Chapter Twelve

  ‘Oh, you’ve brought me shrubs!’ said Susan from her hospital bed.

‘These are called flowers and on Earth it’s traditional to bring them when visiting someone in hospital’ Jimi said, smiling. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m the only patient they’ve got so I’m an object of curiosity - they never leave me alone! They’re looking through the history books to find out how to treat a bullet wound. It’s close to my spine so they’re being extra careful before committing themselves to surgery’

‘Does it hurt much?’

‘Only when I laugh - you get into any trouble with the programme?’

‘Nope, after I brought you here I went back and it was as if nothing had ever happened! They ignored me, just asking if I wanted to go back in the next few days or not - it was spooky.’

‘Guess the space ships were never sent because the skull is still here?’

‘Must be - I’ll go back and check it out when you’re out of surgery. I’ve got a lot of questions, but at least I know Jimi Hendrix still existed’

‘That’s typical, your first thought is about a musician!’

‘Not just a musician, he’s…’ Jimi trailed off, knowing she was just messing with him.

‘I’m so sorry about Gradski’

‘Yeah, he was something wasn’t he? Blasting away with his Tommy gun, I’m gonna miss that madman’ 

‘Jimi, do you know what a McGuffin is?

‘A what?’ he said sitting down next to the bed.

‘A McGuffin is an object used in stories as a focus for a quest or at the centre of a mystery - like the crystal skull in our little adventure’

‘Like we were characters in a story?’

‘Exactly!’

So what are you saying?’ he said quizzically

‘Well, I don‘t know really - but suppose we‘re not the only people who are entertained by that beautiful, terrifying place we call Earth?’

‘You mean another race from another planet?’

Yes, and suppose we were being manipulated by them the same way we use Earth as entertainment?’

‘That‘s too fantastical for me - have you started reading science fiction now?’

‘Think about it, wasn‘t it a hell of a coincidence that the Lakota arrived here just after we were given the skull on Earth two hundred years earlier?’

‘That‘s the trouble with time travel - it does your head in. But there‘s no way I‘m gonna believe my life is being manipulated by little green men on a far away planet in another galaxy etc, etc.’

‘OK, have it your own way. You done with time travel after you’ve seen your mother one more time?’

Jimi contemplated and said after a pause: ‘I was wonderin’ what Spartacus could do with 100 medieval long bows against that monster Crassus?’

‘Jimi - NO, I mean it, N, O.’

So, here he was, in a waiting room again. They were confident that the bullet would be removed from Susan’s back without complications - but he had to be sure. Then he would return to see the consequences of what he had done - what kind of world had the Lakota made? And then he heard her voice. He was sure it was Looks Far. She said: ‘They’re watching you’. Jimi turned slowly.

Shamshi shot back in his seat.

‘What’s the matter?’ said his companion.

‘Didn’t you see that? He looked right at me, like he could see me!’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, that’s impossible - unless there really is something supernatural about the crystal skull’

Tiglath did his impression of a spooky howl.

‘Very funny, but I tell you he saw me’

‘But how? The skull is just a piece of crystal that we left on Earth as a joke. Earthmen will believe anything!’

‘We better keep a close watch on those two - with her intelligence and his courage if they ever suspect something they’ll never give up until they find the truth’

‘You expecting a knock on your door one dark winter’s night?’ said Tiglath laughing.

THE END