Author : Laura E. Bradford

“Here we are,” said the time traveler; “the third millennium.”

“Oh my God,” said Jamie, looking around. It was his second day with the red-haired girl who could travel in time, and everything so far had been magnificent. “It has a bit more electricity than ancient Greece.”

“Everything’s solar-powered. Everything! Even the sun.”

Jamie frowned, and followed her along. Everything looked a bit … bright around here. Buildings were painted in flashy colors: neon reds, oranges, blues. The streets were cobblestone, lined with flowers. He bent down to look at a rose, but when he touched it, it flickered blue and translucent for a second: a hologram. “Neat.”

“Just don’t sneeze on anybody. The people here are incredibly touchy about germs. Everything’s sanitized, and their immune systems are rather … weak.”

Jamie passed a shop window with wipers cleaning itself, and his eyes widened. “I see.” He pulled out his cell phone, wondering faintly if they still had some semblance of the Internet here.

“Put that away!” she said. “They don’t use cell phones here anymore. Everyone’s telepathic.”

Jamie was puzzled. “Wait a minute … I thought you said it was illegal to travel in this time.”

“It is. Technically, all time travel is illegal.”

“So those cops over there … they can read our minds?”

The time traveler brushed her hair out of her eyes, and squinted at them. The image of uniformed men carrying weapons at their belt spanned many times. She swallowed, hard.

“Jamie, I’m going to give you another piece of advice,” she said, bracing herself. “Run.”