When Joseph announced a tea break, the two girls stepped out of the room and went a short distance to a small kitchen. Deanna put a pot on a coal stove to boil, and placed a pan of biscuits in a small oven. She turned a knob on the oven, and a whirring sound started. "What kind of oven is that?" Alex asked.
"A microwave," Deanna answered. Alex was finding that, whenever she expected something new and strange, something familiar surfaced; other times, she found strangeness to exceed even her imagination.
They brewed and snacked in silence for a while, then Alex said "I'm glad I learned the word 'oblivious,' because I think it will be very useful here. Like now."
Deanna laughed. Alex asked her "Did you know what this was all about?"
"No, I just knew that you were needed to help with something, but I didn't know what. But this sounds like it might be dangerous, and I'm afraid for you."
"I'm afraid for me, too," Alex said.
After a while, Deanna said, "You know you don't have to do it if you don't want to?"
"I know that. But I don't know if it's really dangerous. And if it is, can I really do something important by going there? I don't really know if I'm brave or not, because I've never had to be brave before."
"I think you're brave just for being here. You're alone, and so far from home. Even though it might be only a few feet away, it might as well be a thousand miles."
"Thanks to you I don't feel alone," Alex said, and smiled. Deanna looked away, unable to face her friend. "Please be careful," Deanna said, wiping an eye.
After a few more minutes, they went back to Deanna's father's office.
"I know you have many questions," Joseph began. In fact, Alex didn't have any idea what to ask. "First, let's talk about the danger. We feel that we can protect you, since we'll be sending someone to watch over you, and we'll be able to watch you from here. Our Seer will take care of that for us. And, don't forget, you can always escape from that time by concentrating on our present time, and snapping the time bonds."
"Next, you must also understand that we have not done this very many times before, and success has been mixed, at best," Joseph added.
"How many times have you done it?" she asked.
"We have gone many times as observers, but only twice when we tried to make changes: once to prevent the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the second to prevent the outbreak of your First World War."
"But Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and there was a First World War," Alex noted.
"Well, I said the results were mixed. The good part was that our operatives returned without any harm to themselves."
"This doesn't sound very promising," Alex noted.
"I admit it's a new science, so not everything has gone smoothly at all times. But we've learned a lot, and now we have Martha as Seer, and she's the best we ever had," Joseph said. "Also, we think we made a mistake by sending our own people, since they could not smoothly fit into your world. You -- or whoever goes -- will fit in much more easily."
"If I go, what will happen to my time on my own world while I'm away? I mean, will time be normal, or will it still go slow?"
"So far about thirteen seconds have passed on your world. The whole trip into the past should take no more than about thirty minutes of your time, even though you'll be back in your own past for several days. If everything goes as expected."
"What does that mean?" Alex asked.
"You understand that you'll be changing the past just by being there. We've found that the long-range effects of your small actions will tend to be cancelled out, but short-term effects can change many things around you."
"Explain, please."
"Let's say you go there only to observe, not intending to do anything. But by standing behind a tree to watch an event, you scare a bird which would otherwise have stayed on its branch. Instead, it flies away and attracts a cat, which runs after it. Perhaps a boy who was about to wander into the path of a vehicle is instead distracted by the cat, and his life is saved. Totally accidentally, totally without your intending to do anything."
"So that means that anything I do can have all kinds of results we can't predict. That sounds terribly dangerous."
"Only in the short term. In the long term, we've found that the changes tend to go back toward the original path. For example, that boy you saved might die of illness a few days later, and cancel the changes you made."
"So how does it help anything if I save Susy's life?"
"Because the rules are different at a crosstime. There's still a tendency for the changes to die out and go back to the original path. But there seems to be a much higher chance that the changes will be long term."
"So that's why whoever caused Susy's death picked that time," Deanna said.
"That's right. And in that case, the changes have been permanent, because Susy's death had serious long-term results, in both worlds," Joseph replied.
"If I can escape at any time, what danger is there to me?" Alex asked.
"As I said, the mere fact of your being there changes things. Anything you do can have any consequences," Joseph said. "You might do something that can block your exit."
"How could I do that, if all I have to do is remember the future -- I mean, the present."
"Did you ever hear of 'The Time Paradox'?" Joseph asked. When Alex shook her head, he said, "Suppose you went back in time, and killed your mother's mother, before she even met your grandfather. What would happen?"
"Well, if they never met, my mother would never have been born, so I guess I wouldn't have been born either," Alex said.
"But if you weren't born," Joseph said, "then you couldn't have gone back in time and killed her."
"And if I didn't kill her, then she lived, and met my grandfather, and I was born. But if I was born, I went back in time ..." Alex stopped, stumped.
Joseph said, "That's right: if you were born, you couldn't have been born, and if you weren't born, then you were born. That's what a 'paradox' is: something that contradicts itself."
"Oblivious, here I come," Alex said, and Deanna agreed.
"So that's one of our problems," Joseph said. "In going back, you might make some fundamental change that makes it impossible for you to be there, and you wouldn't be there anymore, even if you were there."
"Have any of these 'paradoxes' ever happened?" Deanna asked.
"We have no idea," Joseph replied. "The best we can do is carefully advise you while you're there. We've checked, and none of your ancestors lived anywhere near Hartford, Connecticut at that time, or for many years afterward."
"If I go back and save Susy, could that lead to a paradox?" Alex asked.
"Our Seer, Martha, says 'no'. But to be fair, this whole thing is an art, not a science," Joseph replied.
"There is one other factor you should know about," Joseph said. "The Clemens family was immersed in German culture. The daughters were taught German By Mrs. Clemens. And Mr. Clemens was immensely popular in Germany. His works were read by all the children, and he was familiar to almost all the adults. He probably had more influence on the thinking of the German people than any other American. He was also, as you know, very liberal and anti-racist in his thinking and writing. We're hoping that, if his career remains productive longer, he might help exert these influences on the German people, and perhaps delay or even prevent the world wars. But we feel that the chances of that happening are very slim. Almost impossibly slim."
Alex looked carefully at Joseph, and saw the doubt written on his face. The decision would be easy if he could point to some successes. But the possibility of her causing problems seemed just as likely as her doing good. The possiblity of preventing wars seemed like a wonderful goal, but it was too difficult to imagine. The chance that she might save Susy's life seemed much more real. At least it was something her mind could grasp.
"The 'bottom line,' as my father likes to say, is that, if I don't do it, Susy will die when she's my age," Alex said. "I don't really have a choice. I have to go."