Patience and Time

The shock registered on the faces in front of her was understandable. She was just opening her mouth to speak, when a woman somewhere in the crowd screamed, “WITCH!” Over the next few seconds, the cry was repeated, reverberating throughout village. Patience found her arms in the clutch of powerful hands before she could react. The crowd, now turned mob, had her surrounded just as quickly.

The young scientist and historian was, indeed, feeling the urge to curse something, specifically her own curiosity for dropping her in the middle of her current predicament. She shouldn't be here. What the hell had she been thinking?

The simplicity of the answer was the most ironic part of the situation. She'd been enamored with the idea of visiting the era and locale of her ancestry. It had seemed logical at the time. As that phrase ran through her mind, she couldn't suppress a chuckle. “At the time” was an apt catch phrase, under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, a chuckle was exactly the wrong response to the situation, at least in the eyes and ears of the good citizens of Salem, Massachusetts in the Year of Our Lord, 1692. Especially for a woman who had simply “materialized out of thin air” wearing blue coveralls.

In reality, a time jump resulted in more of a “popping in”. That phrase occurred to Patience as well, followed by the almost overwhelming urge to use it in a greeting to the unruly crowd: “Just thought I'd pop in!” Her uncontrollable, spontaneous laughter at that thought was enough to momentarily silence the mob, while it regained its collective energy.

In that brief instant, her eyes met with those of an older woman in the crowd. The woman nodded slowly and purposefully, before turning and disappearing into an alleyway. As her thoughts organized themselves, the din from the advancing crowd increased to a roar.

Her mind returned to a conversation with her great grandmother, at a time she couldn't quite pin down. She shrugged that off as an understandable reaction to the ludicrosity of everything in this moment being tied to – time.

It was time that had brought her here, in more ways than one, and Great Grandma had foretold it. Patience had asked her about the name they shared. Her answer, then, had made very little sense. As the conversation replayed in the scientist's mind, pieces of her past began to align and fall into place.

“You and your name carry a legacy, but you will be the last to bear the name. Patience is what our lives are lives are about. We await the passage of time, until time, itself, delivers the woman you will become. You will, one day, deliver what has already been recorded in history books.”

The substance of that conversation had fueled Patience's curiosity and driven her to study everything about time. Years later, she was one of the leading authorities on quantum entanglement, despite being the youngest member of her team. Her work was the root of the technology that had brought her to the current “here” and “now”.

Next came the realization that here and now was the time to act. The collective insanity was quickly reaching its boiling point. Her great grandmother's voice echoed in her spinning mind as she pulled her right arm free and twisted a dial on the device she wore on her left wrist. Flashing a wicked smile at the onlookers, she confirmed the numbers: 06, 25, 1914, and calmly said, “I have a fire to start.”

Her words were met with befuddled silence once again, giving her the perfect opportunity to make a memorable exit. She pushed the flashing green button on the device. The echo of the collective gasp accompanied her on her jump forward. Coming from a long line of witches had its perks.

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Thanks for reading! If the numbers on the device are confusing, search "Salem, Massachussets" on that date! Written for the following challenge: