In the Wrong Space and Time

II

"NOW, THAT IS ONE AMAZING machine," I remark, proud of my work. To be perfectly candid, I never was one for the finer and more finicky aspects of engineering. But somehow, I picked up a book about time travel one day and just fell down the rabbit hole of obsession - researching about the physics and feasibility of travelling in time, obtaining materials and tools... and somehow, the outcome was this fluke of engineering.

Now, it is time to check if the machine is ready for use.

I walk around the gleaming time machine to check the wires fastened to its back. Once ascertaining their security, I come back around to the front and do a preliminary eye scan to check if the iris scanner works properly.

A red bar of light makes vertical and horizontal sweeping motions over my light grey eyes, and then turns green. The screen below the scanner shows the words: WELCOME, CAROLINE.

Now for the voice connection. "Portal, speak to me," I command. To my disappointment, only a faint crackling sound emits from the speakers. I grab the corresponding remote control and punch in a few buttons to secure the Bluetooth connection.

Not the best method of connection, admittedly, but the simplest and most effective, I think to myself.

Another peal of dry crackling ensues. I roll my eyes. "Portal, speak to me," I inject more force into my words. This time, the machine complies. "Hello, Caroline. Which era would you like to visit?"

I stop and mull it over for a while. Best to play it safe first... "Twenty minutes ago." I stuff the remote control into my pocket, just in case.

"Recalibrating... 1100 hours..."

The blue-white portal warps and changes. Once it has settled, I push my hand into the wormhole experimentally.

Delighted to feel a tingling sense of weightlessness envelope my fingers, I grin and retract my hand. Then, I dive headfirst into the portal.

- - -

The portal spits me out onto the garage floor. "Ow," I mutter. I really have to work on that. Don't want a crash landing all the time, I muse.

Just then, the door to my garage slides up slowly, illuminating a figure clad in the same blue jumper and grey leggings I am in. My doppelgänger - or, simply put, my earlier self - takes a step forward, squinting at me in confusion.

She screams.

I scream, too, and fumble in a panic for the remote control making a bulge in my pocket. As I press the large blue button frantically, a portal in a similar shade of glowing powder blue opens in front of me.

I yell, "Portal, take me back to 1120 hours!"

The portal does so and shoves me unceremoniously back into my own time. "God, stop doing that!" I snarl at the machine as I land hard on my knees again.

I stand and dust myself off. "One lesson I've learned: my past self must not see me," I voice my thoughts to no one in particular. "It would cause too much distortion in the continuum of time and space. Well, time to go back and move my past self out of the line of sight of my other past self."

I pause for a while, confused. "Okay, I'll just call them Caroline #1 and Caroline #2." Pushing the button on my remote control, I call out, "Portal, take me back twenty minutes from now!" Jumping into the wormhole, I brace myself for the hard landing. I end up on my feet behind Caroline #1. As the garage door begins to roll up, I glance around the garage wildly to find a hiding place big enough to conceal the two of us.

A small alcove catches my eye just as more sunlight begins to flood in. Think fast, Caroline! I remind myself as I leap into action. I drag Caroline #1 into the shady little corner, causing her to utter a yelp of surprise and alarm. As she begins to struggle, I open another wormhole and push her into it, without specifying the time period of which she was to go to.