Droste Effect by James Rumpel
Iteration 1A – 0 Intersections.
“I told you it was a bad idea to cut through the Physics building,” complained Dusty while trying another door, only to find it locked, just like all the others.
“It’s raining,” replied Kyle. “This is better than getting soaked walking back to my dorm. There has to be a door or stairway out of here somewhere.”
Dusty shook his head and said, “How can you be a junior and still not know your way around?”
“I don’t study any science, and, besides, I am a little wasted,” was Kyle’s explanation. “Anyhow, you’re the one who insisted we walk downtown for two-for-one night. If we’d have taken your car, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
It was Dusty’s turn to go on the defensive. “I didn’t want to waste the gas. It’s over a hundred miles back to my school, and I’m down to my last twenty bucks.”
The pair turned a corner only to find another long hall with rows of closed doors.
“Hey, wait,” said Kyle, holding up a hand. “There’s a light coming from underneath the door at the far end. Maybe it’s the stairwell. I know if we get up to the main floor, I’ll be able to find our way out.”
Dusty started to point out that there was no EXIT sign hanging above this particular door, but Kyle rushed forward and tried the handle. To both young men’s relief, the door clicked open.
To both of their disappointment, it did not lead out of the basement but into a rather large lab. A machine, the size of Dusty’s aforementioned gas-guzzling car, sat in the room’s center. Three of the walls were filled with computer screens, blinking lights, and various dials. The central machine was also lit up like a Christmas tree, with a large monitor positioned above an illuminated keyboard.
“Whoa,” exclaimed Kyle. “This looks cool. I wonder what it does.”
“I’d say this is Dr. Equiminous Brown’s time machine,” answered Dusty.
“How’d you know that?” asked Kyle, flabbergasted.
Dusty pointed to a sign posted next to the machine. “CAUTION: Dr. Equiminous Brown’s Time Machine. Do Not Touch.”
“Well, let’s get out of here,” said Dusty, turning toward the door.
“Why?”
“Can’t you read,” said Dusty. “We shouldn’t be in here.”
“Oh, come on,” countered Kyle. “This can’t be real. It’s all got to be some kind of joke. Maybe someone’s setting up an escape room or a Halloween prank. You don’t really believe that some professor at this two-bit school has built a time machine in the Physics building basement.”
“The sign says to leave it alone.”
Kyle ignored Dusty’s advice and made his way over to a cluttered desk. “Hey, this looks interesting,” he announced. “It looks like some sort of journal or experiment log.”
“Do you need me to read it to you?” asked Dusty. He smiled, but his mood had definitely soured.
“Ha Ha.” Kyle picked up the notebook and flipped through the most recent entries. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “According to this, Dr. Brown was here tonight and used the machine to send himself two-hundred years into the future.”
“Give me that.” Dusty ripped the book from his buddy’s hands. “That doesn’t make sense. What kind of scientist would do something like that without assistants or some kind of safety protocol?”
“A mad one,” answered Kyle. He took the journal back and continued reading it while he walked over to the time machine’s monitor and keyboard. “It looks easy enough to use. All you have to do is enter the time to which you want to send something and the time to have it return, if you’re sending it to the future. It looks like you stand or put something on that red circle painted on the floor, and that thing-of-a-bob hanging over it does the transportation.”
“I thought you didn’t believe this thing.”
“I don’t. That’s why I’m going to play with it. Give me something so that I can send it five minutes into the future.”
“No,” said Dusty. “We shouldn’t be messing with it.”
“Oh, come on. Quit being a scaredy-cat. Give me your wallet.”
“No,” insisted Dusty, “I need that.”
“We both know the machine isn’t going to work. I just want to see what kind of special effects it has. And besides, even if it did work, you’ll get your billfold back in five minutes.”
“Okay,” said Dusty, hesitantly. “But after that, we leave. No more fooling around.”
“Sure,” said Kyle.
Dusty handed Kyle his wallet and watched as his friend set it on the red circle. Kyle was extremely careful not to enter the circle himself.
Kyle went to the keyboard and typed in the time and date, setting the destination for five minutes ahead. He didn’t input a return time since it was only going to be a short trip forward. Finally, Kyle clicked an icon labeled “Initiate Transference.”
The two friends were hoping to see some sort of amazing light show, but they were disappointed on that front. However, they did get to observe something even more shocking. A faint red light engulfed Dusty’s wallet, and then it disappeared.
“Wow,” said Kyle, “how cool is that?”
“Not very,” said Dusty. “I just lost my last twenty bucks.”
Kyle held up his index finger. “We don’t know that. It might be back in five minutes. All we have to do is wait.”
The boys stood quietly while the five minutes passed. Without warning, the red light appeared again, and Dusty’s wallet miraculously materialized out of nowhere.
Dusty started to reach for it, but Kyle stopped him.
“I have an idea. How’d you like to double your money?”
“How?”
“What if we send your wallet back five minutes. Then you’ll have yours and the one that comes back from the future.”
“What?” asked Dusty.
“Watch this. I’m sure it will work.” Kyle changed the time on the monitor to five minutes in the past and hit the “Initiate” icon. Once again, the wallet disappeared.
Kyle grinned. “Now all we have to do is wait for it to come back, and we’ll have two wallets.”
“You idiot,” shouted Dusty. “If the wallets are both five minutes ago, we don’t have them. You are such a jerk.”
Kyle’s grin faded. “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
Iteration 2A – Intersection: 1.
“The sign says to leave it alone,” insisted Dusty.
Kyle started walking toward a paper-laden desk, but before he got there, a strange red light emanated from the machine. When it stopped, a small object appeared in the center of a red circle painted on the floor.
“What’s that?” asked Kyle.
“It looks like a wallet,” replied Dusty. He bent over for a closer look. “Actually, it looks like my wallet.” He felt his pants pocket to verify that his billfold was still there. It was.
Dusty picked up the second wallet. Inside, he found his driver’s license, his student ID, a twenty-dollar bill, and a Pizza Land rewards card. This was definitely his wallet. A quick check verified that it was identical to the one already in his possession.
“What the heck is going on?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” began Kyle, but then he stopped. “Or, maybe I do. Could it be that you sent your wallet back in time so that you could duplicate the money? Think about it, Dude. What a great scam. You’ve doubled your cash. Let’s send both of them back again so we can get sixty dollars.”
“That doesn’t seem like it would work,” said Dusty.
“Oh, let’s give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Iteration 1A – Intersection: 1.
“So, all you did was lose me, my wallet, and twenty dollars,” whined Dusty.
“Wait,” said Kyle. “There’s got to be a way to fix that.”
“I don’t see how.” Dusty started heading toward the door.
“I got it,” shouted Kyle. “What if I go back in time, to just after the time I sent your wallet to, and get your money. Then I can set the timer to come back to the future and give it to you.”
“I really don’t think a person should use the machine,” insisted Dusty.
“Why not? Dr. Brown thought it was safe enough to use on himself.”
“How do we know it worked. Dr. Brown could be dead, or his molecules spread all over the universe for all we know.”
“I really want to do it. I feel bad for losing your last twenty bucks. If we’d have known this was going to happen, we could have had a few more beers.”
“I don’t know,” said Dusty, looking back and forth between the machine and the exit. He felt the empty pocket where his wallet should have been. “I suppose I do need to get my driver’s license back.”
“Great. I’ll be back with your wallet in a couple of minutes.” Kyle set the time machine to take him back one minute after the wallet would have appeared in the past.
“Be careful,” warned Dusty.
“Don’t be such a worry-wart. What could go wrong?”
Iteration 2A – Intersection: 2.
Kyle and Dusty watched the two wallets disappear.
“Wait a second,” said Dusty. “Now that the money is in the past, how are we supposed to get it?”
Before Kyle could answer, the machine glowed red once again. This time, to both boys’ surprise, but more so to Kyle, a second Kyle appeared inside the red circle.
“Oh, my God,” said Dusty.
“It’s okay,” said the new Kyle, stepping out from the circle. “I just came to get your … I mean … my Dusty’s money back.”
“You’re me,” stuttered Kyle. Not the one who just arrived, but the one who was already there.
“Yes, I am. I know this is weird, but it’ll all be okay. I just want to get Dusty’s money and wallet and then I’ll head back to the future, and everything will be back to normal.”
“I don’t think it will ever be normal,” commented Dusty.
“So, anyhow,” continued the new Kyle, “if you just give me Dusty’s wallet, I’ll set the machine and get out of here.”
“We can’t,” admitted Other Kyle. “We just sent both wallets back five minutes so we could get more money.”
“Oh, great,” moaned New Kyle sarcastically. After a moment, he shrugged. “I guess I’ll just have to go back to that time and get Dusty’s wallet.”
“Can you get mine too?” asked Dusty.
“Sure, why not? It shouldn’t be difficult. I’ll just use the time machine to go back, and then I’ll come back here before I return to my time. Easy Peasy.”
Iteration 3A – Intersection: 2.
“We had to have sent it back in time,” said Kyle.
“But why are there two of them?” asked Dusty.
“I have no idea,” confessed Kyle.
For a second time, at least for this Kyle and Dusty, the machine glowed red. This time, instead of two wallets appearing, Kyle materialized on the red circle.
“Don’t panic,” said the new arrival. “I can explain everything.” He looked at Kyle. “I am you from the future. I just came back to get these two wallets. We thought it would be a good idea to double them, but it’s turning out to be kind of a hassle. So, I’m just going to take them and head back to my time.”
“This is weird,” said Dusty.
“It’ll be fine,” said one of the Kyles.
“Yeah, see, he gets it,” said the other.
Kyle set the time machine to send him a few minutes into the future. He picked up the two wallets from the circle, hit Initiate, and stepped into the red glow.
Iteration 2A – Intersection: 3.
“See, that was easy,” said Kyle as he stepped out of the red glow.
“It would have been if you weren’t such an idiot,” said a clearly upset Dusty.
“What do you mean?” asked Kyle.
“You, well, not you you, my you just went to the future,” explained Dusty. “You got impatient and guessed that you had skipped over us to go back to your time with the extra money. You really are a rotten person.”
“But I didn’t do that,” said Kyle. “I came back with your wallet.”
“Yeah, but you thought about stealing my money.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you went to the future to try and stop you from doing it.” Dusty sighed heavily and glared at his friend, who technically was not his actual friend but an ever-so-slightly different version.
Kyle went to the time machine monitor. “Well, I’m going forward to give you back your wallet and send me back to you.”
After hitting the Initiate button, Kyle entered the red beam and vanished.
“Hey, what about my wallet?” shouted Dusty.
Iteration 1A – Intersection: 4, I think.
Kyle stepped out of the time machine.
“Great, you didn’t die,” said Dusty. “Did you get my wallet?”
Kyle looked around the lab. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the time machine lab,” answered Dusty.
“I know that,” said Kyle. “I mean, where is the version of me that stole your money?”
“You didn’t steal my money; you went back to get it.”
Kyle froze. “You mean I didn’t come back with the extra wallets?”
Before Dusty could sort out the situation enough to even start to answer, the machine activated once again, and Kyle stepped out of the red glow.
“What do you think you are doing?” he asked himself.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that you didn’t come back right away, so I figured you were pulling a fast one,” said the Kyle who appeared first.
“Why would you think I would do something like that?” asked the second Kyle, who actually is the first Kyle, sort of.
“Because I would do something like that,” responded the other Kyle.
“Just give me my wallet,” said Dusty.
One of the Kyles handed a wallet to Dusty. “It might not be your original, but it shouldn’t matter.” He then turned to his doppelganger and handed him a second wallet. “This belongs to your Dusty. Now all you have to do is go back and give it to him, and everything should be back to normal.”
The time machine started once more. This time, Dusty stepped out from the beam.
“Hey, why’d you run off without giving me my wallet back?”
“I was going to send it back with your Kyle,” said Kyle.
“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” said New Dusty.
“Yeah, I have your wallet right here,” said the other Kyle. He handed it to his friend. “You are my Dusty, aren’t you?”
Dusty shrugged. “How the heck should I know. All I care is that I have my wallet.”
“So, the two of you need to go back to your time,” said the other Dusty.
“Wait,” said one of the Kyles. “Is that right? Is this our time, or do we need to go back?”
“Well, I know, I’m in the right place,” said a Dusty. “I haven’t ever been in the machine.”
“Okay, and I’ve only been in it one time,” said a Kyle, “So … I need to go back.”
“Great, let’s just put this whole ugly affair behind us,” said the other Dusty.
Kyle reset the machine to take them back a few minutes, and when the machine activated, he and Dusty stepped into the glow.
Iteration 2A – Intersection: I’ve lost count. It’s either four or five.
Kyle and Dusty stepped out of the circle, relieved to finally have everything sorted out.
“Hey,” said a Kyle who was waiting for them.
“When are you?” asked the other one.
“Oh, I just wanted to see what it was like to travel to the future,” replied the Kyle who had been waiting.
“Why would you want to do that?” asked Dusty.
“Why not? It looked like you guys were having fun.
“Well, you have to go back,” insisted Dusty.
“I will, but I can’t help but think there has to be some way to make a profit out of this thing.” Kyle pointed toward the time machine.
“I think so too,” said the other Kyle.
“Yeah,” said Kyle, “I even went back to before I saw you the first time to see if I could get something of value from the lab to duplicate, but that didn’t work because when I came forward, it was gone from the future. I think you can only duplicate stuff by taking it back in time. That’s why I jumped ahead. There’s a really nice gold pen on the desk. I’m going to take it back so that there will be two of them.”
“I really don’t think you should mess with time like that,” said Dusty.
The time machine came to life again, and a new Kyle emerged. “Whoa,” he said. “This is really weird.”
“Are you from the future or the past?” asked one of the three Kyles.
“The past, I think.”
“We have to put a stop to this,” said Dusty. “At this rate, the world is going to be overrun with Kyles.”
“But how?” asked a Kyle.
Suddenly, a different Kyle’s eyes got wide. “I think I know how.” Without explanation, he went to the time machine, entered a time, and disappeared into the temporal void.
Iteration 1A – Intersection: Whatever.
“So,” said Dusty, “I’ve got my wallet back. All the other versions of us have gone back to their times. I think we’re good. Let’s get out of here.”
“Okay,” said Kyle, “but I’m keeping this pen.”
They had taken a couple of steps toward the door when a voice called to them from behind. “Stop, I need to talk to you.”
Kyle and Dusty turned to find a middle-aged, bald man looking at them. He was dressed in a lab coat and appeared to be very upset.
“Who are you?” asked Kyle.
“I’m Dr. Equiminous Brown. What have you two been doing to my time machine?”
“It wasn’t just us,” insisted Kyle, “it was … well, I guess it was us, but it wasn’t us, us.”
“Did you just come back from two hundred years in the future?” asked Dusty.
“No,” replied the Dr. “I was about a half hour away from starting my experiment when you came and told me about the chaos you’ve caused.”
“I didn’t come to you,” said Kyle.
“Well, one of you did. It’s a good thing to, because we have to do something to fix this mess before the entire fabric of time is ripped to shreds.” The doctor’s expression shifted from frown to a look of heavy concern.”
The time machine activated, once again allowing Kyle and Dusty to join the room.
“I think we’ve told all of us to come to this time,” said the newly arrived Kyle.
“Why are you doing this?” asked the original Dusty. “We had everything fixed. I had my wallet back, and we were all set to leave.”
“Maybe in your time,” answered the other Dusty. “But we had four Kyles and another me a few minutes ago.”
Another Kyle stepped out of the time machine.
“Is this all of you?” asked Dr. Brown.
“No, there’s at least one or two more of me,” said the newest of the Kyles.
The machine started up again.
“Oh, that must be me now,” said a Kyle.
Dr. Equiminous Brown stepped out of the machine; his lab coat was torn and stained with blood. He had a deep gash in his forehead.
It would be difficult to decide who was more surprised: Dr. Brown or Dr. Brown.
“What’s going on here?” asked the injured doctor.
Iteration 1A – Intersection: Who Cares at this Point.
There was barely room to move within the lab. The Dr. Brown with the head injury was being cared for by another Dr. Brown who had been summoned from the past to help out because the situation was teetering on the edge of utter and complete chaos. Twelve Kyles and five Dustys gathered around the third Dr. Browns who was adding to a complicated diagram on a whiteboard. The drawing featured dozens of parallel and intersecting lines, each representing one of the different iterations of time Kyle and Dusty had created. The points of intersection marked a moment in time when a new iteration was formed.
“Okay,” said a clearly frustrated Dr. Brown. He looked to the nearest Kyle. “So, you have gone back in time twice and forward once. Is that right?”
“I think so,” said that Kyle. “Or was it back three times?”
“You’ve got to know,” insisted Dr. Brown. “I have to get each of you to the right point in time so that all of the timelines merge into a single path.”
Unexpectedly, the time machine flashed red, and a small, pale creature slithered into the room. It was roughly human in shape, but its face was grotesquely disfigured. Its hands held what appeared to be some sort of pistol-like weapon.
“Oh, no,” cried the injured Dr. Brown, “they found me.”
“Of course, we found you,” said the creature. “It was easy to trace the multitude of temporal displacements occurring in this time vicinity. My brethren will be here shortly to begin the extermination of your race.”
“Not if I can help it,” shouted Kyle. He ran to the machine and entered a time twenty-four hours in the past. He started to move to the circle but found his path blocked by the creature. The evil being pointed its gun at Kyle.
“You are not going anywhere,” said the creature.
“Yes, I am,” said Kyle.
As Kyle spoke, another Kyle raced to the time machine and disappeared in the red beam.
“This will not be a problem,” said the creature. “Once my brethren arrive, we will go back in time and stop him from stopping us.
Before anyone could react, a loud booming voice spoke from above. The room shook from its deep resonance.
“ENOUGH,” it proclaimed, “THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND. I CAN’T EVEN KEEP UP WITH WHAT’S GOING ON. THAT’S IT, NO MORE TIME TRAVEL STORIES.
Iteration 1B – 0 Intersections.
Kyle tried the door and found it to be unlocked. He looked inside and discovered a stairway leading up.
“See,” he said to Dusty, “I told you I’d get us out of here.”
* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright James Rumpel 2026
Image Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira from Unsplash.com