Continued from the last several weeks…
“So how did you get here?” I asked.
“You want the long version or the short one?”
“Short” I replied.
“You’ve been left our planet 140 years ago.” She explained.
“Really?”
“I’m sort of a historian, I was just curious to meet the man who made first contact.” She continued. “The record showed that your return to your world was less spectacular than your arrival to our world. I wanted to change that.”
“I still don’t get it.” I admitted.
“Traveling thru dimensions and time is trickier than first perceived. You traveled across to our world, but there was no control of the time. You actually arrived in our world 70 years after you left. When you returned, it was another 70 years. 140 years have passed, give or take a few months. When you first arrived, you were not happy.”
“When I first arrived?” I asked.
“I’ve traveled back in time.”
“So we can travel through time too?” I was surprised about that.
“We can only travel backwards if we are traveling from one world to another. And only someone from my world can travel back in time to your world, and only someone from your world can travel back in time in our world.”
“I don’t know why, but that’s how it works. So if someone from your world traveled back in time to our world, then came back with a setting that would put him in the past on Earth…he ends up at the same point in time in which he left. It’s a little tricky.”
“Anyway on your first visit,” she continued, “the reception party for you was just a hand full of undergrads who were curious. They didn’t break the news so well about you being in the future, and…well, you kind of freaked out and was put in isolation. Not much of an end for a hero. That’s why I’m here and the jerks are all gone.”
“So everyone I know is dead?” I asked.
“Yes, but there’s a whole new world out there and I think you’ll be impressed. You can even travel back to our world to see the changes that have happened thanks to you. You’ve missed a lot, but there’s so much more you get in exchange.”
“Can I check my email?” I asked, still a little dizzy.
Realizing our technology was advanced, I continued, “Email is a mail system using computers.” I paused. “A computer is networked to…”
“I know what a computer is.” She interupted.
“Sorry, I don’t know how much you know…”
“It’s ok. Suffice to say we have a lot of your technology, and to tell the truth we’ve improved on a lot of it, but one thing we don’t have is your communications network. Your network started from the ground up. You wired the whole world before you set up satellites. It sounds crazy, but it’s a really good back up system. We’re actually in the process of contracting with AT & T to set up a similar system. To back up our satellite communications system…”
“So I’m guessing I’ll see some of you guys here on Earth?” I replied.
“Yeah, we’re pretty much all over the place.” She explained.
“You’ll be my guide?”
“At your service.” She bowed just to be silly.
“And I know what your thinking…forget about it. People from your world and our world can’t reproduce, so anything between you and I is out of the question.” She then put on a sly smile. “We could have sex non-stop for the next fifty years and we’d never have any kids.”
“Well, the future is perfect after all…how ‘bout that drink?”
“I think I’d like that.” She replied with a smile.
THE END
COMING NEXT: Reality bites!
