Tempus Frangit Ch. 01

Anyway, I warned Sylvia to be careful and reminded her that she was my wife. And that there was no way I was going to stand for any kind of nonsense. Then we went back outside to join our guests again.

Sylvia did look a little chastised for a while, as did Rose. I assume that Doug and Rose's conversation had gone something similar to Sylvia and my own. However it didn't take the girls long -- with those handsome guys flattering them -- to start getting out of hand, and silly again.

Whether the two girls did it on purpose or not, I really do not know. On reflection, I think they probably just got carried away with the occasion, and honestly did forget themselves.

Look, as far a looks are concerned, Sylvia and Rose were nothing to be sneezed at. And they were well used to receiving "the treatment", or fending-off the young hopefuls down on the beach.

However these guys weren't your run of the mill "would be" Casanova's; these guys were... Film Star Heartthrob material; every damned last one of them. And, being perfectly honest with you, they put Douglas and I to shame.

What's more, Adona and another guy (who had appeared from somewhere), kept Doug and I pretty well occupied for most of the day. This other guy was a historian or something, and he bombarded Douglas and me with questions about our recent history. You know WW1 and 2, and just about everything else up to the present. The present I'm referring to at that time being 1988 of course.

For some inexplicable reason they appeared to be under the impression that the USA was a colony of the UK -- or so they claimed -- and were quite surprised when we informed them that it had been an independent republic for a couple of hundred years. To our surprise they didn't appear to be able to comprehend what a republic was, and insisted that there had to be an all-powerful hereditary head-of-state. On reflection (and knowing what I do now) I very much suspect that the two of them were... Yeah well they were distracting us, and I have no idea whether I now believe much of what they said that day.

At one time Doug, Adona, the history bloke (can't recall his name) and I, went into our cottage so that I could make us all some tea. That's when some fun started.

By mistake I filled the electric kettle instead of the gas one from the hot water supply of course, there was no mains water anymore. And then I switched the bloody-thing on.

Net result, my old Lister diesel generator, sprang into life out in it's little shed, shattering the piece and tranquillity, when it began its repetitive thump, thump, thump.

The sudden noise -- about the only sound that had been breaking the silence up until that time, had been the childish giggling of Sylvia and Rose -- grabbed all of our visitors attention. They (even the guys who'd been trying to chat up the girls) all crowded around the door to the generator shed while I explained how it worked. The historian guy, was the only one amongst them who appeared to have any conception of what an internal combustion engine was. Generator, they did understand; but the Lister's regular thumping completely fascinated them.

Mind you, Doug and I were pleased that the episode separated the wolves from the girls for a while, and Sylvia ended up making the tea.

Whilst we drank it, we discussed with Adona our immediate needs, especially as he was indicating that it would be some days -- or even weeks -- before they would be able to return us to our correct moment in time.

Firstly, a supply of freshwater, and then, of course, food. Adona talked into his communicator do-what's-it and within an hour, yet another large craft arrived and a huge tank of drinking water was unloaded from it. The crew came over to stare through the invisible wall at the newcomers for a while, and then left again.

Shortly after that, Adona rounded his guys up, and, telling us that they would be back the following morning, left in the larger of the two craft.

However, two other men stayed with the smaller craft, and it wasn't long before they came into the sphere and were hovering around Sylvia and Rose.

"What is it with these guys, haven't they got any women of their own?" Doug asked me on the quiet.

"Don't look like it mate, not gullible ones anyway! I got a good mind to sort that geezer out."

An expression of horror came over Douglas's face.

"Now, take it easy, George. They are big boys, and that looks like a weapon of some kind they all have on their belts."

"Yeah, I noticed they all seem to be wearing them. I'm going to have to have a long talk with Sylvia later."

"Don't worry, I intend to put that wife of mine over my knee when I get the chance. Rose knows better than to play silly cows with me."

"Hmm!" I thought to myself, "what have I been missing about Doug and Rose's relationship?"

"What do you make of these guys anyway, Doug, and why have they... well brought us here in the first place? What's their game do you think?"

"Not sure, George. They say that they didn't mean to bring us anyway; they were after that bloke... Pemberton, didn't they say?"

"Can't recall, but yeah, they said they were expecting to find someone else here, not us."

"Why in heavens name would anyone in the... shit, we still don't know what century we're in even," Doug mused.

"To change their history, I should imagine," I suggested, "What other reason could there be for bringing someone from the past. There's that weird historian bloke. Perhaps he's studying the twentieth century."

"Studying something, alright. But if you ask me, there's something fishy about him, he claims that he's been researching that Professor bloke."

"Then I'll bet the professor invents something that's really significant in the future, and these guys want to stop him," I suggested. "I read a sci-fi tale that ran along the same lines once. Someone came from the future to stop someone inventing something and change the future."

"But then again, maybe they want to make sure that Pemberton does invent something significant. Supposing the bugger is a distant ancestor of one of those guys or something," Doug suggested.

"Whatever, the results of these guys fiddling with the past could be really catastrophic. Well, that's what they say in all the books."

"What books?" Doug asked.

"Well the science-fiction books. Only logical, when you think about it."

"Er yeah, 'tis when you think about it!" Doug echoed, but sounding distinctly unconvinced. "I suppose that we'd better try to discover what they are really playing at. But be careful, George. I somehow don't think these guys are as... nice, as they appear to be."

"Nice! They're arrogant tosser's. Look at the way they behave around other people's wives."

"Well, hold your temper on that one, George... at least until we find out exactly what is going down here."

Luckily that evening the two guys took the hint quite early and went back to their craft. I'd say they weren't as... desperate, as the four guys who'd been hanging around the girls earlier.

I did wonder if it had anything to do with Doug asking them how the rabbit hunting was around there. Mind you, they appeared to have no idea what a rabbit was, or a shotgun come to that. Mention of shooting and then eating rabbits flesh made one of them look distinctly off-colour. That was when we discovered that their diet was completely vegetarian.

Shortly after that, we realised the reason we hadn't seen any animals around, was because basically, there weren't any, or many. Well, not to speak of anyway. The two guys -- with more then a little trepidation apparent in their voices -- mentioned a few names that we assumed referred to wild animals of some kind, but they assured us that they were few and far between in the neck of the woods we were in.

Definitely there were no domesticated animals, farm or otherwise, possibly that was why they were veggies; there weren't no meat to be had anyway. Apparently, not even rats or mice.

Later, outside the sphere, we did spot just a few rather large spiders that scuttled away when they saw or heard us coming, and some beetles. Yeah beetles... very big beetles, or more likely cockroaches; I admit that I didn't look too close. But it was obvious that whatever man had done to the world, he hadn't been able to kill-off those buggers. Well, stood to reason, didn't it?

That night Sylvia and I had a real good-old ding-dong. And apparently Rose and Doug did the same next door, as well. We heard them going at it hammer and tongs. As I'm sure that they must have heard Sylvia and I... exchanging words.

For some reason that I couldn't get my head around, Sylvia seemed to have come to the weird conclusion, that whatever she did in that time zone, would have no... well effect -- consequence or meaning -- when we returned to our own time.

Apparently one of the tosser's had told Sylvia that we would be returned to our own time at the exact same instant that we'd left it. Well, a couple of milliseconds later I kind-of gathered. Some twaddle about two things in the same place at the same not being possible. I'm willing to bet that Sylvia had had little idea of what he was really talking about anyway.

Whatever the gist was -- as Sylvia had it -- to everyone else in our world... time zone -- or whatever you like to call it -- we'd never have been gone. So, whatever happened while we were away... could not have happened! Get the general idea?

Anyway, consequently -- from the way Sylvia and Rose saw things -- that meant they could do whatever they liked during the time we were away, and that didn't exist in our time, so it would be of no consequence. A kind-of "time out" from their... our, usual lives, if you understand the girl's interpretation.

Sounds fine in theory. But do you see any logic in it? Well, I bloody-well didn't!

"Look here, Sylvia, you are my wife. In our time, or anyone else's bleeding time, come to that! You're my wife and don't you go forgetting it! You do anything you shouldn't be doing... with any of those freaks out there... and I'll be down the divorce lawyers the instant we get back. If we get back, that is! I'm not too sure any of those fruitcakes know exactly what they are doing anyway."

To my astonishment Sylvia's tone was... Well, she sounded smug -- I suppose you'd call it -- when she replied.

"And pray tell me, on exactly what grounds, George? Exactly when are you going to tell the divorce court that I could possibly have stepped out of line with anyone else? Especially someone who hasn't even been born yet... and won't be for god knows how many hundred years. And when will you tell the court... or anyone else, that I had the time or opportunity to do such a thing anyway. The Drury's will testify that they saw us together yesterday and they will see us together again this morning, which hasn't happened yet... only it has, but not to us in our time anyway. Sod-it, George, you know what I mean!

"Do you really think that a court is going to believe any of this? No, this is all a great big dream, George. A flight of my own imagination. Probably brought on by your fascination with all that science fiction rubbish."

"Don't talk stupid, Sylvia!"

"George, none of this is really happening. And even if it is, I won't believe it is and you won't be able to convince me otherwise. And even if it really is happening, you won't be able to prove anything, George, and I will deny everything. Hey, are you really sure that you're not dreaming all this right now, anyway?"

"Well I..."

"See, all a little far too fetched isn't it. Relax George, go with the flow and enjoy yourself while the goings good. I'm not taking any of this seriously, so why should you?"

Termini Capitulus I