Mind the Gap

Mind the Gap is a phrase Archie heard over the loudspeakers every day when entering and exiting the tube, or as they call it in America, the subway. Naturally, he thought the announcement was referring to the space between the platform and the train car. He felt the need to remind people about a small void by using announcements and signs was silly and a waste of money. Seriously, how inept would a person need to be to step out of the car and wedge their foot in a space only a few inches wide? It was totally illogical.

Logic was a large part of Archie’s life. He held a PhD in Quantum Physics and spent his days experimenting with ways to modify or bend time. The work fascinated him. Although progress was excruciatingly slow, there had recently been significant advances. Archie had discovered gaps in time. Not just periods of time where nothing appeared to happen, but actual emptiness between periods of time.

The average person might hear about this discovery and think, what’s the big deal? If it hasn’t affected me so far, why should I care? Unfortunately, they would be wrong to assume that. Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation and your mind goes blank for a second or two? As your train of thought returns, you continue with the conversation. That pause in the thought process is the mind briefly falling into a time gap. If his theory is correct, it would follow that people with Alzheimer’s are more susceptible to time gaps than the rest of us.

The discovery thrilled Archie, and he was eager to share it with the world. His strict adherence to the scientific method compelled him to wait. Archie needed to find irrefutable proof he was correct before releasing his findings. The best way to do this would be to recreate a mind suffering from the dreaded disease. Positive no one would volunteer to be the test subject, Archie experimented on himself.

Using a combination of drugs and sound waves, he managed to replicate the effects of the disease without actually coming down with it. The best part was that while in this mindless state, Archie could dive into the void of time to explore what was there. Was the gap simply an abyss of nothingness, or did it contain unknown wonders?

Archie’s first trip into the void was brief and yielded no results. It didn’t disappoint him. Out of an abundance of caution, Archie wanted to make sure he could return before trying extended stays. It was on his third journey into the void that all his research paid off.

Floating in the emptiness between time was a woman diligently working on an invention. Archie watched with interest as the woman completed her creation and installed it on a 1903 Ford Model A. He had no idea that a woman had created the windshield wiper. This inventor, but not the invention, became lost in the void of time.

Each trip into the gap showed him something new. Archie discovered the origins of common phrases like Bar and Grill. The first time they used the term, it described a cabinet where roadside inns stored liquor bottles. At the end of the night, the proprietor would pull down a metal grill and slide iron bars through eyelets, padlocking them in place.

Archie watched as cement was first invented by a slave that has fallen into the gap of time. So many inventors, and so many occurrences, slowly drift, forgotten in the void that time has created. He continued his research, becoming more entwined with the things and people that time had let slip into the gap. Archie realized how easy it was for Alzheimer’s patients to remain lost in the void of time. Growing older, Archie wondered if he and his work would be remembered, or if he would fall in the gap, and be lost in the void of time.