Time Traveler

I decide to withhold the decryption with a white lie in order not to disrupt history. I stand by the radioman and listen to the incoming traffic. Soon we hear another message, not encrypted, from the Royal New Zealand Navy saying they are en route to rescue the crew of PT-109. They must have decrypted the message, too. I breathe a sigh of relief. Kennedy will be rescued and history will not be changed. But then comes a message that the kiwis are under attack from the Japanese. Soon we learn that the rescue boat has been sunk and the crew lost. The Americans did not initially send a rescue of their own, relying on the kiwi boat. When they finally dispatch their own American boat, they rescue the crew, but Lt. Kennedy has contracted a fatal infection due to his weakened condition. He dies and history is altered.

I realize that I should have given the radioman my decryption in order to preserve history rather than withhold it. Somehow I must have been meant to assist in Kennedy's rescue. I can feel myself beginning to fade into oblivion as history is changed. I am beginning to think that my time travels are not solely my own choice, but guided by history in some way. I'm fading ... fading ...