Just A Second

A discovery that almost came too late.

“Where have you been?” Eleanor Houston gasped at the sight of her old friend. “You look terrible. If you were sick, why didn’t you let me know? I’ve been so worried. I’m really mad at you. Explain yourself.” Eleanor burst into tears.

“I have to show you,” Thadeus Monk could barely stand. His hands shook as they clutched at the closest wall.

“This better be good.” Eleanor allowed his hands to move to her shoulders for support. “What is that scar across your cheek?”

Thadeus’ hand twitched as he touched it. “What is today? Have I got it right? This is New Year's Eve?”

Eleanor caught him as he stumbled against her. Worry lines on her face replaced the tense tightness closing her mouth. “2025. Ten minutes to midnight. No, you haven’t lost your mind. I’m getting you to a doctor.”

“There’s no time. I’ve no energy left. I need to rest. Take my watch. Give me fifteen minutes. Go back to the party. At midnight I will explain everything.” The haunted look on Thadeus’ face left no room for denial.

“I’ll go back and make my excuses, then I’m coming to get you medical attention. Please sit and catch your breath.” Eleanor accepted the old fashioned looking time piece. She watched as her childhood friend deposited himself in a weary sigh upon a lonely looking bus street bench.

The New Years eve party was in full swing. The excitement around her was electric. The minutes were being counted down in almost a deafening yell. “Nine, eight, seven, six.”

She still held the watch in her hand, almost dropping it as it began buzzing a low pitched alarm. “Where is our host? Where’s Alvin?” Eleanor’s voice was lost in the noise. “Five, four, three, two, one.”

The world seemed to shift. Eleanor fought the dizziness, closing her eyes, shaking her head, She opened them to a singular vision wrought from her childhood. “What a time to be imagining this.”

“Happy 2000th New Year, daughter, mine. Looks like the Millennium Computer Bug was a farce. Mine is working without a charm.” The broad shouldered back of the man standing before her turned, revealing her father. His desktop computer glared at her from behind him. “You look so surprised.”

The mirror on the wall behind the computer revealed a more intimate surprise. Eleanor stared back at her younger self, twenty six years old instead of her nearly forty. “Where’s Mom?”

“Helping in the kitchen. Nice of the Andersons to throw this gig. Marty didn’t even throw a fuss about hooking up my computer. He knows I’m such a geek.”

Eleanor’s mom had died of cancer in 2024 on Christmas Day. It confirmed the impossible reality that some kind of time warp had been triggered by Thadeaus’ watch. She stared down at it in amazement. It was the only thing around her that looked unshaped by where she was. “So it’s true.”

“What, dear? I need to go help your mother. That’s her calling me. You mingle and get acquainted with the other guests. Coming!” Eleanor’s dad turned without another word and left.

“It’s true. The wild theory that there was embedded bad code in the Y2K bug that computer scientists thought would bring down the modern world. What you said sounded like gibberish. When you left so suddenly I thought you might have gone mad. Oh, Thadeus, what do you want me to do?”

She walked over to the computer and saw it was hooked up to the neighbor’s phone modem. When she set the watch on the table, it flipped open revealing a small folded up note. “A dark website, and some code. Thadeus! You narrowed it down to this? So close. Why didn’t you fix the problem yourself?”

Eleanor leaned over the keyboard, tapping away as quickly as her fingers would allow. It only took a minute to reach the website and answer the backdoor question with the note’s code. “Nothing happened! How will I know if it worked?”

“You get lost searching for your favorite game? What’s this?” Her father was back with a plate full of cookies.

“Sorry, Dad. Got lost. Mind if I reboot?” Without waiting for an answer, Eleanor shut the computer down.

“Good idea. Best leave it off. Never know who might get on and do something weird. Your mother asked me to come and get you.

“The watch!” Eleanor’s hand barely slid it into her palm as her father ushered her off. She felt it vibrate its warning and begin to buzz.

It took the count of ten to enter the kitchen door. “Hello, dear. Give me a hug,” Eleanor’s mother took her into a motherly embrace. “Want. . . “

Eleanor held on as the dizziness took hold of her again. It was so good to feel her mother’s arms around her. She didn’t want to go.

Her mother’s embrace faded, replaced by different arms, those of Thadeus Monk’s. “I’ve got you. Look.” He held up his cell phone. “You saved the world. The Internet hasn’t gone down.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Eleanor gasped. “I didn’t believe you. I still partially don’t. If I hadn’t seen my own mother alive, it would be impossible to think you were right.”

Thadeus opened her closed fist to take back his watch. “Thank God AI discovered time travel. The dark web site you opened enabled the AI in the watch to embed itself through the Blue Tooth set up your father had. I got to know him but he got suspicious I was up to something, did this, and threw me out. ”

Thadeus touched the scar on his cheek. “I had to recalibrate the watch so nothing would happen to you. I only had so much time and energy. I’m exhausted. Can I answer your questions after a year or two of sleep and rest?”

“Snooze time. Just a second.”

Eleanor watched as Thadeus adjusted the dials on his watch, looked faint, and miraculously disappeared.