The Gary Paradox

by HM Cuello

It’s 3:35 am. Gary’s been dreaming again. The song “Whipping Post” by the Allman Brothers comes on and jars him awake. He stares blankly into space and remembers the dream.

He’s back in 1963, November 23 to be exact. His dad is drunk again. He works the night shift on the railroad and he and his crew spend all night drinking and smoking. He usually comes home in a mood and today is no exception.

Gary wakes at 7 am and readies himself for school. His mom left his dad and somehow left him behind also. He never heard from her again. He wonders what became of her. His dad arrives at 7:15 am stumbling in and ranting, “They killed Kennedy, those bastards shot him.” He has a lunch pail in one hand and a bottle of Old Crow whiskey in the other. Behind him through the open door, Gary can see the car parked halfway up the curb, the turn signal flashing.

As Gary starts out the door, his dad grabs him by the scruff and starts to beat on him. After a minute, his hands are hurting so he removes his belt and starts to whip him. He tires after a few more minutes and shuffles off to sleep. Gary waits a few minutes and then heads off to school. He doesn’t cry—he never does. That would show weakness. The welts are under his shirt and won’t be seen—no PE today.

The dream ends when the song ends and now Gary is fully awake and sweating profusely. He showers and leaves for his job as a theoretical physicist at Fermi Lab. He puts the dream out of his mind and concentrates on his work with the Quantum Entanglement Team. He gets in his car, coffee in his hand, and heads out.

He arrives at the Quantum Lab and heads to the morning meeting. The team has been working on opening a portal using Quantum AI. The team, using data from the CERN trials, is attempting to open a portal using Closed Timelike Curves (CTCs). So far, they have sent mice back and retrieved them. Animal protection laws do not allow them to send any subject heavier than 500 grams, but there is a loophole—it was never considered that a human subject might be used. Now they need a human volunteer that can record the experience and confirm their device works.

When the lead scientist asks for a volunteer, Gary and 2 others raise their hands. Gary is the only one with no immediate family on record, so he is picked.

The plan is to send somebody back in time to witness a historical event and return to document their observations of the aftermath. They debate what event they want to witness and Gary suggests the Kennedy assassination.

After some discussions they decide that though the best vantage point is the grassy knoll, if something goes wrong they may disrupt history. Gary suggests that he be sent back to his childhood home in Plainfield, Illinois and record history from there. The test is scheduled to last for half an hour and then return to the present. The team refers to this as being like a bungee cord—the quantum connection allows them to bring him back to the present time and space.

During the week of preparation, Gary continues to have his dream and grows more angry with his father—who died from alcohol-related liver failure. The assistant principal pulled him out of advanced calculus class to inform him. He heard and nodded but he didn’t cry.

On the day of the test, Gary is asked if he has any misgivings. He says no, although he has his own plan. The team gives Gary a change of clothes appropriate for that era and a notebook and pencil—no modern gadgets.

After the coordinates in time and space are input, Gary steps into the machine and closes his eyes.

He opens his eyes and finds himself face down in his old backyard. He gets up, and looks around The grass is neatly trimmed and the house looks freshly painted. He goes over to the shed and finds an old rusty hatchet. He knows what he has to do. He will kill his father and return. This will give this Gary a better life. He goes over and looks in the kitchen window.

What he sees shocks him.

He sees a well-dressed boy—obviously him—a woman cooking breakfast while humming a show tune. From his position, he can hear and smell the sizzling bacon. A man walks in the door and goes over to kiss his wife. She hands him a coffee in an old blue enameled mug. Gary glances over and sees the car parked properly in the driveway. It all reminds him of some Norman Rockwell scene. Why couldn’t I have that?

The man then approaches the boy and tousles his hair, smiling. “Did you finish your physics homework, son? I’m sure if you keep up your studies that you’ll do great in life. I can drive you to school if you like—by the way, we’ll watch JFK’s speech after he returns to Washington. They say that he’ll give an update on the attempt on his life in Dallas.”

5 minutes later, he returns to the spot where he arrived and tosses the hatchet toward the shed. He looks back and can see the family now all sitting at the table and talking. He can hear the mom laughing at something the boy says. He never heard his mom laugh. He rubs his now-itchy eyes, but he doesn’t cry.

He writes in the notebook, “Well, I guess that we didn’t prove time travel but we just proved the multiple worlds theory.” As he waits to return to the lab, a thought suddenly crosses his mind: “What if I don’t return to my world? Do I really want to?”

For the first time in his life, he breaks down and cries.

The end