The small black box

By Arun Kant

As a student of science, 31-year-old physicist Sarah preferred facts over opinions. Yet, there was one fact she wished wasn’t true—you can’t rewrite your past. This truth about life had kept her restless for weeks. It was 4:10 am, lights were off, but like all the previous nights, Sarah was still awake thinking about the days that changed her life. Tired, she decided to go for a run along the shore.

There weren’t many people on the beach that morning, which was exactly what she had hoped for. Sprinting along the coastline, she saw a strange object nestled between the rocks. It was a small, metallic box, black in colour. It looked old and broken, yet well-preserved like a radio kept in an attic. Sarah felt a sense of déjà vu as she tiptoed towards the box like she had experienced this before. She stared at the box with her big brown eyes as if she knew it was not a piece of junk but something rare, not from this world.

She sat on her bed with the box in front of her. Could it be a time machine? She wondered as she smiled nervously. No, this is ridiculous! I am a physicist, not an author of a science-fiction bestseller, she brought herself back to reality. But logic and reason couldn’t stop Sarah from exploring the mysterious object. She closed the windows and drew the blinds. The darkness of the room made the air grim. “If this is actually a time machine, I should be able to change anything with it, shouldn’t I?” Sarah mumbled. Suddenly, her phone rang aloud that made her jump out of her skin. She answered it on the final ring.