A história é "Red Letter Day" , de Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Eu tinha lido isso como parte do O Livro Mamute de Viagem no Tempo SF .
Todo mundo envia uma mensagem ao atingir uma certa idade (era 50, não 40):
...the federal government came up with a compromise.
Everyone would get one free opportunity for time travel – not that they could actually go back and see the crucifixion or the Battle of Gettysburg – but that they could travel back in their own lives.
The possibility for massive change was so great, however, that the time travel had to be strictly controlled. All the regulations in the world wouldn’t stop someone who stood in Freedom Hall in July of 1776 from telling the Founding Fathers what they had wrought.
So the compromise got narrower and narrower (with the subtext being that the masses couldn’t be trusted with something as powerful as the ability to travel through time), and it finally became Red Letter Day, with all its rules and regulations. You’d have the ability to touch your own life without ever really leaving it. You’d reach back into your own past and reassure yourself, or put something right.
Se você não sobreviver, não envie uma mensagem:
Twenty-nine of my students died within the decade. Twenty-nine.
E alguns optam por não enviar um:
The thirtieth was like me, someone who has not a clue why her future self failed to write her a letter.
O personagem do ponto de vista é um conselheiro:
And somehow – now – it’s my job to keep those hopes alive.