Look But Don’t Touch

by

John J. Dunphy

Originally published in Drabble Harvest #5: Time Travel Goes Wrong. Author’s note: A “drabble” is a science fiction work that is precisely 100 words in length.

A trip to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 is one of our time travel clients’ favorite destinations. They enjoy witnessing the most celebrated extraterrestrial spacecraft crash in Earth’s history.

We warn our clients they must be observers, not participants. They must never interfere with the course of events. If the last client we had sent to Roswell had observed that rule, he would still be alive.

A friend of the deceased told us that he was a compassionate person who couldn’t bear to see anyone suffer.That’s why he died of acute poisoning after giving mouth-to-mouth resecitation to a dying extraterrestrial.

John J. Dunphy’s published works of poetry include Stellar Possibilities, Dark Nebulae, Zen Koanhead, Old Soldiers, Touching Each Tree and pagan rites. His non-fiction works include Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials and Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois.