It had seemed so surreal as I watched Karyn use the stone on herself accidentally. Such a powerful item and it was also incredibly dangerous. I swore to myself from now on I'd only ever take it out the box when I wanted to make an actual wish. All sorts of strange thoughts were spinning around my head as I walked past the wood next to the school.
Surprising me totally and without warning an arm swung out and pulled me into the trees. I'm sure I gave out a bit of a girlie scream whilst it happened.
"Good, I found you," a slightly out of breath voice said. The stranger was partially obscured by the folliage, he leaned over and pressed his hands on his thighs as he panted.
"You all right?" I asked the stranger.
"Yeah, give me a minute," he said, his voice sounded familiar. "If I had thought about it..., I should have just waited for you to get home." He paused to catch his breath. "But I was a bit freaked out from what I just saw so I came running down here to get you. I was about halfway to the school when I realised I didn't have to, but I figured 'what the hell'." He stood up straight now that some of his composure had returned and I got a good look at his face.
"You're me!" I said as my brain finally figured it out.
"Yep," he said as he pulled out something looking like an gameboy. "I'm here to send you back to the future." He smiled at me. "Sorry I couldn't resist meming."
"Meming?" I asked, it seemed like a weird word.
"You know, doing a Back to the Future meme. It seemed appropriate."
"What the hell is a meme?" I asked him, fed up with his cryptic responses.
He stared at me for a second. "I guess you aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are going to love —"
I stopped him. "Okay, enough, I get it." Another thought passed through my mind. "If you're from a time when my kids are around, how come you look the same as me?"
"Time is weird. Especially with the stone messing things up."
"This?" I asked holding the box out.
"Yeah that. You are being sensible keeping it in that box. Later versions of you don't seem to give a shit and it has caused a whole load of problems that I really don't want to go into right now." He said as he pushed some buttons on the gameboy. He glanced up at me. "You enjoy lesbian porn?" he asked.
"Of course, who doesn't?"
"Good point," he said. I still felt lost by his comments. "Just don't make any wishes related to it and you should be fine." He put his hand out. "Hold on to me and I'll take you to the future."
"What if I don't want to go to the future?" I asked.
"It's not like a million years or something. Just a few hours. Trust me, Karyn will be happy to see you. I mean really happy, I know you guys consider yourself bros but your relationship could be so much more." He winked. "You know full FWB privileges or more."
"FWB?" He was talking nonsense. "Bros?" I asked, how could I consider Karyn a brother, she was a girl.
"Wow, slang has really changed a lot in the last twenty odd years. I suppose the internet had a lot to do with influencing it."
We had just got an internet subscription last month. I was surprised to learn it was so influential in the future. "Until someone picks up the phone," I added trying to be just as witty.
He shook his head while smiling. "Man, you have so much to look forward to, I'm kind of jealous."
I was getting a bit pissed off with him lording future stuff over me. "Like what?"
He gave me a strange look. "You know what, I'll tell you. Dozens of devices connected to the internet in your home without wires. You can download stuff literally hundreds of times faster than you can now. No need for CDs or discs for music and games, you can even watch TV on it in real time."
"Okay, if I knew you were going make fun of me I wouldn't have asked."
He smiled again. "Come on Jon," he said as he pushed his hand closer to mine.
