Lost in Time

by A.G. Riddle

A week later, after finals, Sam was standing in the kitchen at a house party, holding a red cup full of warm beer, staring out past the bar into the family room at a girl from his calculus class. She wore a striped sweater, a shy smile, and shoulder-length blonde hair. Her name was Sarah Reynolds, and that night Sam walked over to her and said, “Hi,” and after that, and until her death, she was the center of his life.

Adeline woke groggy and stiff and sore. She was lying on the floor of the machine that had ripped her life apart. Absolom.

Oh shit

Daniele appeared at the door. Her face was stricken, as if struggling with an emotion she couldn’t voice. Adeline opened her mouth but couldn’t form words. Daniele gripped the Absolom door. “Sorry.” She slammed it shut.

OH SHIT

But under the expiration date, her name was wrong. She expected to see: Anderson Adeline G. Instead, she saw the same letters that were in her name. But they were arranged in a different order. When she read them, she began to shake. Danneros Daniele P.

Adeline stared at the driver’s license. Her license. Daniele’s license. Her license. It was the link between the two halves of her life: the half she’d already lived and the half she had yet to live. Both periods took place over the same stretch of nineteen years. Because she was Daniele.

WHAT

Adeline smiled and shook her head, remembering those lines Daniele had said in the library: Right now, you don’t care about money because you have it. You’ve never had to wonder how you’ll afford your next meal.

Daniele’s words echoed again. You’re assuming your circumstances will never change. They could. They do for a lot of people—in the blink of an eye. One minute your family is rich. The next, you’re carrying every dollar to your name in your pocket, you have no home, and you don’t know where you’re going to sleep that night.

Nathan stooped to read her name tag. “Daniele Danneros. San Andreas Capital. Not familiar, but nice to meet you.” She gripped his hand. “Likewise.” She stared into his eyes. “I’m interested.” “Okay. Wow. Nice. What size investments does your fund typically make?” “I’m not interested in investing.”

Inside, Adeline found two very large diamond earrings. Diamond earrings she hadn’t seen in ten years—since she had sold them at a jewelry store the first day she arrived in the past.

Whaaaat :(

Adeline closed the box and pushed it back across the table. Daniele’s words echoed in her mind: Someone very special gave them to me. Someone who’s no longer in my life.

Since arriving in 2008, Adeline had assumed that the future version of herself had given the stones to her. But that wasn’t the person she was referring to. Nathan was that person.

I think it’s what I’m meant to do at this point in my life.” Nathan shook his head. “Ships in the night. I get off as you get on.” Adeline motioned to the velvet box. “Should—” But she knew what he was going to say: “Keep them. I want you to have them.”

“I need to know, is there anything engraved on these stones? In small letters?” The man put the stone under a microscope and said, without looking up, “No. They’re completely clean. Not even a GIA inscription.”

“I need something engraved on them.” Adeline took a piece of paper and scribbled down the phone number for Shen Photo.

Whewwwww

“Time and causality.” “What do you mean?” “Well, consider the tuning bars—the breakthrough that made Absolom Two possible. You think about the outcome, you go search for that result, and if you find it in the past, you conduct the experiment.”

sometimes life gives you problems you can’t solve today. That’s what tomorrow is for. And that’s why you keep going.”

Three days later, Adeline was standing in a hotel ballroom in San Francisco, watching start-ups pitch investors. It was the same place where she had met Nathan for the first time. He saw her before she found him. He walked up behind her and mumbled, faking a cough, “San Andreas Capital sucks.”

SO CUTE

“I’ve started something new.” “Oh, really?” “And this time, I want you to be part of it.” “What would we be working on?” “It’s sort of like bus 2525. It’s about saving innocent people. And every second counts.” He stared into her eyes, a smile forming on his lips. “I’m interested.”