Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes

i think i might like to write a much longer story from this one.  but for now, here’s the sketch of the idea, so i don’t lose it.

i stood between the futureman and karl, trying to make myself big.

“go away.”  i said.  “go back to where you came from.  leave the poor guy alone.  whatever you’re blaming him for, it’s not his fault, ok?  he’s just a thinker, a writer.  he didn’t cause stalin to opress the russian people and it isn’t his fault none of the communist experiments succeeded, either.  killing him won’t change anything!”

“no, you’re wrong- it changes everything.  i know.  i’ve been there.”  the futureman looked into my eyes, begging me to understand.  “without him it all happens.  the rise of the working class.  the fall of capitalism.  the people owning the factories.  it didn’t happen exactly the way he wrote it out, or anything.  there’s still some inequality, some injustice.  but without this idiot writing it all down it actually had the space to happen.  the revolution!”

i looked at karl.  was it selfish of me to try to preserve my own history over all the others?  karl might even agree with futureman, if he could follow what was happening.  he might prefer the actuality of his ideas to the misuse and perversion that became of them in my own universe.  my job was to protect the timeline, but who was i to say my timeline was any better than this guy’s.  all i really had on my side was the principle of non-interference.

save karl marx and save walmart, save starbucks, save microsoft.  i looked at him and knew the world would be better off without him.  then i turned again to face the futureman, ready at last to lose my life in defense of a man who didn’t know any better and a future which had done the best we could with what we had inherited.