Who'd be a train spotter?
His whole life wasn’t spent on trains. He carried with him the old, tattered notebook containing all he had left of his mother, her handwriting. Often he was spotted, and ignored, by passers by as he stood at the end of a platform amid fellow time travelers studying the pages in his tome as they studied their own.
Dates, times, places, the names of horses, sets of six lucky numbers, sports results, winners of general elections and of reality television shows. A thousand or more snippets that could be wagered upon and provide the necessary funds to purchase railway tickets, buns and books for his journey.
Over time, these limited interactions with those around him led to him craving more conversation than just “Can I have a bun, please?”.
He began to visit public houses and libraries, parks and museums, anywhere he might be able to speak with someone for a little while. Not for long, his mission was of the utmost importance, though occasionally he would get embroiled in a situation that took him away from his life on the rails for a day or two. No big deal, he thought.
Except it was, indeed, a big deal. A few days here and a few days there added up to weeks, to months and, eventually, to years. Years even a time traveler couldn’t get back.
Years that, once old age had started to gnaw at his bones, turned out to be really very important.
So close and yet so far. No infant growing inside him that could take up the standard and complete the task, his death would bring with it his ultimate failure. He had zero chance of reaching the mid-twentieth century, let alone to the dawn of photography and the advent of the error.
But, the old man knew, there was always plan “B”.
His mother had explained her back-up plan when the old man was still a young man. He hadn’t liked the sound of it then, and the years had done nothing to change that. The old man did not like plan “B”, Plan “B” scared him. So he used plan “C” instead. Plan “C” was to find somewhere comfortable to sit while he thought up plan “D”.
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