the maybe button

Squirrel has invented a time machine that does not work. It is not broken; it just doesn't work. The machine has a chamber to stand in, a dial to pick how far back to go in time, and a button labeled maybe. The button is labeled maybe because Squirrel is clever, and she knows that the universe will not let her go back in time if it might cause a paradox.

Some days she begs with the universe. She steps in the chamber, sets the dial, and says: look here, universe. I swear on all that is green and warm that I will not cause a paradox. I will not steal nuts from the trees of the summer, because then I cannot have gathered them in the fall. I will not scare the robin from her nest in the winter, because then I cannot have heard her children sing in the spring.

No matter how much she reasons and begs, no matter how many times she presses maybe maybe maybe, the time machine still does not work.

“It's because the universe knows you are too proud of your sense of free will”, says Rabbit, and playfully nips at Squirrel's tail. “It knows you will find some way to cause trouble.”

Maybe so, Squirrel admits. She dreams every day about saying something to her younger self, telling herself not to make some mistake or another. She has said and done many careless things, and many of them have hurt Rabbit, and she wishes none of them ever happened.

One time, Squirrel was thinking about physics, and didn't see a fox stalking her. But Rabbit noticed, and it was too late for Squirrel to run to the trees, so Rabbit jumped and thumped and scurried in circles around the fox until Rabbit's leg was hurt but Squirrel had gotten away. Squirrel didn't know how to thank a friend like Rabbit.

“Maybe you could teach me to climb trees”, Rabbit had said. “Then I could go into your nest and you could show me your time machine.” So now Squirrel is teaching Rabbit to climb a tree.

Rabbit hops from branch to branch and smiles. Rabbit learns quickly, Squirrel thinks. They're almost to Squirrel's nest, and then she can show Rabbit her machine, explain how it works, and

There's a horrible sound as Rabbit lands on a branch that snaps, and falls. In the flick of a tail, Squirrel has run to her time machine.

She sets the dial back just a few moments. She will sprint down the back of the tree, she will catch Rabbit, and Rabbit will be safe. She closes her eyes, thinks about Rabbit's gentleness and kindness and patience, and she realizes it is impossible for her to do anything except those things. Her love for Rabbit means for the next few moments she will have no free will, and at last she understands this, and when she presses the button, the universe agrees.