TT MORE CONFESSIONS

MORE CONFESSIONS OF A TIME TRAVELER

Yeah, This is Roger Born, but not the Roger Born you are used to. Call me Roger1.

I can log onto this website and publish my blog, simply because I know how, or rather, I remember how to do it, and that I was once a writer here, long ago. The regular RB here has no clue what is going on, and I want it to remain that way. Oh, sure, he can read this, and maybe protest, but, so what? He is me, and I am him, but just not from the same time. He’d never believe this is not some fiction, and there is nothing he can do about it, regardless. No, he will not believe any of this, no matter what. Of that, I am confident.

Yeah, I’m the time traveler.

Actually, I am one of RB that got stranded somewhen. But after a long time, and with some strange help, I figured out how to get back home. Trouble was, I found I was already home here and now, and in fact, I’d never left.

Some time after I had gotten stranded, a future version of myself here erased time travel from my (our) past, and thus the other RB never left home. (Yeah, it gets confusing, doesn’t it?)

Anyway, once I got back home, there was trouble. I walked in on myself, and quickly retreated. My former (future?) self never looked up from his keyboard, and, like always, never had his hearing aid on while home alone. So he never saw or heard me tramping through our house. My faithful dog, Ty, a black Lab, never barked at me when I came in the house. Why would he? He’s my dog. I walked into my study, and found another RB at my keyboard. Shock!

I’m very, very glad not to have run into myself. That is the closest I’ve ever come to experiencing something so horrible, so earth-shattering. I sweated and shook afterwards, out of breath a block down the road, hiding in some shrubs.

I had to figure out what to do. Was I stuck here? My mind raced. This was my home, my life. How could any other RB be living it? (And no, I never once considered bumping him off and taking his place, sorry.)

This was difficult. I had my house key and the car key, so all I had to do was wait until my other self left the house, so I could go in and get what I needed done – a change of clothes, a hot shower and a quick meal. I was so concerned that the other RB would come home too soon, that I took food from the fridge and dumped it into a sack and left out the side door, looking for my car to pull up. I missed myself by minutes.

It took me a day or two to figure out that I needed to get my own place and my own set of wheels. Taking my car that night, when I knew the other RB was asleep, I went to my ATM and got cash out, all the way into Barstow. There was a bump there too. I had to get my iPhone out and move money from my savings, in order to use the ATM at all. Then I had to bring the car back to Silver Lakes, Bummer. I had to break into some RV to get some sleep.

Its been a week now, since I got back. Fleabag motel in Barstow. No wheels yet. Got to find cash that is not from (my) the other RB’s bank account. Too hard to cover my tracks. Also, I need to leave these parts, and go somewhere where no one knows me. Too hard to explain if I meet someone on the street, what I’m doing in Barstow and not Silver Lakes.

My only salvation is that I’ve got my own portal generator, so I can still go elsewhen.

Getting cash. Trouble is, lottery numbers never work. Even if I only go a few minutes into the past. Somehow, the numbers are different. Bookies are no good either. Try predicting a score on any game or event. They are a great way to throw your money away, because the past never changes and whatever the future is, it is not your own.

A job is out of the question. Heart attack in 2001. Bypass surgery the same day, my birthday that year. I’m on SSI with permanent disability. Besides, I’ve got cancer – slow growing, but recurring. I’ve been on and off chemo most years since 1994.

But for myself, I’ve not had a treatment since a year ago January, when I started traveling again. I don’t know if my cancer is back or not. Probably is. But where would I get chemo? The other RB is on heavy chemo right now. Treatment every Wednesday, skipping a week every three (for time to heal). So, yeah, a job is out of the question. Chemo too.

Irony, huh? A decrepit time traveler? Why not let someone else do it? (yeah, when I first started in 2007, I took out that AD in the paper,) I just did not know anyone who was in my life that I could trust this to. At least as a very sick man, I would not be taking chances like some young, invincible punk would. But I still needed someone who could watch my back, and rescue me if I got stranded somewhen. But I devised a few failsafes for that, just in case.

How come I rarely run into myself in my time travels elsewhen? Most places, there is no RB. He died in 1995. From cancer. I chanced to find my tumor visiting a doctor for a minor kidney infection. She decided to do an ultrasound, and found the kidney that did not hurt to be consumed with a tumor. I had an MRI and had that kidney out the next day in emergency surgery. Seems most of my alter-egos never saw a doctor about that infection, and they died the following year from that cancer.

Well, I just got some groceries at my market, on foot, from my motel here in Barstow. My other self will never notice the small ATM withdrawal, since my wife sometimes goes there too. He will probably think it is just a normal transaction and won’t question it. But I cannot keep doing this.

My wife. I really miss her. She would be shocked to see me in my present condition, beard and all. Thinner than I like. Wounds and scars she doesn’t remember me having. I don’t look anything like the RB that inhabits this time and place, that’s for sure.

Actually, I need to go back through the portal. I never seem to have these problems out there. I spend what I want and take what I need, since it is elsewhen anyway. I can always come back here to write.

Why am I writing this? Here and now?

I want someone to know what I’ve seen and experienced. There must be a record of all of this. I want it to be here, in this time and place, which I think of as true reality. People need to know what time travel is really like. Perhaps some of you might avoid the disasters I’ve had. But, oh my! The adventures I’ve had!

My current self, here and now, has never experienced time travel. It was never invented by him in his current past. Somehow, at the end of his time traveling, he went back and erased the possibility of that ever happening. I’m not sure how that was accomplished, but I’m very glad I somehow escaped all that. Time travel is addictive, and I love it.

More tomorrow.

Roger1

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