Tommy Tubebacher and the Element of Time

It was just a matter of time. The experts knew that if you were at the bottom of the world and you wanted to build a building that reached the sky you would start at the top and go to the bottom. Along the way all the pieces would fit in perfect harmony and if you had the misfortune of going upward while construction was taking place you would often find yourself in the perilous position of being upside down in a world that was downside up.

Now when did time become an element that could be easily defined by an atomic number? Something that could be neatly compartmentalized and folded much like you would a large rug that you bought at a discount store and took home in the back of a family-friendly station wagon?

Well, it happened at the only time it could have happened: at the end of time. Because for time to unroll in a fairly symmetrical fashion, there could be no loose ends or random events loosely hanging around in a universe that was as old as,... well, as old as the universe. Thankfully, time was slightly tilted but the tilt was away from the end and toward the beginning so time had no choice but to go backward.

Now no one really understood this until the Earth year 2098 AD. That year Tommy Tubebacher of the state of Saskatchewan of the United States of North America turned 22 years old. Turning 22 is not that big a deal normally (the age of 21 usually generated more excitement) but in Tommy's case it finally dawned on him that he was going backward in time. He had been so busy getting on with the daily necessities of living he had never taken the time to notice that every year he got older the year it happened was actually the year before the last one but for some reason it occurred to him in the year 2098 it should be the year 2142. It hit him like a thunderbolt but he couldn't deny the reality of what was happening to him. He was now the contemporary of his parents and soon they would vanish from his on-going reality.

So Tommy knew his future but he didn't know his past. The future was set in reinforced concrete and could not be changed. The past on the other hand was open to various possibilities, extrapolations, and interpretations. The past was malleable and fluid. All Tommy had to do was ride the current of time and at some point he would reach the beginning of time. But the beginning would also be the end just as the end was the beginning.

THE END