The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 286
Now we were out in the open, we all had a better view ofeach other. Looking me up and down in my newly acquired outfit, Gary remarked,“You look absolutely stunning in that dress.”
It didn’t sound like a chat-up line but completely genuineand I took the compliment gratefully. I don’t recall him saying anything likethat before, but on the previous occasion this night had played out, I had justbeen wearing some cheap top from Dorothy Perkins.
“Quick, grab this table,” said Rob, as a group of fourblokes got up to leave. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the same table we had theprevious time, as this one was by the window. The added time spent at the barwas already causing the timeline to deviate. The choice of table was a minorchange, one that would have no long-term effect on the timeline, but now it wastime to bring about a major change.
Kelly returned ten minutes later, chastened and patched up,but still with an amusingly obvious wet patch on her right breast. By then, Ihad ensured that the battle lines had been well and truly drawn in my favour.This time it was me at the end of the table with Gary next to me, then Rob. Ihad ensured that there was only one place she could fit into this arrangementand that was on the other side of Rob.
From then on it was plain sailing. I didn’t spend the nightalone, waking up on New Year’s Day with Gary in his flat. A second bout ofpassion with him had been a welcome bonus from my night’s work, and thankfullythis time it was all legit and above board. We were both single at this time sono one was going to stumble upon us, go into a rage, and bring about an improbabledeath armed with nothing more than a small vegetable knife.
In many ways, it was a good deal more satisfying than lasttime. We were both almost a decade younger, fitter and with more energy, and Ifelt the earth move more times that night than I ever had with Rob. I wonderedwhat sort of night Kelly had had with him, inevitably going back to his placeas she had. I am willing to bet she wouldn’t have enjoyed herself as much as Ihad.
Where would Gary and I go from here? It was impossible tosay. If I was opening up a new timeline with each trip back in time, then maybethis might be one where he and I had ended up living happily ever after. Whoknows, we might even have had kids?
I had been a bit mercenary in getting what I wanted, blamingthe fat man for the drink spillage and treading on Kelly’s toes. But I didn’tfeel guilty about either. The fat man, he had been rude and arrogant, wavinghis money at the bar staff. He had also offended me with his terrible taste inaftershave and his B.O.
As for Kelly, well, she had never been much more than afair-weather friend and I saw her now for what she was. The knowledge that shewas going to drop me faster than a ton of bricks within a couple of years whenI was no longer of any interest to her was more than enough justification formy behaviour. I had almost got a kick out of messing up her hair and clothes,even though I had vowed not to use my time-travelling powers for any morerevenge tactics.
Just this once, it had been worth it.
Now it was time to move on. I was heading back towards thenoughties and some of the most difficult days of my life lay ahead.
Chapter Thirteen
2010
If I had been apprehensive about the previous New Year, Iwas positively dreading this one.
2011 had been a dark year. Something happened that I waspowerless to prevent at the time, and I would still be unable to do anythingabout at this particular point in time. Further back in time perhaps I mighthave a chance, but on this date it was already far too late.
It was the year that my mother had died, just a few daysshort of the milestone that would have been her fiftieth birthday. She hadn’tbeen killed in a car crash or any other external influence. If she had, then Iwould have the ability to warn her. But what was going to kill her was alreadyirreversible by now.
It wasn’t a hereditary illness or contagion that was to takeher, but a misadventure of her own making. Quite simply, and very sadly, shehad drunk herself to death. Diagnosed with the advanced stages of liver cancerin January, she was dead less than three months later.
I was dreading this trip because, unlike many of mybirthdays, I remembered in great clarity what had happened that year. I knewwhat was coming, and I had scant hope that I was going to be able to doanything about it, but I had to at least try.
Why did my mother drink so much in her later years? Shehadn’t always been an alcoholic. Like most young people of her generation shehad partied hard in her youth, drinking and smoking with her friends. She hadgone to an all-girls’ school in Oxford and had often told me tales of what sheand her friends had got up to. They used to go out at lunchtime for a sneakysnakebite at a pub close to the school that turned a blind eye to underagedrinking.
This was back in the 1970s when things were a lot more laxin that area. Such behaviour was almost seen as a rite of passage, as wasbuying single Silk Cut cigarettes from the man in the sweetshop at 5p a time.
Then, in the early 1980s, she had met my dad who had comedown from Liverpool in search of work due to the chronic unemployment onMerseyside at that time.