Funny how life works. Sonia swore she had just seen someone that looked almost exactly like her. She didn’t have a twin. Clones don’t exist… yet. Whatever; she had probably just imagined it.
She walked up the glittering (but not clean) stairs of the subway station, and descended into the night air. She was just a block away from her small apartment flat and ready for it too. It had been a long day at the theater, where she worked as an accountant, and she couldn’t wait to stretch out on her sofa and read a novel she had picked up at the store the day before.
As she neared her building, she took out her keys and unlocked the first lock. Then the second one. Then the one to get into the building with. And then, finally, the lock to her door.
The apartment was cozy, and it gave her a sense of pride every time she opened it. This was because of all of the work she had put into getting it. The furniture was contemporary, yet functional; much like her life.
She began to read, becoming more and more immersed in the story by the second. Nothing could distract her. Well, at least until a loud crash and a scream came from the apartment next door.
She jumped to her feet, and took action immediately. That’s what made Sonia different from other tenants. In this situation, you would expect most people to cower in fear. A loud noise and a scream in New York City was enough to make a person lock their doors and hide, but Sonia was at the door of her neighbor’s apartment instantly.
She tried the doorknob, deciding knocking wouldn’t be necessary after a scream as loud as the one she’d heard. Not surprisingly, it was locked. She began to rap on the door furiously, because she heard hysterical crying that blared like a siren. Crying is always better than nothing at all, Sonia decided as she hammered on the door. “I want to help you!” She cried through the door. And she did. Nobody deserved to scream that loud and get no help at all.
Luckily, the door opened, and standing behind it was a girl that couldn’t be older than 30. Her face was red, and she looked stressed out beyond belief. “Who...are…you?” she sniffed in a quieter sob.
“I’m just your neighbor, I heard a scream, and, well…”
“Oh.” She whimpered motioning to the room behind her. “Come in.”
Sonia slowly entered the apartment and looked glanced around realizing that her relaxing evening was only a fantasy now.
The apartment was almost identical to her own, but the furnishings were nothing like the ones that surrounded her usually. Her neighbor seemed to be a fan of the periodic table. And beakers. In fact, they seemed to be using a lab table as a dining table.
“My husband is a scientist.” She sputtered, seeming to notice Sonia’s confused glances. The word husband seemed to make her neighbor upset, because she let out a long, high moan, not unlike the call of a whale.
“I’m…I’m Natalie. Natalie Pramsey. Why don’t you have a…a…a” She let out another wale and motioned toward the couch. “A…seat.” Sonia rushed to the couch, Natalie close behind her. They both sat down, and Natalie tried to get a hold of herself.
Sonia cleared her throat, awkwardly, and didn’t really know what to say first. “Let’s start from the beginning. Tell me why you are so upset,”
“I…I mean…My husband is into QP.” Sonia looked at her confusedly. What was QP? Some kind of drug? It sure sounds like it. “It stands for Quantum Physics.” Sonia was way off. “Most of it is just moving particles and such but,” She began to sniff vigorously now, trying so hard to keep off her tears. “He’s really good at QP, and he…he…he built a machine that can transfer a lot of particles at once.” Sonia didn’t really understand what this meant, but she listened intently. “First he went back 5 minutes, and that was such a huge accomplishment, we had so many of his colleagues over at the house. And then after that, he…he…he started going back farther and farther. The farthest he’s gotten is 3 years.”
“I don’t understand, quite what you mean. It sounds like he’s traveling in time, but that doesn’t sound possible.” This made Natalie’s hiccupping and sniffs break almost instantly. She began crying again, letting out a wale here and there.
“It is possible! That’s what he’s gone and done! He got into that machine and…and…I don’t know where he went! I don’t know when he’ll be back! I don’t even know if he will be back! He….wouldn’t… TELL ME!” She began to make that siren noise again, the loudest kind of crying there was. She even seemed to be hyperventilating.
“Calm down, we can figure this out; just…just try to calm down!” Sonia was becoming a little panicked herself. She was expecting a robber or something, not a time machine. Sonia got Natalie some water and tried to get a normal breathing pattern out of her. They sat back down on the sofa (Natalie had stood up to do her siren cry) and Sonia started to ask simple questions. “Is there any way to see what time the machine went to last? That might make it easier to know where your husband is.”
“Well, it’s not like in the movies. There isn’t a dial that you just turn to your favorite year, and then you’re off, you have to accumulate the number of particles you’re moving, and how far you’re moving them. He’s done that but…I don’t think there’s any way I can track where he went. I don’t really know all that much about QP so-“ She paused, her face was still bright red from her tears, but she wasn’t crying anymore. “I just might…” She walked into another room and left Sonia alone, confused and in a daze from the whole evening.
“I got it!” Natalie yelled from the other room. “Come here!” Sonia walked to the other room and got ready for a huge machine, just like in every science-fiction story ever. It would probably have numbers all over it and be really scientific and mathematical, but it would probably be like a box with a door and- whoa. Sonia was surprised to see the machine was nothing like that at all. It was a simple stage, small but still stage like. There was a huge light roofing the stage, and Sonia felt taken aback by the whole scene. “I fixed it!”Natalie yelled. “I’m not sure how, but I’ve gotten his location on track! He’s at the subway station… one and a half hours ago. Let’s go!”
Sonia’s eyes widened. “Me?”
“Well of course! You helped me with this whole thing.”
“But…but…I don’t know anything about time travel, let alone QP.”
“Me neither. Let’s go.”
“Oh…Okay.” Sonia stepped onto the stage next to Natalie, and covered her eyes, because she was afraid the light would blind her. When she opened them she was in the subway station a block away. “How did that-“
“I know,” whispered Natalie. “You couldn’t even feel it could you. Now let’s find my husband.” So they set off, through the subway station, and Sonia could have sworn she’d seen herself again. But this time she knew it really was her, and as she looked at the confused expression on her own face, she had to laugh.
In the end, they found Natalie’s husband, and while there wer still a few issues the two of them had to cope with, their marriage worked out. Sonia also had a few issues to cope with. The next day she quit her job, and became an intern at the Quantum Physics lab that Natalie’s husband worked at. She wanted to know everything she could on the subject. If time travel is real, Sonia wanted to be a part of it.
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