Jacob Brown was halfway from the Apple Store to his apartment when he finished going over some ideas with Merritt Gray. Merritt had told him to call Will Robertson about them, so he did.
“Mr. Roberson, this is Jacob Brown… I hope it’s not too late to call.”
“No, it’s fine… What’s going on?”
“Sir, I have three things I’d like to talk about, and they are sorta related. Two, Merritt said I should call you about. The third, I just thought of as I was walking. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
Will said he did.
“The first has to do with your theory about the timelines. I’ve been thinking about that, and with you being in class with Merritt, that would mean you have to be in the same universe, if you see what I mean.”
Will responded. “I’ve thought about that, and have not found a satisfactory explanation. You have more thoughts?”
“Well, sir…”
Will interrupted. “Jacob, I’m not used to being so formal… I appreciate it, but you can call me ‘Will’ like everyone else.”
“Oh… I’ll try…”
“Go on…”
“Well, I was thinking… Why that man? There weren’t records on lynchings until 1882, and Tennessee recorded 214 of them from then until 1900. So, why Joheh Wiltstone? Now a name like that… I did some searching and found this in a criminal justice dissertation… in 1883 a man in Vicksburg by that name walked into the sheriff’s office and reported some schoolboys playing with matches by the school coal house. That’s all.”
“Interesting… go on…”
Jacob continued. “Butterfly effect… If telling on schoolboys is the only thing he ever did that got recorded, then something he did must have led to something that led to… something. He scared a white woman or something and she didn’t get run over by a wagon and… I’m sure you see the point…”
“Indeed! You’re saying the time travel wasn’t important on face value. Joheh… scared a woman… who had a son… who had a daughter… that did something spectacular.”
“That’s what I think… We time travel for the ripples in the pond, not the splash.”
“Astute!” Will replied. “So, the purpose of the time traveling won’t be obvious.”
“Or even discernable,” Jacob said. “Merritt thought so, too.”
“I’d imagine everyone will agree.”
“Yes, sir, and that brings me back to the idea about timelines being different. My research is only useful if we are all on the same timeline. If we are on different timelines, that Joheh could have cured yellow fever or something.”
Will then said, “Again, very astute… different timelines wouldn’t take away from the butterfly effect, as you called it.”
“No… So that was the two things… We might be on the same timeline. And, like someone said already, any changes we… they… make back then already happened. So, we won’t see buildings falling down or anything like that. They aren’t currently changing things. The change would have been 144 years ago, so we won’t know any different.”
“Yes,” Will replied, “it might have been Emma who said that first.”
“Okay… well… this last thing is off the cuff. I thought of this as I was walking.”
“Go on…”
“Sir… I mean… Anyway… So, Apple didn’t much appreciate me missing shifts to go back in time, and the Jacob that came couldn’t much do my job… no more than I could do his. If I’m going to be shifting time… Well, I was thinking maybe you could help me out. I know your company has lots of iPhones and iPads and you have Macbooks, too. If there were any…”
Will interrupted. “Very strange you bring that up…”
“How so?”
“This very day, our tech who handles our Apple products quit. Out of the blue. Told his boss he had a better position. In St. Louis. Jacob, have you checked your checking account today?”
Jacob hadn’t, so he did. “I have a deposit from Pay It Forward Society.”
“We all do, I’d imagine,” Will replied. “And there’s that Benevolence Worldwide agency in…”
Jacob remembered. “… St. Louis.”
“Here’s something to think about…” Will said. “Whoever is doing the time shifting is… making things happen to us. And for us… Maybe some of us should have a sit down on that… Meanwhile, put in your 2 weeks and text me an email… I’ll send you some links from HR.”
No comments:
Post a Comment