Saul, Walter, Time Machine, and Regrets

 

     Finale (Episode 13 of Season 6) of Better Call Saul aired a few days ago, capping off a truly brilliant (crime/drama) series, a worthy prequel to Breaking Bad and a lot better than Ozark. The scene I like most in the finale is the one ( a flashback) where Saul is asking Walter White on where he’d go if he’d stumble on a time machine. Walter (a high school science teacher) refuses to answer it on the ground that time travel is simply impossible. Instead, he says that a discussion about time machine is nothing but a conversation about regrets (and mistakes and the desire to rectify it). They then tell each other their biggest regrets.

     Walter is of course right, time travel is impossible, that’s why movies about time machines and time travels are called fantasy films. So questions about where you’d go if you stumble on a time machine don’t need profound answers, just whimsical ones. So me, if ever I find a time machine, I’d probably travel to the time which happened more than a dozen of decades ago,  where an intense crush of mine hooked her arm on my arm, the only instance that we got really close literally and figuratively, and instead of awkwardly making up an alibi to get away, I would tighten  my arm on her arm this time, then pull her closer to me and whisper on her ear how I like her, then, maybe kiss her ear afterwards,  and then bring her home, or to a nearby hotel, whichever is closer, and make small talks with her.

     Or I’d probably go to the time when the first short story I ever wrote was published.