Inigo Frank is to time travel what Elon Musk is to space jaunts. Frank’s company, Tempus Tours, indulges the whims of the wealthy, offering them the opportunity to witness history first hand. Harry Allen, a history buff, books a trip for himself, his girlfriend, Beatrice, his son, Luke, and Luke’s wife, Sasha. Their destination? March 8, 1941, London in the middle of the Blitz.
Their journey transports them to Café de Paris, located underneath the Rialto on Coventry Street. Ahead of time, the group is briefed on the how the trip will unfold. When the bombing begins, their guide, Tom Walker, will lead them through a tunnel to the spot where an aperture will open, safely returning them to present day London.
Why 1941? The Regulation of Time Travel Act, limited time travel destinations to the 1940s, a time period thought to be far away enough not to create “glitches” that might disrupt future events. Participants on Tempus Tours’ trips were warned not to do anything to attempt a change in the future. When Sasha asks whether they could try to save people from the bombing, Tom replies: “They’re already dead….We’re among ghosts.”
The trip seems routine, until it’s not. Tom guides them to the aperture in time, but Sasha is left behind, while her husband, Luke, is badly injured. For Tempus Tours, this disaster couldn’t happen at a worse time. Phoebe Hunt, an award-winning filmmaker, was enlisted by Frank to be a “fly on the wall,” and document his achievements. What Phoebe doesn’t tell Frank is that she recognizes Sasha and the missing woman is not who she appears to be. Why did Sasha decide to stay in 1941? Phoebe doesn’t know but suspects it has something to do with her, payback for what happened years ago when the two were children.
Phoebe’s father, Roger, had once run Parkholme House, where parents and their children came to live simply, away from the distractions and temptations of a society that celebrated wealth rather than humanity. Since Parkholme House was located in an affluent section of London, neighbors abhorred Hunt’s Living Family. Sasha lived there with her mother, Lulu, and Phoebe made it her business to torture the other girl, a childhood mistake that still haunts her. When Parkholme was set on fire, Sasha was trapped in the attic after Phoebe locked the door. Sasha managed to escape by jumping out of a window, badly injuring herself.
Phoebe’s mother had rushed in to save Sasha and died in the fire. Roger disappeared and was believed to have set the fire and run off with everyone’s money. Phoebe, in an attempt to understand and perhaps vindicate her father, made a documentary about him, “A Complicated Man.” That film attracted the attention of Frank, who sought her to document his achievement creating Tempus Tours.
Ellery Lloyd, the husband-wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos, deftly handle the narrative, bouncing between past and present and excerpts from “A Complicated Man” and Phoebe’s work for Frank. While time travel still seems a way off, with AI now steering much of what happens on line and in real life, no one can be sure. What Time to Burn brilliantly accomplishes is illustrating the pros and cons of what time travel could bring about. Phoebe experiences both extremes as she attempts to clear her father of possible crimes but might, in the process, lose someone else she loves.
Time to Burn
Ellery Lloyd
Top Bigstock photo by pitris
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