I tried to live an inconsequential life.

I almost got killed at Cannae. I watched from the balcony of my apartment as the Vandals sacked Rome. I worked as a blacksmith in the Black Forest. I moved to Poland in 975. I worked as a merchant trading spices with the Arabs. I helped Michelangelo with the Sistine Chapel. I almost bit it during the Crusades. I moved to New Amsterdam shortly before it became New York. I shot at a few Redcoats. I turned my house into a stop on the Underground Railroad. I managed to avoid ever getting drafted. I stayed on beyond my days of traveling through time and read about the accident in the next day’s paper. I saw the footprint-shaped fossils when they were discovered somewhere in Australia. I stayed on through the failure of global warming predictions, the severely late advent of space colonization, and the depletion of oil. There were wars and rumors of wars, but still I managed to tough it out.

And then, inexplicably, I met another time traveler.