Reverse

27 July 2019 (Saturday)

Chris was deep in thoughts after dinner with his baseball teammates. The day before would be the review with his manager about the Open Traders assignment. He hasn’t figured out any way to stop the bank from investing in Open Traders. He knew Henry would give him a good review and thumbs up for the assignment and that the funding would go through. Are there solutions to reverse this?

“I’m gonna list the number of scenarios about how the deal could have gone wrong. Build up some anxiety and hesitation in him. That might stall time... Hold on if he were to tell me to rewrite the report and submit it again, I’m going back to the day before. How would I know if the new report would stop this entire deal? How?”

“Will I have to complete the entire year of reverse time traveling before I know the new outcome?”

Chris was entirely trapped in his thoughts without any solutions.

“Aha! Let me ask the inventor.”

It was a revelation to him. Perhaps the solution to everything is always there, within sight. The new thought struck Chris like lightning. He had a new sense of mission. With that newfound faith, he walked to the room next door and knocked on it.

“Paul?”

“I am in the room.”

“I know. Can I ask you something?”

“ASK.”

“Please just let me into your room first.”

Paul opened the door and stared at Chris with a deadpan look.

“Ask.”

“Paul, I have a lingering idea and doubts about it. ”

“Chris, ask.”

“Paul, you see, what if humans can travel back in time? Can we alter the past and create a new future?”

“Chris, more details please.”

“Alright. The scenario’s like this. I have been given a project a month ago. I had a very positive review from my manager today. But, yes, but, in my heart, this project is against my morals. I want it to fail. If I were to travel back to the day when I was given the project, can I do something to make it fail. Let’s just say that I wrote a terrible report and submitted it. Would the result be different a month later?”

“Hmm...From a fairytale-like perspective of pop science fiction ... If you were to travel back in time and change your efforts, the future can and will be altered. From my perspective, if you made a change in the past, the timeline would self-correct. In simplistic terms, whatever happened to send you back in the past would still happen. Well, in even simpler words, there is nothing that you can do to change whatever that has happened in the past.”

“That’s so fatalistic.”

“Chris, no. That’s not about fate. It’s science. End of the conversation. That is my answer.”

“Ok, fine. Thanks.”

“Wait. Chris, did you come into my room and mess or check out my things?”

Chris was sort of stumped by Paul’s remark.

“Oh...NO. I don’t do that. I respect your privacy, mate. Cheers. I got to go.”

Chris returned to his room and stared at the stars from his table.

“Whatever will be, will be.” He thought.

26 July 2019 (Friday)

He had a review with his manager, Henry at 10 am.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Come in Chris.”

“Good morning Henry.”

“Chris, I have read your report on Open Traders. The numbers and analysis that you have done are spot-on. Great job, well done. The numbers are precise and your analysis is methodical and almost in a scientific approach. This will help to push over the line for a promotion.”

“Henry, can I make some changes to it and give it to you by 1 pm today?”

“Why would you do that? It is well done. Don’t overthink.”

“No, I left out some details that could have made this even better. Trust me, give me a few hours. It’d be better.”

“Alright, I will see you in my room at 1.”

Chris went to his desk and made some changes frantically, rushing to meet the timeline.

1 pm

Chris submitted the new report and Henry took some time to read it.

“Chris, the numbers are the same. The facts and figures are the same. What you did is just adding more words to it. The additional parts are qualitative and they are your opinions. You have no facts and figures to support your opinion. Who are you to question the integrity of their company? Are you working in Anti-money laundering? Are you in a governance role? NO! ”

“But Henry,...”

“Chris, delete the additional stuff and give me what you had in the morning.”

Chris had no comeback. He did what he was told.

“Let’s work this backward. Yesterday was the day of submission. I will change it.”

25 July 2019 (Thursday)

He did not submit what he had written in his previous world. The night before, Chris was up past midnight to finish his report. The figures in the new report were different. His analysis was unrecognizable from the original submission before the time travel. This report was an attempt to indicate the high level of risk that Open Traders would be as an investment to the Bank of Sicara. He wanted to use this to stop the bank from providing Open Traders fresh funds.

The report was submitted before lunchtime. Chris was very pleased with himself.

“The review will happen tomorrow. It will not happen. When I wake up, it will be yesterday. I have changed the past. Again.”

At 2 pm, Chris’s office phone was buzzing. It was an internal call.

“Chris, come into my room now.”

Chris was puzzled. The review was supposed to be tomorrow. What happened?

“Chris, I was looking only at the figures of the report awhile ago. It doesn’t look right.”

“Remember, I went through your draft with you yesterday. What did you do?”

Chris was surprised. He thought about it and remember that Henry did go through the draft before in the “real” world. He did not write an entry in his calendar. Henry bumped into him in the lift yesterday and he told him that he could take a look at his draft before submission. Chris had forgotten about this episode.

“Henry, I think I was too casual with the previous figures.”

“No Chris, stick to those. Please submit a report with the figures from the draft. Submit it and we will review it tomorrow.”

Chris’s plan failed again. He could not foil the funding.

“What can I do? What if I were not assigned this project at all?”

18 July 2019 (Thursday)

The department had a meeting about a new project. Henry had allocated the Open Traders project to Chris.

“Hi Boss, can you assign this to someone else? I am not comfortable with it.”

“Do you have any project on hand now?”

“No...but I won’t do a good job. It’s not my field.”

“Look, Chris. Work is not meant to be comfortable. If you want comfort, go to a beach. This is a rather high-profile assignment. A lot of key personnel are looking at it. If you do a good job, you would be looking at career progression.”

“I think there is something wrong with Open Traders!”

“Ok, if that is so, prove it to me in your report. Submit it to me on the 25th. I will be going through the draft with you sometime next week. Please close the door when you leave.”

Again, Chris was left helpless. Every single day is a step backward. Life is beginning to be a drag to him.