The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift

by Nika Murphy

Release: June 2022
Format: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Audra Cobb is pulled through time rifts from one parallel universe to another with a bit of time travel thrown in. I think the parallel universes are a literary mechanism to explore daydreaming about what might have been while under the spell of limerence.

— Michael Main

The egg yolk path glistens in my periphery and my fingertips tingle. Once the rift closes, we go back. Back to before the rift ruptured. Back to when Joseph first moved in and before we . . .

DEBUT

“The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift,” Clarkesworld #189, June 2022 [print · e-zine · webzine].

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Unspecified Year

Timeline Models

Multiple Naive Timelines: Audra’s world has multiple timelines with no explanation of how they arose or how they are connected. She travels between them via time rifts, merging with other versions of herself; and at the story’s end, she travels back before the rift.

Time Travel Methods

Generic Time Machine: the rift machine
Time Rifts: For the most part, the rifts move Audra from one parallel universe to another.

Themes

End of Time Travel: I think the story suggests that if Audra goes back before the rifts began, then the rift will close and things will return to normal. It’s possible that all those timelines will disappear in some sense. But who knows?
Self-Visitation

Fictional Tags

Parallel Universes or Dimensions

Groupings

Clarkesworld (periodical): #189, June 2022

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Dr. Kuzbari’s lab or office, at an unspecified time after the time rifts began ⋙ to Audra’s house, some time before the time rifts began. Note: If I understand the story, there is only this one time jump at the end of the story; the other jumps are from one timeline to another, but not time travel.