“It all started
back in May of 2018.” Van Hause begins. “I was twenty years old at the time
with no prospects of a future. No job and no money. I couldn't even afford the
tuition to go to a Technical School to learn a trade.”
“I was walking from
store to store, in what was once called a strip mall, filling out applications
and leaving resumes at each one. Out of the blue I received a cell phone call
from my soon to be wife, Natalie. My High School sweetheart.”
Jonas looks around
and ponders how most of the Trustees are younger than he is, but still says,
“Most of you remember cell phones I'm sure.”
Continuing his
narrative, Van Hause articulates, “She wanted to tell me something that was
very important to her, and yet, she was tentative about saying it.”
“She relented to my
pressure though and told me; I have wonderful news for you. I'm calling to let
you know that I'm pregnant.”
“That was my only
child, my son Allan she was talking about.”
“I was so happy hearing the news, that I
remember thinking to myself, things were going to turn around for me now.”
Jonas pauses his
story so he can smile as he reminiscences about those days with his wife and
child.
“With the elation
of having a kid overwhelming my thoughts, right then and there I asked Natalie
to marry me. Of course, as all of you know, she said yes!”
“What has this to
do with your proof!” Demanded an outraged Mr. Chang. “Is your proof to bore us
to death?”
Before the Chairman
can answer, his friend stands up, takes a few steps towards Chang in anger and
shouts, “You damn conniving puppet of Trustee Paley. One more interruption by
you and I'll come over to your chair and show you how effective a punch in the
mouth can still be in this day and age!”
“Thank you Peter.”
Says a smiling Van Hause. “I don't believe that will be necessary, but let’s
keep our options open just in case.”
The Chairman
continues with his narrative by saying, “At first I was so, so happy about
becoming a father and husband, that I thought of nothing else. But the more I
did think about things, the more I began to panic! How was I supposed to take
care of a wife and child with no future before me?”
Mr. Van Hause
didn't expect or wait for someone to answer. “Then something happened that sent
me on the road to riches!”
“I was crossing a
street in the busiest part of a city once called San Bernardino, when a drunk
driver came swerving over to run me down. A man in his early twenties jumps out
of thin air and rescues me from getting plowed over by a black SUV.”
Charles Paley
thought about interrupting at this juncture, but saw Peter Blakely from the
corner of his eyes watching him. So he stays silent.
“To say, at the very
least, that I was shaken by the experience, is an understatement. I looked up
and saw the SUV speeding down the street, never stopping to see if I was OK. I
never did see the driver or get the license plate number either. After calming
down, I thought about thanking my savior, but he was already half a block away
running in the same direction as the car which almost hit me. After that I
thought that was the end of it.”
“I was wrong. Three
years later almost in the exact same spot where that car tried to run me over, the
same man who came out of nowhere to save me, is now confronting me, saying how
this is all wrong. He has to make things right. He kept saying that he had
changed time and that he has to change it back!”
“Lucky for me, I
was in pretty good shape back then. Probably from all the walking I was doing
from being unemployed for three years while taking laborious odd jobs to pay
the bills.”
“He lunged at me
with a knife! Thankfully I was able to subdue him, without getting hurt, while
another person passing by called the Police.”
Jonas takes a sip
of water, smiling to himself, before he says, “It wasn't long afterwards, when
he was in custody, that he starts spouting outlandish statements of how he is
from the future, that I wasn't supposed to be alive, and that the only way to
set things straight was to kill me. Of course at his bail hearing the Judge
refused to set a bond amount so he could be held and evaluated by a county
psychologist! He never left that facility. In fact, he is alive today and still
housed at the old San Bernardino Psychiatric Hospital for the Criminally
Insane."
Whispers can be
overheard from the far reaches of the Board Room and teleconference messages
are being relayed by implants from brain to brain, as the Chairman's opponents
try to block him from listening in.
“Yes, the same
Hospital I donated a million gold units to over the years. That money has
bought me his continued captivity even when he was evaluated as sane!”
Now all the
Trustees are on the attack with their private nano-armies, except for Peter.
The old man has admitted to a criminal act of keeping a person hostage for his
own benefit. They all start searching their law data base on kidnapping and
hostage taking, hoping to find how these facts can take down Van Hause in a
Court of Law!
“It wasn't until I
was asked by his attending Psychologist, who I found out later wanted to write
a paper on his patient, that I had my first conversation with Nestor Biryani.”
“I recall the
initial title to the Psychologist's paper; ‘The implication of the confused
mind when that person saves someone, then is obsessed on killing the person he
saved’.”
“It was never
published though, as I became quick friends with the Political forces
controlling the hospital. Once, I started donating those large amounts of
money.”
“Before all that happened,
the Psychologist wanted to see how Mr. Biryani would react if I came in, talked
to him, and showed him that I wasn't the monster he imagined I was. But a real
human being!”
“I don't know what
it was, but after talking to him, I knew Nestor was telling me the truth!"
Outside the Board
Room, the attacks intensify. Inside, only moans, groans, and whispers, are
heard from his opponents. Which is everyone now except for Van Hause’s two friends.
“I got the
opportunity to ask him, when the Psychologist suggested I speak to Nestor
alone; Why should I die? I have a wonderful wife, a beautiful child, and I
deserve the right to watch him grow up!”
“Then with a lot of
anger, the questions I had for him came pouring out!”
“What kind of
person would believe some nut off the street saying my death would make the
World a better place? A better place for whom? Surely not my son's, nor my
wife's! Surely not for me! Then, why should I die?”
“What person in
their right mind would want to commit suicide, not having lived a life of his
own, before believing things would change for the better? Think of all the life
experiences I would miss out on not being here. Think of all the joy of seeing
my boy become a father of his own. Think how devastating my death would be to
my wife! Why should I die then?”
“I remember
grabbing him by the neck collar, when I started asking; What would be so damn
different if I wasn't here? Would there be universal peace the next day across
the globe? Would violence, torture, and killings from one human being towards
another cease to exist? Would prejudice stop? Would hatred? Would greed? Would
crime?”
“I if didn't exist
today, would all the warfare going on right now stop? Would all the future
confrontations between Nations be settled by peaceful negotiations?”
“No,” was all he
said.”
“I almost screamed
at him then. Why should I die?"
“After calming
down, I asked him; What special event happened in the year twenty-twenty-two
that was changed since I'm alive?”
“I knew I had
tricked him into thinking that the year 2022 had passed by because he thought
about it for a while and then said; All I can think of is, United States Soccer
Team won the Men's World Cup!”
“I had a hearty
laugh at that! Do you remember the old United States? We were not very good at
Soccer and it wasn't a very popular sport in the country either!”
“When the time came
though, I did bet all the money I had, seven hundred fifty dollars, on a fifty
to one chance that the U.S. Soccer team would win it all!”
With Jonas smiling
he tells everyone, “I knew, after collecting my winnings, that I had become
rich. I realized what a gold mine I had in Nestor. That I could know the
future!”
“I knew what I had
to do. I convinced the Psychologist to let me talk with Mr. Biryani once a
week. He could use my sessions with Nestor and any information we talked about
in his paper. He was planning on publishing it in, The Psychiatric Journal of
Modern Medicine. He thought he would become famous, but I became wealthy
faster!”
“Nestor on the
other hand, at first thought he was convincing me that my death would change
things. Back to what he thought would be normal events. Not understanding that
the cause and effect he set in motion when he saved my life did not change our
world universally all at once. But started a sequence of events from a fixed
point in time, expanding from there in a cone shape. Until we have the world we
live in today!”
Now the
interruption comes from his friend. “He didn't understand he was feeding you
future events?”
“No my friend.” Jonas
answers. “He didn't understand that at all. Even though he did alter the way
some future events were going to come out, most of the things that we talked
about in our sessions still happened! Most of the time he talked in grandiose
terms of beautiful things to come, which he now believed would not happen
because I was alive!"
“Then why couldn't
you have prevented the destruction of five of the most populated cities of the
World?” Questions Peter.
“All the horrible
future events came as an afterthought to him. He would say things like; Maybe
it is good that I saved your life. In my time line, on this coming Friday,
North Korean terrorists would have simultaneously set off small Nuclear devices
in New York, Beijing, Moscow, Paris, and London if I hadn't changed the future.
He never warned me about devastating events like that until it was much too
late!”
“Did you ever ask
him?” Requests Peter.
“Of course I asked
him! On more than one occasion too! If something terrible was going to happen
soon, he would never mention it until it was much too late!”
“He only wanted to
talk about events that were in his mind, important, beautiful, and for the
betterment of mankind. I imagine he thought, this was the only way to convince
me that my death was important.”
“Did this Mr. Biryani
ever realize over time what kind of information he was feeding you?” Asks
Peter. “Did he ever try to deceive you?”
“Yes he did. Later
on I had to learn how to trade information for information, trade the kind of
food he liked for information, anything he wanted but his freedom for
information.”
“What do you mean
exactly?” Asks Peter. A little confused on why this Biryani fellow would keep
on talking all those years. “Anything he wanted except for his freedom. What
other leverage did you possess over him?”
“I told him, I knew
who his Father and Mother were, where they live, and how easily it would be to
have one of them disappear before he was born! After that, how easy it would be
to have him killed and that this version of him would simply disappear!”
That was it. The
final straw, thought Chang. He tries to communicate with Charles Paley but he
is blocked from his cohort while Paley talks out loud to Van Hause!
“Why would he go
back in time to save your life?” Asks Mr. Paley calmly. “It is painfully obvious
that you have treated this poor fellow like dirt since his captivity. Less than
dirt I would say. Wouldn't he have known this ahead of time?”
Jonas looks to Mr.
Paley, surprised by his calmness, wondering if he already believes him. Then
answers, “He wasn't there to save my life per se. He wanted to save his
Grandfather from running me over, fleeing the scene of an accident, and
eventually going to jail for Vehicle Manslaughter. He told me it started a
spiral of violence within the family after his Grandfather lost his job by
going to jail. The Grandfather blamed the family for all of his problems.” He
pauses here for a moment, surprised how intently Mr. Paley seems to be
listening.
Continuing, Van
Hause says, “Did you ever hear of the cycle of violence, from one generation to
the next generation in a family? Where one or more Parent is violent and
abusive against their offspring. Then, when those offspring grow up and marry,
having children of their own, they abuse their own children. And so on.”
“Nestor Biryani
believed, if he could stop his Grandfather from running me over while in a
drunken stupor, his Grandfather wouldn't be as abusive to his son, Nestor's
Father. Which in turn would stop Nestor's Father from being abusive to him and
his Mother.”
“Actually, Nestor's
Mother was beaten to death by his Father in a horrible drunken rage when Nestor
was about ten years old. He actually wanted to save his Mother from this fate.”
“To answer your
second question, right now as we speak, a young twenty-one-year-old Nestor is
preparing himself to go back in time from the Tempus Project's Time Machine
this company has already developed, without the knowledge that he has already
change the time line!”
“Who sent him back
the first time then if you were not alive?” Peter asks.
“My son.” Jonas
says sadly. “In the time line that Nestor speaks of, my wife and my son don't
die in a two car accident on a snowy mountain road!”
A strange look
crosses Jonas Van Hause's face.
“I'm not sure if
you would call that a paradox, but my family would grow old, my son would get
married, and he would have children of his own if I die at the hands of
Nestor's Grandfather while he was drunk! Because I lived, they died from a
different auto accident!”
“That's all very
interesting.” Chimes in Mr. Chang, then angrily adds, “But I doubt anyone here
is actually believing these prevaricating statements your trying to hand us.
All you're trying to do is stop us from removing you as C.E.O. with a bunch of
lies! You're trying to stop us from attacking your Red Nano-Guards! You're
trying to stop us by distracting our attack with this outlandish story so you
can have the upper hand and destroy us all!”
This is,
The End Of Chapter 5,
The Rewrite,
By,
Jim Hauenstein,
And,
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
- Robert A. Heinlein -
- Robert A. Heinlein -
This is a Story I wrote and I am sticking to it!
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