Paul Charm stood in the dressing room drinking a cup of coffee. Not a black rust-remover version from his WWII days in the RAF. Smooth, creamy theater coffee. He wasn’t complaining.
Looking up Addison approached, robe mostly tied closed wearing a fedora. “Your hat?”
Paul thought it was just a notch shy of being flirty. “Probably one of the dozen Tom bought for the costume closet. My actual fedora’s not quite so fresh.”
Addison smiled and took it off. “So, you’re going to make me wait before telling me anything about the time-traveling?”
Paul smiled. “Too much to tell twice. Is everyone ready to spend some time tomorrow?”
Addison nodded and headed back to where our costume was kept.
Paul had a lot to tell the others—things that would have never occurred to them. He’d start with the very nature of time, explained by virtue of a wave analogy.
Existence could be considered a vast shallow dish of water. From a central point radiated waves like ripples in a pond. The waves moved out in all directions.
One direction was prime; the actual line of common existence. This was the Archline.
Existence propagated continually from the origin, an Instant riding the top of the wave. And every eight years, a new wave started its own course with its own Instants riding along. The Leading Instant of the Archline had almost reached the year 2025.
In any Instant were what The Agency called Moments. The 8 Time-Travelers Paul would meet with, were the Brooklyn Moment of the Leading Instant on the Archline of time.
But Moments could exist off of the Archline. They would lag behind, but would still be part of the Instant. 1984 had an important Moment that was off-line.
Time-travel was easiest from the top of one wave to the top of another. Hence travel was easiest to any Instant some distance that was a multiple of 8 from the Leading Instant.
It was complex and confusing. Paul knew that, and expected he’d have to go through it all several times… with the Brooklyn Moment.
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