the ground and continued talking.

"You are a deep thinker, Winston. I can tell because you're quiet most of the time."

"Yeah, maybe so, but not all the time. Feed me a glass of red wine and I become a little more uninhibited."

"I would love to see that side of you. Let's hit the bars tomorrow night!"

"Ahh, um, maybe, I guess that would be alright." He appeared shy, but really wasn't.

The both of them knew each other from the previous two years of gathering there. But they really didn't know each other. Winston thought she was asking him out on a date. Bianca just wanted him to open up, she wanted to be real friends.

"Listen Winston, after I share this story with you our friendship will be on another level. I've never told anyone this. I trust you."

They both settled into the comfort of the bench. A city bus, making its rounds, stopped to pick them up. They kindly waved it off. Annoyed, the driver shut the door and continued his route. Bianca reached in her pocket for a piece of gum and tossed it in her mouth. She balled up the wrapper and put it in her pocket. Her story began.

"What if I told you that we can alter the past. I mean, not us, but someone has, or came very close."

"I would say that you're out of your mind." Winston answered, while turning his phone to silent mode.

"It's true. They just don't know how she did it. Six years ago, in 2099 My aunt Patriece attended a Time Travel event. It was a game she played with close friends of hers. Six of them came together on occasion to have fun with the past. They would print out random descriptive time periods on paper, fold them and drop them into a hat or basket or whatever they used. One after another, they would choose one to be read in front of the group. My aunt chose hers, opened it and read it aloud. 'The Civil Rights era of the 60s.' The premise was simple: Travel to that time period and bring back a souvenir in the form of pictures, since we still can't physically bring back materials. Whoever captures the best photos wins bragging rights and gets to tell the story of their experience."

Winston interjected, "I've heard of this game...it's called, it's called. Shit! I forget what's it's called."

"It's called Tempus Fugit; just a fancy way of saying time flies. My aunt chose civil rights and traveled to a place called Memphis, in the United States. It was April 4th, 1968, at 5:30 pm, a crowd was gathered around a motel. They were listening to a man, a black man. Do you know of Martin-"

"Martin Luther King Jr! Of course, I do! I learned about him in American History class. I'm not sure if you knew, but I was born and raised in southern Ohio in America. I graduated high school there when I was 17. I'm very familiar with his history."

"Okay, good! It's nice to know that about you. Anyway, my aunt and her friends had access to a newer version of the Time Index Transporter needed to travel. Its voice automated and yet to be commercialized for use. Once you have clearance to travel, you simply enter the transporter and close the door. Your vitals are then charted and displayed inside the home lab to be monitored. When you're ready, you voice the time and location of your destination and faster than you can say Buongiorno, you have reached the target. The maximum travel time is one hour before the quantum stabilizer reaches its limit."

"No way! I heard that something like this was coming out but didn't know they could hold it together that long! The longest travel time to date is 22 minutes, with the average being 15."

"Well, it's true. Right now, only the government has access to these advanced transporters. My aunt and her friends are all filthy rich. They can buy anything they want. I'm sure that's how they got access to them. She explained this fascinating story to my father who is still trying to get her released from prison. He said once she made it to Memphis, she simply punched in a code to bypass the automatic locking system and stepped out of the transporter into a reality from the past. This was previously thought to be impossible without facing certain death. Somehow, she did it. As we both know, the membrane of the transporter pod is transparent. All you see from the inside out is the thin outline of the membrane, and whatever is displayed on the screen on the control panel. This new pod was similar in that aspect.

My aunt easily blended in with the crowd and began listening to the speech everyone was engaged with. Martin Luther King was a brilliant speaker. Everything that came out his mouth was the logical truth. We still learn from his mental strife to this day. She listened to him spill out meaningful word after word. She was falling into his spell of painting a clear picture of everything wrong with society and how we need to come together to make it right. She couldn't believe she was there at the very time this was happening. This is when the idea hit. She looked at her Alvion watch, you know, the watch you wear that synchronizes with the time of day anywhere you go in the past. It read 5:48 pm. She began desperately breaking her way through the crowd, looking for the right person. She saw a service man and darted her way toward him. Just like everyone else, he was mesmerized by the voice of equality. She yanks on his blue and white jacket, quickly getting his attention. He looks at her and wasn't very happy that she needed something from him. She says to him,"

I need you to listen very carefully. There is a man with a gun in the building right next to the boarding house. He's going to shoot the King (She looks down at her watch) in exactly 15 minutes. You have to stop him! Please! This isn't a joke!

"The Officer looked confused but didn't discount the keywords that caught his attention. She pointed in the direction she was talking about. He grabbed his walky-talky thing and called for backup. He then grabbed my aunt's wrist and dragged her with him toward the boarding house. She tried to get loose; she felt her job was done by preventing the assassination. But the officer wouldn't let her go. Seconds later, his back-up of four more officers met up with him. They continued fighting through the crowd to confirm her bold and blatant claim. Once they reached the building, a man was indeed inside and was armed. The officer let go of my aunt and radioed confirmation to every law enforcer listening. She backed away and started looking around, not believing her own actions. She did it! She was changing history! Rewriting an awful script from the past. She watched as the officers broke inside the building and dragged James Earl Ray from the premises. She positioned her camera for a photo, but it didn't work outside the transporter. She raced toward it wondering what life would be like if the King had lived. She was about to find out. But then, her ears began hearing familiar words coming out of Martin Luther's mouth. She had heard this same part of the speech when she first got there. She stopped to make sense of this. The crowd was the same, with onlookers immersed in the historic dialogue... She finally reached the transporter, a man standing right beside it but obviously couldn't see it saw her disappear from sight. He must have thought he was losing his mind as he curiously walked around and through it trying to find the woman that was right there a moment ago. My aunt looked at her watch, it read 5:48 pm. This was impossible. When she left the officers, it was 6 pm. That's when she saw a time agent from the future appear on the screen in her pod. He says,"

Please return to your time now. I repeat, your session has now ended please return now. Thank you.

"Aunt Patriece grabbed her camera and frantically started taking pictures. She even took a picture of the officer she had just interacted with. She couldn't understand why he wasn't arresting the gunman when she just left the scene of them dragging him out of the place he chose to do his deed. It was too late to figure this out, the agent was ending her session. She then voiced the command to return to the starting point and left Memphis Tennessee.

She stepped out of the transporter, with eyes widen to the hilt. Her friends immediately wanted to know what was wrong and what happened. The ones still waiting to travel, saw her vitals chart in the lab pause for 31 minutes. Patriece was contemplative about what happen and didn't acknowledge their concerns. Instead, she ran to the nearest computer station, sat down and searched Martin Luther King Jr. The first results confirmed her worst fear. The headline read: Martin Luther King Jr, a campaigner for truth and equality was assassinated in 1968. She put her head down and massaged the sides of it, then finally spoke to her friends."

I almost did it! I don't know what went wrong. I was standing there; I saw them arrest him. What happened? This isn't over, this is far from over.

"Her friends were not understanding where she was coming from, until an agent walked in and escorted her off the premises in handcuffs."

"WOW! Bianca! I can't believe this. What happened to her? Why did it not work?"

"My father said that when her vitals paused, it alerted the board of agents, who thought her body was rejecting the stabilizer. One of them traveled to Memphis and saw her outside the pod interacting with the past. So, they traveled back before she made first contact with the outside to see how she left the pod unscathed, but they couldn't figure it out and decided to end her session."

"Wait a minute, if they traveled back before she made contact, wouldn't she have followed the same path she did when she first got there? She wouldn't have known that she even talked to the officer yet."

"No one knows why she didn't experience the retracted time. Her watch went back, but she didn't. It's something they are learning about. It's believed that because she was never part of that time period and only visiting, her time flow remained constant. Remember, she was the first one to ever step outside, this was new to everyone who knows what she did."

"Wow! that's deep! I need to know more... Where is she, your aunt, where is she, can we go visit her?"

"No, it's impossible. The prison is hundreds of miles from here. And she refuses to tell anyone how she managed to liberate herself from the pod. She won't even tell my father. She did tell him that what she tried to do was a mistake. She realized, as you said earlier, what's done is done. No second chances..."

Winston fell into deep thoughts about this and disturbed that it was just a matter of time until they figured out how Patriece, the wife of an Astrophysicist made history herself. He looked up at Bianca and says,

"I think I'm going to need that drink now. Do you want to hit the bars tonight? That story really got me going. The impact is so strong. Can you imagine how this world would constantly change if we corrected the tragic moments that no one wanted to experience in the first place? I've always dreamt of the perfect world, but this is too much."

"I agree, Winston. Aunt Patriece had several attempts on her life. I will probably never see her again. The agents have tried time after time to travel that same transport line to meticulously dissect each second to see how she did it. As far as I know, they've come up empty handed every time. Until this is solved, she will remain detained. The whole incident has caused the government to restrict travel to 1968. Not even she can go back to undo herself from prison. The answer lies in her brain, a place where no one can travel... There's a bar right around the corner. Are you ready?"

The two of them left the bus stop and headed for the Mountain's Edge Tavern, a local bar. Bianca was right, their friendship had instantly changed. Winston felt closer to her already. Their eye contact had a sparkling new feel to it.

The time continuum is a law of physics not to be messed with. So far, no one has ever figured out the magic behind Patriece's performance, except her husband. He was interrogated several times and also received death threats. He staunchly stands by his story that one of her friends must know something about it. He was also a good liar. What he did was design a gold necklace with a heart-shaped charm attached. Patriece wore it in the transporter when she went to Memphis. The Quantum energy emitting from the pod activated the necklaces' properties. This elegant piece of jewelry was programed to keep you safe when the door opens in the past. Without it, your body will pixelate and disperse, causing your death in trillions of molecular units. They never thought to take a look at the necklace... Patriece and her husband wanted to know if it would work; he was positive that it would. She begged him to be the lab rat for his experiment. A costly one at that. She risked her life for the sake of scientific advancement, or maybe she did it to portray an act of God... Where is the necklace now, you ask? I wish I could share that information. Let's just say, no one will ever find it. Patriece learned from her mistakes. If only she could go back to the start of the game on that decisive day, she could fix things. But once again...What's done is done.

By Unseen Histories on Unsplash

By Thomas Konings on Unsplash

Thank you for reading!

AdventureMystery
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About the Creator

Lamar Wiggins

Creative writer in the Northeast US who loves the paranormal, mystery, true crime, horror, humor, fantasy and poetry. Take a chance, you'll be thoroughly entertained.

"Life is Love Experienced" -LW

LDubs

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Outstanding

Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!

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  1. Compelling and original writing

    Creative use of language & vocab

  2. Easy to read and follow

    Well-structured & engaging content

  3. Excellent storytelling

    Original narrative & well developed characters

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    Arguments were carefully researched and presented

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Comments (9)

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  • Amelia Moore8 months ago

    Interesting story and interesting concept. I liked the historical references throughout, and the neat culmination at the end of your piece.

  • Test9 months ago

    Amazing story. Reminds me of the golden age of Sci fi and speculative fiction writers, like Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Philip Dick, and others. Great writing! 👏 Pernoste

  • Veronica Coldiron9 months ago

    OMGOSH! This was a wild ride! I wish this were possible, but part of me agrees with Winston. It's hard to tell a story well with dialog, but you mastered it!! GREAT story! 💖

  • ghaderm10 months ago

    Great advice! If you are one of the people who are interested in technology, please login to my account and enjoy some technical information

  • D. ALEXANDRA PORTER10 months ago

    Gems! There are so many gems in this story. Your imagination is phenomenal!🏅

  • Roy Stevens12 months ago

    Terrific stuff right down one of my favourite alleys. Among the things MLK said at that rally was, "I'm happy today. I'm not worried today. We will get to the mountain top. I may not be with you, but we will get there one day." It's like he knew more than we do..., or a time-traveler had spoken to him...

  • Excellent gripping story

  • Whoaaa, such an interesting concept, the necklace. Poor Patriece though. Your story was very suspenseful and gripping! I loved it!

  • Alex H Mittelman about a year ago

    Love it! Great story! I like the secret necklace that held her together so she didn’t burst into a million pieces!

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