Multi-Linear Refraction

Moses paused at the automatic opening doors and looked out across the parking lot. A slight drizzle had begun to fall and the shopping cart in front of him was full of groceries. Not thrilled at the idea of unloading his cart while standing in the rain, he moved out under the overhang and hoped that the rain would take a short break. But the rain seemed disagreeable at this point and continued its mediocre deluge. With a sigh, he hustled out from under his protection and hurried across the now nearly empty parking lot.

              Moving past an extremely large four-wheel drive truck whose owner certainly needed to use a step stool to enter, he caught sight of an elderly lady struggling with her own groceries. He stopped his own progress and slid his cart in between her car and the truck. “Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked, trying to step into her line of vision before speaking.

              “Oh hello, young man,” the woman answered. “Yes, that would be very nice. I wish they wouldn’t fill these bags so full. How can any normal person even lift them?”

              As she stepped back from her cart, Moses stepped in and carefully began moving the many bags into the trunk of her car. “This is an interesting car,” he said. “Is this one of these new electric models? I don’t think I’ve seen this one before.”

              “Electric, yes, I guess you could say that,” she answered.

              He finished putting the last bags into the trunk and stepped back. “Well, there you go, ma’am,” he said. “I hope you have someone at home that can help you unload. Those bags are awfully heavy.”

              “Oh, don’t worry about that,” she said. “Here, I’ve got a little something for you. It was so kind of you to help,” Grabbing her purse, he began to dig around inside.

              “Oh no, ma’am, that won’t be necessary,” he said. “I’m glad I could help.”

              “Oh, I’m not going to pay you any money,” she said. “I have something much, much more valuable.” Pulling out a very unusual looking cellphone, Moses guessed, she held it up. “Here, tap your cell phone to mine,” she said. “It will automatically load a special app for you.”

              “Uh… okay,” he answered. “Are you sure it's safe? I really don’t want any spyware or bugs on my phone.”

              “Oh, it’s perfectly safe,” she answered, “you don’t have to worry about that.” Tapping his phone to hers, he slid it back into his pocket. Dropping her own phone back into her purse, she unlocked her car. “Now promise me that you’ll be very careful with the special gift I just gave you,” she said. “Be certain to thoroughly follow the directions. Things could go very wrong if you aren’t careful.” Climbing into her car, she started the engine and waited for Moses to move his cart and begin walking back toward his own vehicle.

              Opening his trunk, he turned to look back at the old woman, only seconds after stepping away but the old woman and her car were nowhere to be seen. “What the...? That’s weird. Where’d she go?” Scanning over the empty parking lot, there was no sign of her or anyone. The roads around the store were empty as well. “Hmm, strange,” he thought.

              Pulling into his driveway, he carried his groceries inside and stacked them in his pantry. Sitting down on the couch, he pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the black screen. Pausing for a moment, he wondered what he would find. “She better not have infected my phone with something weird or worse yet, erased it all. That’d be dumb.” Hitting the power button, his passcode screen came up and he punched in the numbers. The familiar photo of his cat Lewis popped up like normal and he breathed a sigh of relief.

              Swiping through the three main screens, he came across a small icon, bright yellow with two blue letter T’s. “Hmm, I’m guessing that’s it,” he said. Touching the icon, the image of a smiling young woman immediately showed up.

              “Hello,” she said. “Please enter your birth date.” Punching in the eight numbers, the screen turned black and did nothing. “Oh great, here we go. I knew it. She erased everything.” But then the image of the young woman reappeared.

              “Hello Moses,” she said with a smile. “I will need you to watch a few short videos before you begin to use this app. Each video is two to three minutes long and very easy to understand. I appreciate your cooperation.”

              Ten minutes later, Moses sat on his couch, looking at his phone and was not sure what to think. Letting out a long breath, he stood up and paced around the room. “This has to be some sort of prank,” he thought. “TT for time travel, yeah sure. Well, I guess it can’t hurt to try it out. I know nothing will happen because time travel is impossible. All right, here we go.”

              Picking up his phone, he selected the date range field but then paused. “Let’s make this easy,” he said. “I’ll set it to go back thirty minutes to the grocery store parking lot. Easy enough.” Setting the date and time, he opened the map app and zoomed in on the grocery store. “Okay, now I push the start button and close my eyes.” Following the instructions from the smiling young woman, he suddenly felt raindrops on his head and arms. Quickly opening his eyes, he stood at the far corner of the grocery store parking lot and could see himself talking to the old lady at the back of her car.

              “Oh, man, oh, man, what is going on?” he thought, “This isn’t possible.” Watching his interaction with the woman, he saw himself pull his phone from his pocket and touch her phone with his own. He watched himself retrieve his own cart and turn away towards his own car. As soon as he turned his back, the old woman looked at him across the parking lot and gave him a small wave. As she did, she and her car instantly disappeared. It was just suddenly gone, no sound, nothing, just gone.

              Pulling his phone from his pocket, he pressed the return icon and closed his eyes. Reopening them, he again stood in his living room at exactly the same moment he had just left. “This is too much, this is unbelievable, I… I… wow. The possibilities are endless.” Carefully setting his phone down on his kitchen counter, he paced around his house, his mind spinning with a million ideas. His eyes repeatedly looking across the room at the phone on the counter.

              Slipping into his bathtub later that evening, he just began to doze off when suddenly it hit him. He had been thinking about his own childhood and just now he saw it so clearly. “The lady said that I can go anywhere, anytime, as long as it's during the time when I’m alive. I can change events but I won’t be able to cause anyone else to not be,” he thought. “I’m going to see if I can change my childhood.”

              Now, wide awake, he tried to recollect as much as he could about his childhood, about his parents, about his brother and sister and about his school friends. “I guess I should start with something when I was really little,” he thought. Sitting up and realizing that the water had grown cold, he pulled the plug and ran a hot shower, trying to warm up. “Hmm, that gives me an idea,” he said. “They say that the childhood environment is super important. Maybe I’ll try to interact with my parents.”

              Looking at the clock as he dried off, he realized that it was already ten o’clock. “Shoot. It’s too late to do much now. Even if the time doesn’t pass while I’m gone from here now, it will still be time that I’ll be awake. Maybe I should sleep on it.”

              Finishing his breakfast the next morning, he finished getting ready for the day and pulled out his phone. Touching the TT icon, the smiling woman warmly greeted him. “It looks like you took your first trip yesterday,” she said. “I trust that went well for you. When would you like to go today?”

              Typing in his own birthday on the day he was born, only hours after his birth, he opened the map option and found the hospital. Touching the start icon, he closed his eyes and immediately felt the change in atmosphere, the change in temperature and the gentle breeze of the fresh outdoors. Opening his eyes, he found himself on the sidewalk outside of St. Joseph's Hospital. The weight of what lay before suddenly came upon him with a ferocity that surprised him. Sitting down on a bench near the entrance, he watched the doors, now suddenly unsure of himself.

              He sat until nearly dusk until finally he saw a young man emerge from the hospital. “I would recognize you anywhere,” he whispered under his breath. “Now where are you off to?” Watching the man climb into a pale red sedan, he noted the license plate and the direction he left. Flagging down a cab, he followed the car to a local bar and paying the driver, followed the young man inside.

              Stepping back out of the tavern, Moses realized that it was nearly midnight. “Well, that was interesting,” he thought. “Here, the guy just had a child and he’s down here pounding back more drinks than I could count. I hope that conversation accomplishes something.” Pulling his phone from his pocket, he tapped the return icon and closed his eyes. The warmth and silence of his living room greeted him as he reopened his eyes. The clock read 8:04, as it had when he started this journey.

              Reaching for his car keys, he was suddenly struck by just how tired he had become. “Man, I better call in,” he thought, “I can’t be driving a forklift when I’m this tired.” Dropping his keys back onto the counter from where he had found them, he called in sick to work and lay down on his couch. Sitting upright, he realized that he had dozed off and it was now noon and he was incredibly hungry. “Hmm, there’s a thought,” he said. “Maybe I’ll swing by and visit the folks.”

              Again, grabbing his keys, he pulled out of his driveway and drove the fifteen minutes to his parent’s home. Walking up the sidewalk, he knocked on the door and let himself in, being greeted by a very fat and shiny golden Buddha in the entryway. “Whoa, I did not expect that,” he thought. Seeing his mother as he came in, he started across the living room.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute, Moses,” she said, “you didn’t take off your shoes,” she said, pointing at his feet.

“Oh, ha, yeah, sorry about that,” he said, feeling rather confused. “I took the day off work and thought I’d stop by for a visit.”

“Oh, that’s nice dear,” she said, “but you didn’t venerate the Buddha when you came in. Are you feeling okay?”

An hour later, he slipped back on his shoes and drove back home. “Phew, that was really bizarre,” he thought. “Looks like I’m going to need to take another trip back to visit dear old dad.” Letting himself back into his house, he turned on his phone, set the date, time and location for his third birthday at his childhood home. Tapping start, he closed his eyes and found himself on the deck by the front door. Ringing the doorbell, he was greeted by a much younger version of his mother.

“Hello?” she said, “can I help you?”

“Hello Kelly,” he answered. “I’m a co-worker of your husband and needed to stop by and see him about something for work. Is he home yet?”

“No, I’m sorry, he’s not,” she answered. “I don’t expect him for at least another hour. Would you like to leave a message for him?”

              “No, that’s okay,” Moses answered. “I guess I can wait until tomorrow morning. Sorry to bother you.” As the door closed behind him, he realized that he had no means of leaving this small home in the woods. “Jeez, now what do I do?” he thought. Punching in the address of his father’s workplace for one hour later, he pressed start and closed his eyes. Opening them, he found himself in the parking lot of Bluestone Mechanics, just in time to see his father walk out of the factory, with his lunchbox in hand.

“Thomas!” he shouted, “hey, Thomas, over here.” Catching the man’s eye, he introduced himself as an accountant for the company and had a few questions for him.

“Hmm, okay,” Thomas said. “I don’t remember seeing you here before but if you're okay talking over a beer, we can chat at the ‘Up and Up’.”

Thirty minutes later, Moses emerged from the tavern and walked around the corner into an adjoining alleyway. Tapping the return icon, he returned home and saw that only an hour had passed since he left for his parents home. His phone beeped and waking it up, saw a message from TT. “Hello Moses,” it read, “this is just a warning that taking two paths before returning on the first can be dangerous. Please be careful.”

“Phew, yeah, wow, I guess I forgot about that,” he said. “I’ve got to be more careful.”

Jumping back into his car, he returned to his parent’s home. Letting himself in the front door, he noticed the absence of the shiny, golden Buddha. His mother sat on the couch, apparently asleep. He approached, and reaching for her, saw two empty Vodka bottles at her feet. “Oh, damn, that last trip wasn’t too successful,” he thought. Pulling back, he silently left the house and returned to his own home.

Sitting on the couch, turning his phone over and over in his hands, his mind raced as he tried to think of how to fix what had gone so wrong. Walking into the kitchen, he stood over the sink, looking out the back window and drumming his fingers on the counter. “Well, I’ve got to do something,” he thought. “There is no way I can just leave Mom as a raging alcoholic.”

Punching in the date, time, and location of his fifth birthday, he tapped the icon, closed his eyes and once again found himself at the main entrance to Bluestone Mechanics. Marveling at how perfectly his timing had been, he watched his father emerge from the factory, again holding his lunchbox. Catching his eye, he accompanied him to the local tavern and spent the next two hours in deep dialog. With the image of his mother in mind, he tried a much more academic and philosophical approach.

Finally leaving the tavern, he slipped into the same alleyway and returned home. As he opened his eyes, he immediately knew that his trip had been a success. No longer was he standing in a moderately furnished, standard three bedroom, two bath rambler. He stood in a beautifully decorated library on a marble floor surrounded by dark hardwood. The Rolex that hung on his wrist was his next clue that things were radically different than they had been just a few hours before.

As he stood looking around the room and marveling at the beauty of it all, his doorbell rang. Hurrying out of the room, he opened the ornately carved hardwood front doors and came face to face with the elderly woman from the grocery parking lot.

“Hello Moses,” she said. “It looks like I was right about you.”

“Um… excuse me?” he answered. “What do you mean?”

“What I’m saying is that no one else at headquarters believed that you could do it. But I knew you could,” she answered. “The changes that you brought about will have a major impact on the next ten generations of your family line.”

Digging through her purse, she pulled out her cellphone. “I’m sorry to have to do this, Moses, but I’ll need to see your cell phone again.”

“Does this mean that you’re taking my app away?” he asked.

“Yes, young man, I’m afraid so,” she answered. Tapping her phone to his, she dropped her phone back into her purse and patted his arm. “I am so glad that you figured it all out. You have accomplished something really amazing. Thank you.” She then turned and walked back down the steps and climbed into her car. With a slight wave, she and her car immediately disappeared, with no sound, she simply was gone.

As Moses stepped back into his living room, his phone rang. “Hello, this is Moses,” he answered.

“Hey, Moses,” a male voice answered. “Apparently there has been a shooting at the university. I don’t know why you weren’t lecturing today but it’s a good thing you weren’t. Some crazy guy showed up to your class and started shooting. Luckily, no one was killed and only a few were injured. The board of directors has called a mandatory meeting for all the professors. I figured I’d give you a call and let you know. We all need to be at the dean’s office by four o’clock today. I hope everything is okay.”

“Wow, yeah, Charles, man, that is crazy. A shooting?” Moses answered. “Thanks for calling, I’ll be there.”