Paradox

By wdhenning

Considering all the potential paradoxes, time travel was banned for good reason. Like, for instance, the one where you go back in time and kill your grandfather before he meets your grandmother.

Like I just did.

But being illegal did not necessarily end a thing, particularly if enough money was involved. Lots of people paid handsomely for an opportunity to view a historical event or visit a long-lost relative. We made our clients promise not to change anything, but, you know, sometimes things happened. There were two cases where a time traveler accidentally terminated their genetic line, and when they came back to the present time, their body faded into nothingness within the temporal transit booth. As if they never existed. That's why we insisted clients paid upfront.

Based on a few pictures, I was the spitting image of the paternal grandfather I never knew. My parents even named me after him. As if sharing a treasured secret, my grandmother told me how they met in a whirlwind romance, but then he disappeared, leaving her pregnant with my father. With far-away eyes, she spoke longingly of my grandfather, somehow understanding why he abandoned her, but not telling me. I always had wanted to meet him, if only for a few moments.So, during a lull in business, I did just that, aiming for the day they first met.

The timing couldn't have been worse.

When I suddenly blinked into existence beside grandfather on a metal-grated catwalk at the iron ore smelting plant, he jerked so much, his yellow hardhat fell off. Stumbling backwards, his head slammed against a bridge-crane beam, and before I could reach him, he tumbled into a vat of molten iron.

This was bad for both of us. Really bad.

I retreated from the catwalk, down a metal ladder, and found a dark corner to think. What could I do now? During a temporal transit event, we maintained a connection between the time traveler in the past and an operator in the present via what we called a 'time phone'. Pulling up a cell-phone-like device, I placed a call.

"Hey, Seth," came Zoey's perky voice. "How's the trip going?"

"Not so good," I grumbled.

"Why? What happened? Didn't you find your grandfather?"

"Yeah. But he accidentally died."

After two moments of silence, she accurately summarized the whole situation. "Well, that sucks."

"Is there any way to undo this?" I pleaded.

"Umm, can you make him undead?"

"He fell into a molten iron vat, so, no. Isn't there some way you can go back just before this event and prevent this?"

Zoey replied with a resigned sigh. "You know we can't overlap temporal transits. The links become too unstable. I'm sorry, Seth."

Groaning, I rubbed my forehead in despair. When I returned to my time, I wasn't just going to die, I was going to become nonexistent. Staying here wasn't an option, either — the temporal link could only be maintained for, at most, a week.

I jerked as a male voice behind me said, "Seth, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" I replied, turning and unable to form any other words.

"What are you doing out here without your protective gear? You could get fired." The man, whowore dirty fire-resistant overalls, a yellow hard hat, and wrap-around safety glasses, drew down grimy eyebrows.

Then I realized he must have confused me with my grandfather of a similar age. We had very similar appearances, even the same green eye-color. "Oh, yeah," I finally said. "I left something by the ladder and thought I could sneak out to get it real quick."

The man looked behind himself, then said, "Whatever. Just don't get caught." Reaching in his pocket, he handed me a crumpled piece of paper. "This is that girl I told you about. Said she'd meet you tonight at seven at the Hammer and Anvil Pub. She's a good one, so don't mess this up. You'd better get outa here."

"Thanks," I replied with a forced smile.

But when I looked at the name, an outlandish scheme formed in my mind, and I put on a genuine smile.

After the man left, I put the time-phone back to my ear. "Listen, Zoey, I have an idea. Call you back later?"

"Okay."

Loud music and boisterous crowd noise assaulted my ears as I swung open the oaken pub door. Near to the industrial district, the classically decorated pub attracted a mix of blue- and white-collar workers happy to be off work for the weekend. My eyes scanned the crowd until I spotted her.

I weaved through the crowd to reach a pretty young blonde seated at a back table by herself, andaway from most other people. "Hi, I'm Seth," I said. "You must be Joy?"

Rising, she responded with the warmest of smiles. "Yes. Pleased to meet you, Seth. Please join me."

This was totally, over-the-top weird, but I had the same appearance and mostly the same genetics as my grandfather, and my longshot plan to not flick out of existence was to turn on the charm and impregnate this beautiful woman. My young grandmother.

If this worked, I would become my own grandfather.