And It Comes Out Here

In Short

Lester Del Rey’s short story is a lighthearted yet brain-bending exploration of a classic temporal paradox. A middle-aged man arrives at his younger self’s home with a time machine and a bizarre proposition: travel 200 years into the future to steal a revolutionary atomic generator from a museum. The catch is that the generator was created by the younger man himself—or so history records. Compact, clever, and briskly paced, the story has endured as a pristine example of the self-sustaining time loop, where inventions have no origin and history exists as a perfectly seamless circle.

The Story

The narrative opens in the early 1950s as a thirty-year-older version of engineer Jerome Boell walks into his own house to find his younger self. The older Boell explains that he is simply following an immutable script: thirty years prior, he sat in that exact chair while his future self explained what was about to happen. Because the loop is fixed, Boell cannot change a single word or action, even if he wanted to. He pours a drink, waits for the younger Boell’s shock to settle, and leads him out to the time machine—a compact two-seat vehicle parked in the yard.

The pair board the craft, and the older Boell activates the controls. Outside the cockpit’s protective field, normal time and space vanish entirely into a foggy vacuum, though inside, physical laws and air remain inexplicably stable. They travel to roughly the year 2150, emerging in a dim, dusty sub-basement beneath a bustling future city. The elder Boell bids his younger self farewell, announcing his intention to remain in this easygoing 22nd-century society, where his lifetime earnings are safely invested. He leaves the younger Boell with a flashlight and simple instructions: walk upstairs, locate the Museum of Science, take the atomic generator on display, and return home.

Navigating the future world, the younger Boell discovers a polite, relaxed society with modified phonetic spelling and casual space travel. At the museum, a friendly guard mistake Boell for an actor in a historical play called Atoms and Axioms and grants him entry. Inside, Boell finds the original model of the compact atomic generator that brought endless, clean power to humanity. To his surprise, the exhibit isn't bolted down; it weighs only fifty pounds and is temporarily unanchored while its gravostatic plate is renewed. Boell picks up the device and slips away, though his departure triggers a sudden pursuit. He flees down the street until a helpful police officer and a bystander assist him in carrying the heavy machine, thinking it is part of the theatrical production. Before he leaves the building, the museum guard catches up only to hand him the generator's original blueprints and patent application, assuming they belong with the prop.

Returning to his own time via the machine, the younger Boell inspects his prize. He disassembles the generator, finding only common metal parts and a missing copper wire, which he replaces with standard house wire. Upon reassembly, the device functions perfectly. Examining the patent documents, he is stunned to find them written in his own handwriting, naming him as the inventor in 1951. Over the next three decades, Boell becomes world-famous and enormously wealthy as the father of atomic power. Yet he spends thirty years tormented by the paradox: he stole the generator from the future so he could become its inventor in the past, creating a loop with no origin. Finally reaching the age of his visitor, he steps into the time machine, travels back thirty years, and knocks on his own door to repeat the cycle.

How It Unfolds

The visitor arrives An older man enters Jerome Boell’s home, introducing himself as Boell’s self from thirty years in the future. Over a shared drink, the elder Boell explains the reality of time travel and prepares his skeptical younger self for the journey ahead.

Journey outside of time The two board a small, button-operated time machine and slip out of normal space into a non-dimensional vacuum. The older Boell admits he does not understand how the machine works, speculating that time and space have simply been bent back on themselves.

Arrival in 2150 The machine materializes in a subterranean basement in the twenty-second century. The elder Boell bids his counterpart goodbye, choosing to stay behind in the future, and sends the younger Boell upstairs to execute the heist.

Exploring the future Younger Boell wanders through a quiet, advanced city featuring phonetic signs and polite citizens. He convinces a museum guard that he is an actor needing props for a play, gaining access to the historical exhibits.

The museum heist Inside the display room, Boell finds the original atomic generator—the device destined to revolutionize world energy. Because the unit is unbolted for maintenance, Boell lifts the fifty-pound box and makes a frantic exit.

The escape and return After a chaotic run through the streets, Boell receives unexpected help from a policeman and a pedestrian. He recovers the machine, receives the original patent papers from the unwitting guard, and uses the time vehicle to return to his original era.

Closing the loop Back in 1951, Boell repairs the generator and realizes the documents are in his own handwriting. Over thirty years of fame and fortune, he ponders the unanswerable paradox of who truly invented the motor, before finally traveling back to start the loop again.

The People

• Jerome Boell (Younger): A plain engineer in 1951 who wants to make sense of the extraordinary visitor standing in his living room. Confronted by his future, he is initially shocked and hesitant, but his curiosity drives him into the time machine. He ends up rich, world-famous, and permanently haunted by the logical trap of his own success.
• Jerome Boell (Older): The thirty-years-older version of the protagonist, who wants only to fulfill his historical role and retire into the comfort of the 22nd century. Weary of trying to figure out the paradox, he moves through the encounter with relaxed certainty, reciting the exact conversation he remembered hearing decades earlier.
• The Museum Guard: A polite, friendly official of the year 2150 who loves 20th-century history. Wanting to help what he assumes is a dedicated actor preparing for a play, he unlocks the exhibit hall and later runs after Boell simply to hand him the matching historical papers and patent applications.

In Its Own Voice

"There is one fact no sane man can quarrel with ... everything has a beginning and an end. But some men aren't sane; thus it isn't always so!" — Opening lines establishing the story's central premise on the nature of temporal loops.

"We don't have the right attitude toward tenses for a situation like this." — The elder Boell struggling to find the proper words while speaking to his past self.

"Who invented what? And who built which?" — Jerome Boell reflecting on the unresolvable puzzle of the self-created atomic motor.

What It's Really About

Beneath its swift narrative pace, the story examines the circular nature of cause and effect when time travel is introduced. It challenges the fundamental assumption that every object or idea must have a distinct point of origin. By presenting a working invention that exists only because it was retrieved from a future that preserved it from the past, the narrative asks whether free will can exist inside a fixed historical loop. Jerome Boell cannot alter his words or choices because his future self has already acted them out. The story suggests that when human technology bends time back upon itself, conventional notions of creation, authorship, and logic collapse entirely, leaving behind an endlessly repeating sequence without a true beginning.

Why Read It Today

Science fiction readers who appreciate clever structural puzzles and paradoxes will thoroughly enjoy this story. Lester Del Rey presents a light, efficient execution of the "causality loop" trope, delivering the entire complex concept without bogged-down exposition or needless melodrama.

The story’s tone is remarkably easygoing and dryly humorous, relying on the awkward, domestic banter between two versions of the same man sharing a drink. The futuristic setting of 2150 is painted with charming mid-century details—such as phonetic English spellings on store signs, automated plastic diamond dispensers, and extraordinarily polite municipal police.

While the tale reflects its publication era through straightforward prose and mid-20th-century social assumptions, its core philosophical puzzle remains entirely fresh. It offers a quick, deeply satisfying intellectual exercise that demonstrates how a brief piece of fiction can cleanly lay out a high-concept temporal puzzle and leave the reader smiling at the impossibility of the solution.