Short Story: Disparate Times by Alice Elizabeth

I don’t know why I’d never noticed the shop before. I was sure it hadn’t been there yesterday. I walk past that row of stores every day and I’d never noticed it. I would have noticed something like that.

The glass-fronted windows were empty, waiting for a display to go in. What that display might be, I couldn’t even guess. There was no indication from the outside as to what kind of store it actually was. The words above the door said DISPARATE TIMES in a gothic font. My curiosity got the better of me and I went in.

“Ah, good. You made it”. I looked around to try and find where the voice had come from.

A small, elderly man shuffled around behind me and locked the door. He peered out through the window as if checking whether I’d been followed.

“Take a seat, take a seat,” he said, ushering me to a small, round table near one of the display windows. I sat down and saw a tray of tea laid out before me. A steaming teapot, two fine, porcelain teacups, a sugar bowl and a small jug of milk.

The rest of the shop was filled with tables and shelves that were covered in newspapers. Calendars hung on the walls and were even laid open on any available surface.And there were clocks everywhere, all showing different times, scattered among the mess.

He sat down opposite me.

“I’ll pour the tea, you get started on all the questions I'm sure you have, I'll answer as best I can and then we’ll get down to the real business. So go on, ask away, ask away!”

I gaped for a moment, stunned and unsure as to what was expected of me. The small man flicked a look at me over the rim of his glasses while he poured the tea. “Well?” he said.

“Umm...what is this place?” I asked.

“As the sign on the door says this is Disparate Times. When the times are disparate, when there's an anomaly in the continuum, I fix it.”

His words didn’t really make any sense to me, I didn’t understand what he was trying to say. I tried a different approach. “Who are you?”

“I'm Jack.”

“Jack. Just Jack?” I was starting to get regret my decision to come in here. This small man was frustrating me.  

He giggled. “That's me. Just Jack.” He pushed a teacup and saucer over to my side of the table. “Help yourself to sugar and milk. I was probably about your age when I took on the job. And now I'm, whew, gosh, I couldn’t even guess. It's hard to keep track of these things when you're constantly jumping around time.  But if I had to, I suppose I could say that I'm sure I'm older than fifty, but not as old as ninety.”

I took a sip of tea to try and cover the fact that I had no idea what was going on. “It seemed like you were waiting for me”, I said.

“Ah! Now we get to it,” he said. “Yes. There's an anomaly, and I've traced it back to you, now we just have to figure out what it is you’ve done and change it.”

Nothing this man said was making any sense. The more he talked the more confused I became. “I don’t know what you mean. I’ve never even noticed this shop before today. I haven't done anything.”

He chuckled again.

“Oh, but my dear, you have. We all have. Every day, every decision we make turns us down a different path. Did you have eggs or cereal for breakfast? Did you run to catch the bus this morning, or wait for the next one to come along? Did you leave your husband, or stay and give him another chance? Did you take the new job interstate, or stay at your old one? Every second of every day, every choice we make determines the course of history. Sometimes we choose wrong.”

I was unsettled by how much this strange little man seemed to know about my life. Even down to what I liked to eat for breakfast.

“I think I should be going now, I don’t want to be late for work,” I said and stood up. “Thank you for the tea, Jack. I hope you have success with your shop selling...whatever it is you sell here, I’m still not sure.”

I reached the door only to find that it was locked. I spun around to look him. He was still sitting at the table sipping his tea. He hadn’t even bothered to turn around.

“I can’t let you leave, my dear. You see, if you go back out there you’ll keep making choices and one of those choices will be the wrong choice.”

“Just let me out please, I can deal with the consequences of my own choices, thank you very much, I don’t need some stranger interfering in my life. Just let me out and leave me alone.” I was starting to get desperate.

“If only it were that simple. Your choices don’t just affect you, my dear. Your choices have a ripple effect and every action you take influences the actions that those around you take, which influences the actions around them, and on and on. I just need to stop the pebble that caused the first splash.”

As he finished talking one of the many clocks chimed. He looked at the watch on his wrist, as though double checking that the time was correct. He drained the last of the tea in his cup and smacked his lips. Finally, he walked over to a desk that had a large day planner open on it, picked up a pen and scrawled some notes in there.

“And we’re done,” he said as he added a final flourish. “You may leave now.”

I stood outside the shop, paralysed because I couldn’t decide. Which way should I choose?