Without completely forbidding it, the government allows limited time travel: Each person may send a single letter from himself or herself at age 50 back to age 18 with information about a single event, though not everyone sends the letter and not everyone approves of the procedure. Our narrator did not receive the letter when she was young, and now she approaches 50 as a counselor for others who do not receive a letter.
You know the arguments: If God had wanted us to travel through time, the devout claim, he would have given us the ability to do so. If God had wanted us to travel through time, the scientists say, he would have given us the ability to understand time travel—and oh! Look! He’s done that.

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  1. “Red Letter Day” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in Analog, September 2010.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch