Riverboat To The Past

"Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen."

These famous words were written by Mark Twain in his autobiography to explain a remarkable coincidence that occurred in his life.

A Polish undergrad in Chicago, Peter Sadowy, when he came across this saying, couldn't help but wonder if Twain had an understanding of the theory of the time quantum, especially after it was explained to him by its discoverer, Professor Harry Groh, and his research associate, Karen Butler, that the theory implied the existence of an infinite number of alternative timelines.

Peter learned that just like Karen, he had an aptitude for entering the trances that disturbed the natural flow of time. Could he take advantage of that ability? Researching in the college library, he became obsessed with the plethora of ghostly apparitions that had appeared in the front lines of World War I in Belgium and France. Were they anomalous temporal phenomena that had been triggered by the stress and the trauma of the fighting? Would it be possible to take advantage of these disturbances to change the course of humanity?

Peter Sadowy resolved to sacrifice his life in the present to try to improve the lives of others in the past--particularly the lives of his ancestors in Poland who had suffered so terribly in and between the two World Wars. He came so close to achieving his goal, but remarkably, at the crucial moment, he failed. However, even more remarkably, his failure led to an alternative form of success that he had not anticipated. Post-war Europe was refreshed, and the future was rebuilt. Peter had proved that there is nothing that cannot happen.