Jump

Everybody said what a nice chap he was.

When the accident occurred, his efforts to put things right on his return were much appreciated. After all, it would be an expensive venture; not that he couldn’t afford it. The girl’s parents were especially grateful. The truth of the matter was that as soon as they had arrived in the holiday apartment she started bitching. This wasn’t right and she wanted more of this and why couldn’t he have done better with that? The whining went on and on. The accident itself was very simple.

They’d been swimming the day it happened. Quite unexpectedly, from the beach there was a shout. A young boy stood, waving his arms. He wondered whether the lad was trying to tell them something. Apparently not. Moments later a man who was closer to the boy, floating in the shallows, stood up and waved back. The man started to wade his way back to shore. With this distraction over, he looked back, and she was gone!

Naturally, life guards were called out and the search went on all day, but the sudden rip in the tide had taken her. It had pulled her out to sea with a sudden power that even she couldn’t fight. Somebody had brought him a comfortable beach chair, where he sat watching the search teams do their work. He couldn’t have asked for more. Her body was found washed up further down the coast on the following day.

When he got back, the main problem was not finding what he wanted on the internet. What he did find was the Time Jump Corporation. This would allow him to go back in time. It was new technology and the company hadn’t been operating very long. They could not guarantee the exact time a person could be returned to. In discussions with her parents, he explained that he wanted to go back there, to the holiday apartment where they stayed. More precisely, back to that moment when they ran down the beach holding hands and went crashing into the waves. Maybe he could change what happened. It being so new, nobody could say whether or not this was possible. He explained that the exact time of return wasn’t accurate. He was told it would be plus or minus a few minutes, and his total jump window would be around half an hour. Anyway, he wanted to try it and using the services of the corporation was the only way he could do it.

On the day of the time jump he was instantly transported back. When he opened his eyes he was sitting in the chair, watching the search teams do their work. He was constantly checking the time. Then, his moment came. Convinced that no one was paying any attention to him, he stood up and looked for a label. He found it and settled back in the chair. It was wonderfully comfortable. Probably the most luxurious chair he had ever sat in. It was no wonder he hadn’t been able to track down the manufacturer on the net. It was a small, local family business. They were virtually hand made in a small workshop in the village. He had what he came for.

Everybody said what a nice chap he was; in truth, he was a bit of a rotter.