The Time Traveler's Guide to Grammar

  Thursday, Oct. 2, 2361

  That morning she went into school early. She knew it was incredibly dangerous, but she had already decided that she would time travel on her own. She visited places in Greg’s life. It seemed she was not meant to be a large part of it. Her first stop was their break-up. She almost laughed when she saw what day it was.

  It was today, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2361. It seemed that whatever she saw that day convinced her to break up with him. For some reason, as she watched her deliver the news to Greg, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief. She skipped ahead to Greg’s next relationship, with Becky Cooper. He began dating her a mere three weeks after Quinn dumped him. Quinn jumped to Greg’s wedding day, and she watched his life unfold. He would marry a petite woman named Monica and would have three kids with her black hair and his smile. She stopped before she saw Greg die, content that the next forty years of his life would work out well, even if she was absent from them.

  By the time she returned to the school it was nearing dusk. She broke up with Greg that night. It was hard for her to not tell him that his current sadness would be laughingly small compared to the happiness that he would experience in his life. It was harder for her not to laugh at how rehearsed her words were, or how she lined up her actions perfectly for her past self to watch.