He tried to put these fears aside as more questions cascadedthrough his mind.
“So time travel isn’t possible, then?” he asked. “All thatstuff you mentioned about Hitler and JFK, it’s all fixed?”
“Oh, it’s certainly possible,” replied the angel. “In fact,this town is a hotbed for time travel. You would be surprised at some of thethings that have been going on around here recently. But it’s not for everyone.Travelling into the past is permissible for only a few special individuals and theyhave to spend the best part of a lifetime learning the rules.”
“And you teach them?” asked Kent, wondering who these individualswere.
“Oh no, they teach themselves. But it’s a long process. By thetime they are able to make trips back in time they have been preparing for itfor decades. By then they have had more than enough time to fully appreciatethe implications of what they are getting into.”
“And you allow them to change things?” asked Kent.
“Not the big stuff, like Hitler and JFK,” replied the angel.“But occasionally I allow small, local anomalies and injustices to becorrected. As long as they don’t impact in a big way on long-term global events,then a few minor ripples in a very large pond don’t do any harm.”
“But you can’t do that for me?” asked Kent.
“Sorry, I’m afraid not,” replied the angel. “It’s not like you’vereally suffered any major injustice, is it? A lot of your problems are of yourown making.”
“That’s a bit harsh,” said Kent. “It wasn’t my fault I lostmy job, was it? I just had a lot of bad luck. I can’t see what harm me foilingthat robbery could have done to the timeline. I might not have lost my job ifthat had been for real.”
“Losing your job is not the end of the world. In the longterm, leaving the police might turn out to be the best thing you ever did.”
He was echoing what Debs had said. Then he thought about thedrinkers in the pub and what they had said.
“If you allow some injustices to be corrected, how do youdecide who qualifies as a deserving cause? What about Andy from the pub? Do youknow who I mean?”
“Of course,” said the angel. “I know everyone and everythingthat happens – past, present and future.”
“So would you let him go back and let him correct hismistake? The one we were talking about in the pub last night?”
The angel had no hesitation in responding, “No, because it wouldn’tdo him any good in the long run.”
“In what way?” asked Kent.
“I just ran another timeline in my mind of what would havehappened if he had won the competition,” said the angel. “He became a huge starbut at a massive cost. He became not only an even bigger alcoholic than he isnow, but also a drug addict to boot. He died of a heroin overdose in 2007.”
“Oh,” was all Kent could think of to say.
“Exactly – oh,” said the angel. “And that is why I can’tallow people to go around changing the past if they don’t know what they aredoing, even if they think it’s for the best. At least in this timeline Andy’s stillalive.”
He took a final draw on his cigarette and chucked it ontothe ground.
“It’s a good job I’m not still on the force,” commented Kent.“I could have given you an £80 spot fine for that.”
“Well, you’d have to give it to yourself, then,” retortedthe angel. “The younger version of you I’ve taken my shape from used to enjoy asmoke on a night out. From what I’ve seen, he wasn’t too choosy about where hedropped his dog-ends. Besides, you wouldn’t be able to give me a fine. This isprivate supermarket property, so nothing to do with the police. What’s theworst that can happen? They dock me some Nectar points?”
Kent had almost forgotten that he used to smoke and it wastrue, he hadn’t been too conscientious about where he disposed of his cigarettebutts. He had stopped smoking not long after he had met Debs; she had made sureof that. Perhaps it was just as well, he was in bad enough physical shape as itwas. A lifetime of smoking on top of the rest of his unhealthy habits would probablyhave seen him off by now.
He was getting distracted by this silly conversation about cigaretteends. It was his own fault, he had started it. He needed to steer theconversation back to the topic of what he was here for. But what exactly was hehere for?
“Look, I’m not being funny, right, but if I can’t changehistory, what is the point of all this? What sort of game are you playing withme, is this how you get your kicks?”
Kent was being rather bold, bearing in mind he was dealingwith some all-powerful entity, but he was reasonably sure it didn’t mean to dohim any harm. But he was getting flustered by the conversation. His ruddyboozer’s complexion was flushing an even deeper shade of red than usual as hestruggled to get the answers he sought.
“Relax,” replied the angel. “You’ll give yourself a heartattack. Look, there’s nothing suspicious or untoward about any of this.Everything is as I said it was at the start. I’m giving you the chance to visitany six days of your life and live those days in full. I’m trying to help youcome to terms with your life in the present so you can move on into the future.”
“Well, we haven’t done very well so far, have we?” said Kent,gloomily.
“Admittedly, no, but you understand the rules now, so maybeyou can make some better choices from now on.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me the rules at the start?” said Kent.“We needn’t have wasted yesterday’s trip on a fruitless exercise.”
“But was it wasted?” questioned the angel. “Did you enjoyit?”
Kent had to admit that he had. “Yes, I did.”
“Of course you did,” said the angel. “It was a pretty goodfeeling, wasn’t it? Knowing you had the
