An intriguing and bizarre offer is made to a rich business man.
Aaron Copland is a self made millionaire. He earned his first million at age twenty-five, bought his first company at twenty-seven and had his second million at twenty-nine. Making money always came easy to him, he worked hard but he always made money. He took an interest in a small obscure basement run IT company called ‘Brain Tec’, and turned it into a hundred million plus profit company a year. He was hailed a business savant and a genius at making money. After selling ‘Brain Tec’ he moved on to the next company - the next money making scheme - Aaron Copland wasn’t somebody who could stand still for too long, he wanted to experience everything life had to offer and his feet were always itchy.
He lived the dream, he traveled the world, he fell in and out of love. But for all the wealth and the materialistic things he had there was something missing in his life, a hole you could say in the pit of his being. Then he met Claire and truly fell in love. The emptiness inside of him was gone and perhaps for the first time in his life he was truly happy. They moved to New York City and began a life together. Until one night while coming home from the theatre the couple were mugged and Claire was shot and killed. Aaron escaped with a flesh wound and his life but held Claire in his arms as she bled to death.
Time passed - Aaron continued on with his life but it was never the same. His idyllic life was shattered in one devastating moment. He withdrew within himself. He still conducted business and socialized but he was just going through the motions like an automated machine. Upon reaching his forty-second birthday he received a call from a Mr. White wanting to talk to him about a business proposition. With nothing else to do he agreed.
Mr. White comes to see Mr. Copland on Friday the 18th, a day that Aaron will long remember. Mr. White appears is a man in his mid to late twenties, extremely well groomed and attired, so much so that there appears to not even be one hair on his immaculately clean shaven face and he certainly lives up to his name for he was as pale as a sheet. The only thing he has with him is a black leather briefcase.
“Mr. White.”
“Mr. Copland, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” he replies.
Aaron again eyes this person and senses something odd or strange about him and the one thing that he has always been able to rely on is his instincts, they have helped him make millions and they have hardly ever let him down. “So, can I offer you something to drink?”
“No, thank you,” he says with abruptness, “I don’t drink much.”
“Whatever you say. So then, how may I help you? I understand you have a business proposition for me?”
“Indeed I have sir,” he replies with enthusiasm, “a once in a life time opportunity.”
“Really,” Aaron says, he’s heard that line before, “please continue.”
“Before I begin I must tell you that once this offer is placed on the table it does have a short expiry date for you to accept it...or not.”
“I understand completely.”
“Excellent, and now I must ask you to listen with an open mind to what I am about to offer you. You will think it strange, bizarre, unreal, you’ll probably think me crazy, but all I ask is for you to just listen to what I have to say.” Mr. White is sincere and earnest in his words. Aaron nods in the affirmative and says: “Alright, you have the floor.”
Mr. White begins. “I represent the ‘Clockwork Foundation’ Mr. Copland, have you heard of us?” Aaron shakes his head. “We’re a philanthropic organization interested in the preservation of the human race...amongst certain other things.”
“Don’t tell me you’re selling life insurance?” Aaron can’t help but ask.
Mr. White smiles, his perfectly straight teeth shining. “It’s funny you should say that, because in a way I am, but not in the manner you’re imagining.”
“I see, well, go on.”
“Thank you. I have always found that it’s best to get straight to the point with this offer, to rip the band aid off quickly as it were to minimize the pain.” Mr. White looks straight into Aaron’s eyes and tells him: “Five years from now the world, the Earth as we know it will be destroyed, the human race wiped out.” Aaron goes to speak but is halted by Mr. White holding up his hand. “Please, you said you would hear me out.” Aaron remains silent. “A large unseen meteor will strike the planet causing a Life Extinction Event...no one will survive”
Aaron is not sure how to respond to this. So he remains silent. Mr. White continues. “The Clockwork Foundation is intent on insuring that humanity survives and that is why I’m here with an offer. For two million dollars my employers can send you back in time to a period of your choosing to live out the remainder of your life. We have been making this offer to many people over the last few years and you would be surprise how many have accepted.”
“Look,” Aaron replies sharply, “I’m all for a good joke but I’m not in the mood for one today.”
“I understand your skepticism but I assure you that this is no joke and no laughing manner. We’re talking about the survival of the human race. You money will go a long way to seeing that happen as well as saving yourself. For although our world will be devastated it will continue after the cataclysm and eventually heal at which time we will be able to return in the future.”
“From the past,” Aaron gets out with a laugh.
“Precisely.”
“You’re crazy. I don’t know what game or con you’re trying to play but I won’t be a party to it. Hell, I made my fortune by knowing a sure thing from a sucker punch.”
“In that case I would like to offer my condolences.”
“For what?”
“The death of your wife.”
“What?”
“How long has it been now, five years? What a cruel world we can live in at times.”
“Why are you bringing up Claire?”
“To offer you an incentive to accept this offer. They never found the killer have they? As an added bonus to your acceptance we can offer up your wife’s killer. You can see the man captured, brought to justice for the crime he committed and in doing so finally have some closure.”
Aaron becomes angry, just talking about Claire stirs up all the toxicity that has accumulated within him since her death. He wants to yell at this man, to rip into him but something stops him. And he has no idea what.
“My employers want your help Mr. Copland and in return want to help you survive. So I’ve also been instructed to inform you that as a sign of good will your wife’s killer will be apprehended within the next few days and face justice. After this is accomplished I will contact you to see if you wish to proceed. There are no strings attached to this offer whether you agree or not. Now, I will take up no more of your time.” Mr. White stands, bids Aaron good day and exits.
Aaron is left speechless and dumfounded still unable to make heads or tails out of what just occurred.
Two days later Aaron Copland gets a call from the police telling him that they have captured his wife’s killer. Two months later Aaron sits in a court room as the man who murdered his beloved Claire is sentenced to life in prison. A week after this he is once again in a meeting with the enigmatic Mr. White. Aaron has decided to accept the offer. If it turns out to be bullshit, which he believes it is, what does it matter, two million dollars means nothing to him, and anyway two million dollars is a small price to pay for the capture and imprisonment of his wife’s killer.
“There are a few non negotiable conditions attached to the contract. Mainly that you cannot change history, you must maintain a low profile, you will of course be monitored from time to time and if you are deemed having broken the contract it will become null and void and you will be returned to the present to await your destruction.”
“I see.”
“Also you must choose an era that is more than a hundred years in the past, sometime before 1870.”
“Why?”
“The quantum mechanics involved are far above my pay grade. Also, it goes without saying that you should pick a time in which you will blend into. I mean, it would be hard to explain an American in the time of China’s Ming Dynasty, now wouldn’t it.”
Aaron goes over the contract in his hands. He gives Mr. White a look. “Are you the Devil?” he asks half jokingly.
“Oh, no Mr. Copland, you get to keep your soul.”
“I don’t know if this is real or some elaborate con, either way I don’t care, you kept your word. And to tell you the truth Mr. White, there is something pleasing about the idea of living out your life in the past, leaving this modern world of madness behind.” Aaron is very contemplative as he says these words.”
“Indeed,” Mr. White concurs. “I sense that you’ve chosen a time you wish to...retire to?”
“Yes, I have, Victorian London around 1860 or so.”
“A good choice.”
“A peaceful one. And Claire always had a fondness for Charles Dickens.”
“Then it shall be so.”
“If this is real then how will this work.”
“You’ll be given time to get your affairs in order,” Mr. White informs him, “once this is done you simply go to sleep one night and wake up in the past. In your case you will wake up in your new home in the city of London, with money and a substantial bank account at the Bank of England. Your story will be along the lines of a rich American business man traveling abroad.”
“Will I be able to contact you if something were to go balls up?”
“Wherever we send people there are also monitors, if you will, employees of the Clockwork Foundation, that are also in that time. Twenty-four hours after your arrival you will be contacted and instructed about what to do in an emergency. But there is no coming back until it is deemed suitable.”
“I understand,” Aaron says, “but if you truly can time travel into the past and then come back to the present or what will be the future, then why can’t you just go into the future beyond the cataclysm?”
“As I said earlier, the mechanics of it all is above my head. But in layman’s terms, it is to do with something about how the past has already happened, is set, where as the future is not until it has happened.”
“I see, that doesn’t explain a lot. And I still cannot meet your employers?” he asks once again.
“That is no possible. As I’ve told you they wish to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons, they do not wish to attract the attention of the authorities if you will.”
“Very well,” Aaron says with a small sigh, “but if this is real wouldn’t time travel be dangerous.”
“Oh no, it has been thoroughly tried and tested and is no more difficult than taking a trip overseas. You’re very luck Mr. Copland for you will know peace for the rest of your life, your burdens, your worries, your hurt, will all be laid down. And you will see in the future the world reborn into a new paradise.”
“How do you choose who lives and who dies?”
“The selection process is a difficult and lengthy one. But I can tell you that one of the criteria’s is to approach those that have had great tragedy in their lives.”
“There’s so much I don’t understand, not everyone can afford two million dollars, for instance.”
“The price varies depending on the person’s circumstances. You questions cannot be answered yet, but in time they all will be.”
Aaron slowly nods his head. “So be it,” he mumbles to himself. He then takes pen in hand and signs on the dotted line.
“You won’t regret this Mr. Copland,” Mr. White tells him confidently.
It takes Aaron Copland two months to get his personal and business affairs in order. He still has many questions about the “Clockwork Foundation”, but he doesn’t think on that. He just takes each day as it comes tying up his affairs. Then on a rainy Saturday night in April he goes to sleep and wakes up in the past.
The warm afternoon sun shines down upon him, its light broken up by the limbs of the oak tree he lies beneath. He sits up. He is dressed in Victorian Era clothes. He looks around and sees that he is lying near a brook in a small green gully. Not quite the city of London. He gathers himself and makes his way out of the gully and into the midst of a battle between warring Dark Age armies. Something has gone array. “Oh, I’m defiantly asking for a refund,” Aaron Copland says.
Copyright Peter Jessop © 2015
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Ron