Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

John heard the quiet knock on his door and knew it would be Ginny.

“Please come in,” he said.

“Is it ok if I just tidy round a bit?” she asked.

John could keep his little flat tidy himself. He could dust round and empty the bins himself. He didn’t cook for himself anymore, so he was grateful to accept the meals that the care home provided. Mainly though he was pleased for the company that the staff gave him. He found the other residents at the care home were very limited in their capacity for social interaction. They were often very tied up within what remained of their minds, offering occasional glimpses into who they were or what they had done, but these fragments popped up too infrequently for him to converse with them in any meaningful way.

Ginny put her little tray of cleaning gear down on the floor and pulled out a cloth and a squirty bottle of multi-surface cleaner. She squirted a few drops onto the cloth, then set about cleaning his shelves, carefully moving his odd bits and bobs around as she worked.

“Did you ever meet up with Gabriel?” John asked innocently.

Ginny looked over at John, and John could see tears welling up in her eyes.

“He seemed so nice, and ... and you gave him your watch, and ...,” she said brokenly.

“What’s the matter, Ginny?” John asked, suddenly very confused.

Ginny sat down on one of the two dining chairs. She began sobbing.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled, “he had your watch, but then, there was something about it, and then he ...“

John walked over to where Ginny was sitting, and tentatively put one hand on her shoulder.

“Did Gabriel show you my old watch?” he asked, “and did he tell you anything about it?”

“He was wearing it the other day,” she explained, “but now he is wearing some fancy new thing. It’s very modern, but it’s not that that worried me.”

“What is it?” asked John.

“I touched your old watch, yesterday, when it was on his wrist,” she explained, “but it felt very odd ... I can’t explain why. And then last night I touched the new fancy watch he was wearing, and somehow it felt just like ...”

She looked alarmed just to be recollecting the experience she was describing, and John could feel the tension in her.

“Ginny,” John said, “I have given my old watch away, and I don’t think it is any longer my place to explain about it, but somehow you have noticed something that ... well ... something that I didn’t think anyone could.”

Ginny turned in her chair and looked up at John’s face. She could see the care in his eyes. She trusted him.

“I think that you should go back and see Gabriel,” John said.

Ginny looked alarmed, so he continued.

“Ask him to tell you about the watch. Tell him that I asked him to. Tell him that it’s ok for him to do that.”

“But what ...?” Ginny said.

“Ask Gabriel. Please tell him that it’s all right. Tell him that he has to trust someone.”

Ginny stood up and gave John a hug of thanks.

“Oh, and Ginny. Please tell him that I am feeling alright at the moment.”

Ginny looked confused.

“He might be worried,” he said. “I’m sure that Vicky will have told him everything, and that would be sure to alarm him.”

“Who is Vicky?” Ginny asked, but John was wandering off to his bathroom. She reminded herself to find out about Vicky later.