The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 268
Whilst I was waiting for my saturated fat-laden meal toarrive, I pulled out my writing pad and started penning my letter. Pausingmidway to devour my enormous brunch, I continued writing, and two cups ofcoffee later, my missive was ready to send:
Dear Professor Hamilton,
I am writing to you because I understand that you are aworld expert in time travel and I am hoping you can help me with my unusual andpossibly unique problem.
To sum it up, I have become stuck in some sort of timeloop where I am spiralling back through time within my own life. Every 48hours, at precisely 3am on 2nd January, I am cast back a year and two days intime. It first happened to me on 2nd January 2025 and has happened four moretimes so far. Today for me is 31st December 2020, but in another two days itwill be 31st December 2019.
I am a nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital which iswhere it first happened, in a dead patient’s room. There was a strange manthere, waving a weird remote device about. He said his name was Doctor Gardnerand he was attached to the university. He would be aged about fifty, or atleast that is how old he will be in 2025. Do you know him? If you do, could youtell him about all of this? Perhaps he will know how this happened to me.
I tried to see you at the university, but you are awayfor the holidays, and since I am only ever here over New Year, I’ve no way offinding you in Oxford. By the time you come back in January, I will be gone, orat least this version of me will be. Maybe there’s another version of me stillhere – if so, maybe you could find her?
Or if there is any way at all you can help me, can youcome and find me on a New Year’s Eve either now or in the future? I amenclosing a list of all the addresses I have ever lived at and when I lived ateach one. Here’s hoping.
Yours sincerely,
Amy Reynolds.
All I could do now was post the letter and hope forsomething to happen. Did I really expect that anything would? It seemedunlikely. Even if he did believe me, the chances of this Professor Hamiltonknowing how to travel through time seemed slim.
The same couldn’t be said of my waistline after my mammothbreakfast, but it would save me having to worry about eating for the rest ofthe day. I was going on a stake-out tonight and I could be holed up for sometime.
I hauled myself up out of the chair and headed for thepostbox on Carfax. With the letter duly despatched, that concluded the firsthalf of my business for the day. The second half was going to be all enjoyingmyself. If all went to plan, I was going to get a lot of pleasure from thewanton act of revenge I had planned.
Chapter Eight
2021
I heard the sounds of Big Ben chiming on the TV downstairs,the pop of a champagne cork, and Rob and Emma’s laughter.
In contrast to the good time they were having, I was inabject discomfort, hidden inside the walk-in wardrobe in my bedroom. I had beenthere now for several hours and I was desperate for the loo but I couldn’tleave now – not if I didn’t want to risk messing things up.
They were still laughing and chinking glasses downstairs.How much longer were they going to be? I had assumed that if they were havingan affair they’d be straight into bed as soon as I was out of the way, but thathadn’t been the case. Unless they had been at it on the sofa, but I hadn’theard anything. I certainly hadn’t anticipated being holed up here the entireevening.
My cold wasn’t helping either. I felt lousy and my nose wasdripping and I hadn’t brought any tissues in with me. Fortunately, I justhappened to be next to one of Rob’s expensive Italian suits, so I was able toput the sleeves to good use.
It was no good – I was going to have to go but I couldn’tleave the wardrobe. Even at my relatively light weight compared to Rob, I wouldmake the decaying floorboards creak. I would just have to find something to usein the wardrobe.
Using my phone as a torch, I scanned the floor until my eyesalighted on his golf shoes. They would do very nicely. As long as I positionedmyself carefully, I ought to be able to fill one of them up without themoverflowing.
Hopefully they wouldn’t leak either. I was pretty sure hehad told me they were waterproof. He hadn’t said anything about them beingpiss-proof, but then the manufacturers probably hadn’t envisaged this scenarioin their prelaunch testing.
Relief flooded through me as urine flooded out of me intoone of the ridiculously bright green shoes. Why did golfers wear such ludicrousoutfits? Job done, I carefully placed the shoe at the back of the wardrobe. Ididn’t want to stick my own foot in it later. I’d leave that particular delightfor him to enjoy at a later date.
I got myself back into my previous position, hoping I wouldnot have to wait too much longer. Settling into place, directly behind thetwo-inch gap I had left in the sliding doors, I picked up the weapon with whichI was going to wreak my revenge. Not a gun, a knife, or a cleaver, just asimple seven-inch android tablet.
I may have relieved my bladder, but now I had anotherproblem to contend with, namely a nosy cat, who was scratching at the wardrobedoor, curious to know why his owner had taken to hiding in cupboards.
“Go away, Tommy,” I hissed. I had been delighted toreacquaint myself with my old pet this morning, but now he was threatening tolet my proverbial cat out of the bag.
I opened the door just enough to shoo him away, then I hadto get myself back into position quickly as I could finally hear footsteps onthe stairs. The door burst open, and Emma led Rob playfully by the hand intothe bedroom. She