Time

Dr. Sam Holding woke up. The clock next to him said 6:00. He smiled. He was excited about today.

Sam liked Sundays. He usually spent the morning with household chores and reading. Evenings were exclusively with his wife, Emily, and 7-year-old son, Harry.

Today, he was also going to host a get-together for many of his fellow scientists and physics professors. He was looking forward to that as well.

 

He got out of bed and headed to the shower. He made some scrambled eggs which he ate at the table while reading the newspaper. Emily and Harry joined him around 7:30. Emily started with the preparations for the dinner. Sam had asked her to make her famous pasta and pudding for the get-together.

Sam then moved to his study. After going through the newspaper, he moved to the latest scientific journals that he had picked up. He read straight for 3 hours, making notes in his notebook as well. He got up only once, to make some coffee.

After lunch, he slept for some time. Harry played video games while Emily caught up on the novel that she had recently picked up. In the evening, they walked down to the park and spent a few hours there.

Emily and Harry had dinner at 8:30 and then moved to their rooms. Sam had decided to eat with his colleagues. His invitations said 9 PM, so he was expecting them to turn up by 9:15.

 

He sat in his favorite chair in the living room, looking towards the door every few minutes to see who would turn up. He was really excited about this dinner.

Nobody turned up till 9:30. His excitement started going down, was replaced with hunger instead as he looked at the amazing bowl of pasta on the dining table. He decided that if nobody turned up till 10, he would heat some up for himself.

He got up from his chair at exactly 10 and took some pasta in a bowl and placed it in the microwave. He opened the microwave, and he was greeted by the smell of cheese and garlic, it made his mouth water.

He sat back in his chair and started eating. As he took his fifth bite, there was a knock on the door.

Finally!

He looked at the clock, it was 10:13. He placed the bowl on the table next to him and rushed to the door.

It was a young boy, seemed to be in his early 20s. He wasn’t on the invite list.

“Hi. Dr. Holding?” the boy asked.

“Yes. Who are you?” asked Sam.

“May I come in first?” the boy replied.

Sam thought for a few seconds then invited the boy in. The boy came in and sat down on the chair opposite to where Sam was sitting. Sam meanwhile got him a glass of water.

“Who are you? Are you the son of one of my colleagues?” asked Sam, curiously.

“I am sorry Dr. Holding. But I don’t think I can reveal who I am. I am sure you can understand why. But yes, you are on the right track. I did discover the invitation while cleaning out my father’s cupboard and so decided to show up for the party” the boy replied.

Sam looked at the boy carefully. The boy had sharp features and thick hair. He had brown eyes. Whose son could it be? There didn’t seem to be any similarity between the boy and any of his colleagues. Also, he knew that many of his colleagues had children in a similar age group like Harry, so he ruled them out.

“Have you studied physics as well, like your father?” asked Sam.

“Yes. I just finished my PhD a while ago. I am sure that by now you would have figured out the topic of my thesis. I will be happy to discuss the same with you” replied the boy.

Sam nodded. He asked him about his thesis. While the boy didn’t go into complete specifics, he did describe the various experiments that he had done and his observations and conclusions. He also briefly went into the math behind it. Sam heard all of it patiently. He decided to note down the math in his notebook and work on it later.

The boy also briefly touched upon his time at college and his plans for his career ahead. He did ensure to leave out any details that could reveal his identity. They chatted for almost 2 hours when Sam realized that he hadn’t offered him any pasta. The boy politely declined.

Sam insisted that he at least have some pudding, the boy agreed.

He really enjoyed the pudding; he even took a second helping. It was almost 1:00 AM when the boy decided to leave. Sam could have easily stayed up another hour to discuss physics with the boy, but he too realized that it was late, and he had to be at the university by 9:00 the next day.

“This was a pleasure Dr. Holding. I had a great time. I am not sure if we will meet again, though I hope we do” the boy said before leaving.

Sam smiled and waved as the boy left. He still hadn’t figured out who the boy was, who could he be related to in the invite list.

 

He put the bowl of pasta in the fridge. Emily wasn’t going to be happy to see the quantity that was left given the time she had spent preparing it. Well at least she won’t have to cook anything on Monday, pasta for lunch and dinner. He kept the pudding in the fridge too.

As he walked up the stairs to his room, it suddenly struck him. Of course! It was so obvious.

He walked over to Harry’s room. Harry was fast asleep.

Sam smiled and whispered, “I am so proud of you”.

 

The next day Sam got up by 7:30. He quickly got ready and grabbed a toast and left for work. Emily and Harry hadn’t woken up by then.

On his way he stopped by the post box. He decided to post the invitations for the party that he hosted the previous night. The invites mentioned that it was a party for time travelers, but the date and time mentioned were of the previous day. This was the real test to prove that they had cracked time travel if they could travel back in time to attend the party.

He smiled. He was surprised that none of his colleagues had cracked it, but Harry had. He kept the extra invitations back in his bag, Harry will find one of these in the future. As he walked to the university, he wondered what would happen if he didn’t keep any of the invitations and instead threw them away. In the end, he decided not to test the future or the rules of time travel.

End.

 

(This was inspired by a story about Stephen Hawking. He sent out invitations for a Time Travel cocktail party after hosting one. There was also a banner that said ‘Welcome, Time Travelers’. Unfortunately, nobody showed up.)