The Remnant - Part 2

Read Part 1 Here

“How did you get in?” Anne asked with a second step back. 

A corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. “You keep your spare key under Earnest." 

Anne faltered and didn’t take that third step back she’d been planning. 

“What?”

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The man pulled the spare key from his pocket, held it up so she could see it was hers, and then placed it gently on the table. “In the 4th grade, you painted a pet rock for Sunday school and named him Earnest – ” 

“I know who Earnest is – how do you know about him?” Anne’s hand trembled. “I only ever told my mom about Earnest.” 

“Who you painted brown because you didn’t want him to feel out of place with the other rocks in the garden,” the man said, “And your mom said he was perfect and used him to hide the key so you could let yourself into the house –” 

“How do you know this?” Anne shouted. 

The man stopped for a second. “You told me on our 4th date.” 

“I’ve never met you,” Anne said. 

“No, you haven’t,” the man said, “because in this timeline I was never born.” 

“You’re insane,” but for the first time, Anne paid more attention to what he was wearing. There were badges on his shirt. The type you would see on a military uniform, but nothing she recognized as being remotely similar to what her father had worn when he’d been in the Canadian Forces.

“It must seem like that,” the man said, “As far as I can tell in this timeline Einstein’s work remained far more theoretical and there was never any urgency to develop time travel.” 

“Oh, but in yours there was.” Anne knew she should leave, but all of a sudden didn’t want this interloper to see her run. 

“Yes,” the man said, “Very much.” 

“What—did we destroy the planet?” 

"Worse," the man said, "We lost the war." 

“What war?” Anne said, “You’re going to have to be more specific in your delusions.” 

The man chuckled and rubbed his chin in what might have been an effort to hide his grin. “You never did put up with my bull.”

“Yeah, well there have been a lot of wars,” Anne said. 

“Not in my timeline - the war for unification lasted 80 years.” The man shook his head with a bitter smile. “I’ve read a bit about the wars that have happened since we changed things—they are nothing compared to the horrors of what the war for unification did to the world.” 

“Eighty-years?” Anne did a quick calculation in her head – or tried. Mental math was never her strong suit. 

“You call it the second world war,” the man said. 

Read Part 3 - Here