Self-Review – It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

Let’s Look at It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

Of course, many if not all of us have heard the term it’s five o’clock somewhere before. It’s always in the context of drinking at some weird hour. For this disturbing short story,
I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2018.

Background

I wrote something relatively similar to this back when I was writing a lot of fan fiction. But back then, I pulled a lot more punches, and that scene/story ended much more happily. Much, much happier.

Not so this time.

Plot

As the head of a time travel team talks about how time travel should be impossible, she also goes into what’s essentially almost the Sapient Timeline theory. The idea about the Sapient Timeline theory is that time travelers are almost off the hook.

That is, that everything will eventually right itself in the end. Is it wishful thinking? Of course it is!

While the narrator doesn’t actually refer to it as wishful thinking in so many words, she does make it clear that looking at a timeline over the course of millennia doesn’t do a damned bit of good for the people in the here and now.

Characters

The characters are really just the narrator, who supervises her team and her junior engineer. They work as time travelers.

Memorable Quotes from It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

This is not supposed to be possible. The very thought of it just plain doesn’t work, in a philosophical sense. Yet here we are, and it exists so therefore it must be possible.

Cogito ergo whatever.

I shouldn’t be so flip about it. It’s bloody tragic and depressing is what it is.

Time travel is a beast and a wild invention and I’m glad I’m in charge of our team but at the same time, it’s got collateral damage. I suppose we don’t stop to think of some poor fellow who perishes in Pompeii, AD 79 who wasn’t supposed to. We don’t stop to think of the extra casualty at Antietam or the extra survivor of the Titanic who marries someone and another doesn’t get the opportunity. We don’t think about such things. {Rather,} we just let them go. They all are supposed to just even themselves out over the course of the millennia.

Genre and Overall Mood

It’s science fiction. More specifically, it’s time travel. And the mood is exceptionally depressing.

Rating for It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

The story has a T rating. The ending is seriously disturbing, and you may want to reach for a bottle of your own once you’re done. Sorry.

Takeaways

This one is a gut punch, and it should remind a reader that there is every reason that time travel, if it is even remotely possible, should be hard to do. Really, really hard to do.

Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.