Oh, there's just one more thing...

- Columbo

Last week, as we were driving back to the city from the time machine, Mr Tuniak said: “In all the meetings we have had, I have told you about my past... By now we have, more or less, arrived at a point which you could call my present. After all, you have just witnessed part of my life... well, live.” I nodded, while at the same time trying to write down everything I had seen and felt in Ancient Rome in my note book. “You of course know what comes after the past and the present...”

I looked up at him in surprise: “The future?”

He nodded in agreement. “But before I talk to you about the future, I thought it might be a good idea, to really... end all things concerning the past. I would ask you to think about questions until next week. What else do you want to know, regarding my past? What else should I tell you? What did I forget, but you think it might be important? Do you know what I'm talking about?”

“I think I do”, I said.

“So I'll leave it completely up to you what we are going to talk about next week.”

But as I was thinking about possible questions the next day, another thought struck me. I thought that it might be better if someone else than me was asking the questions. I called Mr Tuniak and (when I finally managed to get him on the phone), I suggested to him that not I, but my friend, who had already interviewed him once several months ago, would be posing the questions. He agreed with that idea, so, once more, I leave the blog in her capable hands.

Like last time, I will again skip the greetings and the usual small-talk at the beginning of such interviews and we will go right in medias res:

I: Mr Tuniak: Probably one of the first questions that come to mind if someone is told about your life is: Do you regret anything?

T: Yes, that I tried to change the course of history. Or, to be more precise: Not the fact that I tried to change it itself, but that other people, who were basically caught up in my plans did, because of them, not achieve what they might have achieved had I not interfered.

I: Well, you mentioned that already... Maybe I should rephrase that question, I was thinking more about... Someone once said that the things we did not do are among those we regret the most...

T: Samuel... Mark Twain said something like that.

I: Right, I forgot that you were friends with him. So, are there things you regret not having done?

T: As a child I never celebrated any birthdays.

I: Why? You did know on which day you were born, didn't you?

T: Of course, but since I was born in the 90ies and came to the Island Leviathan in the 60ies, this day was thirty years in the future. Also: I did so many journeys with my mothers in the time machine that we were never sure when threehundredsixtyfive days had passed for me.

I: All right, I accept that, but that was during your childhood. And, if you will permit that observation, it doesn't seem as if that is something that really bothers you.

T: No, it didn't. But you asked the question.

I: And I think that you have given me an answer that's technically correct, but at the same time you evaded the meaning behind my question. Is there something in your life that you did not do and which, given the opportunity, you would do if you had another chance? Something you wish that you had done differently?

T: Of course, everyone has things, decisions like those. But I don't like to dwell on those, because I had the opportunity to see and do so many other things. One can't always get everything one wants, but... Well, the one thing I really wish that I had taken time for is learning to play an instrument. To play music.

I: You never played any instrument?

T: For a short time, when I was a child on Leviathan, I tried to play the violin. But I never really pursued it.

I: But music in general...

T: Oh, I like to listen to music. I think it's... It's difficult to put into words, which, incidentally, is exactly the thing I like most about it. Music expresses emotions without any words. And it's not like, let's say a painting where you have one image in front of you. A good piece of music tells everyone a different story and sometimes even the same person can hear different stories depending on the time he hears it.

I: And if music is so important to you, as it obviously is, then why didn't you try to learn to play an instrument?

T: I had too much else to do. Travelling around... Only in the last few years I have had something like a regular schedule and would have time to learn one, but I fear that it is too late now.

I: You said that you liked to listen to music. Any particular style or time you prefer?

T: Not especially, no. When they started to collect music from all of history for the beyul, I did a lot of work there. And there are many recordings we did which I copied for my private use. Often, before I travel to a different time period, I listen to music of that period to basically get in the right mood for it.

I: Is there anything else you regret?

T: Yes, a few small things, but why do you want to talk about those?

I: I was told I could choose the topics of today's conversation.

T: You can, of course, you can. I never really learned to cook, I regret that a bit. I did try and taste dishes from all of the world and throughout time, but I never really did any cooking myself, nothing big or special at least... You don't seem satisfied with that answer either.

I: I was expecting something else.

T: Really? What do you think I should regret the most?

I: You never had a child, you never married... I have read all the entries in the blog, but you never mentioned anything like that.

T: Because I consider that private.

I: You want to write a biography, but leave things out of it because they are “private”?

T: There are gaps in every biography, I'm sure you know that. None of them tell the whole truth, at least none that I know of. Biographies, even though they are based on true events, still tell a story and for the story I wanted to tell with mine those parts of my life are not important. Still, of course, if you read between the lines...

I: You didn't seem to have that particular problem when talking about other people.

T: I can assure you that I asked everyone if it was all right with them if I mentioned them in my biography before actually talking about them.

I: I mean people like Hugo Delake.

T: What about him?

I: You only mentioned him once or twice and as far as I can tell, you could write down your biography... your story without talking about him and you would loose nothing.

T: Oh, that... That was not my decision. I did tell more about him – I once helped him solve a case...

I: You were a detective? An investigator?

T: No, no, I was more like a technical consultant. It was in 1881 or 1882 and a suspect managed to get himself an alibi by using a photophone. It was a very recent invention back then, so Hugo didn't really know what you could do with one.

I: What's a photophone?

T: It's basically a telephone but instead of using cables and electric impulses to transmit the voice, it uses light beams. That way you can communicate with places where there are no telephone lines yet and that way the suspect made it appear as if he was somewhere else during the crime.

I: And you talked about that case?

T: Yes, I did. But because a blog entry has to be finite, some things have to be cut. And this was one of those things that got radically cut, so that all that survived from it was, basically, Hugo's name. It happened to a few other people and incidents as well.

I: Another topic you mostly refused to talk about is the future. The future from my point of view, I mean. But now you have said that you want to do that. So, what changed your mind?

T: I still won't talk about the future of the world, the big picture, if you will, but about my personal one.

I: You will talk about things you still have planned?

T: Precisely.

I: Another question, that's seems quite obvious, is the one Doctor Faust had to answer: What about religion? Do you count yourself as a member of one religion? Would you describe yourself as a person with a strong belief?

T: I would describe myself as an agnostic. You see, the problem I have with saying that there is a higher power – and I'm not even going into detail about how this higher power might look like – then there is the danger of me stopping to question things. I stop looking for explanations as soon as I accept “because a god did it” as an answer. And that's something I can't accept.

I: Sounds to me you are more like an atheist.

T: No, not at all. I do not deny that there could be a higher power watching over us. I don't know and I can't say that I'm leaning one way or the other in regard to that question. I can accept that there may be things for which we will never have an explanation, but I think it's wrong to define such things through... a doctrine. In advance. It should be possible to question everything, although you have to be prepared for the possibility that you might not find an answer and never will.

I: Since you are a time traveller, you can choose to live in any time you want. But is there a time you would consider as 'your time'.

T: The last forty, fifty years and the coming decade, I would say. Measured from your point of view.

I: Why?

T: Because that's the time in which most of my friends are living in. Also, as I have mentioned previously, I do think of the school at Leviathan as my home and like everything, it won't exist forever.

I: With your time machine you can't only travel to any time you like, but also to every place. Have you ever considered to travel to another planet? Mars, for instance?

T: I did think about it, several times, yes. It was an idea I did consider from time to time. But the thing is that a travel with my time machine may appear to be a simple and easy affair, but there are quite complicated calculations necessary to perform it. And as good as the computer of the time machine is, travelling to another planet would require calculations that are beyond even its formidable capacitites.

The whole interview was of course quite a bit longer, but – as with everything presented here – I had to cut it down. Since this is a topic they talked about during the interview, I thought it only fair to mention that fact.

NEXT WEEK

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