Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 1

John Cullen was born in 1917 in a small coastal town on the south east of England. Diagnosed with catatonia from birth, he is unable to speak or move voluntarily. He is labelled ‘an imbecile’ by the medical community of the time. He can only silently observe as his younger brother grows up, replaces love, goes to war and dies in the conflict. In 1945, John, aged 28 years old, is given an old watch, found on the nearby grassy cliff top. It proves to be a time-travel device, mislaid by a now-dead traveller. The device’s artificial intelligence promises John that it could provide a life-long cure for John’s illness. It promises that it could change his life for the better. It agrees that its last client died whilst under its care . . . but . . . what if? Should he take the risk of using this strange device from the future, or perhaps more pertinently, can he afford not to?