A Dream From The Past

The time is getting close, I can feel it. You know that feeling you get when everything you’ve worked for is culminating in to a single moment? That moment when everything now rests on a single decision, and there’s nothing more to do but wait for it…

“Can I get you anything, Uncle?” Josh asked, looking concerned.

“I could use a glass of water.” Albert replied, his voice dry and raspy.

It was now Saturday. Josh had not been able to catch up with Albert all week, but not just because of his busy schedule with midterms. Albert had been in and out of the hospital most of the time. However, midterms week turned out to be a breeze; the only real challenge Josh had was trying to flip through actual pages in real books without cutting himself. He passed the Math, English, French and Accounting tests without even having to study much for them. For the Economics test, he had decided to read all three books from the first year to the current year. Reading the books once, he had committed the entire volumes to memory—he had over prepared. The test turned out to be a bunch of short answers defining economic terms and one essay of about twenty words or more on the topic of supply and demand—piece of cake. Just to be safe; though, he had done the same thing for his Business Management test. Several paper cuts later, he had committed the four volumes to memory, and now with this new information, he was actually able to tutor and help Francine study for her exams.

“Not so distracted anymore are we?” she had commented, batting her eyes and feigning a beauty pose.

“You’re still beautiful, but midterms have a way of focusing my attention.” Josh had replied and then gave her a quick peck on lips.

The Post’s—Francine’s parents—had offered to have Josh/Max over to stay for the weekend again, this time he turned them down.

“Thank you anyway,” he said, “but Uncle Albert is in the hospital and I want to go see him.”

This would probably be the last time Josh got to see them, for this Saturday would most likely be the day Josh would return to his time and Max would have his life back. He kissed Francine passionately before saying goodbye—thoughts of testing her sexually briefly crossed his mind—but then he remembered this was not Marina, and quickly snuffed out that thought. Besides, ‘Max’ was a perfect gentleman and he—Josh—would remain so too. Wow, how that would totally distort the timeline—Josh lamented. They wouldn’t be doing that until after they were married, which was shortly after Max graduated, and beside that, Josh would always remain faithful to his wife. In fact—now more than ever—he looked forward to being back with his beautiful bride. On the other hand, he would still miss talking with the bright young Francine; it was kind of fun getting to know his great grandmother. He hoped that Max would share some of his mannerisms, so that Francine would get along with Max as swimmingly as she had with him. Max would retain the memories of this time period, but that didn’t mean they would radically modify him. Hopefully he would be deeply moved by the loss of his newly found friend, Uncle Albert, as Josh would have been.

The hospital room was a lot warmer than Josh would have it. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and under his shirt he was beginning to feel clammy. He decided to get a glass of ice water for himself too, while he was at it. Josh had brought over two glasses of water, extra ice in his, just a little in Albert’s—just the way each liked it. He set Albert’s down on his table by his bed, and took a big gulp from his own, hoping this would cool him off some. It was somewhat dark in the room with all the shades pulled down, and it smelled like something nasty, but Josh couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

He eventually had to ask a nurse, “What is that smell?”

To which, she answered rather curtly, “What smell, the bleach or the Iodine? Take your pick.”

Obviously she had either had a bad day or took Josh’s innocent question as an insult. Josh had never known a hospital could smell this bad, and the beds looked uncomfortable too. It looked like they simply bent in the middle to where a patient could either prop his torso up or prop his legs up, but to do both would bend the patient in half. This was nothing like his grandfather’s hospital bed, which actually suspended him in mid air. The automatic controls were voice activated and would allow him to place himself in any comfortable position imaginable. His grandfather died twenty-seven years in Josh’s past, but he could still remember the pleasant smell of lilacs and perfectly comfortable temperature the room always seemed to be. The room was normally white but had some splashes of color here and there, from some of grandpa’s favorite paintings to moving pictures of favorite places around the world that grandpa had been. Josh’s favorite picture was of Venice, Italy. The picture was actually a live web cam, time delayed so that it matched up the hours with local time. It would keep track of the weather and people passing by, and in the evening it would show the sun setting. It was a stark contrast to this hospital room, which was very gloomy. It felt that way too.

“Thank you, son,” Albert said as he picked up his glass and gingerly took a few sips. He then looked up at Max and said, “You don’t need to look so gloomy.”

At that, Josh realized his emotions of distaste for these hospital rooms were betrayed by the expression he wore on his face, so he softened his expression and put on a smile.

“I was just thinking how much better it would be, if we could be back in your office.”

“I understand …It’s ok, I’m not afraid of dying. I have lived a good life—no regrets!”

“Really? I hope I can say that when it comes to be my time.”

Josh knew it was time to bring the conversation around to convincing Albert to come back with him and was saying this more to provoke a little response that he could build on.

“Well ok, perhaps I do have a few regrets. However, I suppose I couldn’t do anything to change them, so I will just have to accept them, ask for forgiveness from my maker, and pray for peace in the world.”

“If you had a chance to live again would you be willing to do anything to achieve peace in the world, and put right some of the wrongs in your life?”

“I could think of a lot of things I would do differently, but I will just have to leave that up to you.”

“What things would you do differently, Uncle Albert?”

Josh waited patiently for the answer, for he was actually very curious about the answer to this question, and of course the answer would decide the direction of the rest of the conversation. It took Albert a minute or two to answer, as he mulled over his thoughts. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Albert broke the silence.

“I think I would have been more gentle and respectful to my x-wives and perhaps given them a little more of my time, and maybe they wouldn’t have left me. I think I would have liked to spend a little more time with my children…”

Josh grimaced inwardly, at the thought of convincing them back at Time Port to allow him to bring back Albert’s wives and children, so he could spend more time with them. That wasn’t going to happen. There must be something more, and there was.

“I would like more time to unify the laws of physics, and work harder to disarm the world of nuclear bombs and maybe finally achieve world peace.”

“I think those are wonderful achievements to pursue, Uncle. If it were possible for you to achieve those dreams, would you be willing to do almost anything?”

“Not sure it would be possible, as I don’t think I’m going to be around much longer. What are you getting at, son?”

This caught Josh off guard, he wasn’t sure it would ever get to this point. It was now his turn to answer questions and he had never before let the conversation take this turn, but he was clever enough to answer questions with questions, so that it didn’t have to sound like all this was his idea. The whole point of this conversation was to lead the subject into making the conclusion that you take him too. To do this you must maintain control of the conversation by remaining the one asking the questions. As the subject answers the questions the ideas have to come from him and thus the concepts are easier to take and eventually become believable.

“If you could be magically transported to a place where you would not have to concern yourself with dying until after you have achieved all your goals and dreams, such as unifying the laws of physics and achieving world piece, would it be worth it to you?”

“Would what be worth it to me? How would I be magically…?” He paused.

Then remembering their earlier conversation about bouncing light through time, it finally struck him.

“Max! What are you trying to tell me?”

“What if it were possible to send the information of yourself into the future, where the scientists of the time could reconstruct you a new body, and give you a new beginning to pursue your goals and dreams? Would you be willing to go?”

Answering a question with a question was Josh’s greatest tactic—he also makes sure to get in the offer—like a good little salesman.

“Are you saying it is possible to travel through time into the future? What about the distortion we talked about?”

“If I said it actually was possible and that the distortion could be compensated for by a computer more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer machine anyone could possibly imagine today, would you be willing to come back with me to the future?”

“Are you telling me you’re from the future?” Albert’s eyes widened

Now was the time for introductions, sometimes it wasn’t necessary at all to divulge this information until after the jump—more accurately the time jump also called the time step, for Josh was a Stepper after all. The nickname “Steppers” came from the first time the action was performed to send someone’s information back in time, for it was a step-by-step process taking days to accomplish. Now the action is almost instantaneous and thus the term “time step” graduated to “time jump”, but still the nickname “Steppers” kind of grew on people and it stuck. Early Steppers would think it was necessary to first introduce themselves, thinking it’s only appropriate, but most often this completely destroyed their credibility. After that nothing they could do or say would convince their subject to trust them. It was Josh who came in and revolutionized the whole process. He taught that it was better to earn the subject’s trust first and then only if necessary should the Steppers introduce themselves and only if by introducing themselves it would help them achieve the objective. In this case it could indeed help Josh achieve his objective. Josh recited the next lines almost as if it had been rehearsed.

“Maximilian Otto Roberts was named after his Great-grandfather Otto and his Grandfather Maximilian. He was born December 9, 1932. He is in his third year of college at Princeton University majoring in Business Management. He is the person you see here before you today in the flesh. He is also my great-great grandfather on my father’s side and this is how I came by my last name. Max is my host, my name is Joshua Albert Roberts; I am the one speaking to you through Max. I get my first name from my grandfather whose first name was Joshua. I get my second name Albert from my Great-great-great-grandfather Albert Einstein—that would be you, Uncle Albert.”

At this point Albert Einstein let out an audible gasp, but Josh ignored and went on.

“We cannot send flesh and bone back through time beyond the technology to reconstruct it—only the information of who we are can be sent. As you said yourself, none of the electronic technology of this time could decipher the information we send either.”

Then Josh paused for a moment to allow Albert to let this all sink in. When he was ready he would ask the next logical question. Albert was quick to pick it up.

“So how did you get here, son?”

“I came to Max in a dream, and asked him if he would host me. He happily agreed.”

“Are you saying you possess people’s bodies?!!”

“Actually no, Uncle, possession is an act of force and is also considered an act of violence. We cannot force ourselves on our host, he or she must agree to allow us to enter their thoughts or it won’t happen.”

“What would have happened if he said, ‘No!’?”

“Good question, then I would have asked another relative, like Francine Post—she’s my Great grandmother—or her brother Jonathon Post or their parents.”

“So they have to be related? Why didn’t you come to me, since I appear to be related?”

“Well the host doesn’t always have to be directly related, but it helps. Simply put if the prospective host is a relative, he or she is more likely to say, yes, to being a host, because there is more of a connection. I’m not sure I can answer the second part of your question. Usually the person we come back for isn’t necessarily related.”

“So you have come back for me. Why?”

This question caught Josh totally off guard. He was completely unprepared to answer this one; it had never come up before. Of course there was the standard answer, that the scientists of his time were losing some of their creativity and that they needed a fresh injection of a free spirited genius, but explaining that never worked. By this time his subjects were asking him the procedure to be retrieved. Now he had let it slip that Albert was the subject of his mission. He was usually the one in control by maintaining himself as the one who asked the questions, and could always direct the conversation back to their goals and dreams until they were practically begging him to let them come with him. Now what? Thinking quickly, he decided he would go another direction…

“For that answer, Uncle Albert, I will have to tell you a story…”

Josh told Albert the same story he had told John the day of the racket ball match. Only this time, Josh elaborated more on the details, which included actual dates and times. The details also included the specific black hole that had been observed spinning and all the experiments that his grandfather and his team of scientists had performed to figure out just exactly how they could compensate for time and space distorting their information.

“My grandfather died twenty-seven years ago in my past. I was twenty-two then. It was a full ten years later when the first time step was performed successfully. It was my grandfather’s dying wish for me to step back in time to meet you. As I said, I loved my grandfather. Come to think of it, my grandfather didn’t like me calling him grandpa or grandfather. It made him feel old, so he had me call him Uncle instead. I would do anything for my Uncle Josh. I would do anything for you as well, Uncle Albert.” Josh finished, and then he very unprofessionally began to tear up.

The emotions of the moment overwhelmed him; Albert got caught up in the emotion too.

“I’m sorry Uncle Albert, it’s just that you remind so much of my grandpa. I miss him so.” Josh said still blurry eyed, and after a long teary moment Josh slowly began to get back some of his composure. “I’m at a loss for words. I’m supposed to find something you desire deep down in your soul, and then offer that desire to you if you would come back with me. However, I don’t think I have managed to find a desire strong enough…”

Albert cut Josh off, “Oh! But you have, son! I get to spend more time with you. What do we have to do?”

That was it. That was all Josh needed to hear, and indeed he felt the acute disorientation caused by the time jump. After only a few seconds, Josh opened his eyes again to find himself standing in a time pod. A moment later, cheers and applause broke out; this told him he was successful.