The Legend of Garison Fitch (Book 1): First Time by Samuel Ben White Page A

possible that he had already done something that would change the future. He had read the fiction and even serious works that had hypothesized that even a small move in the past could change the future. If he were to, for instance, intercept a flu virus intended for someone else he might rewrite the world. Stepping on a caterpillar might have some disastrous effect on the food chain. The truth was, he realized, that he had already interacted with the past and, possibly, changed the future. And there was no way he could know. So his only choice was to live his life the best he could in the present until he could find a way to return to the future.
     
     
    March 21, 1739 (Evening)
    I have decided to regard the problem in this way: the future does not exist. The world that I remember has not yet happened, nor is it a foregone conclusion that it will happen. Therefore, my best solution would be to treat each day as I would have treated them in the 2000s; to wit: live and let live.
    I have decided this day that I will not change the world by suddenly revealing all the marvelous inventions of my time. I will improve Mount Vernon in small ways that I see fit, but I will not—for instance—wire the town for electricity. I believe the shock that that would cause in the people would be too great (no pun intended). Such leaps as that need to be arrived at naturally. After all, one does not give a hammer to a one year old child, one allows the child to mature to the point that he can handle the hammer.
    This stance (of revealing some advances and not others) may be hypocritical of me. Perhaps I should reveal absolutely nothing, but I find it almost impossible to stand by watching something being done when I know a better way to do it. I have not explored that side at this time. But, deep down inside, there is a voice telling me not to disrupt things too much because I may, indeed, return home some day. I am not sure I believe that one simple act can change everything—but it is best not to take chances. I am also not convinced that I will ever return "home", but if this has taught me anything, it's that nothing is certain.
    So, I will live life unobtrusively, contributing where I can, and staying silent where need be. Maybe this is the life I have always wanted...deep down.
     
     
    Garison worked six days a week in the smithy and on Sunday he and everyone else in town went to church. Garison had at first balked at the idea of attending church, mostly as a result of thirty years of brainwashing. But he realized going to church might be the chance he had wanted for some time to explore the Bible with other people and find out about the thing called "Christianity" he had wondered so much about. In addition, there was no better way to become part of the town and get to know the people than to start attending church with them. Church was a prominent part of village life in Mount Vernon, even for those people who didn't seem to hold too tightly to the tenets the Bible set forth. There were strong, seriously religious church attendees in Mount Vernon (as everywhere), but there were also a few who went to church strictly for the society it contained. And some went only because not going would have caused them too much trouble in the community.
    There was a prominent Puritan church in town and a sizable Anglican church nearby, but Garison preferred the congregation which met in a barn to the west of town. It was composed of many Scotsmen, and had a distinct hint of presbyterianism, but was not officially associated with any denomination. Garison liked it for, not only was it smaller and devoted more to Bible study than preaching (being without a minister at the time), it was where Sarah went. Of course, the single men and women sat on opposite sides of the “aisle” (families sat together in what was, for the time, a progressive idea), and Garison never had the nerve to say more than "Hello" or "Good day," to her, but he told himself he