Conrad's Perfection (standard:science fiction, 0 words)
Author: AJ	Added: May 31 2001	Views/Reads: 3832/2551	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Conrad builds a time machine to go back in time and right all the wrongs in his life.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

nanoseconds later, he emerged into warm sunlight. 

He blinked confusedly at the new environment.  It took a moment before
he realized what the tables filled with science projects and packets 
explaining their uses meant.  But after he figured it out, he wasted no 
time in finding his rival’s awful exhibit.  It was a poster detailing a 
controlled experiment in which the stupid kid had raised two groups of 
worms, one under sunlight, and the other under a blacklight.  It was 
unclear what this experiment proved, other than glowing worms make for 
a moderately interesting photograph. 

Conrad looked skeptically at the poster, then tore it off the table.  He
snatched up the skimpy pamphlet as well, and buried them at the bottom 
of a nearby trash bin.  Just as he was cramming an old pizza delivery 
box back into the trash can, his watch flared white, and he found 
himself standing in his office. 

Conrad shook his head.  He’d had a short moment of disorientation.  He
looked around his neat office at the wall of bookshelves, the mahogany 
desk on which perched a high-tech computer, and his framed degree 
hanging on the wall, along with the certificates for his various 
science awards.  Everything was just as it had been a moment ago.  He 
didn’t know why he’d blacked out, but he felt okay.  In fact, he felt 
great, cleansed. 

And he remembered the time machine.  You may be surprised to hear that. 
But although THIS Conrad had been through college, he’d still had a 
far-from-perfect past.  He still had to endure the memories of his 
abusive stepfather.  This Conrad had also devoted his life to making a 
time machine, which was now blinking the word “TIME”. 

Like his other miserable self had done earlier that day, Conrad tapped
the screen of his computer and traveled back to the year of his first 
birthday.  That had been before his mother had married that scum, that 
monster of a man who’d made Conrad’s entire life hell.  Conrad’s 
stepfather had lived in a small, dirty apartment before moving in with 
Conrad and his mother.  Conrad was standing in front of that very 
apartment now.  He rang the bell. 

The man who opened the door was his stepfather.  “Not if I can help it,”
Conrad thought.  His heart filled with fear, hate, and pain at the 
sight of this man, who had not yet met Conrad’s mother.  Before he 
could say a word, Conrad fired two shots from his silencer-equipped 
pistol into his stepfather’s greasy body.  The gun clattered to the 
floor, an instant before Conrad found himself back in his office. 

The office looked much the same as when he’d left, except for a framed
photograph on the desk.  The picture was of a young Conrad, with his 
mother and stepfather at their beach home.  The stepfather in the 
picture bore no resemblance to the man Conrad did not remember having 
killed just seconds ago.  This was a caring, gentle stepfather who 
Conrad had loved since childhood.  Every time he looked at that 
picture, he thought about that great summer they’d spent, lazing away, 
getting deep tans... 

Conrad had had a happy childhood, with loving parents and happy
memories.  But the word “TIME” still blinked mindlessly on the computer 
screen.  There was only one more thing that Conrad had to change before 
he’d have the perfect past.  There was one more thing that still 
haunted him, and kept him from being completely happy. That thing was 
Jessica.  Conrad had loved her all throughout high school, but never 
had the nerve to do anything about it.  When he finally worked up the 
courage to ask her to the prom, he decided to approach her when he saw 
her in the hallway.  He was within feet of his beloved when he saw who 
she was with.  Another guy.  Conrad felt betrayed, although Jessica was 
not his girlfriend.  Conrad was close enough to hear Jessica agree to 
go to the prom with this guy.  He felt his heart drop into his stomach. 
 He never forgot that lovesick feeling. Conrad felt sure that if he had 
been there first, Jessica would have gone with him.  And now he was 
going to do something about it.  He tapped the luminous screen 
decisively and found himself in a hallway packed with noisy high school 
students. 

He immediately ducked into an empty classroom and peered out through the
window in the door.  He could see Jessica’s prom date-to-be eyeing 
Jessica as she obliviously stacked some books in her locker.  He also 
saw an eighteen-year-old Conrad edging nervously in her direction.  He 
didn’t have much time.  His mind whirled as he tried to grab hold of a 
plan. 

Finally he thought of something.  Not the greatest idea he’d ever had,
but maybe the kid was dumb enough that it would work.  He grabbed a few 
textbooks off the teacher’s desk and strolled purposefully through the 
hall, trying to look as teacher-like as possible.  As he passed the 
boy, he tapped him on the shoulder. 

“Young man,” Conrad said gruffly, “please come this way.”  The boy
followed Conrad dumbly, looking befuddled but responding to the 
authoritative note in Conrad’s voice.  Out of the corner of his eye, 
Conrad spotted his young self, still stalling tensely a short distance 
away.  Conrad walked briskly out a door marked “EXIT”, and walked out 
into a parking lot, which, although full of cars, seemed to have no 
people in it.  The boy, not far behind, tentatively spoke. 

“Sir?”  he asked.  “What’s this about?” 

Conrad swung around, his fist connecting with the boy’s jaw.  He hit the
ground hard, blood pouring from his lip.  Conrad grinned expectantly, 
anticipating the life he’d return to momentarily.  But nothing 
happened.  He glanced at his watch.  Nothing. 

Conrad’s eyes widened with pure terror at the realization that was
beginning to dawn on him.  “Oh God,” he whispered.  Conrad had made his 
life so perfect that his future self had not had any need to build a 
time machine.  He could not return to home, because the machine no 
longer existed, anywhere.  He felt panic rising in his throat. 

On the ground, the boy moaned and tried to get up.  Conrad kicked him
blindly, not seeing where he hit, because just then, a man who was 
getting into his car saw them and shouted something incoherent.  Conrad 
turned and ran, and did not stop until he was far off campus, crouched 
in an alley between two houses.  He panted, trying to catch his breath. 


Tears began to spill down his cheeks.  How could he get home to claim
the perfect life he’d worked so hard for?  The life he deserved.  He 
had to calm down.  He had to make a plan.  It was so simple, he told 
himself.  Just make another time machine.  It will be fine. 

Suddenly he heard a noise that made his blood run cold.  The wail of a
siren in the distance.  He tensed up.  It was getting closer.  He got 
up and ran out of the alley.  Down the street, he saw a police car 
rounding the corner.  He darted back into the alley, but he was too 
slow.  The policeman saw him, and arrested him for the assault of 
Andrew Richards, the boy he’d beaten. 

Within hours, the police also had him in custody for the murder of his
so-called stepfather, nearly seventeen years before.  They had found 
the gun with his fingerprints all over it.  Conrad pleaded guilty and 
wound up here in jail, with me, probably for the rest of his pitiful 
life.  This is the story he told me.  You might be wondering whether 
Conrad was a good man or a bad man.  That’s another thing you’ll have 
to decide for yourself.  If you want my opinion though, he was neither 
a good man nor a bad man.  He was just a human, wanting what we all 
want.  He was just desperate, and smarter than most. Maybe you’re 
wondering how he remembers it all.  Well, for reasons unknown even to 
Conrad’s brilliant mind, the destruction of the time machine brought 
all of his memories back to him.  Conrad told the police this story as 
well.  But for obvious reasons, they did not believe him.  Neither did 
I, at first. 

Until the other day when I saw this picture in the paper that a guard
was reading.  It showed a picture of a happy kid holding up a big 
check.  The headline was “LOCAL BOY WINS SCIENCE AWARD.”  The kid bore 
a striking resemblance to my cellmate, Conrad. 

Maybe it’s just a bizarre coincidence.  Maybe Conrad is totally insane,
and he made it all up.  But maybe, just maybe, eighteen years from now, 
Jessica will be tucking in her perfect children for bed, and trying to 
figure out where her perfect husband could have disappeared to. 


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