The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 298
“If all of this is true, Amy, then you will have to warn meabout all of this again next year. And the year after that – or do I mean theyear before that? You will have to tell me every year, otherwise how will Iknow if you keep going back to a time before you have told me?”
“I’m not sure it works like that,” I said. “I’ve been tryingto figure out how my actions in the past affect the future. One theory is thatI am creating multiple futures.”
“So in some possible future, I’m still dead?” she asked.
“Yes, but the important thing is, you’re alive in this oneand now you know how to stay alive.”
“And that won’t all be undone when you go back another yearin time?” she asked.
“I just have no way of really knowing,” I replied,recognising her line of reasoning because they were the same thought-processesI had been through hundreds of times.
“All I can do is try and do my best for the future any way Ican,” I added.
“And what about Mum?” asked Rachel. “Are you going toexplain all of this to her? What about the money you stole from her? How areyou going to justify that?”
“Well, I was planning on jumping back into the past beforethat became an issue,” I replied. “Escaping into the past has got me out ofquite a few scrapes.”
“Such as?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing particularly exciting,” I replied.
I had no intention of telling her about the sordidactivities that had led to Gary’s death. She didn’t need to know all of that.She didn’t even know who Gary was and it was years in a future that probablywouldn’t happen that way – not in this world at least.
“But what about you, Amy?” she asked. “You came here to saveme, but what about your predicament? What’s going to happen to you?”
“I’m pretty much resigned to my fate, Rach. I’m just goingto keep going back in time, getting younger and younger until a time before Iwas born. Then I will simply cease to exist.”
“But the body you are in now? That will stay?”
“That’s what I think will happen. I will still be here, withyou, presumably the same as I was before my mind jumped into this body. Youwon’t lose me.”
“But the version of you that’s in there, now. The one I’mtalking to right now. You’ll vanish, so will the original you remember any ofthis?”
“I’ve no idea. I’ve never been around to find out. All Iknow is that this version of me, this soul that inhabits this body right now,is doomed. I know that and I’ve already accepted my fate.”
There had been tears in my eyes when I had found Rachel again.Now it was my sister’s turn to cry.
Chapter Seventeen
1999
The world was preparing to usher in a new millennium, onethat I had already seen the first quarter century of. Now here I was, at theage of thirteen being allowed my official first glass of champagne – whichsadly would also be my last.
Firsts and lasts were becoming a regular feature of my lifethese days. On New Year’s Day 2003 I had simultaneously lost my virginity andhad sex for the final time in my life, two events which ought to have beenseparated by several decades.
It had been with Max who had popped my cherry. He was myteenage boyfriend and first love whom I had been with between the ages ofsixteen and eighteen. I had missed him the previous year when I had gone downto see Rachel in London, so 2003 had been my only opportunity to see him. I wasdetermined to make the most of it.
First time around we had been a couple for many monthsbefore we lost our virginity together in the Easter holidays, but given thecircumstances, I was determined to bring that forward.
It wasn’t difficult to accomplish. He had spent most of theautumn crafting the most beautifully articulate love letters to me and we hadspent much time passionately kissing, with me firmly removing his wanderinghands when they strayed close to my nether regions.
I considered myself to be a good girl, and wanted to waituntil I was ready. I certainly wasn’t going to rush into anything like some ofthe girls in my class, two of whom were already pregnant. I was going to be properlyprepared, and my sister had helped in this by kindly supplying me with condoms,advising me that men had a tendency to forget if they could get away with it.
I had a lovely night with Max, though the action was allover rather quickly the first time. In his extreme excitement at finallyachieving the Holy Grail of every heterosexual teenage male on the planet,Max’s initial adventure into my nether regions lasted somewhere around thirtyseconds.
On the plus side, he had an amazing recovery window, andsince I had cunningly convinced my mother I was staying at Kelly’s for thenight, I had the whole night with Max as he had successfully managed to smuggleme into his room without his drunk parents noticing. Over the course of thenext six or seven hours, we managed to do it four times, and thankfully he hadslowed down considerably for the later rounds.
Before I left 2003 behind me, I made sure I briefed Rachelagain about avoiding Thailand, something she had suggested. I would need tocarry on doing this every year as long as I could.
After 2003, things began to get rather dull. Just as I hadanticipated, my freedom continued to decline as I worked my way back through myteenage years.
Schooldays are supposedly the best days of your life, butthey weren’t in my case, at least not in my early teenage years. After I hadmoved down from Merseyside in the late-1990s to a new school in Oxford, I hadbeen the constant target of ribbing about my accent. Brookside was still on TVat the time, along with Harry Enfield and his Scousers sketch.
As soon as the other kids at school realised I was fromLiverpool I was subject to a constant barrage of “calm down, calm down”. I alsohad