Merritt and Hannah had joined Will in the conference room along with Liza, Devon, Jacob, and the four most senior partners of NYC SySCo. Will was prepared to tell them about Time Travel and explain why irregularities in the work schedule would need to be understood.
Will looked at Merritt. “Where is Emma, Addison, and Kent? Shay? I wanted to give the full picture.”
“They waited for Kent at the station. His train had a snag and is late. Shay… and her father… are in the lobby.”
“David Ryder is here?”
Merritt nodded.
At that, Jeff Walker said, “You mean Blue Water Express David Ryder?”
Merritt nodded. “Yes, sir. Shay is his daughter. He’s here to be with Shay over the holiday.”
Shay and David’s arrival bought a lot of time, but not quite enough for Emma and Kent to arrive. Will—backed by David Ryders’s assent to the claims—laid out what they had, over the months, learned about Time Traveling. Jacob was not shy about adding details.
After some time, Terrance Davis, a partner, said, “This is not conceivable. Duplicates? Merged memories? And multiple Instants of time propagating through… through… “
Jacob finished the thought. “Instants propagate through Existence.”
Davis shook his head. “Inconceivable. Definitely not physics as we know it.”
Just then, the door opened and Kent, Emma, and Addison walked in. Jeff Walker stood up and pointed at Emma as if seeing a ghost.
The room fell deathly quiet as Jeff stared and pointed, shaking his head.
Will finally urged him to say something.
“You said there was a Moment in Virginia in 1984… Well… Summer of ‘85, I was in a little town… Norton… A flatbed barreled through the main street carrying huge tires off of an excavator. Wel,l a car pulled out. The truck slammed on its brakes. One of the tires didn’t stop. I pushed my buddy out of the way, but not quick enough. My leg was shattered.”
Will smiled and looked at Emma. “She won’t remember it until this summer…”
“Remember what?” Davis asked.
Jeff pointed at Emma.
“She was nearby when it happened. She did EMT stuff… She had a medical bag… something about a training program… Morphine… Called for help… It was her. I’ll never forget the face. It was you.”
Emma shook her head. “It was the Emma born in 1965. Let me call her… She’ll remember that…”
“Call her?”
Will answered. “She lives in Virginia Beach… She’ll be 60 next year.”
“Her?” Jeff asked.
Merritt spoke up. “Four of us have duplicates living in Virginia Beach. Addison’s duplicate lives up in Sag Harbor.”
David Ryder then said, “There seems to be duplicates of others of us who are not connected… metaphysically… The 1800s David Ryder was a railroad man. The mid-20th Century version of me set up Bluewater Private Security… It shut down in the late 90s. He had no kids…”
Emma Facetimed Emma in Virginia and she recalled the accident in Norton. Seeing her on Facetime obliterated the remaining doubts in the room.
David Ryder continued to share his understanding and his experiences, making frequent references to Jacob and Liza’s research. “And… since this duplicate thing runs in similar ways… Shay’s mother is going to Houston later this week to MD Anderson Cancer Center. Both of the other Carols died next year from Cancer.”
At that point, the conversation turned inward toward known physics models. After a lot of discussion, they reached the same conclusion Will had reached much earlier. Whatever was happening was beyond known science.
Needless to say, they agreed to allow the irregular working arrangements for the Time Travlers with the condition that they provide copious notes on everything… every thought and detail they can remember.
Further, they decided to locate two young physicists that they could put on payroll to be part of the study. They weren’t sure it was science, or something else, but if it was science, they wanted to be at the forefront of understanding it.
So the meeting ended better than Will had hoped. Not only did they agree to let the Time Travelers miss as much work as needed, they contrived a way they could do that and still remain full-time and keep their benefits.
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