Love From The Past

Dr. Wryte pushed buttons on the terminal of the large, cylindrical device. She frowned and pursed her lips. “Come on. Calculate already!” she said.

Above, a small screen with numerical data beeped. Wryte smiled. “Finally!”

“Any progress?” came a voice from behind her.

Wryte turned and faced a tall, slender man with glasses.

“Slowly, but surely Dr. Vant.”

“How does it feel to be working on the government’s top-secret project?”

“I have only been on the time travel project for five months,” said Dr. Wryte. “It’s exciting. I’ll admit I was a little leery when I was first approached.”

“We all were.” Vant said with a chuckle. “Do you need assistance?”

Wryte nodded. “Yes. I need help calibrating the nuclear modulator. Could you take over where I am? I want to go to the computer and run a diagnostic on the main system. There are variables that keep messing things up.

“Certainly,” said Vant, as he traded places with Wryte.

Wryte went to a computer and typed away checking every nook and cranny of the system trying to weed out the disrupting variable.

She continued for three hours then jumped to her feet. I’ve done it! And I mean completely!”

Dr. Vant went to the computer. “I don’t believe it! According to the data readings, We have just the right temporal signature to traverse time immediately!” He spun around. “I’ll inform the lead scientist now!”

“Wait!” said Wright. “I want to ask a favor. Allow me to be the first to try out the time machine.”

“We could lose our jobs! Why the risk? Our trailing program is not fully ready. You might not come back.”

“I’ll take that risk. I want to go back two-thousand years to Jerusalem.”

“Why? Do you want to meet Jesus or something?”

Wryte’s eyes widened. She reeled back. “Um…yes actually.”

“Is losing your job worth meeting some old religious figure?” said Vant.

“To me it is. I’m a Christian and just five minutes with Him would be worth it.”

Dr. Vant raised a finger. “What about the paradox risk?”

“I’ll be in the presence of God’s Son.,” said Wryte. “I trust Jesus will know everything about me and he will hold everything together.”

“Very well, but I will not share the fall.”

“Agreed,” said Wryte.

Dr. Vant pressed a button on the upright cylindrical machine and a door slid open. Wryte stepped in.

Vant narrowed his eyes. “If you do not return in an hour, then you’re stuck.”

Dr. Wryte nodded and took a dee[p breath.

Dr. Vant went to the computer and entered the time and place coordinates. The machine hummed for about three minutes. Vant opened the door; Dr. Wryte was gone.

……………………………. ……………………………….. …………………………….. …………………………….



In a flash of light, Dr. Wryte. looked upon small houses of brick and thatched roofing. People bustled about in dirty robes and cloaks. All wore sandals and spoke in the Hebrew tongue. She spotted a Roman guard with a glare and thick muscles.

A group of men stared at her.

‘My clothes! I have to change!”

She looked to her left and saw a robe drying in the sun on a pole next to a house.

“I hate stealing, but it is the only way,” she said to herself. Dr Wryte snatched the robe off the pole and went to an alley to change. She came out with her hair covered by a hood. “Jesus was followed by large crowds so spotting Him will not be difficult,” she said out loud again.

She walked along the dirt path with some camels and donkeys carrying riders. Buyers and sellers at kiosks haggled loudly. Wryte came to a garden where a Jewish Mosque was filled with about a dozen people praying.

“I can’t believe I am I the past.” Wryte breathed in the flowery scent and also the sweet incense from the inside. She went on. She heard the loud snapping sound like a whip that came from around a corner and sprinted in the direction of the noise.

A man with a whip driving out people from what must have been the Jewish temple filled with people who sold and bought animals and traded wares. The man pushed over tables with dove cages and money stands as gold and silver coins chimed as they hit the ground.

“It’s right out of the book of Mathew in chapter 21:12!”

The man raised his voice, red with anger. After this, those who were lame or sick came to Jesus and he healed them.

Dr. Wryte’s mouth dropped open and she wept. “Jesus! My Lord and Savior! It’s really you!”

When Jesus left the crowd, Wryte dashed in His direction. But when she was six feet away from Jesus, someone stepped in front of Him and He was gone.

Dr. Wright stopped and looked around. She was in a sweat and ran her palm down her face. “What will I do now?” she said.

“I can help you,” said a voice behind her.

Wryte turned and saw an old man in a torn robe. “Many have tried what you have done. The Lord has permitted you to see Him.”

“Who are you? You speak English,” asked Wryte.

“Just a person of faith like you. Come, follow me.”

The old man took her inside a small house where Jesus sat on a wooden stool. Wryte felt a loving presence proceed from Him like the warmth of a noon sun. Jesus stood with a broad smile. He walked to her and embraced her.

A light began to envelope her. “No, not now! It’s too early!” she said.

The light flashed around her and she found herself back in the lab with Vant and the lead scientist Dr. Fale.

“I saw him…His face,” said Wryte.

“I had to bring you back earlier or else you would have been stuck.”

Dr. Wryte barged out of the lab in tears.

“She got what she wanted,” said Fale.

"Indeed. She will never forget His face."