Doing Time
I had long thought it would be cool if someone invented the time machine. When I read The Time Machine in school, it quickly became my favorite book. I should have paid closer attention to the warning in the story, even though I would be traveling back in time instead of forward.
It had been a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was the story of my life. I had never been accused of such an infraction, though.
I had been taking a shortcut to my apartment down the nearby alleys when I witnessed a murder. A man was beating another man with a baseball bat and ran when I startled him, dropping the bat.
I picked up the bat, ready to defend myself if the man came back. Kneeling down, I checked the pulse of the victim. It was thready at best.
As I was trying to decide what to do next, the police showed up, having been called by a concerned neighbor. The police loaded me in their cruiser despite my protest.
The victim lost his life on the way to the hospital. I was being held for murder.
The evidence against me was insurmountable. I had blood on my hands, and I was holding the murder weapon.
During the Great Pause of 2020, a brilliant woman had finally developed time travel. Her discovery was quickly taken over by the government, and it was decided that it would be used to mitigate the overcrowded jails.
It was determined that instead of death, the worst criminals would be sent back in time one thousand years.
I was possibly going to meet people from 1027.
Though I had always dreamed of time travel, this is not the way I wanted to do it. The biggest downside is that once you went into the past, you could never come back. I would never again see my wife or my two daughters. The thought of leaving them left me despondent. I could not imagine life without them.
The Great Pause had left many changes. The biggest change that affected me was the speed with which the judiciary system moved. It was quick and there were no appeals for those sent back in time.
I was found guilty with all the evidence against me. No one wanted to believe me about the incident. The prosecutor had gone so far as to openly laugh at me.
The only evidence I had was my word, and that was worth less than nothing in court.
I now have less than a day to prepare for life in 1027. At least my research shows I won’t have another pandemic to survive in my lifetime.
I asked my wife to bring me a picture of her and the girls. It is not going to keep them with me any more than they will live in my heart, but it will help them to know that they are on my mind at this time. I will never see my daughters grow nor walk them down the aisle at their weddings, but I pray that someone enters their lives that can take that place. Perhaps my wife will remarry.
The time has arrived. I will be taken to the machine. I’ve seen it, and it looks nothing like the ones in the movies. It looks more like a freestanding closet, very anticlimactic. It would be a little easier if it were the time machine of my imagination.
Farewell to my family. Farewell to my dreams. Farewell to 2027.
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I have to thank my friend Louise Forrester. Her posting on Medium is where I got the term The Great Pause. https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/just-in-case-the-productivity-gurus-are-right-5da35644d71b