You get one guess what happens when you juxtapose these circumstances:
  1. As a boy, Kip Wolverton’s best friend is crushed in a tragic accident in a bell tower.
  2. Then, because Kip is too shy to ever approach the bell-ringer of his dreams, the girl goes and marries his other best friend, so Kip goes off to America to drown his sorrows and become an expert physicist studying time.
  3. Finally, 25 years later, Kip returns to England to do time experiments in bell towers where he finds girl grown and unhappily married.
“Research money is difficult to come by these days,” said Neville. “There is a lot of good science lanuishing because more meretricious projects get the funds.”

Variants

(1)
  1. “The Teller of Time” by Carl Frederick, in Analog, July/August 2006.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Carl Frederick