Crash

John had always been fascinated by history, but it wasn’t until he discovered time travel that he realized he could do more than just read about it. He had been moving back and forth through time for years, observing historical events and trying to make sense of them.

But there was one event that had always fascinated him, and that was the Wall Street Crash of 1929. John wondered if he could change the course of economic history by preventing the crash from happening. And so, he set out to do just that.

John arrived in New York City on October 23, 1929, just one day before the crash would begin. He knew that he had to act quickly if he was going to prevent it from happening. So he started to make his way to Wall Street, but he was stopped by a man who seemed to know exactly what he was up to.

“You’re not going to stop the crash, you know,” the man said.

John was astonished. “How do you know what I’m here for?”

The man smiled. “Let’s just say that I’m a fellow time traveler. And I’m here to stop you from making a terrible mistake.”

John was skeptical. “How can you be so sure that the crash will happen?”

The man shook his head. “It’s not about whether it’s going to happen. It’s about what happens after.”

John didn’t follow. “What do you mean?”

The man sighed. “You think that you can change history by preventing the crash. But you don’t realize that the crash is a symptom of a much larger problem. The economy is built on a house of cards, and if it doesn’t collapse now, it’s only going to get worse. So if you stop the crash, you’re only delaying the inevitable.”

John considered the man’s words. He realized he had been foolish to think he could change history without fully understanding the implications.

“Okay, you’ve persuaded me to be more cautious,” John said. “For now, I won’t try to stop the crash. But what should I do instead?”

The man smiled. “Come with me. I have something to show you. My name is Hector, by the way.”

Hector led John to a small alleyway and drew out a device resembling a cross between a compass and a stopwatch.

“This is a time compass,” Hector explained. “It allows us to navigate through time in a more precise way. With this, we can travel to specific moments in history and observe them without interfering.”

John was intrigued. “Can we really do that?”

Hector nodded. “Yes, but we still must be extremely careful. We can’t change anything, or we risk altering the course of history in ways we can’t even imagine.”

And so, John and Hector set out to explore history without altering it. They traveled to different moments, observing events as they unfolded but never interfering. They witnessed the rise and fall of empires, the triumphs and tragedies of humanity, and marveled at its sheer complexity.

But there was one moment that they both knew they had to see, even though it was a moment of great sadness and tragedy. They traveled to New York City on September 11, 2001, and watched in horror as the twin towers fell.

John was overwhelmed with emotion. “I had no idea,” he said. “I never realized how much pain and suffering there is in the world.”

Hector nodded. “It’s easy to forget when you’re traveling through time. But we must remember that every moment in history is interconnected, and every action has consequences.”

John and Hector continued their journey through time, always observing but never interfering. They visited the dawn of civilization and witnessed the construction of the pyramids. They saw the birth of new religions and the spread of ideas that would change the world. They even witnessed the Apollo 11 first moon landing, standing on the moon's surface alongside Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Despite their caution, John and Hector couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to change history. They talked about it often, imagining what they could do and how they could improve the world. But they both knew that it was too dangerous, too risky.

That is until one day when John couldn’t resist the temptation any longer. They were observing the events of World War II, watching as the Allies struggled to hold off the Axis powers. John saw an opportunity to change history, and he took it.

He traveled back to a time before the war had begun. John met with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and convinced him to take a more aggressive stance against Germany. As a result, he helped the Allies prevent the war years before it would have started.

When John returned to his own time, he was shocked by what he saw. The world was a vastly different place, one that he didn’t recognize. The war was prevented, but at what cost? The world had become a darker, more dangerous place. An entire worldwide, booming economy was now built around deterring war and maintaining peace at all costs. The prevention and perpetual fear of war had unleashed new, escalating horrors, new weapons of destruction that could never be un-invented.

John realized he had made a horrible mistake. He had altered history in a way that had unforeseen consequences. He had unleashed a new kind of peace, one that would be maintained with an escalating war of weapon improvements more and more horrendous than anyone could have imagined before there was such a thriving deterrence demand.

He tried to go back and undo what he had done, but it was too late. The damage had been done, and there was no going back. John was forced to live with the knowledge that his actions had led to all living in daily anticipatory terror and the potential suffering of millions.

He tried to travel through time again to see if there was a way to make things right, but the time compass had been damaged in the journey back. John was trapped, unable to return to the time before he time-meddled; a ghost forced to live in a ghastly time. But the economy was great.