Fixing Time
July 1, 2054 – Boston, Massachusetts
It was not like Brian to miss a meeting.
Kate scanned the room. Shelley, Bart, and Scott weren’t in the room either. She tried not to create horror scenes in her head, but the fact that the entire 1960s recovery team was absent made it difficult to concentrate.
She stared at the logo on the top of her work orders from the previous week: J.E.S.A.S. (Jorgenson Experimental Science & Astral Society). She thought back to how she had gotten to this point in her life.
Kate, always a lover of both drama and history, had started as a transcription clerk at J.E.S.A.S. on a whim during college but had never considered doing fieldwork.
Nobody was more surprised than Kate when, in the year 2045, toward the end of her senior year in college, CTO Jack Nylund had called her to his office and offered her a full scholarship to the company’s intensive three-year training academy designed to weed out anyone who wasn’t ready for the immense responsibility and challenge of being an on-site time machine technician.
“Kate, how would you like to fix time machines?” Jack had said when she sat down in his office for the first time.
“Fix them?”
“Yes. Now and again, one of our scientists, researchers, or historians gets caught in time because, let’s face it, machines are machines. We need people who know how to be invisible, people with no ties to the present, to stay in the field within the decade to which we assign them—essentially making house calls to those who can’t make it home.”
“What are the risks?”
“Sometimes they run. They go rogue. We will assign you a cleanup crew. If they won’t accept detox here, we give it to them there and then send them home.”
“So I don’t have to do any of that?”
“Your job will be to fix the machines using materials and parts available in that time period. That’s it.”
“Um, I don’t know. I mean, it’s like my dream job, but I don’t know if I—”
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“Excuse me?”
“We have been watching you for a while, Kate. That’s something you are going to have to get used to. Do you have a boyfriend that we don’t know about?”
Kate was taken aback by both the question and the revelation. She studied the man’s eyes to see if she could discern his need to know such personal information. “How do you know it’s boys that I go for?” she asked.
“Easy,” replied Jack. He reached into his desk, pulled out a folder, and handed it to her.
“What’s this?”
“Open it up and find out.”
She opened the folder and gasped. She then turned to Jack. She was not amused. Her emerald eyes shot fire. Her throat tightened, and her lips felt dry and hot.
She wanted to scream. Instead, she whispered, “How dare you.”
“Look… sweetie.”
Kate cringed at the term sweetie coming from Jack Nylund.
“We know everything about you. We know that you have nobody tying you down. We know your parents died in a car accident.”
He pointed at the folder. “We even know who was driving. We know every guy you have dated. We know what time you take a crap in the morning, and in the end, you are going to have to figure out that none of what we know matters. The only thing that matters is whether or not you are ready to take the plunge. Do you want to be a site-tech?”
Kate regarded the man carefully. Neither spoke for what seemed like hours. Finally, Kate answered. “What exactly is involved?”
Before she knew it, Kate Bartley had closed her old life, submitted to all of the company’s health tests, and found herself sitting alone on a private plane as it made its way from Boston to New Mexico, where Kate would begin her new life as “Seven,” her student number out of 68 students. Names were never shared at the Academy until after graduation. Only half of the class would make it through the rigorous program. The half who did not make it would be subjected to hypnotic suggestion therapy, which utilized special techniques that tricked the mind into thinking the entire affair had only been a dream—and not the sort of dream anyone cares to repeat.
When Kate stepped off of the plane in New Mexico, a uniformed guard was there to greet her. “Welcome to Area 51, Ma’am,” he had said. Looking around, she was certain that the man was not kidding.
The young woman was ushered into a waiting room where she sat alone to await the soon arrivals of her fellow students. She first laid eyes on Brian five minutes after her arrival at Area 51.
When a dark-haired young man in his late twenties walked into the room, Kate went flush. She hadn’t expected to see such a good-looking guy taking on such a job. She had always regarded herself as plain, though others saw her much differently than she saw herself.
“Hi. I’m Four,” he said with a grin that momentarily unnerved her.
“Aren’t most guys?” she replied playfully.
“I mean I—”
“I know what you meant. I’m Seven.”
“Nice to meet you, Seven. So I’m assuming you are here to help recover lost souls for J.E.S.A.S.?” he joked.
Kate, who had been giving Brian a once-over, was shocked by the joke and embarrassed herself by snorting as she laughed.
“A snort?” he chortled. “Wow… I haven’t heard a girl snort like that in a long time. Wait until I tell the others.”
“Don’t you dare!”
Brian winked. “You’ll have to give me a good reason not to.”
From that moment on, the two were fast friends.
Despite a mutual attraction, neither ever broke the company rules. Regulations strictly forbade on-site techs from dating each other. Stories, true or not, were told of students caught and sent to opposite ends of time, never to see each other again, left to fend for themselves, and knowing full well that they were being watched. If they ever told, they would “disappear.” Nobody wanted to “disappear.”
So the flirting continued and Kate and Brian spent as much time together as was feasible, but they always brought at least one friend along, usually Shelley, Bart, or Scott. It was the best way for both of them to keep their love platonic.
They shared stories of their past. Brian had spent most of his early childhood in an orphanage and then was passed around through a number of abusive foster families until, finally, he ran away and lived on the streets.
A drug addict and a part-time dealer, he was arrested in 2039 at age 17 and forced to join the military in lieu of jail time. He served for ten years, doing four tours of duty in Chad during the African Continental War, and was discharged from the military honorably. At that point, he was ushered into Jack Nylund’s office for roughly the same conversation that Kate had endured.
Despite succeeding against all odds, Brian had a tough time connecting with people and was, much of the time, quite melancholy. Still, though, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why Jack picked Brian. The man was part secret agent and part philosopher. If one of his friends didn’t shut him up, he would never stop talking, constantly delivering long exposés regarding subject matter that most would never so much as consider, much less discuss.
Kate loved Brian to her core, and Brian returned that love, but both knew that they could never speak of it. When it came time in the third year of their training to choose a decade in which they would perform, it was Kate who chose to break from the group. She chose to work in the 1930s. Brian and the others selected the 1960s.
Kate and Brian never discussed the reason for the choice, but Kate assumed Brian knew. She could no longer be in such close contact with him without the freedom to express her love. Their love was the sort that everybody knew about, but nobody dared talk about. So long as neither voiced their feelings, they remained safe.
Service in the company was limited to twenty-five years. Kate surmised that after twenty-five years, they could reacquaint, reconnect, perhaps marry, and take the company travel option. Unlike traditional travel options, company people were given the freedom not only to choose where they wanted to retire, but when. This was a privilege granted only to those who finished their full tour—twenty-five years of service.
It wasn’t that Kate and Brian would never see each other again. In fact, every Wednesday, on-site techs gathered in their own time period in order to meet, review training, turn in their previous week’s work orders, and gather new orders.
When they graduated from the academy in 2048, they never guessed how much they would miss each other. Now, six years later, Kate looked back on her time at the academy fondly.
She was startled from her memories of the past by a tap on the shoulder.
“Scott needs to see you,” the secretary whispered. “It’s about Brian.”
Kate’s face went white. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Come with me, please,” the secretary replied.
“Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?” Kate insisted.
“Because I don’t know what’s wrong,” the woman replied.
Kate followed the woman to the elevator and pushed the up arrow button.
“Where am I go—”
“Mr. Nylund’s office.”
Kate stepped into the elevator and dismissed her messenger. “I’ll take it from here.”
When the elevator opened, Kate could barely walk for fear of what might have gone wrong to elicit a meeting in Jack Nylund’s office. When she walked in, Shelley, Scott, and Bart, whose absence in the meeting room downstairs now made sense, each made eye contact briefly and then turned their eyes away.
“Jack. What’s wrong? What’s happened with Brian?”
Jack turned and looked her in the eye.
“I’m sorry, Kate. I know how you felt about him.”
“Felt? What do you mean felt? What’s going on? Will someone please tell me what the hell has happened here?”
“He’s gone.”
“Gone? Gone where? Gone when? What? Has he gone rogue or something? Brian would never do that. What do you mean?”
“I mean gone. Suicide.”
For Kate, the world slowed down. She stared at Jack, incredulous at what she had just heard.
“But how could… No… it’s not possible. There must be some sort of—”
“There is no mistake, Kate. He did this. I don’t know why… none of us does… I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” she screamed. A flood of anger hit her. “You are lying. You did this. You killed him! Why? What did he ever do to you?”
She started to cross the room toward Jack when Scott stopped her.
“Settle down, Kate,” Scott interjected. “The company didn’t do it. This is not a disappearing act. He did this. Brian did this to himself.”
Kate sobbed into Scott’s shoulder. Though he had spent most of nine years thirty years away, Kate had always felt that they would be together.
At last, having recovered from the shock, she turned to Jack and said, “I want to go back there. We can stop this.”
Tears welled in Jack’s eyes. He was clearly moved. “You know we can’t do that, Kate. You are not cleared for the 1960s.”
“Then send one of them,” she replied, gesturing toward the rest of Brian’s team.
“That’s against regulations.”
“Screw your regulations. I don’t care about your regulations. We can save him. Go do it!”
Jack didn’t respond.
“I want you to take a month off, Kate. Go see America. Go see the coast. Something. But get away from the company for a while.”
“I don’t want your sympathy, damn it. I want you to fix this. Why won’t you just fix this?”
“I would if I could, Kate. You know I can’t. Take the time off.”
Kate didn’t take the time off when she left Jack’s office. She knew the rules, and she knew the penalty for breaking them. She would remain in service and do as she was told.
2073 – Nineteen Years Later
Kate Bartley retired from the 1930s and went to see a very elderly Jack Nylund.
“I hear you’re retiring,” said the old man. “You know restrictions have been lifted. You could go another fifteen years, you know.”
“I know. I’ve made my choice.”
“It’s a damn shame. You are a great tech,” he replied.
“I’m done, Jack.”
“Have you given any thought to where or when you want to go?”
“Yes… Colorado, 1964.”
Jack’s eyes registered the surprise he must have felt.
“Kate, you are not a young woman anymore.”
“He won’t care.”
He laughed. “Impetuous. That’s why I hired you.”
“So, you will authorize it then?”
“Not on your life. Make another choice.”
“There are no other choices.”
“Have you given any thought to 2022?”
“What’s in 2022?”
Jack paused. “You go home and think about it. When you think of something else, I will be here. Nineteen sixty-four is, however, out of the question.”
Kate had learned not to argue once she was sure Jack had made up his mind. She left his office angry that her plan had been rejected.
Two nights later, while having a bath, Kate connected the dots to 2022. She knew then that she could never be Brian’s lover. That ship had sailed.
Nevertheless, the next morning at 9:15 a.m., a confident and happy Kate walked into Jack Nylund’s office, kissed the old man on the cheek, and announced, “Twenty twenty-two it is. And you know where.”
Jack patted her hand. “That’s a good girl,” he replied. “That’s a good girl.”
2022 – Wichita, Kansas
Kate took a deep breath and walked up the steps to the waiting room, where she announced herself.
A few minutes later, Margaret Addison, the head of the Wichita Adoption Center, entered the room with a little dark-haired boy in tow, carrying a well-worn teddy bear.
“This is Brian,” said the woman. “And, Brian, this is Ms. Kate. She’s the woman I told you about. Do you think maybe you would like to go live with Ms. Kate?”
The boy took stock of Kate and smiled a disarming grin.
“Hi,” he greeted her. “I’m four.”
“And I’m Seven,” Kate said with a smile.
The little boy giggled and showed the funny woman his bear.
Kate had never been happier.
This is a great short story.
Oh my, this was the best story, a twist I didn't see coming......love it