© GratefulFred
The time is the future, as two scientists, Cindy and Joshua, become the first people ever to solve the mystery of time travel. They walk down a recently waxed hallway at the University of San Francisco with water bottles in hand, all the way back to their large office where their time machine waits. These scientists had been working feverishly for years and now as they gaze upon one another they know it is time to test their theory.
Cindy and Joshua were both incredibly gifted students through their college and post doctorate years. Afterwards they developed into good friends but never did have the time to stop for romance. Life until now was a roller coaster for these two ambitious students turned scientists. Maybe now things could change as they both realized that they had hit the jackpot.
Cindy went back in time for a minute. Joshua followed by three minutes. Cindy was gone for an hour. When Joshua's turn came up he decided to venture back some twenty years. Cindy objected as she felt twenty years in the past could be too dangerous. Joshua explained that this building was over fifty years old. He gave Cindy a kiss on the cheek and said he'll be back in a few.
Joshua went through a bit of discomfort upon venturing so back in time but was able to lock the room and follow his game plan to go see his younger self in college. Though warned against time tampering, Joshua just needed to correct a few minor events from the past. Such events he felt could not possibly change the futures outcome.
There was a girl that Joshua could've had but didn't. He always regretted never having sex at least once with this girl. Joshua had a plan to get his younger self laid, and that if he was one of the many guys she had sex with, how could that possibly change history. Joshua had kept tabs on Jennifer, the girl in question, who had moved out to get married in Montana of all places. Joshua found it hard to believe that a sex addict like her could ever be tamed -- but tamed she would soon become.
Joshua's plan was simple. He would drop $100 in front of his younger self. His younger self, always strapped for cash, would no doubt pick up the money and later that night when he went to buy Jennifer a drink at the bar, instead of finding his wallet empty as happened previously, he'd buy her that drink and with any luck he'd get laid.
Joshua looked on as the chips fell in place and stood at the back end of the bar to watch his younger slightly wealthier self share a few drinks with Jennifer thus altering the time line just a wee bit. Joshua smiled as he watched his younger self grab that kiss. Joshua walked outside and wandered when the memory of that encounter would come into him if at all. As he headed back to where he left the time machine he noticed it was missing.
Panic set in as Joshua realized he was trapped in the past. Still the knowledge to come up with time travel would have had to happen. Fear set in as the thought that a random sexual encounter had altered history. Joshua didn't know what to do.
Soon basic needs of food, shelter and survival overcame Joshua. He lucked out and got a cash job down at the bottling factory the next day and on his free time tried to keep track of his younger self. He knew somehow, someway, he'd have to get his younger self back on the path of science. One day he gathered up the nerve to stop by his old pad and discovered that his younger self had just moved out. The landlady whom looked on at him with a strange familiarity told him that he left with some girl. She had no idea where he had gone.
Trapped in time Joshua realized that he could fade out of existence if his younger self kept straying. Without the grades, there would be no chance of advancement, and with that no chance to be an essential part of the time machine project.
A few months went by and Joshua was still alive but his younger self was untraceable. One day Joshua discovered that Jennifer had gotten married just as history indicated and to the same guy. Her history wasn't altered and yet where was his younger self?