Till The Clock Strikes Gone

10 | yes?

Harvey huffed and then turned to look at Lorna. "What do we do about this one? If you ask me, I don't believe half of his story."

William opened his mouth to say something but Lorna cut him off.

"But you let him stay here. You might deny it but something in your subconscious believes him."

To this, Harvey had no answer as William watched his lips open and close.

Lorna stared at William for some time and then, with a deep exhale, she spoke, "William, I am very sorry to tell you that the device you want has still not been invented. We can't send you home."

William took a step back at that. "What?" he said as he rubbed his face while taking a seat on the bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands covering his face. "No. You must be mistaken. It must be here somewhere. It was just a fucking mason jar. It must be here. You need to find it, you need to send me back."

He was sweating now, his body was heating up with fear and a new kind of nervousness.

"William," Lorna said, kneeling before him. "You need to calm down. We will find a way."

"No," William stopped as he jerked his head up to stare at her concerned face. "You don't understand. My wife, she is..."

She is going to have my baby — he wanted to tell her that but then his eyes fell on Harvey.

(It's not good for people to know their future)

"She is waiting for me," he said instead. "I can't let her worry about me. I need to go home."

Lorna patted his arm, nodding in understanding.

"William, Harvey and I will try our best to help you. I promise that," she said. "How about you show us the design of the Time Machine? You can draw right?"

William nodded.

"Good," Lorna said and stood up.

"What will I do?" William asked suddenly, grabbing both Harvey and Lorna's attention back.

"What?" Harvey asked.

"I mean...I usually spend my day planning my books, meeting my publishers and promoting myself and at the end of the day, I go home to my wife. So now that I don't have my wife or my work, what am I supposed to do? Spend my day lying around in this stupid hut?"

"You could write." Lorna's opinion made William raise an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, it's not that easy. I can't go around writing all day," William countered back and stood up.

"But you are a writer. I heard that authors like alone time, won't you like it? A workshop, papers and a pen, I think that should be enough," Lorna voiced her suggestion.

"Do I really look like someone who spends his day doing that? Have you looked at me, Madam," William questioned her and the next moment, he found her once again looking at him and this time, she blushed as Harvey cleared his throat.

William knew he was good-looking and he didn't try to hide it. Eliza would often tell him that he didn't look like a writer but more suitable for a model.