Chapter 27

Brian is happy. I am on my way to see Veronica. The telebooth in my precinct is on the blink. A mechanical voice repeats ‘I am broken’ as I step into it. So I have to schlep half way to the Pros building to find one that is working. I put in the co-ordinates and I am reconstructed in the same reception area as before. The nurse behind the desk asks me to follow her. I am clutching white orchids and a box of Belgian Chocolates.

Veronica is sitting in a lounger on the balcony to her room. The bed is made with a corner turned down and the bank of monitors have been pushed back into the wall, but the doors have been left open for easy access. Judging by the elevator we must be on the millionth floor of this mega hospital, but the view is of the sea, a bay of white sand, Mediteranean pines, amongst which are red roofed villas. I have played the Nice Jazz Festival many times and this is the view of Villefranch from the Promenade des Anglaise, with a few cosmetic tweeks.

‘What kept you?’ ask Veronica.

I give her my best smile. ‘I came running.’

‘Listen Joe, lets be serious for a moment.’ She looks serious, the smile is absent and her eyes with the deep green contact lenses look me straight in the soul.

‘I am not going to give the whys and wherefores, but you have turned out to be the saviour of the galaxy.’

I sit speechless, me a jobbing piano player the saviour of the galaxy. She is surely joking. I look for signs of a smile, a twinkle in those deep green pools, but she holds the serious face.

‘The boffins at IGBI are adamant that Fats Waller is the trigger of a phenomenon called “blow back”.  In a nutshell we are all doomed to die in a supernova of infinite proportions, unless a certain sequence of notes is played at a particular venue in 1935 on Earth..

‘Why me? Why not the real Fats Waller?

‘For one thing we can control you, the real Fats is a bit of a loose cannon, and if we recruit him, he would go his own way in spite of us.’

‘If your boffins are so fabulous why can’t they work out this sequence of notes, play them to me and with my perfect ear I can bash them out and we can all go home.’

‘There is the problem. This sequence of notes has to be spontaneous, we know approximately what the notes are, but the phrasing and order is up to Fats’.

‘So I could be in this time warp for ever.’

‘Not forever, forever wont happen, if you don’t get it right soon.’

‘As the saviour of the Universe, what’s in it for me, besides agro and a witness to many shootings.’

Veronica, gets up from the lounger and walks over to the piano. She sits on the stool and begins to play “As Time Goes By.” She has a light touch and the feeling comes over of sadness. She turns to me. ‘Time goes by Joe, and we don’t have much of it left. I was willing to sacrifice my life at the last shootout to save the Galaxy. You do have a choice. You can decline, and we all perish, or’. She lets the question hang in the air. I join her on the stool and take over the melody Veronica sings the verse.

You must remember this

A kiss is just a kiss,

A sigh is just a sigh

The fundamental things apply

As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo 


They still say, "I love you." 


On that you can rely 


No matter what the future brings 


As time goes by.

She turns to me and kisses me full on the lips. ‘I’m still bit sore so be gentle, Joe.