Time Lost and Found
Deep within the heart of the bustling city of New York, a harmony of sounds echoed in the meta-pulse nature of the cosmos. Amongst million other stories being unfolded, there was one peculiar tale about a man, James Lindley.
James was an unconventional man with a thirst for the unknown. By profession, he was an esteemed physics professor at Columbia University but to the world, he was known as 'The Unfulfilled Genius'. Despite being a respected scientist, there was an eternal restlessness within him. The concept of time intrigued him the most. In his secluded laboratory, he aspired to fabricate a paradox that would shatter the glass walls of linear reality; a Time Machine was his magnum opus. For years, his spectacles were clouded with the goal of mastering time.
One morning, James brought to life his creation by activating the Time Machine for the first time. His heart pounded against his chest. His hand hovered over a rusty brass button, the key to his lifework. With a deep breath, he pushed it. His environment rippled and fluctuated. He was face-to-face with the surreal phenomenon of time travel, unbeknownst whether he had traveled towards the past or the future.
As the spatiotemporal grind incident subsided, he stumbled out of his machine, standing in front of his old house. He recognized his surroundings, the house painted with Azure Sky, his mother's favorite color, and the sweet smell of his father's old tobacco still lingering in the air. James had traveled back in time. He excitedly ran to the patio, slipped into the drawing-room from the open back door, where he saw a six-year-old James eagerly tugging at a Christmas present, his parents cheerfully watching. Seeing his past self filled him with shielded grief, the stark sight of his parents reminded him of the love he used to have but lost to the sands of time. He spent the day engrossed in his childhood nostalgia, and when night befell, he retreated to his machine and returned to his time.
James, despite knowing the ethical implications of time travel, continued revisiting his past, peeling back layers of memories long forgotten. But fate had a different plan. One evening, on his routine travel to the past, he had an uncanny feeling. He looked around to find an empty house, devoid of the laughter and the radiating warmth of his parents. He peeked into the living room to witness a sight that sent a chill down his spine. His parents were sitting with stern faces, his younger-self nowhere to be seen. His heart sank as he realized he was reliving the day they received the news of his older sister's death.
Shock waves rolled through him as he realized he was stuck in a time loop. Over and over again, he found himself pulled back to his sister's death day. He missed his life in his time, his work, his peace, even though disarrayed, but familiar. He missed moving forward. As a physics professor preaching that time only flows linearly, he found himself stuck in a spiral.
One day, a thought struck him, 'Could he change this?' Could he save his sister and prevent this timeline? But the idea of messing up with the past terrified him. He knew the consequences, yet he was desperate to escape his current loop. Gathering courage, he chiseled a plan and traveled to the day of his sister's accident.
Things went just as he had mapped out, with him reaching the location of the impending accident. He saw his sister about to cross the street, oblivious of the speeding car. He sprinted, pulled her back onto the pavement just in time. His heart pounded as the car that once killed his sister, missed her by an inch.
Returning to his original timeline, he found himself awakening into a refreshing reality where his sister existed. His parents, still alive, celebrated their golden anniversary while his sister proudly held her newborn. It was everything he had ever wished for, but there was an unsettling heaviness at the bottom of his heart. Upon inquiring, he discovered he wasn't a renowned scientist anymore but a corporate officer stuck in the mundane 9-5 life.
James had his family back, but he had lost the part of himself in the process. The realization hit him that he fell into the cycle of greed, wanting things that were in the past instead of appreciating the present. He understood that his obsession with mastering time led him to this, realizing time couldn't be controlled.
He longed to go back, for the sake of his true self. He wanted his former existence where he was a scientist, where he felt like himself. He had his sister's permission; she was startled but understood. With a heavy heart, he made changes again. This time, he became the unnoticed spectator of the event, letting the day unfold as it originally had. He closed his eyes as the car struck, opening them again to the sight of his dark, secluded laboratory.
James destroyed his Time Machine, accepting the linear flow of time, recognizing it as an invincible force that one should live with and not try to control. The Time Machine, his magnum opus, was no more his desire. But in this bizarre journey of losing and finding himself, he found a peace that had eluded him all those previous years. He made peace with his past, the grief, and looked forward to a future, teaching his students the enigma of time, along with the importance of acceptance.
And so, the tale of the 'Unfulfilled Genius' remained, not unfulfilled anymore, but filled with a lesson of lifetime, an understanding that time, indeed, was a force to reckon with.