Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

Outside the Gazette Office – Frinton

“I’ve got a return bus ticket,” Ginny said.

“Where to?”

“Back to Clacton ... that’s where I live,” Ginny explained.

“Oh.”

Gabriel didn’t like to mention that he had come on his bike that day. True, he sometimes caught the bus to work, but only if it was raining.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” said Gabriel. “Let’s go and catch the bus.”

The bus stop was only a few minutes’ walk, and at this time of the evening there would be a lot of people using the service. They could see the queue forming already.

Ginny managed to get a seat. It was next to the aisle. Gabriel stood next to her, holding on with one hand on the back of her seat, the other on the hand-rail above. As the bus pulled away, she looked up and gave him a smile.

The bus trundled its journey back to Clacton.

“I didn’t even know that you lived in Clacton,” Gabriel said over the noise of the bus engine and the general hub-hub around them.

Ginny saw an old lady on an adjacent seat turning her head to catch their conversation.

“I live in a sumptuous apartment on the sea-front, owned by a very wealthy old man,” Ginny replied, grinning.

Gabriel felt his jaw drop.

“I let him use my body as payment, in lieu of rent,” she continued.

The old lady coughed and looked as though she might be about to choke on something.

Ginny half-turned towards the old lady.

“Wine-drop gone down the wrong way?” said Ginny concernedly, then turned to look up at Gabriel.

“Don’t worry, Gabriel. The old guy won’t be in. It’s your turn tonight.”

Gabriel looked as though he didn’t know what to say.

“Just joking, Gabriel,” she said.

Gabriel laughed a sigh of relief, feeling that he ought to be a bit savvier, a bit more aware of Ginny’s sense of humour.

“Yep, just joking,” she repeated. “He will be in really, so you’ll just have to take me in turns.”

Ginny fell about laughing on her seat. A middle-aged woman sitting in the seat in front of Ginny had clearly also heard the conversation and began chuckling to herself.

The ‘next stop’ sign on the bus showed ‘Clact. Rail. Stn’, and somebody nearby muttered to the man sitting adjacent to them something about that being a quick trip.

“Yeah, I hadn’t realised we had come so soon,” the man replied.

“Happens to the best of us,” chuckled Ginny, reaching up to press the button to tell the driver to stop.

. . . . . . . .

As they got off the bus, Gabriel looked at Ginny to see what she planned to do.

“Sorry about that, Gabriel,” Ginny said. “I saw her ear-wigging, and I just couldn’t resist.”

“That’s ok,” Gabriel replied, strangely proud that Ginny could come up with funny, if slightly disturbing repartee so easily.

“I think we should go somewhere quiet, if that’s ok?” she suggested. “I think we need to talk about things.”

“Where do you think?” replied Gabriel. He wasn’t sure how this ‘conversation’ was going to work out, and he didn’t want to push Ginny away again.

There’s an old shelter on the cliff-top, just down from the Pier,” suggested Ginny. “It gets busy during the day, but it will probably be quiet in the evening.”

“Sounds like the sort of place for young lovers,” quipped Gabriel, then instantly regretted saying it.

“Well, let’s go see, anyway,” said Ginny. “If it’s busy, then we’ll find somewhere else.”

As they walked the short distance through the town, down towards the Pier and the cliff-top, the evening sky began to darken, with the likely promise of rain.

“Feels like there’s a storm coming,” Gabriel said.

“How do you mean?” Ginny replied.

“It’s when the sky darkens, and then you get these little breezes starting up.”

Ginny looked at Gabriel curiously.

“Have you ever noticed?” Gabriel said. “Sometimes you might be walking down the street, and suddenly a breeze just seems to lift a few leaves. They just spiral up. Not like when it’s a windy day or anything. It’s just like a little tornado; just seems to suck up stuff from a very small area.”

“And you think that’s a storm front, do you?” Ginny chuckled.

Gabriel looked sheepishly back at her.

“I think that’s why I’m starting to like you such a lot,” Ginny said.

Before Gabriel could respond, Ginny lunged up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Come on, let’s get to the shelter before the big storm breaks,” she said, chuckling quietly.

From the Pier they could see the Victorian shelter fifty yards away. A couple were sitting in one side of it; on the side that looked out to sea. Ginny looked as if she was going to suggest somewhere else, but as she considered it, a slight drizzle began to fall. Instantly the couple in the shelter got up and made their way to their car.

Ginny tugged Gabriel along and they sat down in the old shelter where the couple had just vacated.

“The seat’s still warm,” Ginny noticed.

“Ginny?” Gabriel said. “You know you were asking about Vicky.”

“Yes,” Ginny replied cautiously.

“Well, you remember the watch that John had? You know, the old watch that he used to wear?”

“Yes, I know the one you mean, Gabriel.”

“Well, that watch is an electronic device. One that came from the future.”

Ginny looked at Gabriel with a very sceptical look.

“Is this a joke Gabriel, because if it is ...”

“John found it seventy years ago,” continued Gabriel. “It came here by mistake, and after John found it, it stayed with John. It helped him. It cured him. Before it helped him, John couldn’t talk, he couldn’t do anything.”

“Gabriel!” Ginny said, warningly.

“I know that this is difficult to understand, Ginny. I could hardly believe it myself. But this is what John meant when he told you to tell me that I needed to trust someone.”

Ginny gasped, recollecting her conversation with John.

“John gave me his watch, Ginny. This is it on my wrist.”

He held his arm out in front of her, pulling back the sleeve of his jacket so that she could see.

“That’s not John’s watch,” she said.

“It is, Ginny. This is John’s watch. He gave it me as a present. It is the most valuable thing he has, and it keeps him in good health. It stops him from relapsing into his former state of catatonia.”

“So why doesn’t it look like John’s watch then?”

“It’s a device from the future. It can assume the shape of whatever it wants. It’s a thinking machine, Ginny. It has a voice. It has a personality.”

“And my name is Vicky,” the STU said. “I’m very pleased to meet you, Ginny. I’m very sorry that I scared you before.”

Gabriel clutched Ginny’s hand tightly, seeing the tension and apprehension in her face.

“I use a holographic generator to assume the shape that you see. Without it I’m just a matte black plasteel band. Can I demonstrate to you, Ginny? That’s if you don’t mind, Gabriel?”

“Go ahead,” Gabriel said.

Ginny didn’t say anything. Gabriel could sense her tension.

The watch on Gabriel’s hand seemed to shimmer slightly, resolving into the old-style watch that John had worn.

It shimmered again, revealing a matte black circlet enclosing Gabriel’s wrist.

“This is my natural form,” Vicky said. “And now I will change back to the shape that Gabriel chose.”

Ginny tentatively reached out and touched the watch, feeling the contours, trying to imagine the basic shape underneath it.

She laughed. “That’s amazing,” she said.

“What’s amazing, Ginny, is that you can detect that this holographic image isn’t real. For most people, the image I send overrides most people’s senses, both visual and their sense of touch.”

“So why then ...?” said Ginny.

“I don’t know. It’s as though your sensory perception ... your touch saw past the holo image. You felt the real shape underneath. And that I think is what frightened you.”

Ginny stared at Gabriel’s wrist, at the shape that Gabriel had chosen.

“It’s very uncommon, believe me,” said Vicky.

“Are you alright, Ginny?” Gabriel asked.

“I’m ... I’m ... well ... I suppose ...,” said Ginny.

“It is a lot to take in, is it not?” said Vicky.

Ginny looked out to sea.

“Are you ok?” Gabriel said, almost in a whisper.

Ginny turned and looked back at Gabriel, then looked down at the watch.

She smiled.

“I’m sorry, Vicky,” Ginny said. “I guess I must seem very rude. As you say, it’s a lot to take in. But, yes, I’m very pleased to meet you. But it’s so hard ... so hard to believe. It’s like something from ... from Star Wars or something. It’s ... well ...”

“It’s a pleasure meeting you,” Vicky said.