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made that phone
call instead? Would I find myself talking to a younger version of
me?”
    “ Wow, that’s
spooky!”
    “ Isn’t
it?”
    I had to stop and
consider the concept of two Nikis talking to each other…
weird!
    “ Well, I
suppose that could happen,” I replied. “I can’t see why not. Interesting
though.”
    There was a lull in our
conversation, and I turned to see her staring serenely into space.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
    She snapped out of her
reverie, and looked at me slightly guiltily. “Oh, nothing – just
about the past.”
    “ And?”
    “ Do you
remember me telling you about my first boyfriend – when I was
fourteen years old?”
    “ The kid who
killed himself… Steve, wasn’t it?” Niki nodded. I continued, “Yeah
I remember… I know you must have been very cut up about it at the
time. You don’t still blame yourself for that, do you?”
    “ Oh no, not
really. It’s just that… what if I’d known about the pressures his
parents were putting him under…” She looked hopefully at
me.
    “ You could
have intervened – and saved his life?” I said. We were both quiet
again, then I said, “Y’know, we’d be taking a big risk if we
changed this – I mean, personally. When we jump back to the
present, you could be married to him, not me.”
    Niki looked at her feet
and nodded. “I know – I’ve thought about that. But what if we just
tell his parents what’s going to happen if they don’t let up, and
then I split up with Steve later.”
    This was beginning to
sound insane. We would be risking our relationship on the suicidal
depression of one fourteen year old boy, when we could be saving
millions of lives elsewhere. And anyway, even if we could prevent
the suicide attempt, Steve might try it again because of something
else – Niki dumping him for instance. I told Niki what I thought,
and she agreed it was crazy and she shouldn’t have mentioned
it.
    I thought that was the
end of it – but I was wrong.
    The next morning, my
mobile phone was missing – and so was Niki. She must have been up
before me, and taken my phone by mistake. But hers has a pink
cover, and mine is black. And although she could grab the wrong one
by mistake if she was in a hurry, as soon she looked at it, she’d
know it wasn’t hers and call me. Wouldn’t she?
    Anyway, I naturally
didn’t want her to use the phone to travel you–know–where,
particularly as we’d specifically agreed to only travel together.
And she agreed it was a stupid idea to go back and try to save her
old friend. But, I had this horrible nagging feeling in my gut
about this, so I called my phone from hers (which she’d left in our
bedroom).
    “ I’m sorry,
the number you have called cannot be reached just now…”
    Shit! I knew what this
meant. I was beside myself with growing annoyance all morning, and
by the time I heard the key in the front door at midday, I was
ready to explode.
    “ Niki, we
agreed – you agreed – we’d only go together , never on our own … I can’t believe you’ve
done this!”
    “ Happy
birthday darling!”
    “ What?”
    She handed me a
gift–wrapped box in blue and white paper, with a matching ribbon
and bow.
    “ Oh, I’d
forgotten,” I said slowly.
    “ Well, go on…
open it!”
    As I was
tearing open the paper and opening the box, Niki apologized for
taking my phone by mistake. She didn’t want me to wake up and ask
her where she was going. She’d just popped the phone in her bag,
and hadn’t realized it was switched off – hence the reason I
couldn’t call her. Inside the box I found a very fetching blue
pullover (my favourite colour – being a Chelsea supporter),
and The Time Machine by HG Wells.
    “ Thanks baby,
that’s so nice.” I kissed her and we hugged warmly. Then she pulled
away a little.
    “ So what was
that ‘ only going
together ’ speech about?” I looked at her
with a guilty grimace. “Oh Joe, you didn’t think I’d do that! You really