Self-Review – Back, Front, and Side Pages

Let’s Look at Back, Front, and Side Pages

When I first wrote Back, Front, and Side Pages, I hadn’t written about time traveler Sharon Ensley yet.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize that this might be a decent story to fold into her time/timeline. The traveler could even be someone else in the department—maybe even someone who leaves or even someone who loses their job. Hmm.

After all, she’s much more entrepreneurial than the rest of the department. Perhaps there’s even some corruption there.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021.

Background

I came up with Back, Front, and Side Pages as a parody of the old Byrds hit, My Back Pages.

My Back Pages can, at times, feel like a time travel song.

I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

So, while I realize that Bob Dylan was writing about disillusionment rather than time travel, I still think the song works, in a way.

And so, as a kind of thought experiment, I got to thinking about alternatives to back pages. Hence, front and side. And where do pages go? In a book, of course!

Plot for Back, Front, and Side Pages

Agents McAllister and Fernandez have on their hands what they believe is a harmless crackpot. After all, anyone who believes that time travel is real has got to be nuts, right?

Er, right?

As they play good cop/bad cop, the two officers debate about the reality of time travel. McAllister, who’s already playing the good cop, has an open mind about it. Yet Fernandez, in keeping with her role as the bad cop, dismisses it out of hand as being impossible.

But all is not it seems, as the woman in front of them tells them a few tantalizing details about an alternate universe, where Lincoln was never shot; the dodo never went extinct; and Lennon and McCartney wrote a song called Yesteryear, not Yesterday.

But at least their climate change is better.

Characters

The characters are time traveler Joli Parrish, cops Chuck McAllister and Mary Pat Fernandez, and another Joli Parrish who is native to Chuck and Mary Pat’s timeline.

Memorable Quotes from Back, Front, and Side Pages

Joli sighed again. This is way more than I would or should normally reveal. But getting out of the interrogation room is Job One. I can deal with any other fallout later. And maybe a kid’s explanation will suffice. She bit her lip before speaking. “Timelines are parallel. That is, they normally are. But my tech bends the lines, in a way. This allows for an intersection. But the intersection only goes so far. Can I borrow your notebook?”

“Sure,” said McAllister, handing it over.

“Let’s say page fourteen of this little notebook is the original timeline. The fourteenth page, even if the pages aren’t numbered. I bend the timeline, and it’s like dogearing page fourteen so it touches page fifteen. The lines intersect, and all of a sudden I’m on page fifteen. I can go back to page fourteen somewhat easily. And I can progress to page sixteen if I want to. But page two hundred and fifty is out of the question unless I step further and further along. I dogear page after page after page. If I go back or forward or sideways far enough, I’ll lose my place.”

“But can’t you, like, bookmark it, or something?” asked Fernandez.

“I thought you didn’t believe her, Mary Pat.”

“Let’s just say that me, I’m kinda intrigued. So, can you bookmark page fourteen?”

Rating

The story has a K rating. There’s no violence or bad language at all.

Takeaways

I like this explanation quite a bit. And since—maybe—Joli is corrupted, she may fit in well to explain some other issues with time travel I’ve got in my stories. But I don’t want her to be my only go-to villain.

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