Yesterdays’ Alchemist

“Did anything notable happen today?” Dr. Yarrow asked.

She looked at Nikolai over the top of her pad. Nikolai did not want weekly therapy session and he suspected that Dr. Yarrow did not want to see him either, but those were the rules. The higher ups thought that historical adjustment and the associated time travel was probably stressful enough that therapy should be mandatory.

Nikolai shook his head. “No, not particularly.”

Her eyebrows went up. “Nothing? Just a day at the office? Did you travel?”

He nodded.

“Where to? What year?”

Nikolai looked at his hands. “Sarajevo. June 28, 1914.”

Dr. Yarrow sat up a little straighter. “The date of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The start of World War I and all the history that led from that. That sounds pretty notable to me. Tell me what happened.”

Nikolai thought about the last twenty-four hours. He had arrived in Bosnia in 1914. It was June 28, just after dawn. He handed a letter to a policeman, then had breakfast. He took a walk in a park. In the afternoon, he did a little shopping in the Baščaršija neighborhood.

While eating dinner, he read a newspaper that said the Archduke and his wife had had a nice visit to the new State Museum. In the corner of the first page, a column mentioned that several members of the group The Black Hand had been arrested that morning. It was a good meal. The lamb was cooked to perfection.

Nikokai shook his head. “Nothing notable. It was just an ordinary day.”