1 .- In another place and another time.
In 1985, my old high school friend, David Dezorzi, we were very impressed by a science fiction movie called "Back to the Future." The film told the story of an American scientist (yes, believe it or not) that built a machine to travel back in time, the young scientist's assistant used the device to move to 1955 and rectify the disastrous family history.
remember that during long nights with David discussed the details of the plot. On one such occasion he and freshman of Technology, said that making a time machine was not as crazy as it might be supposed. Skeptical, I replied saying that only ignorance and challenged him to try.
- Why do not you dare? - I said, like a game.
- is not it?
- David "I replied with something mellow voice (we were not used to take) if you can build a machine that can bring a person back in time, hic, I, your friend, hic, hic, your brother! Gustavo, I'll be the first guy to travel in it ...
was, of course, a mere bravado of the boy was still, but the fact is that David took it seriously.
went to his desk, ran, pulled a sheet from a notebook and wrote my proposal.
- A signature? - Said handing me the pen.
- Why not? - I said before I fall asleep. And stamped my name at the bottom of the page. After
forgot the matter, I thought forever.
One afternoon many years ago for me, David, twenty years older, bearded, disheveled and dirty, but with the same unmistakable in their bright blue eyes, rang in my apartment. I was certainly happy I did see it and go.
I must say I had not yet married, secretly deplored, and lived in a comfortable apartment on Avenida Libertador in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina at the time, enjoying a delicious image consultant salary and other businesses less transparent.
- Hi, David, "I said excitedly over ...- hesitated-how have not seen you?
- Nineteen years and three months, twenty days, "he looked at his watch fourteen hours since we met last time.
- What should, che! did not need to be as accurate over time.
- time, "said accepting the seat offered him, is the most important thing for me ...
then engaged in a long account of his life in which it was perceived that, really, the time had become his personal obsession.
I have nothing against the obsessions, the mine had been, since leaving the School of Social Communication, make money, and she had sacrificed everything he possessed or could have, but in the case of David Search of the keys to travel through time continuum had displaced all other interests.
After leaving the Polytechnic, studied Nuclear Engineering Dezorzi UTN (and Viviana married my high school sweetheart ), Advanced Physics in Germany, Network Theory at MIT (an institute as was then the United States) and Epistemology in La Sorbonne. In return the Argentina, after rejecting offers from major laboratories in Europe and Japan, landed a research position at CONICET (until his show was canceled by the Minister of Economy Cavallo in 1999) and a professor at University of Rosario who reported a salary of about $ 700 (below poverty line), of which half spent at home and food and the rest to equip his modest laboratory.
I must say that I really touched their dedication and effort, and I grieved his bad luck.
My life had been different and, during the Roaring 90's, had flourished beyond the avaricious dreams you might have. Three departments, a home in a Country, several hectares in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, two cars (one, sports), a yacht (small, 20 meters), a successful marketing and advertising agency, with flowering Internet departments and multimedia, and now, thinking about the advisability of investing part of my winnings (obtained in the soybean market) to buy a private plane. Something like shame, I confess, I was struck with the story of my friend and I knew, beyond the abysmal differences, they both nevertheless, we were as alone as in those evenings of 1985.
- That wanted to talk, then said Gustavo David-do you remember this - and took his clothes a worn gray piece of paper he held in his lower right, my own firm twenty years ago.
- No I know that's it, David, "I lied.
- Yes I know, "he said, rejecting my claim ignorance and hope you continue to be the guy I met, the Gustavo you never went back on a promise.
he wanted to say that since then, I had broken my word so many times I could not really remember when was the last time I told the truth, but to not lose the only answered:
- Of course, che! - And added (did I say because I was really moved?) - How much do you need?
I regretted the moment, but it was too late, David Dezorzi came at me with the force of an avalanche and was buried under a mountain of papers, diagrams, designs computer (had used an old machine Faculty so I gave him an old notebook) and photocopies of books in German, English, Russian and Japanese showing, he said, the feasibility of traveling through time.
- ¡Es posible, Gustavo, es posible!- exclamó entusiasta- las bases teóricas existen, los componentes ya han sido inventados, los riesgos son mínimos y las posibilidades- aseguró- ilimitadas.
Al oír estas palabras: “posibilidades ilimitadas” mi cerebro entrenado percibió estas otras: “ganancias fabulosas” y comencé a prestarle mayor atención.
Ahora bien, yo era un exitoso inversionista argentino, me manejaba en el mundo real y, por supuesto, no estaba en mi naturaleza arriesgarme en un emprendimiento cualquiera, al fin y al cabo había salido indemne de la última crisis, but there was something that convinced me.
- Vos 're traveling, obviously, "he said and you will be very famous.
- celebrity "? - Answered fascinated by the words" I'm not famous, "I added, almost to myself, in the 90 was quite a kid and now the style is low profile but ... - I got carried-out in magazines, being interviewed, having many friends on Facebook ... And achieve a private audience with the President, the North, of course, sell the technology to NASA ... make a franchise receivables Stock ...
not remember the rest of the talk, do not even know if I talked with David that night, but the fact is that the next day he had in his possession a check mine, the first for something like three thousand U.S. dollars (I looked como si fuese una fortuna) mientras que yo continuaba soñando con los beneficios potenciales de una “Máquina del Tiempo”.
Un mes después, cuando había olvidado el asunto y daba, no sin nostalgia, pero satisfecho de mi generosidad, por perdido el dinero, recibí una llamada por cobrar desde Kazajstán.
- ¿Kazajstán?- I said that I must be in the Middle East, who could that be?
had, indeed, some interests in Iraq since the invasion, but Kazakhstan, so I could remember Lopez Raffo, was further ... Was not one of those unstable republics that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union? (Was another time, they should remember).
I accepted the call, I was surprised to hear from the other end of the world the voice of my old friend David.
- No lo vas a poder creer, Gustavo- me dijo a guisa de saludo- pero aquí me venden tres reactores tipo IC 45 y un condensador de movimiento con relés automáticos por sólo tres millones de rublos...
- ¿Ah sí?- respondí haciendo un rápido cálculo en dólares - ¡ah sí!- repetí cuando el cálculo estuvo hecho- ¡son thirty-three U.S. dollars! - cried, "whatever it is that, David, is a pichincha, bought two! - I said.
ignored me, of course, but there was a problem, the freight from Astana to the port of Buenos Aires ( Customs did not count because the commissioner was a friend) we are more expensive the price by 900%. Best, David argued, was to move the entire project to the steppes near Alma Ata and operate directly there.
Without really knowing why, and how my holidays were coming, not only accepted but we moved to the laboratory, four assistants to his team, a pair of students and everything (including, Viviana, the wife of David who was enthusiastic about the project, or perhaps with the free trip) to that desolate region.
When we arrived we were surprised to see that David had hired a former military base dismantled to install the complex.
As my friend found their aparatejos and their students, Vivi and I had fun walking along the dry bed of the Aral Sea or organizing trips to Tarbagai. And we became very good friends, I must say.
From time to time we left our hotel room to visit my friend and "monitor", as he said, his job.
My biggest concern was, of course, that everything was in order in the unlikely but not impossible, if the project works.
not know why I felt compelled to with David by my old Viviana promise and insisted that, since it was assumed that I had to travel in the engine, no expense was spared in its construction (which I thought would never end )
Finally, a bright winter morning, three days before the end of the year and two of my return to Buenos Aires, David was presented at the Hotel.
Vivian and I took tea when he was visibly excited announced
- Already list, Gus
- What? - Asked stupidly.
- The time machine-said-and this afternoon will travel in it.
And I could not say no.
was a kind of open cockpit, taken from an old amusement park in Rosario, connected by a tube to a giant accelerator partículas, según dijo David, y singularmente desprovista de los cuadrantes que yo esperaba encontrar.
- Algo tosca- aseguró mi amigo- pero funciona, la ensayé con éxito esta mañana.
- Really? - I said suspiciously, with what?
- With this bottle of vodka, "he said sent her a hundred years in the past and recovered from the sea-bed ...- handed me a glass-is really stale now ...
really vodka tasted terrible and I am convinced of the accuracy of the calculations my friend.
He explained that the car had only one indicator, a panel with two digital displays to mark the time point at which I was going and the length of time since my departure. The entire process, he added, was automatic.
- Y because you just will travel no further, because you would not know operate the controls.
- Well - I said then, if I travel alone I have something to ask.
- Of course, "he said what is friend?
- A pavada actually wants me to sign this contract which I CDs all rights to your time machine, profits, referrals, professional, educational and / or commercial y. ..
- Of course, Gustavo, "he said without hesitation that I would clear that the appliance is my name.
- Of course David! - I answered the call last straw, Gustavo machine what do you think?
- Barbaro was crazy, really excited.
- Eh hey, are we or are we not friends?. Gustavo Machine Industries Egoeimí what powder? Signed
immediately adding the clause, which spoke of his good heart, that if something happened to me the ownership of the equipment passed to my heirs directos, hijos si los hubiese, esposa en el caso contrario. En el apuro de la partida olvidé mencionarle un detalle; Vivi y yo acabábamos de casarnos...
A las quince y treinta, hora de Asia Central, los cuatro reactores nucleares comenzaron a funcionar, dejando momentáneamente sin luz a la región oriental del país, y el acelerador de partículas empezó a ronronear como una gatita mimosa. Viviana se había acercado para despedirme y me observaba, sonriendo, junto a mi amigo David Dezorzi.
Convinimos, como un homenaje a la película que nos inspirase (bueno, no a mí, pero sí a David) en que viajaría hasta el año 1955.
- " Which place will arrive, David? - I wanted to know, I would have liked New York, but of course, the scientist he was.
- The machine does not move in space, "he said, but in time.
not understand your answer, but since the unit began to shake as if he remembered his good old days at the amusement park.
remember that at that moment I wondered about the absence of journalists, but with a couple of wars so close it was strange that they had not attended the maiden voyage of a time machine and return convened.
- way I asked as the unit began to vibrate more and more quickly, "how can I return?
- No I know, "said David with a nasty smile Do you remember your proposal? - and I quote -" a device that allows a man to move backward in time ", you said nothing to move toward the future so it did not develop this concept-ended Vivian hugging and laughing out loud.
not remember any more because at the time the trip began.
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