Shadow Dancing

---

  A WRITERS' CHALLENGE is a creative exercise where people use simple general themes to produce short descriptive prose.  Style and content outcomes expand creative possibilities and tools. This extremely short story originally resulted from such a challenge. 

His meal had passed pleasantly enough before the younger man approached.  Hector judged him to be about twenty eight, almost exactly half his own age; half his acquired girth as well.  “Yes, I'm professor Valeria .

“God Hector, you've changed some since grad-school,” he said, seating himself.    

“People do that.”   No name sprang to mind for the vaguely familiar face. “What's on your mind?”

The man sat back smiling broadly.  “It's still the same thing we always discussed as roommates and what explains  our obvious age discrepancies now; or, more aptly, at or in this time.”

Hector narrowed his eyes.  Damn! He thought. Yes, this guy does look just like Boris Andropov in grad school, well, with a couple more facial lines on him.  The implication was that he had traveled from the past to now.  It was outrageous. Was he delusional or just some inept fraud?.  “Young man,  you can't travel in time!  Now, if  one got outside of time and space, meaning our known universe, to  reenter at the desired quantum address, It might work.”

“So you're still pushing that pipe dream are you?” the younger man asked.  “Aside from the problem of never  defining your hypothetical quantum address;  there  is no time outside of space-time!  Ergo  zero opportunity for any action including reentry.”   

“Exactly right!” the Professor exclaimed pointing a fork accusingly.  “And yet you are claiming to be  Boris Andropov who beat me out for the Feynmen  award at Cal Tech  twenty two years ago, young by virtue of  that very impossibility”

“Hector Valeria can't you trust your own eyes?”   The man framed his face with open hands.

The older man shook his head.   “If I believe my eyes, I must next dispute the laws of physics that you just succinctly defended.”

The younger man sat back, clearly perplexed.  “Begging your pardon, I didn't preempt time travel, only the, dead end, approach that you offhandedly referenced.  We killed that fallacy with hours of argument in the dorm, at bars, and finally, I thought, on our double date with the Chapel twins”

Angry now, Hector's fists crashed powerfully onto the table rattling glassware, silverware, and adjacent  diners.   “I don't find this amusing!” he challenged,  “Your resemblance to Andropov  is not a license to usurp my, history and friendship.”   The older man glowered threateningly.  After a few seconds, though, he began to chuckle.  "Those girls were sincerely pissed about ignoring them to argue.”   Both men laughed.  “My god man, that memory hasn't been dusted off in years.”  Hector leaned back in his chair studying the remarkable impostor.  “Under more realistic circumstances I can imagine  actually liking you but a strong resemblance and an obscure college memory won't overcome the impossibility of your claim”  

“Would my drivers license help?“   he was reaching for his wallet.

Hector shook his head.  “Don't bother.  It would take a plausible theory on the mechanics of Time travel  and even then, without a practical demonstration, I'd remain unconvinced that you are or could conceivably be Boris ”

“Sorry, I can't do a demonstrations today but just remember that time is not a force like electromagnetism, gravity or even dark energy.  It effects nothing but is effected by all of those plus relativistic velocity.  So time only exists as an effect of ones relationship to various states of matter.  Like a shadow exists and is  changed by relationships of light and obstacles.”

Hector seemed to release a breath he'd been holding.  “That is quite a novel approach implying that space and time exist merely coincidentally rather than being the intrinsic amalgam that modern theory suggests.”  The impostor was nodding agreement.   “ But how does that explain  time travel?”

“Things can cast more than one shadow providing access to alternate times!   

Professor Hector Valeria was both smiling and shaking his head as he rose summoning the waiter to him.  ”Impostor or not you provide an interesting line of inquiry for me. So, to you, time travel is dancing from one shadow to another”  he glanced at the waiter “ check please”

“Your colleague took care of that before you arrived.   Fortunately, he  knew what you would order  and  even provided a good tip.”  the waiter turned to the hail of an other customer.

Hector looked down at the Boris pretender.  “How could you know what I would order?”

The younger man smiled slyly.  “Actually  Heck old boy I hadn't the slightest idea then.”

“Then How in the world?”

“Well, it seems that later on I'll be getting here sooner and since I know now.....”  He let the sentence trail off and shrugged as awe spread across the older physicist's face.  Stunned now, Hector crumpled back to his seat with a blank expression.   

Boris smiled  “So Hector, It's a good thing I enjoy my Shadow Dancing!  I'm going to win this argument for the price of your lunch.” Hectors expression remained blank but his eyes did seek Boris's face.  “Oh, by the way, what ever happened to those Chapel girls?”