Tinkering with Time

Karlos was always a curious boy. Growing up in the 1600s, he felt very out of place. He lived in a library with an old librarian that took him in when he was only an infant. The library was all he had ever known, and grew to love reading and knowledge. As he grew and indulged himself into his studies, he took interest in the concept of the future and what it would be like to live out moments from the past.

The librarian always knew Karl was very smart, and soon it proved to be true. At the time nobody really knew much about any forms of technology, only what people had written in fantasy textbooks. Karl's curiosity grew more as he aged, and he began tinkering with anything and everything he could.

When he was 17 he began wondering about the concept of time travel, being able to travel to any time he wanted, whenever he wanted. Karl would spend days at a time tinkering and trying to build this device that seemed almost impossible. The librarian had his doubts but he still supported Karl in his journey to create a machine never heard of before. He would sit in his rocking chair reading a book in the company of Karl who would work for hours, developing new technology never seen before.

After many months of trial and error, he finally had something that potentially could work. The machine could only go ahead or backwards about 5 minutes in time, but it was progress.

Sliding his goggles off his forehead and onto his eyes, Karl hopped into the rickety device he called a time machine.

"You be careful now," said the librarian, who had gotten up to leave the room just in case.

Karl put a thumbs-up with a smile as he watched the librarian exit. He fired up the machine and input the time to 5 minutes before.

Loud noises escaped the device as Karl's vision became a big blur of color, feeling as though he was picking up immense velocity. Before he realized it, he was falling from the roof of the library and crashed down onto the previous machine. His past self had vanished leaving only this version standing in the room.

The librarian stood, book falling out of his hands with his mouth draped open slightly.

A smile swept over his face, "IT WORKED!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WORKED!!" he exclaimed.

The librarian smiled softly as Karl barreled toward him into a hug, returning the gesture gently.

"I'm so proud of you." He remarked as Karl pulled out of the embrace.

Reaching up, the librarian adjusted the younger males glasses with a proud smile across his face.

Turning back, Karl noticed the mess of parts destroyed across where the machine once stood.

"It still needs some work, but it's a start!" he giggled, skipping back over to his workbench happily.

As the librarian sat back down in his rocking chair, his expression softened.

"You're gonna do great things one day." he mumbled softly to himself, as he watched the young boy rustle through the pile of metal scattered in the corner.