A story by: GF Willmetts. Ever had a demon on your back that wouldn’t go away? Me? I got two. Only they aren’t really demons but me. A couple of me’s. Both look like me. A little older perhaps but undoubtedly me. Right down to my freckled cheeks and ginger hair. Well, all right, with a little dusting of white. Ginger washes out as you get older.

Ever had a demon on your back that wouldn’t go away?

Me? I got two. Only they aren’t really demons but me. A couple of me’s. Both look like me. A little older perhaps but undoubtedly me. Right down to my freckled cheeks and ginger hair. Well, all right, with a little dusting of white. Ginger washes out as you get older.

Seems I’m the nexus for a couple possible futures and each of my future me’s wants it to be theirs or risk their own oblivion. Does that mean they don’t really exist until I give the word or rather make a decision then how could they come back? How come only these two future realities have time machines? Does that mean the other choices are naff and these two are the only way? Would one or the other kill me to prevent any future at all? Am I going to be the ‘kill the grandfather to stop a future’ scenario? Except I wasn’t the grandfather. These pair were just me so why would they want to kill themselves?

No. They just wanted me to pick their choice to ensure their future is protected. I said to them, wouldn’t it be easier for them to fight each other and I’d go along with whoever wins? Nope! Both of them said that wouldn’t change the future. I could still change my mind.

So what were they offering? What would I have to do to ensure either reality exists? Surely they could tell me more about the future they live in? Can’t tell me too much they say. Foreknowledge could create a different future. It has to be a clear cut decision with whatever I do next.

Looking them both up and down doesn’t give me much in the way of clues. Apart from age, neither of them had lost any limbs or had any scars. They also both wore jumpsuits. In unison they explained that they had to be careful what they brought back with them. Showing a device that hadn’t been created yet could create another reality. Surely, I said, using a time machine alone is an indication that we were on the verge of creating one. That must have got them thinking? I could hardly see myself as creator of a time machine. I just wasn’t that bright. Maybe my thoughts on such a subject would influence someone else. I mean, I knew it was possible now.

Maybe that’s why they left me alone to think. I already knew too much about their futures. Actually, I think I would have insisted on it. Imagine having two future selves insisting theirs was the best choice without really telling me what either was I was deciding. For all I knew, both their futures were totalitarian societies under stiff dictators and they were just doing someone else’s biding. The present might well have recorded their presence here for the future. My future selves could both have been well-treated to ensure they told me everything would be rosy to ensure the worse case scenario was selected.

Even so, there are two of them which meant one had to be better than the other or there wouldn’t have been a divergence. But were they close alternatives or widely divergent purely from a single choice I was about to make. So what kind of choice was I likely to make? More peculiarly, why would it end up with two alternatives having time machines? Did that mean all the other alternative futures out there had no time machine? Come to that, if an alternative future had a time machine and was pretty terrible, why not come back and kill me? That would put an end to time travel, assuming I created or got someone to create the time machine. Maybe it’s as they say. I’m just a nexus for a particular choice...if I knew which one to make.

Neither of my future me’s wanted that neither. Whatever they were told before coming here, they couldn’t tell me much at all in case it interfered with my decision. That would have to mean that a subtle difference would change the future as well. All they could plead was I make the right decision as if I would know what they right decision would be. A mind reader I wasn’t. Did they know themselves?

I was expecting them to argue the case for the choice. No promise of riches or life style. Maybe their only fate was to come back in time to ensure I made the right decision. Up until that point, maybe they had a good time but neither have said how they would go back to their own futures. Maybe the right choice would ensure that would happen off its own back. Both had argued that my choice would destroy the other but like men waiting for the hangman, would have to abide by my decision. Was I going to become that fatalist in the future? They didn’t have a say in that. What they were really offering was a choice to come back into the past to change my mind.

This was going to be a lot tougher than I thought. I couldn’t even think of anything I was going to do that would decide the fate of their alternative futures or any others out there. How could I have such an important decision and not know what I was going to do would change anything at all?

I looked out the window at both of them. They weren’t looking back at me but discussing something between themselves. I needed a drink.

I took a can from the freezer and cut my finger opening it. Then wouldn’t you believe it, they weren’t there any more. The garden was empty. Like they’d never been. How can getting a drink change everything as easy as that?

Was that the decision I had to make? To drink or not to drink?

I turned and there was another me looking me in the eye.

‘Just a moment...’

(c) GF Willmetts 2009
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