The "Time Traveler??" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Carol just closed our front door after accepting a package from a strange man.  I was sitting closeby with our youngest son Tad, when the doorbell rang.  Carol was just coming down the stairs and opened the door and had a conversation with the gentleman that I had just a fleeting glance of before the door closed.  The look on Carol's face was one of astonishment.  She walked towards us and said, "Were we expecting a package?"  We were expecting a package, but the one that Carol was holding was too small to be holding a sweatshirt which is what we were expecting.  "The gentleman said that the package was delivered to him and thought we may need it before Christmas.  He handed me the package and said he's from 1849.  I'm not sure he meant the year 1849 or what!" Then it hit me.  A week ago Carol was cleaning the tub in our second bathroom on the upper level and found that the faucet wasn't working.  I investigated and found the new cartridge that had just been installed by the plumber wasn't working.  I called the company where we bought the faucet and they told me they would send a new part for the faucet.  Must be the new part I reasoned.  Carol handed me the package and found it had no return address on it.  Should I open it?  "You don't think he was really from 1849 … like a time traveler?" she said to Tad and me.  Then, the green light came on and I realized what she meant.  "Nah, he must live at 1849 and they delivered it to him instead of 1949 where we live," I said.  The look of her face was priceless!  "Did he look like someone from the past?" I asked her.  She smiled and said, "Scared me for a moment. He had this deathly look on his face.  White like a ghost!" I opened the the envelope and sure enough it was the new cartridge that was needed for the faucet.  We all had a good laugh, but did talk about the time when time travel will happen and why that may have been a real person from over 100 years ago that had been frozen and came back to life during the Christmas season to deliver a much needed part for our faucet.  Stranger things have happened.  But not this time!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.