glass balls

 As you clean out the attic of your house that has been in your family for generations for spring cleaning you trip over a box that is labeled "DO NOT OPEN". You think to yourself "hmm this is weird, I'm gonna open it." You open it slowly being cautious of what may be inside, and are met with a perplexing discovery. You find the box is filled with dozens of glass balls almost like the ones you would hang on your Christmas tree all with names and years on them in the box. You pick one up to admire it but the dust on it causes it to slip from your grip and fall to the ground shattering into what seemed like a million little pieces. While you are trying to process the ear-splitting noise made from breaking there is a plume of smoke that appears. Once the smoke clears you to see there is a lady standing there in clothes that look to be from about the sixties. She is crying and shaking.

You run over to her and ask her if she is ok, far too focused on how distraught she is to think to ask where the heck she just came from. You go to wrap her in a hug and she starts yelling and swatting at you to getaway. You back off and wait for her to chill out a little bit to actually look around at her surroundings. Once she calms down she realizes you are not going to hurt her. You then again ask her if she is ok then you ask who she is and where she came from. She says her name is Mary. She says she is from the town you live in and she used to help your grandma with yard work one day your grandma invited her in for a snack and the next thing she knew she woke up in the attic at your grandma's feet. Your grandma had a glass ball in her hand and said something in a weird language and the next thing she knew she was standing here in front of you. You sitting there astounded at what she had just said again noticed her odd attire and asked her "do you know what year it is?" she answers, sounding confused "it's 1966."

You put your hand over your mouth absolutely starstruck at what she just said. She looks at you with desperate eyes "what's wrong...?" she begged. "Hon...." you start slowly. "It's 2022." she looks at you frozen in shock. You have put the pieces of this puzzle together. Your grandma was an odd person she always had workers in the house and they always were getting switched and were oddly enough never seen again around town. Your grandma said they just moved away but you felt like that wasn't true now you know that all of them were in these glass balls. You reach into the box and start picking up and smashing the glass balls one by one till your attic is filled with people and there are no glass balls left. You wait for all of these people to calm down and explain what happened and have them explain their story. It turns out they all worked for your grandma and had the same fate. You stand there thinking to yourself "what am I supposed to do now?"