...click...

"Ah, but your kind didn't last very long after this did they, Malcolm?"

The small plastic skeleton thankfully didn't provide an answer and he reached once more for the keyboard as inspiration for his next destination struck.

...click...

Floating high in the atmosphere, he watched as the massive rock thundered through the sky, smaller asteroids calving from the huge iron and ice body as its surface glowed redly on re-entry. He followed it in and then stopped a few tens of miles away watching as the massive rock burst through the earth's crust, debris flying into the air as much of the area was simply vapourised through heat and pressure.

The dinosaur killer: the end of most of the life on the planet, but thankfully not all.

...click...

There was a massive tremor as an earthquake shook the ground and the rock wall separating the vast shallow basin and the Atlantic collapsed, water pouring through the gap in a waterfall that would last tens of thousands of years and that would one day form the Mediterranean sea.

...click...

Hitler shot himself; the body of Eva Braun slumped next to him.

...click...

Elvis died. No aliens.

...click...

There was another gunman when JFK was shot, but he was disposed of shortly afterward by CIA hitmen.

...click...

Genghis Khan was short and really enjoyed sex.

...click...

Chewing on an apple, a bottle of water at his elbow, he sat watching Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival, his foot tapping away to one of his favourite tunes. Mary had always loved Hendrix, particularly his live performances. He glanced at the photograph of his long-dead wife.

"I wish you could see this love," he whispered, tears forming in his eyes. "We could've shared so much."

He sighed and then grabbed at the arms of the chair as the field abruptly flickered and the machine lurched, Malcolm leaning drunkenly against the laptop screen. A rapid blur of rainbow hues flashed across the inside of the energy bubble and then it stabilised, the field generator settling back to its low hum.

"Okay Mary, perhaps it's time to get you home, I can take a hint. We can have another jaunt through history another day. There's just so much to see."

He leant forward to tap a sequence of keys, but as he did so, his arm brushed an empty water bottle which dropped to the metal floor by his feet and rolled towards the field.

"Oh shite," he muttered in annoyance, his eyes watching as seemingly in slow motion the bottle rolled into the field, eventually stopping with half in and half outside the junction with reality.

Nothing happened.

The upper portion of the bottle was faintly visible beyond the infinitesimally thin energy field and he cautiously reached over and withdrew it. It seemed unchanged initially but as he watched in wonder, it crumbled and turned to dust. Eyes wide with astonishment, he moved to his computer and rapidly tapped away, analysing readings from the sensors, his brain whirring with excitement.

"It's changed," he muttered, and then carried on talking to himself – or sometimes Malcolm or Mary – a habit he'd developed over long years of working alone.

"The field polarity has changed somehow. It's still intact or we wouldn't be here, but the bottle clearly passed through the field which should be impossible. Hmm, we haven't got much time, energy levels are getting low, but I wonder..."

He tapped in a new series of commands and the machine reappeared instantaneously in his lab. Maintaining the field, he moved the machine close to one of his workbenches and then lifted a pen from his pocket. Cautiously reaching toward the field, he poked the pen through the multicoloured barrier and carefully prodded an apple that sat on the wooden surface.

The apple moved, tipping over before rolling away from the pen. As he withdrew the pen he watched intently, noting that after a few seconds it changed to dust.

"My word!" he said. "Well Mary, it seems like we've had a bit of an unexpected result there..." His words trailed off and his head snapped around to look at the ever-smiling face of his wife.

"Oh God, Mary..." he cried hoarsely, throwing himself into the chair. Feverishly, he punched the keys that would take him when and where he wanted to go, his fingers flying over the keyboard. With a trembling hand, he struck the green button.

...click...

And there she was.

"Mary..." he whispered.

It was dark. He remembered the rain, remembered the cold, and all over again he remembered the pain, the loss, the anguish. The train! There she was; crouched over the fallen deer on the tracks, the heavy rain drowning out the sounds of the approaching train, the car headlights illuminating her shrouded form. The decision was instantly made, he stood, reached, and pushed, the shove tumbling her off her feet away from the body of the deer which dissolved in a cloud of bloody spray and gore as the train plowed through where she had been mere moments before. The sound that he'd heard in decades of nightmares send him stumbling back to his chair, the brakes of the train screaming into the night as it passed invisibly through Marvin and his machine and onwards down the tracks.

He watched as his hand and forearm gently crumbled before his eyes. No pain, how strange. But then he only had eyes for one thing. His Mary, wet and shaking, pale in the evening light and the illumination from the car headlights as she pulled herself to her feet. She was reaching for him, reaching for him and embracing him.

A younger him.

Not him.

His younger self had seen her destroyed, but now another younger Marvin embraced his Mary, holding her as she cried, stroking her hair, and murmuring calm words as time changed and a new future unfolded.

"Mary..." he whispered.

With his remaining hand, he typed.

...click...

He watched as the new timeline flowed past his eyes. An alternate universe where he and Mary grew older, had children, spent their lives inventing, talking, loving, and being together. He slumped back into his chair, tears of joy and pain streaming down his cheeks, but a small smile twisting the wrinkles on his face.

He looked at the picture of his Mary, the energy meter next to it blinking a dull red and then fading to black as his own private little universe came to a close.

"It was worth it. Live and be well. I love you..."

...click...

The End