The Last Train to Yesterday | Groundhog Day

Trois

Ringo finally left his room.

He didn't look okay, but he left the room.

"Rings? What rolled you over last night?" George asked when he saw the other. He looked to be holding in a laugh but couldn't properly do it.

"Your stupid jelly babies. In a steam roller. With an elephant on the bloody back," Ringo moaned and collapsed into his own chair at the table.

"I'm not sure if you're hungover, stoned or on a sugar crash," Paul wondered aloud. Ringo only shrugged his shoulders and took his own breakfast.

"No syrup-"

"No!" Ringo shouted startling George who only wanted to make conversation. "Just . . . no sugar right now."

"Okay, mate. Just asking. Looks weird without it, is all."

Ringo shook his head and rambled on about how his insides were now destroyed by sugar and he'd never forgive it. George snickered throughout it all, adding on to Ringo's misery as he added more syrup to his own pancakes.

Paul was thinking about doing the same, but John caught his eye, who barely touched his own meal.

"John?"

The guitarist's head shot up, but he didn't look as alert as he tried to. Now it was a bit obvious that he didn't get a wink of sleep with the bags under his eyes showing under the kitchen light.

"Yeah, Paul?"

"You haven't eaten anything. And you didn't get a wink of sleep. What's-"

The door to the apartment to reveal a tense Brian. He tried to put a smile on his face and seem upbeat, but it wasn't working and didn't look natural.

"Morning, Bri," Ringo said with a wave. Brian waved back and walked into the kitchen, toward the four at the table.

"I'm sure you've all heard of the news now, right?" Brian asked. His smile faltered again and he sneaked a look at John, who hardly acknowledged his presence.

"News? What news?" George asked. He leaned over the table quickly and grasped the sides like they were the only thing keeping him from going to the closed room.

"John told us just now, didn't he?" Ringo said, not even fully sure in his own answer. Both he and George looked over to Paul, who was blissfully unaware as he ate his eggs.

"What?" Paul wondered with a raised brow.

"What did John do to have the press against him? We used to do no wrong and now everyone in the US probably wants a piece of us," George prompted.

"Don't you remember that interview we did separately and not as group like we usually do?"

It didn't take long for George and Ringo to remember and nod their heads in unison.

"John said that we're more famous than Jesus in his bit."

Ringo opened his mouth to say something but was quickly hushed by the bedroom door opening. The three shuffled around so as not to look that suspicious, but John already read the room the second he got in.

"Ask away, already. Might as well get prep for what's going to happen later today."

George flinched a little, John's words still carrying a sharp edge to every syllable and no one was really sure if he knew that at all. At least, they were hoping he didn't.

"How are you going to fix this?" George asked quietly.

John's face just about dropped to the floor and looked quite content with staying there.

"I don't really know, Georgie." John murmured, suddenly losing his bite as he tried to think it over himself. "I'll just see what I can do to patch this all over."

●

Nathan woke up with a smile on his face and a crick in his neck.

The two didn't go together, and in normal circumstances, he would have cursed out any small god he knew--which were great in numbers--and asked the big one for forgiveness over whatever insanely sinful thing he did.

But now, he rubbed his neck, trying to rub out the pain as he walked over to his cat, who was still lounging on his bed without a care in the world.

"Today's the day, Abby! Zero homework, a trip to really old Chicago and meeting Ringo Starr! If I somehow caused math to stop existing, this would be the best day ever!"

The cat lazily looked over in his direction and stretched, yawning as she tried to get more comfortable.

"Exactly, think of the peace it'd make!"

Abby pawed at a stray thread on his blanket, suddenly giving up the idea of comfort as Nathan continued to chatter aloud.

"Maybe I could introduce cell phones and they advance it faster than anyone could imagine!"

The tabby cat stopped everything it was doing to stare down her owner.

"Yeah, maybe that's too far."

He walked out off his room, rushing down the stairs just to get outside and to school.

He suddenly stopped when he got down the stairs.

Excited to go to school? This was a new low even for him.

Nathan shrugged it off and went into the kitchen, practically dragged in by the warm and inviting scents coming from it.

"Guten tag," his mother said as she handed him his bowl of cereal.

He mumbled out something sounding like a response and began eating his breakfast as quickly as he could without choking on it.

His mother raised an eyebrow but said nothing, walking around the kitchen to see if there was anything worth doing.

"Mama, you have the signed paper, right?" Nathan asked as he came up for air. His mouth was wet with milk but he seemed unable to even feel it.

"Yes, I do," she responded, handing him the paper as she continued to look around, looking a bit lost. "You haven't forgotten the time travel device, have you?"

"Of course not! This is big, no way am I missing this for anything. Vámanos, Mama, I have the 60's waiting for me!

●

"Étudiants! Listen to me! The sooner you follow my instructions, the sooner you are there," Madame Segi yelled over the chattering students. They instantly shut their mouths when they heard this.

"Remember that this device listens to all commands without you pressing a button, so long as you're touching it. D'accord? So stay quiet now.

"Turn on your device and check to see that it properly has today's date. Any other date and . . . Well, I'd rather not say.

"Now that you have checked, to type in the date we are going. This being August 12th, 1966." She even wrote it in the board, just in case.

But, of course, August was written in French.

"Push the green button known as the call button then, and you will be there. See you there!"

Suddenly, Nathan's classmates started to disappear to the 60's as they pressed the button to start the field trip.

It took a moment to understand how it even worked, but he figured it out, pressing the green button that would take him to who he wanted to know.

1966. We are now heading to 1966. If you have any regrets, this decade will make you feel like you didn't make a mistake. Battery percentage will be low once we get there, so only one more available long time travel stint is available. And would you like to stop downloading Hausa? I'm really tired of having to go through it all.