September Stories

The Rules

"M?"

"Mmmmm?.."

"Oh, don't tell me you're already asleep! You could never go unconscious the moment your head touched the pillow!" Zoe chuckled.

"It's been half an hour! Why aren't you asleep now." I muttered under my breath.

Silence.

"Don't know. Now cut the act you, little sneaky monster!"

Suddenly she was on top of me, engaging me in a tickling fight. I was not sleepy at all – but I was caught off guard. I couldn't really do anything now. She won the first round, and I was laughing too hard to do anything about round two.

"Please, stop!" I managed to cry through tears. "Okay, okay, I'm awake now!"

"Liar!" She winked at me but let go. "What d'you want to do?"

"Sleep! Zoe, it's Friday tomorrow, we both need to work."

"Sleep is boring and-"

"Oh, you're the one to say! The miss sleeping-angel-the-moment-the-lights-are-off!"

"That's not fair! I'm the missus."

Now we were both laughing. We cuddled together under a light blanket. It was the beginning of autumn but still warm even without the heating. For a few minutes we just lay there, wispering some cute nonsense in each other's ears. Then we became too lazy even for that. I began to fight the urge to fall asleep – for real this time.

"Tell me more about the rules." Zoe broke the silence

"Hmmm?"

"The rules. Your rules. For time travel."

"Why would you want to learn more about them, the rules are boring-"

"They're not boring!"

Zoe slightly pulled away from me to get herself in a seating position. I opened my eyes to see my  beautiful wife sitting on the bed with her legs crossed, looking at me. Presumably, looking at me. It was too dark in the room, I could only see a black silhouette in her loose sleeveless nightgown.

"Rules are always boring, they forbid all the fun!"

"You would've probably died on multiple occasions before you had a chance to meet me, can't see any fun in that."

It's been about a year now that I told Zoe about time travelling. I didn't really know how to do that. The chances that she'll think I'm a lunatic and will call off engagement were pretty high. But I know Zoe. She's not like other people – especially not like my Mother. She would make an effort to listen, to understand. And so she did. She did think I was joking at first. But not for long.

It made sense not to pour all this information out on her at the same time. I was giving it in small bits and pieces. I was afraid it'd be too overwhelming. The mere thought of her leaving me because I couldn't keep my stupid secret to myself scared me more than anything. I couldn't predict the future, I could only travel there. I had no idea what the outcome will be. 

I showed her the boathouse a few weeks before our wedding. Oh, she was so excited! There was just so much, she had more questions than I ever imagined anybody asking. Some of these never occurred to me myself. You just get so used to these things, you think everybody sees it that way. And she mostly did. But I still had to do quite a bit of explaining.

I did try to take her with me. I was hesitant at first. Not because I didn't know how to do that, we would figure it out. I didn't have a single clue what it might do to her. What if your body had to have a special gene or something that prevented it from corruption that happens when you travel in time? Or some different grey matter that is helping you stay sane? But she insisted. Again, and again. If I were her, I'd absolutely do the exact same thing. It's just too tempting.

Nothing worked out of it but we didn't give up. Sometimes a so-called "brilliant" idea would come to my head. We were figuring it out together, going through every step, assessing the risks. Still no use.

"I don't even remember what I told you already." That was a lie. It was just too hard to move my tongue at this point. Somehow this night had to be the night I was barely fighting to stay awake.

"Oh, then we have no problem at all!" Zoe was beaming, almost physically irradiating particles of light. "First, never travel into the future. You could accidentally bump into yourself, and it's better to keep such paradoxes to a minimum. Besides, spoilers." She giggled. "Then, never to travel too far back. I think no earlier than the 20th century. It's the language, dialect, manners, bla, bla. That's just common sense. Next, never to seek contact with your past or future self driven by your own personal motives. Even though time travelling itself seems quite impossible, meeting yourself could only cast more paradoxes (potentially). If they haven't happened yet, it doesn't mean they'd never happen. You are, on the other hand, encouraged to do so, when some events make you to do so. This has to be caused by a third-party. Or else, how would you ever know how the thought originated there initially? You might even create an infinity loop – I think you called it an infinity loop? – that you cannot get out of. Yikes. Then, never travel without an ID. You never know when you might need it in your day-to-day life, the chances are – less often than in a completely different time. Oh, oh! Also, when travelling it's recommended not to stay away from your time for longer than a few weeks. Getting older out of sync with your own birthday, people can notice. This is also why using it as a means of transport regularly is a bad idea. Just in case. Then there's a thing about your own relatives..."

She memorized it all perfectly. I swear, sometimes she recited them up to a letter. She would never stop surprising me, my Zoe.

Zoe was still listing the rules out loud but I almost didn't hear any of what she was saying. Her voice was too quite and gentle to work in any other way, rather than the sweetest lullaby.