You Are Here

Sense

George moved over slowly, his brows furrowing.
"You aren't wrong, Paul."
"Well," Ringo began. "Are they alright?"
"I—I'm truly not too sure."
Paul looked down and over the left edge of the bench. Someone was leaned against it. Paul walked over carefully, bending down to look at the enigma.
"'S everything okay here?"
The man in front of him whipped his head up, expression quite startled.
It was, quite simply, a younger Paul. He stared blankly at his older self, visibly on the verge of losing consciousness once more
"There's an imbalance," he murmured in a slurring manner, head falling back down.
Having more of an understanding regarding the situation, Paul poked and prodded at his younger self.
His actions were useless.
Paul proceeded to press his own forehead against his own.
"Wake. Up."
The eyes of younger Paul shot open, and he let out an audible gasp.
"This isn't—what?" he blurted out, not expecting an older version of himself to be directly in front of him.
"Um, hello!"
Paul backed away slightly from his younger self to give him more space.
"You're in New York City! It's 2023!" he exclaimed, gesturing widely.
Younger Paul sat, trying to absorb the immense detail. He then decided to purely accept what had happened.
It was only more time travel.
Older Paul held out a hand for his younger self, who dizzily stared at it.
"You've got a lot to learn, sonny, so you'd better take my hand."
Younger Paul slowly took his hand, and stood up unsteadily.
"You—I've come from Hamburg, right?" Paul asked in a bright mannerism.
"Yes. I suppose I have," younger Paul confirmed.
"Sure looks like it, teddy boy," older Paul smirked, examining himself.
That phrase caught younger Paul off-guard, as he didn't expect those words to ever come out of his own self.
"Shall we go check on the others, then?" older Paul mentioned, backing slightly away.
"Why not?"
Older Paul noticed that there were not two, but three variations of John. Seeing this was very intriguing to him.
He softly flicked the shoulder of John from his present—1964. John stirred slightly, and it was noticeable that travel through time had taken more of a toll on him—he'd done it thrice.
His eyes slowly opened, and they appeared wiser.
John had seen the inner-workings of time itself. The mind within him was nearly at its limits. It spun and twisted and reached.
John's eyes were now entirely open, and he was observant.
"Hello, Paul."
It was all that he could say that would truly make sense. The only sensible phrase. A
familiar one, too.
Still, all was familiar to him. John saw. He experienced.
A simple greeting was still more homely. It was universal.
"How are you, John?" Paul smiled.
Emotions were difficult now. Was he to choose the exhilaration of a concert? The nervousness beforehand? Homesickness?
No. John had to focus on the present.
One may think of this as an easy feat. Be aware of your surroundings.
Doing that was much harder when time swam in your head. John wasn't only the present—he was the past and future, all together.
Pull yourself together, John heard a voice in his head say.
It was familiar, but he didn't think it himself.
He still had to answer Paul's one question.
"Messy," John responded distantly.
A truthful fact.
Now, John had gotten that out of the way.
He could focus on the mysterious thought. John's eyes darted across Paul.
His older self.
Of course.
Why else would it sound so very similar to his?
John's attention was pulled back into the present, and became more aware of his surroundings.
It was where he was before the accidental travel to Hamburg.
John knew that he had to get up soon, but all of his surroundings were too pleasant. The sun's warmth, the harder, yet still alright-feeling ground, the blue sky, and most of all—
"John."
"Hm?"
"Are you alright?" Paul asked in a somewhat worried tone.
John breathed deeply. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"For one, you're incredibly spaced out. You, in a non rude way, look a bit lost," Paul pointed out.
"Makes sense," John murmured quietly, standing up.
He nearly fell.
This was for two reasons—one was self explanatory.
Another was his vision.
John was already disoriented, but having unclear vision didn't help at all. He couldn't help but notice the detail of his older self wearing glasses. That was something he never thought he'd ever actually do.
He squinted, and found that his older self was chatting with George and Ringo.
"Are you sure you're okay, John?" Paul inquired.
"I've said I'm fine, haven't I?"
"It looks like your mind is someplace entirely else, that's all. You also just nearly fell."
John's attention was snapped now entirely back into this interaction in a fuller way.
He felt like he hadn't seen Paul in years.
"How long was I away for?" John asked as the thought came into his head.
"Eh, it's been an hour or two. I haven't got a watch or anything like that on me right now."
These words shocked John. He had no idea that he was gone for that long.