It's interesting to me how the missions I was sent on got a bit less obvious over time. The first two missions I went on were just "tests", more or less. Go to such and such a date and bring back a newspaper and a cherry danish. (Maria loves cherry danishes.) Go to such and such a date and collect information for the historians on this particular person who is supposedly going to be there.
The third mission was that critical one with my parents and the fourth was the even more critical one (at least internationally and historically speaking) involving the most terrible leader of Germany in all of known history. On these first missions, my objective was very clear. The reason for each mission was also very clear. Mission 1 was a simple trial run to make sure I could perform and handle the trip. Mission 2 was an information gathering trip to fill in some blanks and figure out if further action would be needed. Mission 3 was to make sure I would be able to continue to go on missions. Mission 4 was to basically save the world for further destruction in the 1950s and 1960s. The next mission was also quite clear and quite important: go back to the time when John F. Kennedy was a young child and ensure his teachers instilled in him a fascination with the stars that was necessary to propel him towards his strong support of the space program.
Then came the rash of missions that were still obvious in what I was doing and what impact it would have, but also completely bizarre and both totally surprising and totally revealing at the same time. I went to ancient Egypt to help construct the pyramids.
If that's mind-blowing for you, the next one will be even more bizarre: I went to ancient England and helped our prehistoric ancestors construct Stonehenge. That was the one that really blew my mind. Was the mystery surrounding these great structures really that critical to the survival of mankind that I had to go back in time and make it happen? What really would have happened if Stonehenge has never been built? It seemed to me like, had I not gone on mission #6, there simply would have been a lot fewer conspiracy theories and lot less wondering about where this seemingly impossible structure that I now knew was only possible thanks to time travel. Yet the historians insisted that this wonder of the world was a critical part of human history and they determined there was no way it could have been constructed without our help. Thus, one of us time travelers must have gone back in time to help construct it, and obviously we had a good reason for that, so that reason became our reason and back in time I went.
If that makes your head hurt, well, there's a reason not all of us can be time travelers.
As bizarre as all these experiences were, I would not have traded them for the world. I got to see amazing things that there is no way I could have ever experienced in any other way. Even if there were recordings of these great historical events and places, it could never have come close to comparing to the real thing. I can tell you that Nero did not actually fiddle while Rome burned and that Napoleon was even shorter than the history books say, but wore elevated shoes to make himself look taller. I can tell you that Cleopatra was actually far more gorgeous that Mata Hari, though she certainly smelled a lot worse. And I could tell you want really killed the dinosaurs, but that's one thing that I'm not allowed to say. That one was and information gathering mission to see if there was any determination of anything we needed to do in that ancient eon. The answer was, no there wasn't. Nature quite nicely took care of itself on that one.
I seemed like I was sent to so many great historical moments that I just assumed that was going to continue. It was quite a surprise when on my 15th mission, after dedicating two years of my own personal timeline to training and just over a year of that personal timeline to actual travel, that they sent me on my first really bizarre mission. They told me to go to a specific African country in the year 850 and shoot the first elephant I found. That was it. No explanation of why this was important. No hints as to what it was going to gain. Just go shoot an elephant. They actually had to spend a couple of weeks training me with the rifle to make sure I wasn't going to mess it up. They weren't entirely sure the elephant wasn't going to try to trample me to death. They weren't entirely sure the elephant wasn't going to succeed if it tried to trample me to death. Maria told me that if this was the mission that made me want to quit, she would understand. They would replace my memories of the past three years and send me on my way.
Maria knew as well as everyone that I wouldn't trade all those memories for anything. I realize now that that's probably why they sent me on all those important and obvious missions first: so I wouldn't want to give all those memories up when they started to send me on the really bizarre ones.
But I didn't think about that at the time. I just thought about how I had made a commitment and that this was my destiny and tried to ignore the selfish aspect of all that and agreed to go on this mission just as I had gone on all the others. I learned to shoot the rifle. I learned to remain calm in the face of certain death. I went back in time. I shot the elephant. She didn't even put up a fight. I returned home, and was granted a month off before I jumped into my next assignment.
I admit, the month off was pretty nice. It was the most time they had given me off since I started. Even when I wasn't jumping around through time, I was still training or working with other travelers. We had a sort of group support group to make sure none of us went crazy from what we were experiencing. That met once a month, so after my elephant trip, I went to the meeting, opted not to comment on on how strange I thought that assignment had been, mostly out of fear they would rescind the the offer of the time off, and then went home to visit my parents.
My mom and dad were so excited to see me again. They made the usual comments about it being strange that a time traveler couldn't make more time for the people who raised her, but they were smiling when they said it, just like always, so I didn't let it get to me too bad. They were thrilled when I said I would be staying for a full month, but then my mom seemed to get a little worried with this proclamation. She frowned and asked, "Sweet heart, don't you have friends you'd like to stay with during this time?"
I shrugged. "All my friends work at the academy and I see enough of them already."
"Okay," mom relinquished. Less than a second later: "But maybe there's a nice boy of something..."
"Mom..."
"Oh come on, that's none of our business. She's a full grown woman and can do what she wants." Dad to the rescue. How I loved my old man.
I smiled and exchanged a glance with him before turning back to mom. "Don't worry about me, mom," I said. "If I'm meant to find a guy, I will. But I certainly don't need one."
Mom sighed and said, "Well of course you don't need one, but there may be one out there who needs you, just like your father needs me."
"Oh hush you," Dad ordered with a smile on his face. "Now what should we order up for dinner?"
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