If anyone ever wanted to travel back in time it was Claire Burkenfeld. She had a problem and it seemed the only solution was to go back in time and do things differently than she already had. She had seen science fiction stories in movies where people could go back in time, but those were only stories.
She really didn't believe time travel was possible, but desperate people do desperate things. Going to the library was almost like going back in time. Most people just go there to use the internet when their own internet devices are out of service or too slow or too small. "Where is the card catalog?," she asked the librarian.
"We haven't had one of those in years. Use one of the computers over there and go to this library's web site," was the reply. "Click the 'Search' tab and you'll find options for finding what you want."
Claire knew she hadn't traveled back in time quite yet. Things were new. She sat down at one of the library's computers. Search by author, search by title, those were no help. She tried search by keywords or phrases and entered "time travel" as the search criteria. There were too many books and none of them seemed, from the title anyway, to be taking the subject very seriously. An assistant was passing by. "Sir! I'm having trouble finding books on time travel. The books in this list seem to be taking the matter rather lightly."
The old man looked at the computer screen. "I'm not certain we have anything on time travel in nonfiction. The Dewey Decimal System might be more help if nonfiction is what you want. Try 115 Metaphysics - Time, or 501 Physics - Theory, or 539 Modern Physics. Good luck with that though, we're a small branch library."
After browsing the nonfiction shelves of books for a few minutes Claire was almost ready to forget this project and consider other solutions to her problem, what to do about her yet to be born child.
Back at the computer though she tried searching for web sites (Was desperation mentioned?) that might point to some scientific breakthrough in time theory. One article called Resolving Issues in Time Travel was interesting. A major argument against time travel concerned the changes involved to the course of events and their compatibility with the established course of events. Going back in time and changing some event that would result in a different future could create a paradox. If for example you travel back in time and prevent your grandfather from ever meeting your grandmother would you cease to exist or vaporize? If you went back to your own time would anyone there know you were ever born? Would you vaporize on returning to your own time?
The article suggested that it might be possible to travel back in time despite that problem because anything the time traveler did while visiting a past time would already be done the "first" time those past events occurred and would already be a part of one consistent history. If for example the time traveler intended to prevent his grandfather from ever meeting his grandmother he would either change his mind after arriving, or his efforts would fail, or it would be someone he thought was his grandfather, but was not. No paradox would develop.
Interesting as the article was, and fascinating as such time travel seemed, there did not appear any solution such as Claire was trying to find. The article went on about the free will problem that appeared with such time travel. She didn't really expect it to be any help either, but kept reading. Since it did appear that people who travel back in time have no free choice once there, if anywhere, the article explained that the choices people make might well be their own no matter where or when those choices are recorded on any time line. Making the choice at a "later" time, or any time, would not make the choice any less the person's own.
It wasn't enough to solve her problem, but it was enough effort for one day. She took her phone and pressed the screen button to call her boyfriend. "I have so much I want to talk over with you and I think a picnic tomorrow would be a great idea." When he asked her what she was doing at the library she said, "Among other things, trying to find out which parts of a cow are used to make baloney."
On her way home she passed Sergeant O'Leary. They hadn't met before and still did not. There was no reason yet.