TIMEKEEPER

Peridically, this thing’ll throw me a curveball. I mean, I test it. I send something in before I jump. One of those ping-pong balls. If it goes in and comes out alright, I jump, but there are no guarantees. But I know how this thing works. This guy, I don’t even know why he even tried, not knowing the first thing about it and all.

Well, where is he? You must know!

That’s the thing. I don’t know where he is. When he is. Right now, he might just be in a slipstream. We have to give it time.

Yeah, funny. There must be some record, you know? Some way to figure out what time he jumped into.

No, see, time doesn’t work like that. Just because you go in at this moment doesn’t mean it pushed you instantaneously onto the other side. It only seems like you just jump one minute to the next, one second to the next. It doesn’t work that way. You can be in the slipstream for years and not age at all. You just end up at the place you set it to go whenever it wants to put you there. No time would’ve gone by because what is time inside of, uh . . . well, inside of time.

But you call yourself The Timekeeper! You have to be able to do something!

Yeah, it’s a really cool name and an even cooler costume, but at the end of the day, I’m the leading mind in the unexplainable. The unprovable. Most people think they know how time works, but I’ve got to tell you, I could write a book on chronophysics. Ten, in fact. But once you go in there, it’s in the universe’s hands.

So, did he go forward or back? Can you tell me that much?

Oh, he went back. No question. You can’t go forward. Forward hasn’t happened yet. Backwards, yes. Maybe we can send him a signal once we find out where he landed. He’ll be able to get the message, then send some message forward to tell us where he is.

I thought you said you couldn’t go forward.

He can go forward because we’re here in his future. It’s happening now. If one of us went forward from here, now? Well, I pray to God that never happens, even by accident.

Why? What happens if we go forward?

You don’t want to know. Let’s just concentrate on getting him back first. You know, just because it’s rocket science doesn’t make it an exact science.




-SLL