Timeshock - I Want My Life Back Read Free

  Nigel waited.   He began to worry – what if he never saw it again?  

    He really had put his whole life into creating that machine – to have to build yet another one would probably be too much for him.
    Exactly 3 minutes later the machine re-appeared.   Nigel broke down in tears as this happened.   It worked!   Now he had to decide where to go back to – he wanted to ruin Raymond Deville's life and try to restore his own life.

    Nigel set the target date of the machine for almost 12 years in the past to just before his reality's Raymond Deville had died in the car crash. Nigel thought surely Raymond would try and stop that from happening.  

    Activating his new device while seated – he had created a seated device himself this time – there was a brief pause and suddenly time began to slow down around the machine. Time was stopping and going into reverse – with accelerating speed Nigel saw the cottage become progressively less disused and eventually becoming a normal home.   Nigel felt embarrassed – he was going to emerge in someone's living room and this would be hard to explain. However his first priority would be to hide the machine.

    The passage of reverse time slowed and suddenly came to a halt and switched back to normal time.   Nigel found himself right between a family's sofa and its TV.   Sitting on the sofa were a couple who looked understandably shocked to see a man sitting on a very hi-tech seat suddenly appear in front of them.   Nigel blurted out “Hello!” - he really had no idea what to say.   The man said “Who the hell are you?   How did you get here?” Nigel replied “err...science experiment...err..teleportation...local university...so sorry to interrupt you.”  
    It was the only thing he could think of, but actually it served him well.  

    The couple, thankfully, were reasonably scientifically savvy so were amazed.  
    “Really – teleportation?   Where were you trying to go to?”  
    “Just across my lab.   I must have calibrated it wrongly – I went a lot further!” bluffed Nigel.   “Let me not disturb you any more.”  
    “What is your name? – I want to tell people I knew the man who discovered teleportation!” cried the man.   “Nigel..err..Smith”. Nigel almost blurted out his real name without thinking.   Nigel then made his excuses and wheeled his time machine out of the cottage and towards the village.

    More than a few people enquired about the time machine Nigel was pushing around the village – he told them it was a new exercise machine he had purchased.   While most people didn't believe him they weren't really that concerned.   He booked a room in the local hotel and checked the date.   He had indeed come back exactly the right amount of time – just a few months under 12 years.  

    He had come back a month before the crash which killed Raymond and his sister. He guessed that Raymond would have come back only a day or two earlier than the crash and he wanted to be there before Raymond could change anything.    

    Nigel had planned things fairly well – he ensured all the currency he had was issued over twelve years ago – he had rigged up a cash card that could take money out of the primitive ATMs of the time and he tried to make sure his clothing was as bland as possible – jeans and an anonymous coloured t-shirt and jumper.   He had also acquired a gun – not as deadly as Raymond's weapon but hopefully adequate given the element of surprise he would have.  

    For the next few days Nigel laid low.   He didn’t want to be noticed as he worried about the effect he was having on the future.   He had not appreciated how much things had changed in ten years.   There were no smart phones, no Facebook and no Twitter.   Certain things remained the same - people complaining about the weather; men chasing women; people getting older and eating and drinking too much.  

    The hotel room was sparse and cheap but thankfully secure.