Time is of the esscence

There is no telling the irrevocable damage I was doing by coming here. One person seeing me or one simple item out of place could potentially alter the future forever, to what extent I have no idea. I mean the very reason you are here now is because two people fell in love, or maybe it wasn’t love at all but a fling or a one night stand. Regardless, those two people that created you met for a reason, one small thing out of place could completely change the interaction and obliterate you from existence in the process.

I pondered the exponential disaster I could be creating as I shimmied my way through the ventilation system at G&C Innovations. The irony is that I am, in fact, a Cooper. Grandson to the one and only Richard Cooper. I just won’t be born for another twenty-five or so years, and I certainly won't be making ground breaking progress in time travel for more than half of a century. My grandfather Richard Cooper and his business partner Albus Grey co-founded G&C innovations in the early 2000, the company was built on the idea man, the average joe that wanted to create something worthwhile. Over time the inventions went from little things to ease day to day life to massive breakthroughs in science and technology. Like time travel for instance.

So how did I end up crawling through the dusty vents of the New York branch in the year 2016 you may ask? Well it’s simple really, I actually created a ship for time travel. This is not a drill, it happened, and to my dismay upon landing fifty-five years in the past my ship that I have spent my entire career working on broke. I’ve been stuck here for a few days, tinkering with what I’ve got to try and get the stubborn S.O.B to give me that green light, but I've had no luck. There are a few pieces that I could replace but I'm not even sure that I would be able to find them in this time period. Hence the shimmying. I can’t exactly walk into the building claiming to be the future grandson of the founder and asking for pieces to fix my time machine. That sounds like a one way ticket to the looney bin. And I am surely not willing to risk altering my very existence in the future.

Unfortunately, I have searched damn near every floor in this building and have had no luck. This final storage room is my last hail mary. As I approached the vent I pulled my trusty screwdriver from my back pocket. Grandpa Rich worked as a handyman in his younger years, and his single greatest piece of advice to date is to always keep a screwdriver handy. Strange, I know, but it has proved itself useful on more than one occasion. I removed the screws that held the vent in place, before removing the dusty piece of metal I looked around for any glimpse of anyone in the room. Once I confirmed the coast was clear I took the vent off slowly lowering myself into the room.

The lab I was in was a cluttered mess, but it was THE Albus Grey’s personal lab so that was to be expected. Business was good therefore as one of the co-founders he was a busy man, so when he managed to squeeze in some time for the fun stuff he did not waste it by cleaning up. When I say every inch of space on the three rather large work tables was taken up by tools and pieces to his latest project I am not exaggerating. It was on the one furthest from me, near the back wall of the room, I saw the beginnings of Albus’s own tinkering with time travel.

I made my way over to the table, I slowly circled the table admiring the workings of Albus in his prime. I noticed blue prints strewn across the corner and I began thumbing through them. I have seen them before of course, but never like this. Never so crisp and clean. By the time I’m old enough to understand and appreciate them they’re tattered and worn. Grandpa never did believe time travel was something to mess with. He never supported Albus or myself in our pursuit but he never stood in the way either. He knew it was no place of his to intervene.

Just as I placed the blueprints back in order I heard the lock click. Frozen I stood there trying to think of a way out of here unnoticed but my efforts were futile. Just seconds later a full faced Albus came waltzing in the door. His brown hair and beard were perfectly intact and he was tall and confident just as I imagined he would be in his prime. Before I could speak his lip curled up in a half smile.

“Why hello there Mr. Cooper.”