Entangled in Time

An unexpected encounter on the bus

A woman, wearing a red summer dress, got on the bus at the academy and sat down across from me. She was about my age, had short brown hair and a beautiful face.

She was looking at me for a while then suddenly asked: “Are you from Earth?” I just realized I was wearing a T-shirt from a Neil Young concert where they were giving away T-shirts with the text ‘Protect’ to women and with the text ‘Earth’ to men.

“No, I just visited Earth a while ago and bought this T-shirt.”

“So, that’s why you looked familiar. I’m from the planet Earth.” she said.

I did not expect the penny to drop that fast, maybe too fast. I decided to play along if she continues, but she changed the subject.

“You are George, aren’t you? Don't you know me?” she asked looking out of the window.

When she realized that I didn't recognize her, she took something like a calendar from her bag. She turned a few pages and showed it to me: “Look! I knew we would meet today.”

There was a single sentence at that date: “Meet George on the bus!”

“Don’t fool me! This is the calendar of my ex-girlfriend, Julie. I know her handwriting. How did you get hold of it?”

“OK, you won.” she said. “I’m Stella, a friend of hers. Julie is still sleeping at my place. I assume yesterday evening we drank more than we should have.”

“I hope she’s alright. She doesn’t drink much. What was the occasion?” I asked as we got off the bus.

“We ran into each other by accident. We hadn’t seen each other for ages.”

“That would explain why I never heard of you. Why did you come to see me?”

She looked surprised. “I wanted to tell you that she cannot come.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time and we’ve broken up anyway, but thanks. I’ve got to go now. I have a lecture. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

While walking towards the university, I was wondering: “How did she know I was taking that bus?” Maybe she knew when I had lecture, but still. It was all so mysterious. It was also a bit disconcerting.

After my lecture, I called Julie. She was surprised.

“Yes, I do know Stella.” she said. “But I haven’t seen her recently. We met last year and it’s true, we drank too much, but as I said that was a year ago.”

As she said this, I suddenly remembered the calendar that Stella showed me. It was last year’s calendar and the day wasn’t correct either. It was a Tuesday and not a Thursday.

“I remember now!” I told her. “We were to meet on the bus, but you never came and you made up a story about a long-lost friend or at least that’s what I thought.”

“That’s it!” she exclaimed. “You see? I didn’t lie to you. We met completely unexpectedly a year ago in front of my house.”

That made sense somehow, but I couldn’t find a logical explanation why it took a year for Stella to deliver the message.

A few hours later it was my turn to be surprised. I caught sight of Stella at the bus stop, looking through me as if we had never met before. She wore another dress, but it was her. There was no doubt about it.

“Hi Stella! Don't you recognize me?”

She looked perplexed. “Do I know you?”

“We met a few hours ago. You are an old friend of my ex-girlfriend, Julie Taylor.” I told her.

“Wait a minute! Yes, that's correct, but we haven't seen each other for a long time. I don't even know where she lives now.”

It surprised me because a few hours earlier she remembered her quite well and the evening they spent celebrating their reunion.

“Actually, she lives quite near. Third building on the right along this street.”

“There must be something wrong with her.” I thought. “But her memories might come back if they meet.” We made small talk for some more minutes and said goodbye. I got on the bus and watched her walking towards Julie's house, but lost sight of her for a few seconds.

As the bus turned the corner, I caught sight of her again running into Julie as she exited her apartment block. To my surprise, Stella wore the red dress that she was wearing the first time I saw her that day.

While I watched them falling into each other's arms like long-lost friends do, I remembered the conclusion from my lecture about glitches in the space-time continuum earlier that day that most of my students found unimaginable: “I assume most of us experience a time jump at least once in our life, but we simply fail to notice it.”

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