Why?

- Everyone

The meeting today was... strange. Stranger than usual. Mr Tuniak seemed distracted, as if his thoughts were somewhere far away. The difference was subtle and if this had been our first meeting I probably wouldn't have noticed it. But several times I had the feeling that he wanted to say something, but at the last moment decided differently and said something else. This happened several times until in the end...

But, as usual, it's probably best to tell things in the order they happened: As I entered his office today, the first thing he asked was if I was feeling better today. Nothing unusual there. But then he continued by asking if I had any questions I wanted to ask him.

During our talks I have been making notes. Not only about the things he was talking about, but also about things I did not understand; like when he mentions someone's name without explaining who that person was. Most of these questions Mr Tuniak answered either at the same day or during one of our meetings that followed. Remarks I hadn't understood at first, suddenly became clear. But not all questions were answered this way. I still have a list of things I do not understand. And since Mr Tuniak apparently hadn't prepared anything for today, it seemed like a good opportunity to cross several of these questions off the list.

Why... did you not ask an actual author to write your biography?

“I did. I wanted a writer to do what you are doing right now. I asked a good friend of mine to do it, Sam Clemens. You probably know him better as Mark Twain.”

The ship was slowly swimming upstream on the Mississippi. The vegetation on both banks – mostly bushes, but there were a few trees as well – was showing signs of a recent flood.

On board the ship tables had been set up and a violin quartet played music. The passengers were walking on deck, playing cards at the tables, talking, laughing; in short: everybody had a good time.

Two men, Mark Twain and Alexander Tuniak, were sitting at one of the tables. Twain was smoking a cigar and had his eyes closed. As the ship started turning to starboard, he opened them in surprise.

“There was a time when I could have navigated the whole river without looking even once out of the window”, Twain said. “When I was younger...” He looked at his companion. “You were younger too. Quite recently... last week, if I remember correctly.”

“Last week? It has been several years for me”, Alexander replied. “But I recall you telling me that you would be travelling to New York. That's now, right?”

Twain smiled and nodded. “You have a reason for asking, don't you?”

“Yes, I want to ask a favour of you.” Alexander took a carte de visit from his jacket pocket and handed it to Twain. The writer raised his white eyebrows as he saw the photo on the front. It showed a young woman, who was wearing trousers instead of a dress. “She is a good friend of mine and she would like to meet Nikola Tesla. She is also coming to New York, next month in fact, I was hoping you could introduce her.”

“You do know that Nikola and women... don't usually go well together?”, Twain asked.

“She is different.”

“I can see that. But I will introduce her. It was planning on seeing Nikola anyway.”

“And I have another question as well. Another... favour.”

“Your biography.”

Alexander looked surprised at Twain. He knew that he had made several remarks in the past about possible writing down everything he had done and seen, but he knew of no reason why the writer would have guessed so quickly that this was the main reason for his coming today.

“And you want me to write it, is that it?”, Twain asked. “Why?”

“Because everyone would think it an honour if you would write his biography”, Alexander said. “And because you have written A Yankee in King Arthur's Court a few years ago. Another story about a time traveller would be nothing unusual for you.”

Twain thought about it for some time, but in the end he shook his head. “I'm sorry, but I have to decline”, he said. “And I will tell you why: You don't want an old man whose life is coming to an end writing your biography.”

“I don't? And why do you think your life is nearing its end?”

“Haley's comet is coming near Earth again. It will be the last thing I will see before I die”, Twain explained with absolute conviction in his voice. “And you don't want an author for you biography either, you want a journalist. You have seen and done enough unbelievable things, you don't need a writer to make it all even more unbelievable. And he should be young, because then he will still have to prove himself and his work. He will work harder. He will be more exact. If you want my advice: Look for someone who has just finished his studies or is close to finishing them.”

Why... me?

“If you are a time traveller it sometime happens that you catch a glimpse of your own future. I usually try to avoid moments like that, but I haven't always been successful. From your point of view, we first met at the beginning of this year, when you entered this office and I gave you this job. But from my point of view this was actually our second meeting. The first time I saw you was when you came to our family meeting and took a picture of my mothers and me. I did not ask you who you were or why you were there then. But when – a lot later from my point of view – you came to introduce yourself and trying to get this job, I knew why you had come to our meeting. That's why I didn't have to ask you any questions. From my point of view, I already knew that you would be getting this job.”

Why... did Feodor call you “Born, because you lived”?

“Because my life is dependent on one point in history: The discovery of time travel by my mothers. But why did no one else discover Juliette's writings before them? Because Juliette had hidden them in a place where no one would. Juliette hid them, knowing for sure that it would take over a hundred years before someone would come and look at these old boxes in the house, where my mothers found them. Juliette wanted them to find her formulas, because she knew for sure that they would not misuse them. But she only knew that, because – from her point of view – my mothers had already discovered them and built the time machine. They had built it, before they had even met. But Juliette had to make sure that my mothers would find her younger self, so that she would know about all that and hide her notes accordingly... instead of just destroying them. That's why she sent a part of them to the university where I was working. It was no mistake that her notes were delivered to the office, where I was working. This way, my mothers and I would be able to find Juliette. Which of course means: If I hadn't lived, my mothers would have never found the plans for the time machine.”

The last answer already pointed in a certain (and in some way, obvious) direction, which is why the next question was inevitable. But I hesitated before asking it. It was a question I was not sure if I really wanted to know the answer to.

Why... did you never use the time machine to change history?

“Who said, I never did?”

Mr Tuniak was silent for a few minutes. Finally he said: “The last few weeks I have tried to avoid this topic. I did not want to talk about it. That's why I took you to the Gemini station and why I visited Feodor with your friend. The next... part of my life is something I am not proud of and sometimes I want to forget about it. I want to forget about what I did. I even thought about not mentioning it at all to you. That's why I made those... trips in the last weeks. I used every opportunity to avoid talking about it. But then... If I am not ready to tell the truth, the whole truth, there is no point in any of this, is there?”

“How was London?”, Alice asked, as Alexander returned to the Villa Atterton. It was already past midnight. Alexander had had an assignment to take pictures during an important event and had spent the whole day in the city.

“Loud and wild, as usual”, Alexander said. “Where is everybody?”

“Sleeping, I guess.” Alice was lying on the sofa in front of the fireplace. The small fire was emitting just enough light so that one could move in the room without bumping into the furniture. Music was coming quietly from speakers. Alice played on of her favourite records. “What did you see?”

“They installed a new body scanner at the Hammersmith Hospital”, Alexander told her enthusiastically. “It's the first of its kind, really high tech. But you will see: In a few years every hospital will have one.”

“Does it help the doctors a lot?”

“Absolutely.”

“Pity then, that they didn't invent something like it earlier.”

Alexander had sat himself on the floor, looking towards the flames, but now he turned around. “What do you mean?”

Alice just shrugged with her shoulders. “I was just thinking about how many lives could have been saved if someone had invented a machine like that earlier.”

“Yeah, probably... very probable, I guess.”

“And it doesn't bother you?” Suddenly Alice didn't seem to be tired any more, but completely awake. “You do have the ability to change that.”

Alexander was watching her silently for a moment, before he answered: “I could also make sure that penicillin got discovered a lot earlier. That would help a lot of people as well. But at the same time it would also mean that Africa would get colonized and exploited a lot earlier with even more disastrous consequences.”

“Yes, if only there was a way to travel into the future to check if things work out all right or not. If only someone could observe what changes in the past would cause in the future. No wait: you can do this...”

Alexander turned back to the fire again.

Alice stood up from the sofa and turned off the music. She said: “Do you know that when most people are young, they promise themselves that they will change the world when they grow up? They say, wait 'till I'm grown, I will show everyone how things should be done. But only very few actually do change the world. Do you know why?”

Alexander didn't want to continue this discussion, but when Alice did not continue, he finally gave in and said: “Why?”

“Because they don't have the opportunity to. The world's too big for that. But you have the possibility. You have a time machine! But the only thing you do with it is... shoot some nice pictures. Why?”

And without waiting for a reply, she left the room.

NEXT WEEK:

There is no problem with changing the course of history – the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw.