In Loving Memory of Robert A. George and Donald R. George

“That’s good, but you don’t know how to steer your own time
machine?”
Serendipity put down her fork and glowered at him. “I’ll be sure to
read the driver’s manualas soon as I write it. This isn’t a car, kid. I have
to calculate the transference of the machine through several dimensional
planes using quantum physics and hyper-geometry. I’m making this up as
I go along. No one’s ever traveled back in time before. I did get the date
right, and I only missed my target by sixty-one point eight kilometers. Not
bad for the first trip back in time.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
She put her elbow on the table and propped her chin in her hand. “I
still can’t get over the fact that I’m sharing a tuna casserole with someone
from the twentieth century. I am so tempted to keep you.”
“You said you might hire me. What would you pay?”
“How about ten thousand a week? Plus room and board?”
Sherman choked on his warm tuna and peas. That was nearly twice
what he made in a year. “Yeah, I could work for that.”
“Ten thousand isn’t what it was in 1985, but that’s just a starting wage.
Tell you what. I’ll hire you on a temporary basis, see how it works out.”
“Sweet! That sounds so awesome!”
“You might say that now, but you haven’t seen the twenty-fourth
century, yet. And you haven’t worked with me. I can take you back to
1985 anytime you want.”
Sherman nodded. He doubted he would want to go back, but
appreciated the offer, just in case.
“I know I shouldn’t do this, but you go so well with my décor. Plus
you seem like a nice kid. Besides, what’s it going to hurt if you stay here?
From my own studies of time, I have to agree with Dr. Hugh Everett’s
‘Many Worlds’ interpretation.”
“What’s that?”
“Everett postulated the objective reality of the universal wave
function, but denied the reality of wave function collapse, thus implying
all conceivable alternative histories and futures are tangible and each
represents an actual universe.”
“Huh?”
“When I brought you here, according to Everett’s theory, I did not
change history but created a new one. Somewhere in another universe
there’s another Sherman Conrad still back in Kelso.”
“Ew!” Sherman wrinkled his nose and then shrugged. “Better him than
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