If I Could Turn Back Time
“Goddamnit, Cher, will you ever give it a rest?”
Cher looked up from her microscope. She wasn’t sure if Robert was being serious or not. Lately she’d had a hard time recognizing sarcasm—all she could sense was the ridicule her coworkers were giving her over her recent obsession: time travel.
“Oh hi, Robert. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Are your ears glued to that microscope as well?” Robert was the most patient with Cher about her work but it seemed even he was starting to become irritable with her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, resisting the urge to look back in her specialized microscope the science department at the University of Washing developed and furnished for all their employees and interns—which is what Cher technically was: an intern getting ready to graduate from the UW in the spring of 2275. It was an incredible microscope that was so powerful it could see the composition of atoms and it had little arms that would work to pull an atom apart. Sixteen new elements had been added to the periodical table when some of the atoms rearranged themselves after a certain number of protons were removed—all unstable at the moment. That is what Cher’s team was supposed to be working on: stabilizing the newly discovered elements.
“Have you been here all night?” Robert asked, donning his bleached white lab coat.
“What do you mean?” Cher asked looking at her watch. It said it was quarter to five…still. “Hmm, how strange,” she muttered, “I guess my watch stopped working.” She put the device to her ear. It was still ticking and when she looked the second hand was still moving. “I guess it’s working now,” she commented as she shrugged and twisted back to her microscope.
“Or maybe your watch kept going back in time.” Robert chuckled as he sat at his desk, three chairs away from Cher.
Cher looked up at Robert seriously contemplating his mock-theory. “I hadn’t thought about that…”
“I wasn’t being serious, Cher,” Robert said exasperatedly.
“But it makes sense, Robert,” Cher was already starting to talk with her excited voice which was quick and high-pitched. “It might even just prove my theory further! I mean, I’ve been doing nothing but splitting protons from atoms all night and perhaps it’s been sending my watch—”
“What? Back in time? How is that even possible, Cher? I’m sorry I sound so skeptical but you’re wasting a lot of time studying nothing.”
“Then what is it that I see every time a proton is disconnected?”
“I don’t know, Cher. I’ve never seen what you’re talking about.”
“I see a sort of concaved circle that sort of looks like some sort of film. Kinda like a contact.”
“Jesus, Cher, you’re starting to sound like a teenager that only understands theories but doesn’t know how to prove it. Maybe you’re just seeing your own contact as you’re concentrating on the microscope. It happens. Those things can play tricks on the nearsighted.
“I don’t wear contacts and sometimes I see it when I’m not looking through the microscope, when I can get it to stretch far enough. I’ve gotten some the size of a quarter!”
“Perhaps you just have a brain tumor and can do and see phenomenal things, like that guy in the John Travolta movie. Boy, that was a classic I’m glad survived the test of time…”
Cher just glared at Robert. She wasn’t really angry, just hurt that Robert was starting to poke fun at her just like the rest of their colleagues.
“Besides, you don’t have proof. And before you say it that tape you showed wasn’t proof. A flickering screen is not proof. This isn’t a sci-fi movie, Cher, so the flickering doesn’t mean there’s a ghost or something. This is hardcore science that has real theories, real hypotheses, and real proof. Just give it a rest, Cher. We’d really like to have your help with DiCO2P3. It seems like combining the ditasitation composition with the carbon dioxide and three Phosphorus atoms is really going to work. You’re a smart woman, Cher, your mind is just focusing on the wrong thing.”
Cher looked at Robert, trying to conceal the twitch in her cheek that developed when she was hurt. “I always concentrate when I’m working on our projects.”
Robert sighed and turned to his lab work, “Okay, Cher.”
Cher pulled away from her microscope with a stretch and yawn. Robert was still the only other person in the room. She moved to say something to him but changed her mind and went back to work.
“Did you say something, Cher?” Robert asked a moment later without looking up. When she didn’t answer he looked towards her work station. She wasn’t there. Robert just shrugged and went back to work.
* * *
“How are you doing, Major? That was quite a bang.”
Cher groaned in response. She felt she had a concussion though she couldn’t remember falling. “Where am I?” she mumbled, squeezing her eyes even tighter.
“On the floor, Major!” Cher heard a smack and then an “ow” from somewhere.
“Sweetie,” a woman’s voice said, “I need you to open your eyes. I need to check your pupils, you know the drill. Can’t let you fall asleep and never wake up.”
Cher just groaned again pressing her palms into her eyes. “What’s all that commotion?” she said irritably.
The other three people in the room looked at each other worried her fall had caused more internal (or just mental) damage than they had anticipated. “We’re probably under attack again, Major. You know the German’s have their daily attack, remember? It’s been going on for the past four weeks now.” The voice sounded desperate for Cher to remember.
Cher couldn’t comprehend what was being said: Germans? Attacks? Cher struggled to open her eyes. She wanted to see how Robert was managing to keep a straight face as he gave her this BS story about attacks. She also wanted to see how he got Sandra to play along. Sandra was the most serious person Cher had ever met and rarely wasted time in the lab to laugh at jokes let alone participate in one. What Cher saw when she opened her eyes was not the white-tiled ceiling of the lab but a brown canvas tent with dirt falling from it.
“Welcome back, Major!” A bright-faced young boy smiled with relief when their eyes connected.
“Who are you? Where am I? What’s going on here? And why do you keep calling me Major?”
Just then the world around them awakened: the tent shook and more dirt fell on Cher as a thunderous roar momentarily deafened her. Frightened, Cher pulled herself into a ball and covered her head, it sounded like they were getting bombed—whoever “they” were.
“Stay here, Major. Private, don’t let her move from this tent. She’s not ready to help with the casualties that will likely occur from this. Damn Germans.” The woman and one of the men dressed as a soldier ran out of the tent, the soldier with his gun ready.
“It’s okay, Major,” the remaining boy soldier said. Cher noticed he couldn’t be much older than she was but she still saw him as a boy playing dress up. She hadn’t seen soldiers other than on TV and now she had two pranksters dressed in a poor mock-up of World War One veteran outfits.
“What kind of joke is this?” Cher asked once the noise died down significantly. She could still hear yells and she could swear there was some screaming. “Who are you and why are you participating in this joke?”
“Major, there is no joke here. And it breaks my heart you can’t remember who I am.” The young man knelt down and gently pushed strands of Cher’s hair behind her ear. The touch was electrifying to Cher, even if the boy’s fingers were callused. For no explainable reason she felt comforted by this man.
The woman re-entered the tent and the soldier jumped to attention before being told to rest at ease.
“Is everything all right?” Cher asked, feeling for some reason something about her situation was real.
“As well as they can be. We were lucky this time. Only a few minor abrasions and cuts that can be taken care of by the rest of the staff. How are you, Major?”
“I don’t know why you keep calling me Major. I’m just a student at the University of Washington. I must have slipped and hit my head… I must be dreaming, though to be honest, this is the last thing I would have dreamt about.”
“The University of Washington? Honey, we’re a long way from there. Can you at least tell me the year? And who the President is?”
“How did I get far away from the U-dub? And the year is 2274. And America hasn’t had a president since 2132… We are the only competing nation against the British Empire, but…what kind of questions are those? Did I slip in the theatre or something? Who are you people and what’s really going on?”
Cher watched the two in front of her give each other worried looks. “I better get the Lieutenant Colonel,” the young man said before leaving.
“Sweetie, my name is Joanne; I’m a nurse at this camp. We’re in a world war…the year is 1917. Woodrow Wilson is the president of the United States. We’re in France fighting against the Germans. We’re in trenches.
“Normally nurses wouldn’t be in the trench sector or even the support line but we had special permission because of the most recent attack. That’s when you hit your head and we were moved to the reserve line. None of this seems to be making any sense to you, Cher…I mean Major.”
“How do you know my name?”
“You’re the head nurse here.”
Cher couldn’t speak. She couldn’t think to speak. Her? A nurse? The thought was ludicrous. Needles made her shudder and blood made her blanch just at the thought. She shuddered. “What do you mean 1917? That was the First World War—”
“The first? You mean there’s more after this one ends?” The woman stared at Cher. “What are you, Major, some sort of future seer? Or did this just happen when you hit your head? I never knew people dreamt while unconscious…that would be an interesting study…”
“That’s enough, Nurse Valdez. You are excused.” Nurse Valdez stood at attention and saluted. The man that obviously had some sort of power gave a quick motion of his hand before the nurse left the tent. The private that Cher found slightly attractive stood outside the tent door peaking in as often as he dared. “Major Johnson, I hear you had a nasty fall. Do we need to send you to the infirmary? Fly you out of here? You never seemed the type to want to get out of here before. I hear you’re having memory loss—”
“Or you’re all just crazy! Who are you and what’s going on?”
“Don’t make me remind you of your rank, officer, and that you have no right to speak to me with such a tone. You will refer to me as sir, even if you can’t remember everything.”
Cher just watched the man that stood before her.
“Do you understand, Major?”
“Yes, sir,” she muttered.
“I recommend you get some sleep and then we can talk about this insubordination in the morning…if you can remember anything by then.” He ducked out of the tent, saluting to the young man that lingered outside the flap.
Without warning that same young man was suddenly by Cher’s side again, “You know, you can get on the cot,” he motioned to a green thing just behind Cher. “It’s not the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements, but it’s gotta be better than the ground.” He looked like he wanted to say something or do something but whatever it was he was waiting until Cher managed to climb onto the cot. When she was finally settled, still completely confused, the young officer sat next to her. “Can I ask you a question?”
“I suppose,” Cher said, “If I can get your name, at least.”
“Oh,” the boy blushed, “Private John Stansfield, at your service. But you can call me John, like you usually do. I like it when you call me John.” He blushed again before plowing on to his next question. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I was in the lab at the University of Washington working on separating protons from the nucleus and electrons, trying to see how far I could get the bubble to stretch. I got my last one to six inches and then I was here on the ground…” Cher suddenly sat up. “Oh my god…” she whispered. “It can’t be.”
“What, Major? Can’t be what?”
“I did it!” She tried to climb off of the cot but only fell to the ground, which she didn’t let deter her sudden mood. “Oh my god! You say it’s 1917? How peculiar! I never thought I could go so far back in time!”
“Wait, what?” John asked standing as Cher started towards the tent entrance. “Back in time? Time travelling? What kind of nonsense is that?” He asked, grabbing her arm.
“Please let me go, sir.”
“You don’t have to call me sir, I’m a lower rank than you, but I’ve been asked to keep an eye on you and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go outside right now. You sound crazy. How could you be from the future when you’ve been at this camp for seven months, now?”
“I haven’t been here for seven months. I just got here.”
“Well, this new you of forgetting everything just got here. Major Cher Johnson, head nurse of this camp, has been here for seven months, two weeks, and three days. Believe me, I’ve been counting.”
“That can’t be.” Cher said. I’ve been a student at the University of Washington for three years and I’m working on my internship in their science lab for the past four months. I developed a theory of time warps when we started working on separating protons from neutrons and I’m obviously right… The only issue is I don’t know how to get back right now…” Cher must have lost some color in her face because John suddenly put his arms around her for support.
“You need to sit down, Major.” John led Cher to the cot where she eventually relaxed and soon fell asleep.
Cher woke up still feeling tired. She felt as if she hadn’t slept in forever and last night felt like four minutes of sleep. She couldn’t figure out why the lights were so bright and why there were voices murmuring around her. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“She’s stirring.” Cher heard which caused her to instantly wake up. She was in the lab and everyone was watching her.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Did I fall asleep in the break room again? Why is everyone staring at me like that?”
Robert broke through the crowd of scientists. “Cher, honey, what happened?”
“What do you mean?” She was just as confused as she was during her dream. “I must have fallen asleep in the lab. I dreamt about the strangest thing, though. I dreamt that I was in the trenches of World War One way back in 1917… Why are you all looking at me like that?”
“Is that where the cot came from?”
Cher looked at what she was lying on and sure enough it was the cot she fell asleep on. “Oh my…it wasn’t a dream?”
Robert seemed to be shaking his head. “How did you get back? You were gone and then suddenly you were there, sleeping on the cot. You’ve only been back about five minutes but if I hadn’t seen you reappear from nothing in front of my very own eyes I would have never believed it. We all saw it…You just materialized.”
“Does that mean I really went back in time?”
“I think it does, Cher, I really think it does.”