The Jumper

Aimee was aware of the cool glass against her face and the rumbling of a vehicle in motion before she opened her eyes. She tried to quiet her discomfort as she pieced together her last moments of consciousness, in which she had snuggled under her warm duvet from the comfort of her tiny Manhattan apartment. She slowly opened her eyes, her mind racing to take in the scenery around her. She was on a train.

Aimee’s pulse raced as she tried to figure out how she had gotten here. She felt her chest constricting as anxiety flooded her nervous system. As adrenaline coursed through her, Aimee’s fight-or-flight response kicked into gear, and she felt herself freeze completely. Aimee felt paralyzed by uncertainty and it was taking everything in her to try and regain control.

Breathe, she thought. You’ve spent your entire life preparing for this moment. Get yourself together.

Aimee tried to revert to her training as she assessed her surroundings, but her thoughts remained jumbled by a mix of anxiety, although excitement was also beginning to creep in. Meredith had emphasized that for the first jump, it was critical to remain focused, remember your training, and determine your goal. She began mentally repeating Meredith’s words, letting the memory of Meredith’s voice calm her nervous system so that she could focus.

The first step in her training was to determine when she was. Aimee looked around her at the railcar, which aside from herself, appeared completely empty. Instead of the stiff, sterile seats of economy travel in 2022, she was surrounded by richly upholstered armchairs and mahogany dining tables. The car was spacious, with twelve passenger seats arranged on both sides of the aisle in three groups of two chairs sharing a dining table. The aisle had a beautifully ornate rug running the length of the railcar, showing little to no signs of wear. Hanging from each of the six windows were dark, silk curtains, appearing almost new and obviously expensive. In the center of the car was a cast iron radiator, whirring and groaning to heat the railcar.

From the style of the furniture in the railcar, I’m likely in the early 20th century, Aimee mused. She felt the newness of the furnishings and fixtures implied the car was either very new or seldom used, but her intuition told her that she was on a commercial train and so she inferred that newness was more likely. Thinking again to her training, she knew that rail travel was glamorous up until the Great Depression wreaked its havoc on the industry. She allowed herself to settle on the timeframe, though her confidence in her abilities wavered.

The truth was, Aimee was not very confident yet in applying her training. After all, this was her first jump. Although Aimee had been preparing for this day for her entire life, now that it was here, she was overwhelmed with the gravity of the situation. Being a jumper was her destiny. Every member of her family, spanning as far back as they could trace their lineage, had been a jumper. She knew that this jump had to be successful, and while their training was designed to ensure her success, she knew the horror stories of jumpers who failed on their first jump or even worse, jumpers who created enormous and irrevocable ripples.

The second step in Aimee’s training was to determine where she was. Aimee knew she was on a train, but she did not see any signage to indicate the primary language, nor did the furniture signal anything other than quiet luxury. From what she could see from the window, the sky was a dreary gray. The rolling countryside, with occasional glimpses of the coast in the distance, did not offer much either in terms of clues for her geographical location. She assumed she was likely in Europe, but she would need to locate others on the train to be able to focus her efforts.

While much was unknown about the society of the jumpers, elder members of the society have devoted their lives to studying the history and intricacies of jumping, after their jumping career dwindled. From their studies, they’ve determined that jumpers tend to jump close to their own lineage. Aimee's background was a blend of Western European genealogy that required her to study the history of the majority of Europe, and she often struggled with remembering the details of the constant wars and revolutions. While these studies offered insight for new jumpers to help align their training plans with where they would likely jump, so much about the society was unknown. What the elders had been able to determine was that sometimes, the natural timeline of society starts to turn in the wrong direction. At that point, some force – be it nature, alien, or God – intervenes, sending a jumper to a pivotal moment in history to force a course correction. The society did not question the root cause of their dispositions, they simply learned what they could, trained how they could, and tried to be prepared for the moment that their biological destiny forced them into the past.

The last step in her training was to determine the significance of the moment where she jumped. For Aimee, this was the hardest concept to grasp during her years of training. The training program was designed to give jumpers knowledge of society spanning all written history. Aimee was adept at identifying her surroundings based on furniture, technology, the phrases in conversation she’d overhear – she had mastered the art of context clues quickly and always excelled in any exercise where she was tasked with identifying a time or place. Aimee struggled, however, with remembering the depth of the history they studied. Their studies started with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and moved slowly through western history to the modern era, as jumpers had no control over where they may find themselves.

Aimee again heard Meredith’s voice, speaking clarity into the jumbled thoughts bouncing through Aimee’s mind - “Utilize the context of your surroundings. Use your senses – what do you hear? What do you smell? What do you feel?” - Meredith was Aimee’s favorite elder, a woman in her late 60s, who had jumped into moments in history that every American knew.

Aimee closed her eyes and tried to listen to her other senses. She could hear a faint whining through the normal roar of the gasoline-powered engine. The whine was unusual – it didn’t fit with the rhythm of the engine, coming instead at random intervals and varying degrees of sharpness. Something about the whine sent chills down Aimee’s spine, and she hoped she was being dramatic.

With her eyes still closed, Aimee tried to focus on the sensations she was feeling as the train maneuvered through the countryside. When Aimee had first awoken on the train, the movement was soothing and smooth. Now though, Aimee noticed that the train was moving faster, jostling and bumping along the tracks. She had originally assumed she was on some kind of high-speed rail, but now Aimee wondered if the haunting whine from the engine and the gradual increase in speed indicated something more concerning was forthcoming.

Opening her eyes and stretching, Aimee decided to explore the train. As she stood and started to move, the train lurched, tossing Aimee into the seat beside her. The train appeared to be taking a sharp turn, and at this speed was struggling to stay on the tracks. Aimee was worried that if the train did not start slowing down, it would not make it through the next turn. As Aimee headed toward the railcar exit leading to the next car, she tried to think through her training of any European train collisions, but the sheer number of crashes in the early 20th century made it difficult for her to pinpoint. Aimee had no idea how she would figure out how she was supposed to intervene if she couldn’t even decipher the event she had been thrust into.

For Aimee, the most fascinating and nerve-wracking element of jumping was the uncertainty surrounding what the ultimate goal is – Aimee thought back to an example of one of Meredith’s own jumps. Meredith had jumped into a restaurant in Southampton, England in April of 1912. She began speaking with a man seated at the bar, who drunkenly bragged of the upcoming maiden voyage of a ship that he owned. Meredith had explained that while she had no way to know for sure that this was her goal, she trusted her intuition and advised the man to postpone his trip to the United States. When she returned to her present day, she was able to confirm the purpose of the jump, as she had been the key reason that J. Pierpont Morgan skipped the sailing of the Titanic. He then went on to testify about collusion in the financing industry, the result of which led to the creation of the US Federal Reserve System.

Aimee had spent years training, focusing on learning as much from history as she could. She knew that even the smallest moments or conversations could be the reason for the jump. She also knew that when the jump went poorly, there were ripples in the timeline that created mass uncertainty, known popularly as the Mandela Effect, after a poorly executed jump caused a shift that changed the fate of Nelson Mandela. Before that jump, Mandela had died in prison. After the jump, Mandela was still alive, though most of the public conscious clearly remembered that he had passed away. No one in the society could figure out what had gone wrong, but the size of the ripple made it clear that the jumper had made a mistake. A good jump would cause the shift in the timeline to be almost imperceptible, the ripples tiny. For Aimee, it was critical that her first jump go smoothly. She may never know why the timeline needed to change; even the elder jumpers didn’t understand the forces that caused them to jump. Aimee did know, however, that every jump had a purpose and finding hers was her top priority.

Aimee entered the next cabin, a dining car, and was happy to find people speaking Italian. As part of her training, Aimee had spent years learning French, German, Italian, and a few other languages, but she primarily enjoyed speaking the Italian language and it came naturally to her. She sat at a corner table and ordered a tea from the waiter, who returned with a white china tea-set, sugar cubes, and loose-leaf tea.

Aimee prepared then sipped her tea, focusing on observing the conversations of the fellow diners. One of the diners was lamenting on the rise to power of a German dictator. Aimee realized from the conversation that it must be the mid-1930s, as Hitler effectively came to power in 1933, whereas Italy did not unite with the Axis powers until 1940. Aimee again tried to sift through her knowledge of European rail disasters during this time, but the options remained too vast.

The train lurched again, causing some of Aimee’s tea to splash onto the white linen tablecloth. A fellow passenger cursed loudly, blaming the conductors for rushing after a late departure. Through the window, Aimee could now see the coastline clearly, the rushing water of the sea lapping at the Italian shore. Suddenly, she realized the disaster she was about to witness.

In February 1934, near Populonia, Italy, a gasoline-powered railcar going 120 km/h collided with another train and caught fire. Of the 48 passengers onboard the train, there were no survivors. It was the most fatal crash in Europe for that year, and the deadliest crash in Italy for the entire decade. Aimee looked at the fellow diners in the car surrounding her, all in the midst of jovial conversation and unaware of their impending fate. She felt a sinking in her stomach – how was she supposed to prevent a train collision?

Her waiter approached offering more hot water to refresh her tea, to which she politely declined but asked when the train was expected to arrive at the next station. “Quindici minuti” replied the waiter.

Great, thought Aimee sarcastically. She had only a few minutes to prevent a disaster, as her memory of the event became clearer in her mind. The crash had occurred near the Populonia station, just a few minutes before the train was set to arrive. Historians alluded that the speed of the train was a major factor, as the conductor could not slow the train to prevent the collision. Coupled with the gasoline that was powering the train, mere minutes after the crash the train was a burning inferno, and if any passengers had survived the initial impact, they were caught in the blaze and burnt. She hurriedly finished her cup of tea, set a few centesimo on the table from the currency that happened to be in her pocket, and decided she would try to find the conductor. If she were going to stop the collision, that seemed the best place to start.

Aimee left the dining car and moved into the next car, which again was close to empty. She figured that for a train with this number of passengers, there were likely two more cars separating her from the conductor. If she were going to have an impact, she would have to move quickly. An old woman slept in the back row of the car, and Aimee felt a pinch in her heart as she again pondered the fate of those on the train. Decidedly focused on her goal, Aimee continued quickly toward the front of the train.

The next car, however, caused Aimee to pause. This car was near full, with a number of children and several young mothers scattered throughout the car. While most were sleeping, she smiled at one child whose eyes were following her as she walked toward the front exit. The child smiled back, a gleeful and innocent coo escaping his mouth, and suddenly Aimee’s intuition shifted. Whatever had told her to head toward the conductor was now keeping her here, in this car. She did not know why but she was certain that she needed to be in this car – that was why she had jumped.

Aimee began to assess her surroundings. Again, the car was extravagantly furnished with upholstered chairs and wooden tables. “The moment that the fire reaches this car, the entire car will erupt in flames,” thought Aimee grimly. She knew there were only a few minutes at most until the disaster, and she was trying to determine a plan for those in the car. She did not know how, but she knew she had to try somehow to save them. Someone on this car was worth saving; one of these mothers or these children needed to survive the collision. Their fate would shift the timeline.

Suddenly, Aimee heard a loud groan, followed by the screech of metal against metal as the train conductor abruptly applied the emergency brake. From the window, Aimee could see the sparks flying along the car from the grinding metal. The car began to jolt suddenly and haphazardly, shifting sharply to the left and then over-correcting to the right. Aimee was toppled over in the aisleway, nearly knocking one of the young mothers out of their seats as she fell. Though the train car continued to maneuver sharply in several directions, Aimee fought to regain her balance and strategize on the safest place. The train was slowing down quickly, but Aimee knew it would not slow quickly enough and she was not sure how long she had until the impact occurred. A few of the children began to wail, their fear being driven by the fear of their mothers and the chaotic movement; they could sense that something wasn’t right.

Aimee spotted a corner in the railcar that appeared large enough for the entire group and she began calmly but forcefully telling the mothers to grab their children and move to the corner. Looking at the structural elements of the car, Aimee felt this corner to be the safest spot for the collision. She knew that they did not have much time, likely less than a minute, but to her surprise the mothers and children moved quickly to the corner, everyone crouching as low to the ground as they could. Aimee stood closest to the aisle, standing watch over the group, and braced for impact.

Time seemed to slow as the sounds of the careening train being forced to stop too quickly overtook the air. Aimee could barely hear herself think. While the impact likely only took seconds, for Aimee, it felt like the time between the sound of the engine car colliding and the sharp movement of the impact of their car into the car in front of theirs lasted minutes. Then, suddenly and all at once, there was the sound of an explosion ahead and their car lurched drastically, throwing Aimee and her group against the chairs in front of them. At the front of the car, the exit door crumpled into the car in front of it. A second impact knocked them again forward, though the chairs seemed to hold the group in place, lessening the force of their movements. The rear door was now a mess of metal and broken glass, crumpled and impenetrable. Aimee could smell the smoke coming from ahead, and she knew their time was short to exit the train, but she was not sure how they would escape before the fire she knew to be ahead of them quickly engulfed the car.

“Seguimi,” Aimee instructed the young mothers, hoping that they would indeed follow her lead. Smoke was beginning to cloud their vision and burn their throats, and Aimee knew the fire was not far behind, spreading from the engine, to the car immediately ahead, before it would reach theirs. With her shoulder forward and all of her body weight behind her, Aimee launched herself into the nearest window. Glass shattered around her as Aimee flew through the air and hit the ground. She rolled onto the gravel and along the tracks, her shoulder hitting the ground with a heavy impact. She felt the sharp stones scrape against her skin and her shin landed sharply against the metal track as she reverberated against the ground. Aimee rushed to her feet, ignoring the intense pain coming from her body, and rushed to the window. She began lifting the children out of the car as their mothers handed them down, moving as quickly as she could to see the group out of the car. One family at a time, the mothers handed over their children and then jumped from the car themselves. They huddled behind Aimee, uncertain of what they should do. The grey sky reddened with the glow of the flames and Aimee felt the heat of the nearby fire grow stronger as it approached their cars. Aimee wasn’t sure how long it would take for the fuel storage to ignite, but she knew that the moment that it did, the entire train would be engulfed in a blaze.

“Corri!” Aimee shouted at the mothers behind her, hoping that their shock was not too overwhelming and they would be able to heed her shout to run. The two closest young mothers looked at Aimee, confused, and then began to run, each holding their youngest child and dragging the elder children behind them. The third mother followed the group, clutching her own young children close. Aimee managed to help the last family off of the train car and reached up to wipe the sweat and grime from her brow momentarily when she heard a loud bang that she assumed was the fuel storage igniting and everything went black.

Mere moments later, Aimee opened her eyes expecting to see the train ablaze against the Italian sky, but instead she was greeted with the sun shining through her Manhattan apartment window. She expected to feel the aches and pains from her fall from the train car but her body showed no signs of injury or fatigue. Mentally, though, Aimee was drained and she lay her head back against her pillow in exhaustion. Aimee had finished her jump.

Racked with anxiety, Aimee googled the accident and came upon a Wikipedia page detailing train accidents in the 1930s. She scanned the list before finally finding what she was looking for. As she read the blurb, her heart sank with the knowledge that the crash had still occurred and claimed the lives of 34. However, as she read, she smiled to herself to see that whereas before she had jumped, the crash had no survivors, there now were 14. There were no additional links, no additional articles, and Aimee felt a tad disappointed to not know more about the women and children she had watched flee from the burning train. She had hoped that with modern technology, at least she would be able to clearly see the ripples as these children and mothers grew old and their lineage continued.

Aimee’s thoughts again turned to Meredith and her training. Meredith had once explained that after a jump, you may never know the ripples that were caused. You may never know the shift in the timeline that occurs from someone’s fate changing. Aimee just needed to trust that for whatever reason, those children and their mothers needed to survive. Perhaps their lineage needed to continue, or perhaps they themselves set in motion grand inventions or brought grand ideas. Aimee hoped over the next few days that she’d be perceptive enough to realize the shift, but even if she couldn’t, Aimee was happy to know her first jump was complete and apparently a success.

Aimee rose from her bed, spread her curtains to let in more of the mid-morning daylight, and smiled to herself. She had to write-up the details of what occurred for the archives in society and she would have a presentation later in the day to the elders detailing her jump and her decision process. But for now, Aimee was filled with joy. Finally, Aimee was a jumper.