Dr. Chenoweth was an accomplished man.  He obtained his fist PhD. in physics by age 25.  He then topped that off with another in Psychology two years later and his final in Mathematics less than three years after that.  This was atop his several bachelor’s degrees and three masters including one in engineering.  There was little he was not proficient at.  He could psychoanalyze you while fixing your transmission and design it to run better while he was at it.
            He had several inventions already patented and making him wealthy and had written 11 books; one of which was a best seller and two were required reading on many prestigious university campuses.
            None of this really mattered to him though.  Most of it was simply a means to an end.  His favorite degree to tout around was his masters of Divinity he obtained from Notre Dame University.  This he used to brow beat theologians and common believers alike. 
           He knew more about their own ridiculous beliefs than they did in most cases and it was rare indeed that he lost an argument with a person who was willing to submit themselves to the foolishness of religion.  He usually so dominated the argument that he could outright silence his opponents if not send them away in tears.  It was what they deserved for submitting their intellect and reason to what amounted to no more than superstition dressed up.
           None of his accomplishments could compare to what he was finishing this day, however.  They would all pale in it’s shadow.  Everything else was just a precursor, a footnote in his life when held up to what he finished this day.
           The tests had all worked flawlessly.  He was assured of success and was nearly ready to make this, his crowning achievement, known to the world.  Nothing would ever be the same after today and he would never even have to enter another if those ridiculous arguments.
            Today he would reveal an item thus far known only to science fiction and he would use it first to his own purposes.  His most prized invention, which had taken four years to invent and another nine to engineer and construct was mythical.  He had, of course, invented a device for altering the fabric of time.  A device which could weave through the patterns of physics and deliver a person to any time that they wished.  He had invented, for lack of a better term, a time machine.
            Chenoweth had always known, deep down even before he could show it mathematically, that Einstein had been wrong.  There was just something about it that had not rung true in his mind.  When he finally discovered how simple the theory was, and that it had nothing to do with motion, he concluded that Einstein had been wrong on purpose.  That he could have figured the equation out but had chosen not to, afraid of what might happen if he succeeded.  Einstein was, after all, a deist with a belief in a creator God. Chenoweth had no such misgivings and the imaginary moral issues meant nothing to him.  The only qualms he had were in accidentally changing the past with detrimental affects on the present.
            His tests had allowed him to travel backward through time four times, each time going further and each time under VERY controlled circumstances.  He had an idea of how many problems could occur from only the smallest alteration of the past.
            In order to accomplish his main objective he had spent over two years preparing.  Rigorously studying history for exact times of events, clothing, speech, and customs, everything he could learn.  He probably knew more about this period and culture than most history professors and he didn’t even bother to earn a degree while he did it.

to be continued

I am working on a new short story that I started about three years ago and then promptly lost.  The working title for it is “Crowning Achievement” and I think you will like it.  I wrote, or rather re-wrote, about two pages last night on my Tungsten T3.  If you don’t know that means I was doing a lot of hunt and peck on a hand held computer to type on the itsy bitsy keyboard with a stylus.  I hope to publish the first part of it tomorrow.

I would be interested in anyone’s thoughts on what to name the untitled story.  I will make it possible for anyone to comment on this post.  Just put in your suggestion.  Whomever puts in the name that I choose will get one year’s free subscription to this blog!  Hey what a bargain!  Make your comments.

     Over the next few days things went quite well.  Joan helped him get a decent job as a security guard at an upscale department store and he got an apartment near hers.  He also resolved his problems with his family by going and talking things over with his parents.  He could now actually talk about Cindy without getting too emotional.  He still missed her and thought life would never be the same without her, but his suicidal thoughts all but stopped and he even quit drinking.  Although he still couldn’t make up with Cindy’s parents.  He feared they would begrudge him for the rest of his life.
     Darin had been going to church with Joan and his folks for about a month when he met her.  She was beautiful but in a simple way.  She was blonde and tall.  That was good because Cindy had been a brunette and rather short.
     At first he was somewhat afraid to try to start a new relationship, especially so soon after Cindy’s death, but the next week she approached him and they talked for several minutes and she asked him out to lunch.  He somewhat reluctantly accepted.
     For the first time since Cindy’s death he felt great.  He had a smile all day the next day at work and was even pleasant when he had to chase down a teen age shoplifter.
     All his co-workers were suspicious.  They said no one who had been a grump that long can suddenly be so cheerful without doing something illegal.  But they were wrong, he was perfectly innocent and was simply beginning to enjoy life again.
     Tuesday at work, he and a few of his friends were having a coffee break in the back room.  There came a call over his radio that there was some trouble in the jewelry department.  Darin was almost finished and was in a good mood so he responded and in a quick walk headed off toward the jewelry department.
     As he rounded the corner of the jewelry aisle he was moving fast, thinking to surprise the probable shoplifter that he figured the call was about.  But to his surprise he was looking down the barrel of a forty four magnum, held by a masked man.
     One man was stuffing jewelry into a bag and another was holding the clerk at bay with the gun.  He had surprised the robber and the man panicked.  “Cop!” yelled the gunman and he squeezed off a round into Darin’s chest.
     A million things went through Darin’s mind as he fell to the floor.  He felt no pain and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.  But then he thought he caught a glimpse of Cindy reaching down to help him up.  How beautiful she was, all dressed in white.

     She finally persuaded him to get cleaned up and come back with her to her apartment.  But he didn’t want to see their folks just yet.  He wasn’t up to it.  The drive back was rather short, he only lived a couple of hours away from them but the ride was an eternity.  Joan was trying hard to be cheerful but Darin hardly said two words the whole trip.
     Darin hadn’t gone to the funeral.  He was drunk that day and couldn’t have handled it if he had been sober.  Cindy’s parents resented him for that, and he knew it, and her father somehow blamed him for her death.  They had been quite good friends the whole time he had known Cindy, but he knew they could never be that again.  They begrudged him and he hated them for it.  And yet deep down he agreed with her father for some strange reason.  He blamed himself for her death and he would never get over that feeling.
     When the two arrived at Joan’s apartment it was cold outside, so they hurriedly brought the few bags of his things inside.  Darin felt like a caged animal.  It was too cold to go wandering outside, and they had come in Joan’s car so he couldn’t just leave.
     It was a Sunday evening several days later and Joan wanted him to go to church with her.  He objected but after several minutes of her pleading, he finally gave in.  It took him nearly two hours to get ready, but when he was done, he surprisingly felt better about himself.  He was clean, freshly shaven and wearing some of his nice clothes that Joan had cleaned and Ironed for him.  He actually felt like there might be something worth living for, and for the first time in weeks, he didn’t feel like having a drink.
     As they drove to the church neither said  a word but as they neared their destination a small trickle of a smile broke across Darin’s face and he turned to his sister and quietly uttered the word “Thanks.”  A great smile came out on Joan’s face and a tear ran down her cheek but she wiped it away so he wouldn’t see.
     The sermon was good and too long and everyone in the church seemed happy.  Darin leaned over to Joan and said “You think maybe we could stop by Mom and Dad’s on the way home?”  “Of course we can.  They’d be delighted to see us.”  She said feeling optimistic about his situation for the first time since she brought him home three days earlier.
     When the service was over they were walking out of the church when one of the older ladies in the congregation came up to them and said “Darin, how good to see you, and where is that lovely wife of yours?”  He couldn’t handle it, he shoved his way out of the church and started running down the sidewalk.  He ran until he though his lungs would explode and then he stopped an crouched down next to a building and started to cry.
     Joan slowly walked up to him and knelt down.  For an eternity she said nothing, just looked at him with sympathetic eyes.  Then she held out her hand and waited.  After a few moments he took it and they stood up and hugged each other for the longest time.
     Finally she spoke.  “I know it’s hard, but you’ve just got to let her go.”  Deep down he knew she was right.  If he was to go on with his life, he would have to let go of Cindy and move on.

To be continued

     When he arrived back home he still didn’t want to see anyone.  He never visited any of his friends and wouldn’t talk with any of his relatives who tried to phone.  He did, however, try to see his in-laws.  He didn’t know why but he thought he had to try to womehow apologize to them for what had happened, even though it wasn’t his fault.  But when he went over, they, especially  Mr. Robinson, were very cold and gave some excuse why they couldnt’ see him then.
     Things got worse.  He had bills to pay and he was out of work so he went to the State Police.  He thought that he should be able to get his job there a little early.  After all, he had already been accepted.  When they reviewed his military records, however, they politely but inevitably refused him the job.
     A week later he got a job flipping burgers at the local grill.  He was inside when he saw someone breaking into his car.  He left the grill and ran outside.  They were pulling out of the parking lot and he jumped on the hood of his car, not knowing what else to do.  The man behind the wheel jammed on the brakes and he was thrown to the ground.  As the car pulled past him, the driver yelled “Next time make your payments!”
     He just sat there on the ground, head in his hands and started to cry.  The owner of the place came out and began to yell at him for leaving the burgers on the grill to burn and sneered at him and called him a sissy for crying over a stupid used car.  Darin stood up, punched his boss hard in the face, knocking him to the ground, and threw his grill apron on him.
     Days passed.  He didn’t know how many, but it had been quite a few.  He had been drunk or passed out most of the time since he quit his job.  His whole life had fallen apart in front of him in a matter of weeks and he could do nothing to stop it or even slow it down.
     There was a knock at the door.  He let whomever it was knock for several minuste before he bothered to get up and answer it.  It was his sister Joan.  They had stayed quite close over the years, but he hadn’t seen her since the wedding.  He stood in the doorway blocking her path to the apartment.  She stepped past him anyway and went inside and sat down.
     “I came to see how you were faring.” She said.  “I didn’t think it would be this bad.”  Darin walked back into the apartment, closing the door behind him.  “If I needed a babysitter I would have hired one.”  He was extremely cold on purpose.  He was ashamed of the way he had handled the situation and he didn’t want to see anyone, especially someone he cared about.  He wanted the entire world to go away.
     “Listen you!” She continued anyway,  “You’re going to pack up right now and come back home and stay with me or mom for a while, just until you’re back on your feet.”  “I’m fine.” He insisted, but she knew better.  The apartment was trashed and he reeked of liquor.

to be continued