First Stop
Author : N. Thomas Parshall
The world blinked and Martin found himself surrounded by a wide plaza filled with people in odd clothing. Time travel to the future worked and Martin had discovered it.
Seventeen years of work, and now I’m standing one-hundred years in my own future, he thought. And in fifteen minutes retrieval will take me home.
He glanced around himself, and found a small plaque his feet in an odd alphabet. No doubt he had arrived at some form of landmark.
Martin set off to explore his future world. He tried to ask for directions from a young woman walking with her daughter.
“Non caba, miso.” was all he received in reply.
To every question he asked of anyone, it was always the same. “Non caba, miso”, or occasionally, “Que oka, miso”.
Time was running out.
On impulse, he pulled a marker he had carried through time with him and scrawled “Martin was Here!” on the face of a building.
The world blinked.
* * *
The Proctor asked mommy lots of questions about the strange man.
Did we know what the strange man had written on the wall?
Did we know what the strange man was saying?
Did we see who moved the statue.
Did we see where the strange man came from?
The last one mommy could answer, but the Proctor didn’t believe her.
Before we went home, I asked mommy to read me the words at the bottom of the statue the ‘bot‘s were moving back.
“This man (name unknown) discovered the unstable radiation that allows PERMA-SLEEP. Legend says that every One-Thousand years he will awaken for a few moments.”
* * *
The world blinked and Martin found himself surrounded by a wide plaza filled with people in odd clothing.
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The Past
365tomorrows launched August 1st, 2005 with the lofty goal of providing a new story every day for a year. We’ve been on the wire ever since. Our stories are a mix of those lovingly hand crafted by a talented pool of staff writers, and select stories received by submission.
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