Flower Girls

Chapter 10 - The Funeral

A week later, we attended Simon's funeral. Everyone was dressed in black, and his parents held hands while they cried. Matthew and Amanda sat with me during the service. My emotions were all over the place. I had loved him so much, and now he wasn't here anymore.

After the service, we went out to look at the flowers that had been sent by people who were unable to make it in person. I made sure I read every single card and savoured every single thought that people had been kind enough to send. The flowers came in many different colours and sizes, and the messages in the cards were beautiful, and helped me get through this very difficult day.

I spotted a bunch of creamy white calla lilies, just like those I bought every week. I wondered who they were from, but when I opened the card, there was no name. Just a poem.

On this day I'll think of you,
On this day I'll cry,
I wish I could have met you,
If just to say goodbye.

I turned the card over so that I could see the back, but there was no name there either.

Why would someone send these beautiful flowers to a funeral of a person they'd never met? And even more bizarre, not say who it was from?

Well, whoever it was, I appreciated it. It was a nice poem and a lovely gesture.

I put the card back where it came from and continued to read the other sentiments.

After the wake, I climbed into bed, tired from a long day. But my head was spinning with thoughts of the time crystals. If time travel was possible, we could do so many good things, like go back and warn Simon about what was happening to him, and then maybe he would survive. But then, if he survived, how would we know to go back in time and warn him?

It was very confusing, and just hypothetical anyway. Nobody had actually ever built a time machine.

But Matthew was still keen to try to build one. And what if he succeeded? What if the wrong people got hold of it? People could re-write history to suit themselves. They could make sure people didn't exist if they wanted. If someone went back in time and had stopped my parents from ever meeting, I would never have been born. The same was true of anyone. That didn't seem right, that someone could have that kind of power.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed wrong. The time crystals were dangerous, and more people could get hurt because of them, whether from exposure, like Simon, or from time travel if Matthew succeeded in his research.

I decided to create a case against time travel and put it to Amanda. Over the couple of weeks, I dedicated most of my time to putting into writing, the reasons why I thought it was unethical to continue the time crystal project.

I presented it to Amanda and the other scientists at the laboratories about a week later. I made it clear that although I was upset about Simon's death, my arguments were logical and not driven by emotion.

Matthew was not happy. He presented the opposite argument, saying that we could push back the boundaries of science. He was excited about the possibility of exploring a different dimension and doing things that nobody had ever done before.

I pointed out that if even one life was lost in the pursuit of science, it was one life too many. With successful time travel came an increased possibility of hurting or even killing others either accidentally or deliberately.

Our colleagues went on to discuss it further and concluded that the time travel project should be shut down.

Although I was obviously pleased that nobody else was likely to get hurt, I also felt bad that Matthew had spent three years of his life on a project that he would now have to abandon. I knew he blamed me for that.

We all went back to work as normal, except Matthew started a new project. He became cold and distant, and our friendship fizzled out to nothing. He didn't even say hello to me if he passed me in the corridor. I knew he hated me for taking away such a huge opportunity for him, but the scientists had all agreed it was too much to risk.

I visited my parents a little more often and they were very supportive after Simon's death, and how much work I had put in to making sure nobody else suffered from the adverse effects of the time crystals.

I just hoped I had done the right thing.