The Problem of Four

Haru ruminates in a darkened corner of the café, away from the wooden counter and the queue of customers. We lock eyes as I wander over. He stirs his tea three times in a circular motion with a silver spoon.

"Were we supposed to meet again so soon?" I ask as I take a seat at the table, putting my satchel of books down beside me.

"No. That's the problem."

Chaotic jazz music lilts overhead from speakers attached to the wall. I don't know who the artist is, but the melodies and rhythms seem to collide and bounce off each other. My eyes lift, and all I can hear is the music.

"I guess you've figured it out," Haru says.

"No, I haven't. Please explain it to me like I'm five."

"That's just it! You were five when we last met. Now you look twelve."

Now that he mentions it, I see a few silver hairs on his head, some whites in his thin beard. I shrug.

"Don't you get it, Aidan? We weren't supposed to meet until much later, but we've both aged!" He cracks his knuckles, eyes darting around the café.

"Well," I say, gulping my coffee down. "I hope I look as good as you when I'm older."

"You think this is a joke? What if our lives collide into each other? What happens then?"

I tap my fingernails on the coffee cup. "I suppose I can imagine it...the future, I mean. But we don't know for sure."

Haru leans back in his chair. "I'm not due to meet him again for some time. Who knows, he may be dead by then."

"I'm also not supposed to," I say. I look out the window. A black cat stares at me from the pavement, and I follow it as it crosses the road to the university library. "Was the library always there?" I ask.

"Oh, fuck," Haru cries. "I have to leave. I have to get out of here!" He runs out, leaving me alone in the café. I sip my coffee but it tastes cold.

The library consists of a series of hexagonal galleries; twenty dark mahogany bookshelves, five on each side, with desks in the middle. I delve into a book written in Spanish. The reading lamp next to me flickers as Miguel walks in, his white cane tapping.

"My dear boy. Always a pleasure."

"You aren't surprised to see me again soon?"

He shrugs. His mouth gapes a little as usual, but his eyes have become glazed, distant. He moves with the precision of a tortoise, and when he sits down he does not face me, but instead looks off to some distant, invisible point. I can't believe how white his hair is now, like woolly clouds.

"Haru said we have a problem. We're meeting when we shouldn't be, but we're aging."

"Trust me, it's not the problem you think."

I groan. "Do you always talk in riddles, old man? What if Haru's right and something bad happens in the future?"

He licks his dry lips. "Your problem is that you can only think of the future, but you struggle to comprehend its significance. It's fine, you're young, you know nothing for now."

Well, at least his personality hasn't changed.

"I can only look back. I can look back on regrets, triumphs, failures, successes, disappointments. The end doesn't scare me. You will be like that too one day."

"I can't even think that far ahead," I sigh.

"Exactly! But still, the future is a solid point to you. Distant, but solid. Now, Haru...well, he lives in the present so he can neither think forwards nor backwards. He can only think around them, sideways."

"I just thought he was always like that."

"Not always. But what if there was someone else like us?"

"What other direction can you go besides forwards, backwards and sideways?"

Miguel sighs. "Depending on the observer, such a person can go in any direction."

"So there is someone else like us? That's what Haru is so upset about?"

"Well, he doesn't know for sure. As I said, he can only think about what's in front of him."

"What do you suggest?"

Miguel leans back in his chair and looks around the library, clutching his cane. "My sight...all the years I spent wandering this paradise...oh, the irony of it. Could I have avoided it? Or could I only have delayed it? Who knows? But maybe, maybe next time..."

"Have you seen this other individual?"

"I have."

"Where can I find them?"

"You will find them when you find them. I found them because I wasn't looking for them."

He pats me on the shoulder, and leaves me alone with the Spanish book, open at the first chapter.

We're back in the café. Haru fidgets in his seat, looking furtive as I sit down.

"Did you speak to Miguel?"

"I did."

He stirs his tea. His hand trembles. "And?"

"He said there is someone else."

"So, that's it." He looks around the café. "Where can we find them?"

"It doesn't work like that, he told me."

"Well, how then? Did he tell you? What do we need to do? Tell me, Aidan."

I take a deep breath, and exhale. "Look, Haru, maybe we shouldn't."

"Shouldn't what?"

He shakes his head at me. He downs his tea, then stands up, pushing his chair back so it grates loudly on the floor. "If you won't do it, then I will."

"What are you going to do?"

"None of your business. Remember?"

"You've lost it."

"That's the point, Aidan. You won't understand now, but you will in the future."

As he leaves, the jazz music gets louder, wilder. People in the queue start dancing, throwing each other around.

"He said that to you?" Miguel's glazed eyes look at the stacked bookshelves around him.

"Who exactly is this other person? Is it a child? An adult? An older person?"

"You're becoming agitated, Aidan. You need to calm down."

A black cat jumps up onto the table and rubs its body against Miguel. He reaches a wobbly arm towards it and picks it up one-handed, then brings it onto his lap.

"Miguel?"

"We are three bodies, you and I, and Haru. Our paths cross at certain points where it is safe to do so, where the past, present and future converge. Our paths are consistent, but with a fourth body, our paths become...chaotic."

"So, Haru is going to get rid of this fourth body?"

Miguel shrugs. "If he must."

"You aren't worried about what might happen?"

"No."

"You always were the direct one, Miguel," I say as I stand up.

He puts the cat back on the table, stands as well, leans close and whispers close to me. "You won't turn out like me, I promise."

I roll my eyes and leave him alone, gazing up at the ceiling. The cat follows me and then rubs its arched body against my leg.

My head aches. I catch a bus, and get off at Steiner Avenue. A huge gap stands between two adjacent houses where the café once stood. No sign of an explosion, no signs of destruction, just a patch of fresh-cut grass. I knock on the doors for help but nobody answers. A police car starts to follow me, so I decide to walk off slowly back towards the library but the library has also vanished. I can feel my heart thunder, but I don't know where to turn. I sit on the kerb, watching the cars go by, taxis and lorries, some I feel like I have seen them before. A woman pushing a pram throws a coin at my feet, and when I pick it up I see my own face on the head’s side. 

"So it's begun."

Haru appears next to me. His hair is mostly silver now, with strands of black. Deep bags line his haggard eyes. "Well, don't say I didn't try."

"What was it Miguel said? I can't remember."

Haru is silent for a moment. He sits on the kerb next to me and we both watch the traffic go by. "I tried to talk to him, but he refused to meet me…oh, Miguel."

I grab him by his shirt. "You mean, you did this? You caused the event?"

"He wouldn't tell me how to eliminate the other. Then I realised, it was him. It was him all along."

"You fool! You've destroyed us all!"

His eyes are distant, looking towards some invisible point. "I didn’t mean for this to happen. I'm sorry."

I leave him, furious. I wander into the public park, with evergreen trees on one side and a hedge labyrinth on the other. A woman pushes a pram past me. I go and sit on the grass. I thought back to what Miguel and Haru had both said to me over the course of our various meetings. What did Miguel tell me? It feels like he has never existed. At that moment, my life feels like it is all I have ever known. As I look up, I see Haru. He is holding a silver pistol in one hand.

"What are you doing now, Haru?"

"You know exactly what I'm doing. I've seen the end. You're the only one standing in my way."

"Wait, Haru. What are you talking about?"

"Don’t pretend. You can't remember backwards, and you can't conceive of the future. You can only focus on the present."

I shrug. "Isn't that you?"

"No. I can see the past now. I know how this ends."

"You’re talking about Miguel."

He looks at me. Now, it all makes sense.

"I had to. I thought it was him. I thought it had to be him. He was older than you and I. He had lived out his life. It was his time. I thought that would even things out. But then I saw my future…our future."

"And?"

He raises the pistol and points it at me. "I'm sorry, Aidan." He shoots but he misses. The bullet roars past my ears, and vanishes into the labyrinth. He shoots again, but the bullets just hit thin air.

"What is happening?" he roars. He continues shooting until a bullet hits him in the chest, and blood spreads out on his chest, covering the shirt like a red flower.

"Why?" he gasps, air rushing out of his lungs as he collapses.

I sit in a restaurant, alone. The tables around me are empty. A cup of herbal tea sits in front of me, steamy and fragrant. All I can think about is how delicious it will be.

"Excuse me, sir?" says a young child who appears behind me. He is wearing a school uniform, and holding a satchel of books.

"Ah, you must be Luis."

"Actually, it's Aidan. Ade, for short."

I narrow my eyes on his youthful face, the small nose and round cheeks. I smile. "Very well, Aidan."

"What's your name?"

I shrug. "I suppose you can call me Haru."