A Stitch In Time

by

John O'Connor

Notes: 1) This is inspired by both Quitting Time's time travel story, "Across the Years" and an old Marvel comic. In the '50s, between superhero cycles, Marvel published a lot of SF comics – many only 5-6 pages long. Reprints were often used as filler in later books published through the 1970's and especially in annuals through the mid-1980s. There was one about time travel that's stuck with me since I was in grade school - I believe, like most Marvel comics of the time, it was written by Stan Lee and I seem to remember Steve Ditko's style in the artwork. This is the result.

2) Beck is a jerk in this one. I like the guy but this is how the story works...

Beck Oliver was standing in front of his locker, chatting with Andre Harris. "Man, I really miss Jade."

"Dude, you were the one that broke up with her. Again. If you love her, why did you break up?"

"I dunno. I guess I just got tired of her anger and jealousy."

"You want my opinion? You're better off. Just forget her and go on. Ask someone else out. You know, just about any girl here would drop her drawers in a heartbeat for you."

"Drop her drawers? Really?" Beck asked, with a smile.

"You know what I mean. Just go for it. Get her out of your system." Andre paused for a minute. "Remember when Jade helped me with my song?"

"Yeah."

"I, uh… Well, I got hung up on her. I couldn't do anything except think about her. Tori even tried to help out by play acting Jade."

"And…" Beck was fascinated and wanted to know more.

"And, I almost kissed Tori! Man, I was all messed up."

"So? How'd you get over it?"

"I hooked up with this gal, heh-heh… And, you know, we uh…heh-heh-heh…"

Just then, Beck's face tightened. Andre followed his gaze to see Beck's ex, Jade West, come in with her new love, Tori Vega. To outward appearances, they were the same as always – Jade was dark and glowering (except when she looked at Tori) and Tori was bright and sunny.

Beck nodded towards the pair, whispering, "That's the problem."

"What? Tori?"

"Yeah. If it wasn't for Tori, Jade would still be my girl. If only…" Beck's whisper faded out.

"Tori? Tori Vega." Andre tried to confirm Beck's focus.

"Yeah. If she had only stayed at her old school…"

The girls came up to the pair. Tori happily said, "Hey guys!"

Jade followed up with a terser, "'Sup."

"Hey chicas!"

Beck was restrained, simply saying, "Hi."

There was a moment of silence then Andre asked, "How was the weekend?"

Tori smiled, a slight blush on her cheeks, "Pretty good."

Jade added, "Pretty damned good!"

Tori's blush deepened. She opened her mouth to say something but…

Before further words were shared, the first bell rang, indicating they had five minutes before the first class of the day.

Jade kissed Tori quickly. "See you at lunch!"

Tori nodded happily then said, "See you guys!"

The girls went to their lockers and then to class. Andre followed while Beck stood there, an irritated look on his face.

Sinjin came up just as Beck started to head to his first class. Sinjin was in it too and they walked together as Sinjin said, "I heard what you said to Andre. About Tori not showing up here at school. Well, I have an uncle who might help/"

"With what?"

"Getting Jade back."

Sinjin quietly told Beck explained. Beck looked at him like he had grown a second head.

"You're nuts!"

"No, I swear…"

At lunch, Beck was absent from the gang's table. Andre told them he was talking to Sinjin. He guessed, wrongly, that it was about some project they had for Stagecraft – the class they shared.

Later, as they left the Asphalt Café for their afternoon classes, Andre pulled Tori back. "I'm kinda worried about him. Tor."

"Beck? Why?"

"Haven't you noticed? He's been moody. That's not like him. And I think it's because you and Jade got together."

"You think he might be a problem?"

"No. At least, I don't think so. But…"

"But what?"

"Nothin'. Don't worry about it."

Of course, Tori did. And mentioned it to Jade later.

Tori had to use all her feminine wiles to keep Jade from going to Beck's with a knife, a skewer, a pair of scissors or some other sharp, stabby object.

The next day, Jade either glared at Beck or completely ignored him. Either was devastating to the man. How could his love treat him like that? He decided to give Sinjin's hare-brained scheme a look.

After school, Beck drove Sinjin to his uncle's place. It was an old warehouse on the south side of Los Angeles. And not one of the best neighborhoods.

Sinjin's uncle, Gustav, looked a lot like an older, grizzled, slightly more demented version Sinjin.

Introductions and pleasantries were quickly dispensed with. Gustav Van Cleve had less patience with 'peons' than Jade did.

"So, you want to see my time machine. Come. Come with me."

He gestured to a large plexiglass sphere that was at least six feet in diameter. Inside was a flat platform with a console rising from it.

Beck looked at it blankly then turned to Sinjin then to the older man. "What? This?"

"That, young man, is my time machine. You were expecting a police call box or a Victorian chair with brass rails and a large wheel? Or perhaps a tunnel?"

Beck closed his eyes. "It looks like a really good model of the time sphere Braniac 5 made in the old Legion of Super-Heroes comics but…"

"You doubt me! Very well, I will show you. Here!" He shoved that day's edition of the LA Times into Beck's hands.. "Now, hold it up next to you so I can see the front page."

As Beck did so, Van Cleef picked up an old camera. He smiled, "I love old things. This is an old Polaroid Instant Camera. The picture will develop in seconds after I take it."

"You know, you can do the same thing with a PearPhone and the picture is ready as soon as you take it."

"Pfft!" was the sole reaction from the older man.

He took the picture, the strobe flash blinding Beck for a moment, and the camera spit out a rectangle of white plastic with a dark area just off center. Van Cleef maniacally waved the picture around for a minute.

"Uncle Gustav, you don't have to do that! It doesn't speed up the developing process!"

"But it gives me something to do!" the older man declared.

God, Cat must be related to these people, Beck thought.

"Good, good. Nice shot. You can even see the date on the masthead. See?" He pushed the picture into Beck's hands.

He could see the paper's masthead, publication dare and the main headline along with his face alongside the paper. He had better pictures taken of himself thought.

Van Cleef pulled the picture from Beck's grasp. "Now, the test…"

He stepped up to the sphere and touched a spot on the surface. A large rectangle appeared as the seams separated and the door popped open. Van Cleef set the picture on the control panel, wedging it under a raised dial.

Stepping out of it, he pushed the door closed and the seams disappeared. He stepped over to a table with a laptop. He typed rapidly then asked, "Where do you live, young man?"

Beck gave his address. "You wouldn't happen to know the latitude and longitude? No? Well, never mind. I can convert this."

After consulting a large map of LA on the wall then some old geodetic survey maps of the Hollywood area and he was satisfied. Keying in the new information, he smiled.

"Fine, fine…" Van Cleef stepped up to the sphere again, muttering, "Who closed the damned door?"

Inside the chamber, he said in realization, "Oh yes, I did."

He stepped inside then snapped his fingers. "Wait!"

Gustav crossed the room to a giant habitrail setup. He reached in and pulled out a small black, brown and white hamster. He placed the small rodent in an exercise ball, saying, "It will be alright Abigail. You will be home shortly."

With the exercise ball held to him by one hand, the odd man returned to the sphere. Reentering it, he set the ball down on the platform then typed in something on the keyboard, set what appeared to be an old kitchen timer, hit a large red button and stepped back out.

Reaching up, Van Cleef opened a white towel with Holiday Inn printed in green, laying it on the top of the sphere.

In seconds, there was a buzzing then the sphere disappeared. The towel fluttered down to the floor where the sphere had been.

Gustav trotted over, "Good. I would hate to lose this one. It was from a family vacation in 1967. Or was it 1969? No matter…"

Beck was impressed but still didn't believe it all. "Okay, good magic act. Where did the sphere go? Is there a secret panel? Or maybe it wasn't really there? There has to be a trick!"

"No tricks. You touched the sphere, you know it's solid. And there was no sleight-of-hand. The sphere is now in your front yard."

"Teleportation?" Beck asked, dubiously.

"Of a chronal variety. It's there but it's not there yet. You'll see it tomorrow afternoon."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it shifted temporaly and spatially."

Beck shook his head and walked out of the warehouse. Sinjin came after him, "Beck! Hey, Beck!"

Beck slowed down as he neared his truck, "What?"

"Look, I know Uncle Gustav seems a little weird."

"A little?"

"Look, give him a chance. At least until tomorrow. Okay?"

Resigned, he shrugged, "Sure. Why not?"

The next day, a day full of reminders of what he lost to Tori Vega, Beck finally drove home. As he pulled into the driveway in front of his trailer, he saw Van Cleef's sphere sitting on the lawn.

He sat frozen in his car. "Holy shit! Hoooleey Shit!"

Thankful his parents had gone back to Vancouver for some distant relative's funeral, he finally got out of the truck and walked to the sphere. He couldn't find the door until he remembered where it was in relation to the internal console. Seeing some smudges on the plexiglass, he felt around until he hit the spot. The door appeared and opened. Beck looked at the sphere and tired to decide what he was going to do. The exercise ball with Abigail inside, fell out and rolled a short distance across the grass. Shaking his head, he sighed and stepped in. On the console was the Polaroid from the day before.

"Doesn't prove anything," Beck muttered. "The man's a con artist. Ir's a low-rent David Copperfield stunt."

Beck called Sinjin, then sat in a yard chair in front of his camper. His mind was whirling between thoughts: go back and ruin Tori's audition; keep Jade from going on the stupid fake date; stop Tori from being born…

Beck was uncomfortable with his train of thought but he wanted Jade back so desperately, he forgave himself.

Soon, Sinjin,and his uncle were there with a small, flatbed truck to haul the sphere back to his warehouse. The older man seemed to be quite pleased to find his hamster alive and well on the lawn.

Beck spent the next several days musing on what happened. The logical part of his mind argued that it was some trick. Somehow Gustav made the sphere 'disappear' in the warehouse then hauled to to his front yard while Beck was at school. But the less rational part of his mind, the part that really, really wanted Jade back, argued that it really did work. And he could go back and stop Tori from taking Jade from him.

Finally, he talked to Sinjin on Thursday. "Tell your uncle I want to…test his sphere for him tomorrow. And I want to go back in time."

"Alright!" Sinjin fist-bumped the air triumphantly for his uncle after Beck ignored his high five.

"Sinjin? If this is a trick or con, you will both pay…"

Friday morning and Beck was there waiting for Tori and Jade to come in. He smiled as he saw them come in. "Hey Jade!"

With a lot less enthusiasm, Jade said, "Hey Beck."

"Hi Beck," Tori said cheerily.

"I'm getting you back, Jade."

"Yeah, right!"

"I will get you back. This time today, you'll be my girlfriend again."

Jade stared at him. What the hell is he talking about? This time today?

"Beck!" Tori yelled, stopping both Beck and Jade. "You seem to forget that I'm here and I love Jade."

"Love! What do you know about love? You sprayed your ex and Cat with cheese out of jealousy then admitted you didn't love him anymore. Then you fell for two idiots – one who was playing you and that chick from Seattle. What Jade and I have is real love. It will be here long after you are dead and gone!"

"BECK! SHUT UP! You stupid…asshole! I don't know how I could ever even pretend to love you! What a fucking tool! You need help!"

After her outburst, Jade pulled Tori away.

"Oh, I have help. Believe me…"

That afternoon, in the warehouse, Beck called out, "Okay Sherman, set the Wayback for 1988!"

Gustav looked confused for a moment and asked, "Who is this Sherman? And what is a Wayback?"

"You never saw the old cartoons? Never mind… Just set the machine for 1988."

"I need a specific date. And the location? I have to adjust spatially or you'll be in the middle of a tool and die factory."

"Umm…" He knew David Vega met Holly Brennan on February 14, 1988 on a blind Valentine's date. But where? Beck thought for a long moment then remembered Tori going on about some strip ma;; that was torn down a couple of years before Nozu was built on that corner. He gave Gustav the destination.

Consulting his maps, Gustav entered the data in his laptop then stepped into the sphere and quickly typed the code that linked the sphere to his computer network. "The coordinates are set. As are the return coordinates. No matter how much time you spend, you will return here seconds after you leave."

As he stepped out, Beck grabbed a screwdriver and scratched an X over the spot that opened the sphere's portal.

"I wish you hadn't done that."

"Why? Will that be a problem?"

"No, my boy. The Temporal Field will encompass the entire sphere. It just looks…bad."

"Alright Let's do it.."

Gustav said, "You can't change the past, you know."

"Are you sure? What if someone else already changed the past and this is the result? Are you certain we can't change the past?"

"Well… No, not really. But there are several schools of thought. One is that history can be altered but the person or persons who do so will be the only ones who do remember the original timeline. The other hypothesis… Do you understand the difference between theory and hypothesis?"

"Not really."

"An hypothesis is basically a belief of what had happened or would happen based on presumed parameters for the event. A theory has some evidence - determined and provable evidence of at least some of those parameters.

"So, that in mind, one hypothesis presumes you can go back and change the past, thereby altering the future.

"The other is that you can only succeed in creating a new timeline. Basically a new universe. But the original will still go on as before.

"There are others but most are essentially variations on the two I explained."

"And which one will I return to?"

"Again, a different set of hypotheses. One, you return to your source temporal existence. Another has you ending up in the altered timeline. And another belief is that you can't come back at all."

"Like, if I went back and killed Hitler as a baby, I come back to this world where World War Two occurred but having created a new universe where it didn't. Or, two, I might just create a world where the Second World War never happened and come back to a new present day. And the third is that I live out my life in the 19th and 20th centuries after killing him."

"Well, There was still the question of the Italian Fascists and the Japanese military ambitions… But you have it exactly. And the further you go back, if you follow the first or the second hypothesis, the more changes you'll find on your return. Did you ever read The Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury?"

"No. Saw the movie."

"No comparison. But the movie did capture the core of Bradbury's idea of a tiny change in the timeline affecting history radically."

"Okay but I'm only going back to the '80s, not the Cretaceous."

"True. The repercussions for our time should be extremely slight, if they occur. The major changes won't be noticed for decades, if not centuries. If they affect this timeline at all."

Sinjin spoke up at that point. "Don't forget the grandfather paradox!"

"The what?"

"The paradox, simple but complex at the same time. Heh-heh, a paradox in itself." Guxtav shook his head, "Basically, what if you go back in time and meet your grandfather before he meets your grandmother and kill him? You could never be born in the future so you can't go back to kill him. Your grandfather lives and you'd be born and travel back to kill your grandfather. It becomes a self-sustaining infinite loop."

His head spinning, Beck yelled, "Alright! Alright! ENOUGH!"

Sinjin, who had been about to say something, and his uncle were left standing there speechless after Beck's outburst.

"Let's see which of your…hypotheses is right!"

Beck opened the port and stepped into the sphere. He looked out and nodded. Sinjin had a goofy grin on his face. Gustav actually looked worried as he nodded back.

Beck hit the button that activated the temporal displacement engines. The warehouse blurred and faded to Beck's eyes.

The world reemerged around the sphere and Beck was actually stunned to see he had moved several miles from the warehouse. Until that moment, he still really doubted this was anything but some weird con by the Van Cleefs.

The sphere was in a small park across the street from an old restaurant where the Vegas met. Will meet. Whatever It was early morning. If I really moved back to Valentine's Day in 1988, I have plenty of time to keep them from meeting. No Tori to come between me and Jade!

Beck wasn't sure what he'd do but, given that Holly Vega was still kinda hot in his time, she'd probably be even hotter now. Beck remembered hearing that Holly was nervous and arrived almost a half hour earlier than her future husband. Being more than a little self-centered, he was sure he could seduce her before David even showed up. He realized he might have to adapt but he as an actor so that shouldn't be a problem.

Exiting the sphere, Beck crossed the street. The restaurant, an Italian joint called Café Siciliano, was actually a separate structure from the strip mall but they shared the parking lot. There was a shop next to 'their place' called The News Stand, yet to open. In front was a bundle of the day's LA Times. The top half of the front page had a box promoting full coverage of the Calgary Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies the day before. A headline promised additional coverage of Anthony Kennedy's appointment to the Supreme Court. And the most troublesome one referred to a Soviet frigate intentionally ramming the USS Yorktown in international waters.

"I DID IT!" Beck yelled.

He reached down to pull a paper from the bundle to take back to Gustav. His hand passed through the small stack.

"What the fuck?" Beck tried again and, again, his hand passed through every time. His brain reeled and he fell against the front door of the News Stand. He was on the floor, half in and half out of the store.

He took several deep breaths and managed to stand up – through the glass door of the store. Shaken by the whole incident, he tried to lean on the wall next to the front door. As soon as his hand began to pass through, he reared back.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Deciding to go back to his present before things got worse, he raced across the road and into the park. The sphere was till there, solid and waiting. Thank God!

Reaching out to open the door, he stumbled over a small tree root, falling forward, through the time machine!

On his hands and knees, Beck pulled himself from the sphere then managed to get to his feet. Just as he had a few moments before at the News Stand, Beck had to lever himself up without benefit of outside support.

Once he was on his feet, he reached out to the sphere, his hand passing through the surface again.

Determined not to give up, he walked around the time machine, trying to actually touch the surface. Every time, his hand passed through. Beck had to quell the panic that threatened to overwhelm him.

After completely circling the sphere, he decided on another approach. He stepped into the device on to the platform. His foot passed through and down to the ground beneath.

"Noo. No! NO!" he yelled. The scream repeated over and over as he realized he was stuck in the past as a… Ghost? Spirit? Disembodied form?

Once his hysteria faded, the horror of his situation really hit him.

"Oh my God! I'm trapped here!" Beck clasped his hands to pray, something he hadn't done since seveth grade. "Please, help me! I didn't mean to do this. I…don't care about… Oh God, please, help me!"

As he prayed, the problem worsened.

As Beck paced back and forth, his feet sunk into the ground more and more. He looked down to find he was ankle deep in the grass. With each step, he sank an inch or so at a time.

Like quicksand, he thought. But he felt no resistance like he expected based on the old movies he had seen.

Beck screamed and screamed. Hysteria ruled his consciousness.

Before long, he was waist-deep in the ground. By this point, the park was filling with people. Beck yelled out several times. People turned towards his location unseeing. Kids seem to hear him better.

But… The children playing tag were crossing through the sphere itself!

Before he slid completely below the surface, Beck had an epiphany.

This is why the past can never be changed…

When Beck didn't return to school, everyone had their own theories. But the fact that his truck was gone indicated he left the area. (No one knew that Sinijn and Gustav abandoned Beck's truck deep on an old logging road high up in the Angeles Forest when Beck didn't return to the preset coordinates.) The general consensus was he left to find another Jade.

Everyday until graduation, Tori and Jade entered Hollywood Arts, hand in hand. Freshmen who used to cower before Jade, at best, walked by now and greeted the couple. The new power couple of Hollywood Arts was accepted by the students and staff. And, soon, the students formally terrorized by Jade came around – all due to the positive, loving influences of Tori Vega.

All except Sinjin. But he was always weird…