The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 21
“You’ve nothing to worry about on that front,” said Kaylee.“She was out with me in Oxford that night.”
“What about at the end of the night?”
“I never saw her that night,” insisted Josh, hoping that hehadn’t. He couldn’t honestly remember after all this time, particularlyconsidering how drunk he had been, but if they had been on separate nights out,then it was unlikely.
“You know I’m starting to see a possible sordid side to thistime travel game,” said Alice. “What’s to stop people nipping off to the pastfor a quick fling with their ex whenever they feel like it?”
“Look, this is nothing to do with Lauren,” insisted Josh.“It’s just a lads’ night out.”
“What time did it finish?” asked Alice. “You’re not stayingthe whole night. What if you’re drunk and she comes back from Oxford andfancies a bit? Which she’s bound to because ever since I’ve known her, she’s beenpermanently on heat.”
“I’m pretty sure she stayed at mine that night,” saidKaylee. “We didn’t get back from Oxford until the early hours.”
“And we weren’t out anything like that late,” said Josh. “Westarted early because the plan was to get around all eight before midnightwhich was when most of them shut – apart from Mario’s, that’s why we went therelast.”
“That’s your curfew, Cinderella,” said Alice. “We’ll set thetachyometer to bring you back at midnight, and if I suspect you’ve been withina sniff of Lauren you’ll know about it.”
Josh had no intention of going anywhere near Lauren. She hadproved to be enough of a thorn in his side already on other past trips throughtime. The last thing he wanted was her turning up unexpectedly and trying it onwith him.
“Why don’t we set the timer for eight hours in total?” hesuggested. “I’ll get there for 4pm which gives me plenty of time to get ready,and then you can whisk me away at midnight.”
“OK, good. And don’t come back drunk.”
“That’s an interesting point as I don’t think I will, but itwill be interesting to find out. After all, it’s not my physical mind we’retransferring, just pure data. In theory no matter how much I drink I shouldarrive back in my current body stone-cold sober.”
“That’s another plus to all this!” said Charlie. “You’vejust invented the ultimate hangover cure. When can I have a go?”
“Let’s just get tomorrow out of the way first, shall we?”said Josh.
“Fine by me,” said Charlie. “But I bet you still can’t drinkthose eight pints.”
“We’ll see about that,” said Josh, a little nervously. Hecould knock the wine and spirits back with ease, but he struggled with thevolume when it came to beer, and had never managed eight pints in his life. Whywould tomorrow be any different? Perhaps he would need to employ a littlesubterfuge along the way.
“Bet you fifty notes you don’t make it to the end,” saidCharlie.
“You’re on,” said Josh.
Josh had been on countless time travel journeys before, tothe past, the future, and to all manner of other universes, but this wassomething entirely new – the chance to revisit and re-experience the person heused to be. He was feeling more excited about this than possibly anything hehad done before.
He was also curiously obsessed with taking on this Monopolychallenge again. He knew it was his fault they had failed before. Now he wasbeing given a chance to exorcise that demon and have a lot of fun along theway.
Best of all, he was going to find out what it would feellike to be young again.
Chapter Seven
August 2020
Josh wasn’t sure exactly where his younger body was going tobe when he transferred his mind back to 4pm on Saturday 15th August2020.
It was a quite different experience to travelling with thetachyometer. With that mode of time travel he always materialised in the samelocation he had departed from. This time his consciousness would arrive in hisold body at the exact moment specified, wherever he happened to be at the time.
As it turned out, he found himself in his bedroom, sittingon his bed playing a racing game on the PS4.
Despite his long experience of time travel, being thrustsuddenly into this position momentarily distracted him. His right index fingerwas pressed hard down on the R2 button and the car was heading straight for thechicane after the tunnel at Monaco.
It had been so long since he had played this game that ithad slipped his mind which button to press to brake, leaving the car tocontinue straight on. It slammed head on into the barrier with an impact thatwould most likely have killed him had it occurred in real life.
This was a sobering thought. It was only a game, but what ifhe had arrived while driving a real car in the middle of an overtakingmanoeuvre? Would he have had time to react?
It wouldn’t have been a problem for Josh as he hadn’tbothered learning to drive until he was in his late-thirties, by which timemost cars had become driverless. In fact, he had gained his pilot’s licencebefore he got his driver’s licence. But it could certainly be an issue for others.
He made a mental note to mention this to Henry and the restof the team when he returned. Past incidents had taught him the need to takeall sorts of precautions when it came to time travel. He would have to ensurethat anyone travelling back using this method did so at a safe time. Perhapsthe best way would be to make the jumps in the middle of the night. Youcouldn’t come to much harm if you were asleep in your bed.
He put the controller down and looked around his bedroom,reacquainting himself with the surroundings of his teenage life. There wereclothes strewn on the floor, electronic gadgetry everywhere, including hiselectric guitar. This must have been around the time he and Charlie had beentalking about starting a band. That had never happened.
There was a lot of dirty crockery scattered around the room,including his beloved old Aston Villa mug which he had bought as a