Present Day

“Fei, do you think time travel is possible?” Yue suddenly asks out of the blue.

“Why are you asking me? You’re the physics genius.” Fei replies with her eye still glued to her computer screen.

It was finally the weekend, and Yue didn’t feel like going outside. She decided to relax in her dorm with her roommate Fei.

“I wasn’t asking you in a scientific sort of way. I just wanted to know if you think it’s possible from a normal person’s point of view.” Yue says while looking out the window. It was a sunny day, but clouds were starting to accumulate in the sky. It was late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to set.

“Well, from a normal person’s view, no. There are just too many factors that come into play. Like if you time traveled back into the past and changed future events so that you weren’t born or you didn’t invent the time machine that allowed you to travel back in time in the first place. You know what I mean?” Fei says, finally looking up from her computer screen.

“Yeah, the old paradox problem…” Yue is deep in thought. “I was thinking about that too, but what if every time you time traveled, you didn’t travel within your own timeline, but instead, the timeline would split and you would be in a new timeline. Like a fork in the road…”

Fei starts to think about what Yue has said. “So I would essentially be in a parallel universe?” She finally asks.

“Kind of. But you wouldn’t have existed in the timeline that you traveled to, so there wouldn’t be 2 of you.” Yue continues to make sense of her logical analysis. “So in the new timeline, you would just exist as a time traveler and back in your old timeline, you would just be gone.”

“So, say I time traveled now. Then to you, it would feel like I just disappeared?” Fei asks.

“I guess so…” Yue says.

“But I could go back to my own timeline, right?” Fei asks.

“You could, but only if the time machine you used traveled with you” Yue says. “If you use a teleportational time machine, there really isn’t a way you can get back.”

“I see. But let’s say I traveled to another past version of my own timeline where I wasn’t born yet. Could I still be born in that timeline?” Fei asks.

“Yeah, but then the time traveler version of yourself would have to be taken out of existence, and you would essentially be reborn.” Yue says.

“But if I wasn’t born, I could just exist as the time traveler version of myself?” Fei asks hopefully.

“I would think there would be some sort of time limit though,” Yue says. “Something to do with particles not being able to exist indefinitely out of their own timelines. So basically, you would eventually disappear, and the people in your original timeline would forget you ever existed.” Yue finishes.

“Oooo well, I’m glad that’s not something we ever have to worry about” Fei says in relief. She goes back to her computer.

“Yeah..” Yue responds.

Future Timeline 1

“Shhhh, Honey, it’s ok don’t cry.” Qian Xi’s father, Lay, pats Qian Xi’s mother, Yue’s, back. “We’ll get him back, don’t worry”

“I..should’ve told him….*sniffs…I should’ve told him it was a time machine and that he should never go in because I….wouldn’t be able to get him back” Yue says between her sobs.

“You were a brilliant young lady when I met you. The past you in another timeline will figure out a way to bring our son back.” Lay reassures Yue gently.

Then he holds her in his arms.

“I believe in her, in you” He whispers softly.