History Control Assignment
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Name Elenore Walker | |
| Form 71 |
Fill in the gaps in the time loop diagram below. Identify the main paradox intrinsic to Clove Sutcliffe’s life.
This is a paradox because Clove would never have timetravelled if her parents hadn’t been placed throughout history, but they are placed throughout history because she travelled.
File note: Homework assignment submitted by ELENORE WALKER for her history class
LEEDS, ENGLAND, 2040
After the bus had deposited them in Leeds, Matthew, Kate, Ella and Clove checked into a hotel. It had been nerve-racking, seeing as the group was comprised of a terrorist and three time travellers, none of whom had legitimate identification, which was an issue during the political tensions in 2040. They ended up in a disreputable motel on the outskirts of the city, because nowhere else would take them.
To Clove, this time looked old-fashioned and sparse. The streets stank of exhaust fumes, and everyone seemed wary and suspicious. To Matthew, it was all a miracle. It was almost impossible to get him up to the motel room, because he wanted to inspect everything, from bus stops to carpets to light fittings.
“Excuse me for a minute, will you?” Kate said, throwing her rucksack onto one of the twin beds and pulling out a breast pump. “My body still thinks I’ve got a baby to look after.” Her gaze drifted to Clove. She shook her head. “I still can’t believe you’re her. You’re so grown up. You look just like Matt.”
“She has your eyes,” Matthew said.
Kate’s own eyes brimmed with tears. She brushed them away. “I miss you so much,” she said to him. “I know you’re here, but it’s not … you’re not…” She sighed. “I miss my You.”
“I miss my You too,” Matthew echoed.
They stared at each other with an intensity that made Clove look away. “Shall we go and get some food?” she asked Ella.
Ella nodded and pulled out a few banknotes, before passing them to Clove.
Clove was suspicious at how prepared Ella seemed to be for this trip. Had she been carrying money from 2040 around the whole time because she had been planning to bring Clove here? She must have done so much research about this time to know exactly where Kate would be and when. Why had Ella never mentioned her plans to Clove?
When they were on the street, Ella stopped and turned to Clove. “Go on then.”
“What?” Clove said, surprised.
“Didn’t you bring me out here to fight?”
Clove squirmed under her steady gaze. “No.”
“Yes, you did.” Ella crossed her arms defensively, and then uncrossed them and tucked her hair behind her ears.
Clove blew out an exhale. “Fine. I don’t know what you’re doing, Ella. I asked you to help me take Matthew to 1745, and instead you brought us to 2040, completely out of the blue. You obviously had it all planned out in advance because you brought money with you, and you knew exactly where Kate would be.”
Ella tried to speak, but Clove pushed on. She needed to get it all out.
“And anything could happen while we’re here! I’ve destroyed the future once. I don’t want to do it again! We’ve already made things worse by showing Matthew even more of the future. It’s getting so complicated! You should have told me what you were planning. I really, really don’t want to be here, Ella.”
“I’m sorry,” Ella said, blinking quickly, tears filling her eyes. “I wanted to help, but I didn’t think things through. I can be really bossy sometimes, I know. I’m really, really sorry. I messed up.”
“Just ask me, will you, next time? I feel like you’re … I don’t know…” Clove pushed her hair back from her face. She still felt annoyed. “You’re enjoying that you’ve got this leverage over me, because you know everything that happens. You’re marching ahead with all this confidence, doing everything according to your textbooks. But you can’t tell me what to do and then expect me to do it. Surely that’s not the way it works! If you make all the decisions for me, then I will never do any of the things you think I’m going to do. You will have done them all.”
“You want me to pretend I don’t know what happens?”
“No! I want you to work with me, so we can decide together what the best thing to do is, regardless of what your textbook happens to say. Ella, you study History Control! Your entire life is about finding the best path of history, the most optimal version of events! Why is this any different?”
Ella’s frown disappeared. “Oh. I can do that.” Ella held Clove’s hand, swiping her thumb along the sensitive skin of Clove’s wrist. “I really am sorry.”
Clove could feel Ella’s heartbeat thumping against the skin. It sent shivers through her. Her breath came out too sharp. She wanted to cradle Ella’s cheek, to push her fingers into her hair. “I didn’t want to have to regret becoming emotionally invested in you,” she said in a whisper.
Ella laughed quietly.
There was an unfamiliar low-level thrumming under Clove’s skin. Clove took a step closer to Ella, forcing the space between them into nothing. Ella’s hand was on the small of her back, her gaze on Clove’s lips.
Clove drew a breath in, and then all of a sudden they were kissing, softening together like wax. Ella’s hair felt like silk when Clove pushed her hand through it. When she touched Ella’s scalp, Ella made a small hitching sound that went straight to the base of Clove’s spine. Clove had never felt anything as good as the brush of her tongue against Ella’s, the slow exploration of each other’s mouths, the soft warmth and catch of her teeth on Ella’s lips.
Clove remembered Ella’s declaration, “I’m the love of your life,” and the thought shot heat right through her. Her mind went deliciously blank of anything that wasn’t Ella − the viciously bossy girl wrapped up in her arms.
This was the polar opposite of her kiss with Meg, and of the fear and panic that had followed it. Clove felt safe. She could fall without worry, knowing that Ella would catch her.
When they finally pulled apart, Ella blinked dazedly. “That was my first kiss,” she said, touching a finger to the swollen pink of her mouth, which was the same colour as her bright cheeks.
Clove took her hand. “I wish it had been mine.”
“It wasn’t?” Ella asked, her look sharpening.
Clove grinned. “That’s not in the textbook, then?”
She pulled Ella down the street, telling her about Meg while they searched for a chippy, and restraining herself from dropping kisses on Ella’s lips more than once a metre.
When they finally got back to the motel room with bags full of food and grease, Kate was curled up beside Matthew on one of the beds, her head on his shoulder.
They all sat on the bed, pulling flaming hot chips out of the paper and comparing details of each of their timelines.
Clove couldn’t remember ever feeling so happy.