Watching television was growing boring, so he flicked it off. The house was silent, cold and unremarkable. He leaned back in his recliner, stretched his arms and almost dropped the nearly-empty beer bottle in his right hand. Catching himself at the last instant, secretly hating his clumsiness, he set the Molson’s dark brown bottle on the hardwood floor with a clunk sound. That made the silence seem all the more oppressive.

He stood up, walking to the window, and peering out into the street. There were cars cruising by outside, but not many. Most of the models were late 2020s, early 2030s — since the great recession in the mid-decade, there hadn’t been many new cars bought. Although he didn’t own a vehicle, Alex Antweiler could afford one. The issue wasn’t money, it was focus. Alex zoned out when he drove on the road. He had had 3 accidents in 3 years, and his insurance was astronomical when he turned his car in for good. He was too much a cerebral, abstract thinker to drive, really.

Dropping the curtain on the street, Alex returned to his chair. The lights flickered in the room, shadows rearranged themselves and then the lights stabilized once again. All was quiet.

Alex was sitting in his chair when a colorful portal began to form in his wall.

The colors swirled in a tall oval shape, taller than a man and as wide as a standard doorway. Alex blinked, thinking he must be drunker than he thought. Even though the oval was an incredible thing to see, it was clearly there.

Stepping out of eternity were two men and a woman.

They looked surprised to see him there.

“Excuse me,” the lead man said. “We thought you’d be at the ball game tonight, watching from the stadium seats.”

“They canceled on account of rain,” Alex said brusquely. “Who the hell are you and what’s going on?”

“We’re from the future,” the lead man said, pale and skittish. “We’re historians investigating your life, Alex Antweiler. You’re going to be a very important man one day.”

“Who me? I’m just a drunk whiling away his time in his own castle — my home. I’m nobody important.”

“Ah, but you are. There’s going to be a major rebellion in society, and you’re going to lead this city’s forces.” The lead man was intent, earnest and apologetic. “You’re going to end up as the leader of the continent. It’s foredestined. In our time, you’re viewed as a great man.”

“I’m in my forties and I haven’t done anything with my life. Life is over.”

“There’s always the future, Alex,” said the other man, smiling strangely. “We’ll be back when you’re in a more… convivial mood.”

Alex was in the bathtub when the oval reappeared in the wall. The same two men, minus the woman, came through the wall right at him. He jerked up in surprise, splashing over the sides of the tub.

The men were apologetic, as usual.

“The time stream is changing,” they said. “There are too many time travelers crossing forwards and backwards along the stream. They’re emitting chronological changes. We can balance this off by getting you to come in the future with us. Your absence from the past will set things right overall.”

The future! Alex thought. That sounds fantastic! Where do I sign up?

He lurched out of the tub, dried and got dressed, and followed the 2 men into their future-portal…

They were standing in rubble in the middle of a city. There was a small concrete room here which sent out the oval shapes to different ages. Everything was a wreck, completely fucked up.

“What?!” Alex said, horrified. “This is a dump! Where’s the glittering cities of the future? Where’s the luxury and ease of life?”

The 2 men shrugged. “There was a rebellion after all. It totaled everything, and then we were too weak to rebuild. Time travel was the last major invention before the fall of man.”

“This is eternity? This sucks!”

“Fuck you,” said the lead man. “It’s home. Why do you think there’s so many time travelers? They’re all yearning to get to a better age than this.”

“Oh God,” Alex Antweiler said, putting a hand over his face.

The 2 men smiled bitterly. “You’re the cause of all this, Alex. We just thought you should enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

the end