"There was rack by the door where people left newspapers," Jon explained, and he unfolded that morning's paper onto the table. Everyone learned forward to look at the front page.
"Gee, this is like it's from a parallel universe," Sarah said with a bit of sarcasm.
Jon pointed to the large photo on the front page. "That's the White Sox stadium? Lopez-Nakane Park? Oh, wait, it wouldn't be named that, those --"
"-- are the inventors of fusion technology, yes, I told you I did some online research," Leonard said. "No, it's got some stupid company name that just changed --"
"Guaranteed Rate Field," Jon said, reading it from the article below. "Weird. Well, in the photo, it looks a lot different than Lopez-Nakane --"
"You guys and your sports," said Karyn. "Other stuff's more important. Who's President Donald Trump? Where'd he come from?"
"I, uh, don't think you'd believe me," Leonard answered.
"And George W. Bush -- I mean, there was George Bush who ran as vice-president with Ronald Reagan in 1980, but they lost to Carter in a landslide." Karyn looked up to see Jon and Sarah looking at her with bemused expressions. "You know I'm on the school quiz bowl team, right? Anyway, this whole thing about illegal immigration. We don't -- no, I guess this reality does. Still. I mean, with unlimited resources from fusion power, you -- you can pretty much have open borders."
The waitress came back with their drinks. Jon quickly picked up the newspaper to make sure she had room to put them down. "You need a few more minutes?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah, sorry," said Sarah, commenting after the waitress left, "I guess we should have been looking at the menus instead of the paper."
"I don't see anything too strange on here," said Karyn. "Except the prices."
"Too high?" asked Leonard.
"The fact that they're on there at all," she replied. "That hasn't been a thing since we were little kids."
"I need to do more research into that post-scarcity economy," said Leonard. "How can that even work?"
"It just does," said Karyn. "I mean, most restaurants having android waiters -- that helps, I'm sure."
Leonard didn't recover from that revelation until the waitress returned and it was time to order.
