I started volunteering at the Marion Town Library when I was 13 years old. I knew the managers of the library very well because I came to help them clean and shelf books almost every day. The managers, Maxine and Beatrice, were two very old sisters. Most people thought they were mean, unlikable and weird. It was a very small library, and they barely have any employees. 

Although I liked them, I had also noticed the sisters being weird and suspicious sometimes. For example, whenever I was out of spray, one of the sisters would go into the women’s bathroom and come out with spray. I had seen the sisters go inside the women’s bathroom with keys and for long periods of time. I never went snooping around the women’s bathroom, though. 

One night I fell asleep while reading in the back of the library, and got locked in. When I woke up, it was around midnight. Because I fell asleep at around 6 o’clock, I was not tired. I decided to start cleaning. I started dusting the shelves and cleaning tables. All of a sudden, I ran out of spray! It was then when I noticed that one of the sisters had left her purse. I knew that was where she kept the supply room key. I rummaged around her purse for the key, and finally found it. I walked to the door of the women’s bathroom and pushed it open. (Sorry for being curious.) There was a giant door with a lock on it. I wiggled the key into the hole and turned the key. Click! The door popped open. 

I walked inside. It looked like a normal closet. I found my spray. When I turned around, I knocked over a mop; it fell over, hit a wrench, and a giant metal door was revealed! I opened the door and peeked inside. It was a long, dark hallway. I wanted to go on a little adventure, so I grabbed a flashlight and went inside. I kept on walking and walking and walking. Finally, I came to the crossroad. You could go left or right. I went right. 

I walked, and walked, and walked. Finally, I saw a little bit of light. I walked toward that little bit of light like a mesmerized moth. When I finally reached the light, I realized I was back where I started: inside the closet in the women’s bathroom at the library. 

I continued cleaning the library tables, but I was a little disappointed that I didn’t go on an epic adventure. I cleaned some more, and then I decided to take a break. I grabbed my favorite book from the shelves, plopped down on one of the couches (I thought the couch had been moved, but I might have been hallucinating) and began to read. I read for about 3 hours, then I fell asleep. 

I woke up to the sound of excited chattering and high heels clicking on the floor. I went to the bathroom, the men’s bathroom this time, and splashed my face with water. Just when I walked out, a young woman spotted me. She went up to me and asked me why I was there.  I told her that I had fallen asleep in the library last night. I asked her, “Who are you?” She said that she was the manager of the library with her sister. I noticed that she looked a lot like one of the sisters that I worked for at the library. 

I looked around. It was then that I noticed that all the computers were gone! I looked out the window; instead of seeing Chevrolets and Fords, I saw Model Ts.  

Would you believe a stranger that told you that he/she was from the future? You probably wouldn’t. 

The sisters thought I was an intruder, and called the police. I tried to explain to them that I was truly from the future. I told them that they had hired me, and I was the library’s janitor. I even tried to tell them that I came to the library every day! After about two minutes of trying to persuade them, I gave up. The police arrived shortly after that. When they were handcuffing me, I noticed that the sisters were whispering to each other, and they wouldn’t look me in the eye. I was dragged out of the library by the police. I had to walk in front of all the people waiting for the library doors to open. I suddenly remembered why there were so many people. The library has a tradition: on August 22nd, the first 10 people into the library can choose a free book or a magazine! 

I got into the police's Model T, and we went to court.

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After the police left, the doors opened. While the first 10 people were choosing their books, Beatrice and I were talking quietly together. “You know how he told us that he was from the future?” I said.

“Yeah,” Beatrice said. “But our time travel portal — I didn’t think it worked already!”

“What other explanation could fit in?”

“I suppose.” She paced back and forth.

I paused to think. “We’re trying to make the time portal open for 3 days a year; today is the first day of those 3 days. We have to get him back by the day after tomorrow! Or he will have to wait a full year to get back!”

“It does kind of fit in,” Beatrice agreed. “Because every single time you walk into the portal, you go back 50 years. Right now I’m 20 years old and you are 29 years old. By the time we’re in our seventies, maybe we will have succeeded in making the portal work.”

I wiped my sweaty palms on my dress. “Did you notice the clothes he was wearing?”

“Yeah, his clothes were totally different than ours.”

“He must be from the future.”

“Yeah.”

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I tried explaining to the judge that I was from the future, but he thought I had mental problems. He locked me into a room, and sent a letter to a mental hospital asking them if they had an extra room so I could move in. 

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In the library, there was a lot of gossip. We heard another woman talking about how the police caught a mental person who said he was from the future; they’re planning to send him to a mental school. My sister and I exchanged a worried glance with each other.

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The police got the message from the mental school that said that they could take another person. The police have put signs everywhere asking for volunteers to take me to the mental hospital. (They were asking for volunteers because recently some criminal was on the loose and they didn’t have time to bring me to a mental hospital.) No volunteers yet.

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I was walking home when I saw a sign that was asking for volunteers to take somebody to a mental hospital. I grabbed the sign and showed my sister. “This is our chance.” 

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Finally somebody volunteered to take me the mental hospital. It had been a full day since I walked through the portal. Two muscular men came into my room and put handcuffs on me in case I tried to run away from the volunteers. They locked the handcuffs onto me, then they brought me outside and gave the two volunteers the key to the handcuffs. We were on our way. (The two volunteers were wearing hooded cloaks.) As soon as we were out of sight, the volunteers changed paths. We went back the library. The volunteers took off their cloaks. I realized that they were the sisters that I volunteered for! They told me that they believed me, and I had to go back into the portal in less than 15 minutes or I would either get stuck in the past for a year! They took the handcuffs off of me, explained how the portal worked and how to get back to the future, and they also told me to run fast through the portal’s halls so I could get back to the future before the portal closed for a year. 

I thanked the sisters for rescuing me and helping me get back. I did what I was told to do, and got back to the future. I ran out of the woman’s bathroom, and because it was the same day in the future and in the past, everybody thought I was crazy because I ran out of a woman’s bathroom. At that point, I didn’t care. I ran right to the sisters and said thank you. They just smiled.