Or she did, until…” Her voice trailed off.
Lewis nodded and swallowed hard. “I understand. I’ll be in touch.” He stepped off the landing and walked out to Beacon Street . At the sidewalk he turned left away from his parked car and surveyed the street. No one was about and at the corner Lewis turned left again. Another left and a two-block walk brought him to his car. He started it up, checked the mirror for any activity–there was none he could see–and drove back to Beacon Street . He watched his rear view mirror, and as he pulled out onto Beacon Street saw a parked vehicle pull out behind him. He hadn’t noticed anyone sitting in it when he had driven past. He headed straight home checking his mirror every few blocks. The car stayed one block behind him.
That made no sense. Lewis decided that this had to be either a clumsy tail or else an innocent chance vehicle heading in his direction. Since there was little reason to tail someone back to where they lived he settled on the latter explanation.
Chapter 9
Thursday, July 16, 2026
7:34 p.m.
“Beer?”
Amanda nodded. Paul opened three beers, and handed one to Lewis and one to Amanda. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” They all drank. Lewis inserted a Rolling Stones tape into the player, and “Exile On Main Street” filled the garage. Amanda smiled.
“My favorite. Paul must’ve told you,” she said over the music.
“Lucky guess,” Ginter said. He didn’t smile back.
“It’s mine too,” Paul said.
“That’s right,” Amanda said. “I’d forgotten. So, you guys need a historian to help get this muscle car back on the road?”
“No.” Paul looked at Lewis, who palmed the metal disk and waved it in a circle above his head. He studied the readouts before nodding to Paul.
Paul took a deep breath. “You know how I loved The Time Machine ?” he asked.
Amanda nodded. “The movie? Yeah. The Warlocks? Or Oarlocks? Or whatever they were called?”
“Yeah, whatever. Well, you remember that I read Hawking and Sone and-”
”Don’t tell me.” She didn’t flinch. “You’re shitting me. Either that or you’re insane. Can you pull it off?”
Paul was stunned at the quick turn in conversation. Amanda had always been so damn smart, but he had forgotten just how perceptive she was.
“We already have,” he stammered. “Contrapositive wormholes. Bennett David showed us the way. All points in time and space are connected by wormholes. Hawking and Sone knew this. But they could never figure out how to do it.”
“And you have?” Amanda asked.
“You know the team here discovered SU44?” Paul continued. “The subatomic particle that can be accelerated to a speed faster than light?”
Amanda shook her head.
“Well, we did. Lewis and I were on the team. Then at about the same time Grace had to do a report on a famous scientist of the 20 th century. She picked Stephen Hawking, and she asked me to help her get some information about him. I started poking around with his writings again. God, I hadn’t looked at them since grad school. He had always said that time travel was impossible.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Has to do with the effects of quantum mechanics. I won’t bore you–”
“-with the details?” Amanda finished. “You always thought I bored extremely easily.”
“Never made it to the end of any explanation I ever tried to give on my studies,” Paul said. “If I started on it now I wouldn’t stop until I went all the way.”
“Might not be such a bad thing,” Amanda said coyly.
Paul ignored the retort. “Yeah, so anyway, Hawking said no, he didn’t think it was possible to construct a time machine. He was writing in the 1980s and 1990s, so it wasn’t exactly the last word on the subject. It got me thinking. I started looking around some more, and ran across another late 20 th century relative theorist, Kip Sone, who had looked into the matter more deeply than Hawking did. He thought that wormholes could act as time machines,
Lewis nodded and swallowed hard. “I understand. I’ll be in touch.” He stepped off the landing and walked out to Beacon Street . At the sidewalk he turned left away from his parked car and surveyed the street. No one was about and at the corner Lewis turned left again. Another left and a two-block walk brought him to his car. He started it up, checked the mirror for any activity–there was none he could see–and drove back to Beacon Street . He watched his rear view mirror, and as he pulled out onto Beacon Street saw a parked vehicle pull out behind him. He hadn’t noticed anyone sitting in it when he had driven past. He headed straight home checking his mirror every few blocks. The car stayed one block behind him.
That made no sense. Lewis decided that this had to be either a clumsy tail or else an innocent chance vehicle heading in his direction. Since there was little reason to tail someone back to where they lived he settled on the latter explanation.
Chapter 9
Thursday, July 16, 2026
7:34 p.m.
“Beer?”
Amanda nodded. Paul opened three beers, and handed one to Lewis and one to Amanda. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” They all drank. Lewis inserted a Rolling Stones tape into the player, and “Exile On Main Street” filled the garage. Amanda smiled.
“My favorite. Paul must’ve told you,” she said over the music.
“Lucky guess,” Ginter said. He didn’t smile back.
“It’s mine too,” Paul said.
“That’s right,” Amanda said. “I’d forgotten. So, you guys need a historian to help get this muscle car back on the road?”
“No.” Paul looked at Lewis, who palmed the metal disk and waved it in a circle above his head. He studied the readouts before nodding to Paul.
Paul took a deep breath. “You know how I loved The Time Machine ?” he asked.
Amanda nodded. “The movie? Yeah. The Warlocks? Or Oarlocks? Or whatever they were called?”
“Yeah, whatever. Well, you remember that I read Hawking and Sone and-”
”Don’t tell me.” She didn’t flinch. “You’re shitting me. Either that or you’re insane. Can you pull it off?”
Paul was stunned at the quick turn in conversation. Amanda had always been so damn smart, but he had forgotten just how perceptive she was.
“We already have,” he stammered. “Contrapositive wormholes. Bennett David showed us the way. All points in time and space are connected by wormholes. Hawking and Sone knew this. But they could never figure out how to do it.”
“And you have?” Amanda asked.
“You know the team here discovered SU44?” Paul continued. “The subatomic particle that can be accelerated to a speed faster than light?”
Amanda shook her head.
“Well, we did. Lewis and I were on the team. Then at about the same time Grace had to do a report on a famous scientist of the 20 th century. She picked Stephen Hawking, and she asked me to help her get some information about him. I started poking around with his writings again. God, I hadn’t looked at them since grad school. He had always said that time travel was impossible.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Has to do with the effects of quantum mechanics. I won’t bore you–”
“-with the details?” Amanda finished. “You always thought I bored extremely easily.”
“Never made it to the end of any explanation I ever tried to give on my studies,” Paul said. “If I started on it now I wouldn’t stop until I went all the way.”
“Might not be such a bad thing,” Amanda said coyly.
Paul ignored the retort. “Yeah, so anyway, Hawking said no, he didn’t think it was possible to construct a time machine. He was writing in the 1980s and 1990s, so it wasn’t exactly the last word on the subject. It got me thinking. I started looking around some more, and ran across another late 20 th century relative theorist, Kip Sone, who had looked into the matter more deeply than Hawking did. He thought that wormholes could act as time machines,
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