I was busy getting ready for the cruise, packing all my clothes on a nice Saturday afternoon. I was looking forward to the upcoming trip and hated having to do my packing in advance. I always prefer to pack everything at the last minute and be sure of what I have. I packed my swimming trunks and goggles inside and then shut the suitcase. “Whew”, I said to myself silently.
I then went onto my laptop and looked up some news. “More crap about Donald Trump and his BS administration” I mumbled, as news stories about Trump’s scandals and outrageous tweets blared out at me. It was quite clear that Donald Trump’s Presidency was a frigging disaster, and even I, an ardent political nerd and diehard progressive, was getting tired of hearing about this shit. I wearily commented on some of them and then decided to go out for a nice, long walk. I wanted to take my mind off the shit going on in DC.
I went outside into my familiar neighborhood and began walking around the fairly banal area. It was a typical suburb with the same style of house and happy middle-class families. I hopped in my car and went to the nearest park, and I then went out onto the heavily forested trail. After about 5 minutes, I noticed a bright light filling the area. It blinded my eyes; I ran to the side, thinking it was some misplaced truck coming at me. But nothing was there; just bright lights that flashed mysteriously. Startled, I kept walking onwards, noticing some subtle differences in the trees.
After about 30 minutes, I eventually reached a barn, filled with some cows idly grazing. The barn looked rather dirty and rustic; I was shocked that it was located in this park. I hopped over the fence and took a look inside; there were some horses sleeping and bales of hay lying around. “It must definitely be a horseback riding place”, I thought to myself, before heading out of the barn. I then came face to face with this dude, who yelled something in a really thick accent. He sounded like a Scotsman, but was definitely not a true Scotsman.
“Who are you, thief?”, the guy yelled.
Frightened, I replied, “Nothing sir. I was just checking out this barn and whole area. I wasn’t intending to stealing anything, honest.” I put my hands up, worried the guy would pull out a shotgun in response to my trespass.
He seemed to relent a bit. “You look honest enough, but I’ll have to clear the matter with the constable of this parish. Tell me guvnor, who are you and where do you hail from?”
Confused by the guy’s rather antique speech, I replied, “Well looks like I’ve reached a hidden madhouse on the park trail. I’m Manav Dutta, and I’m from Atlanta, the state of Georgia. I do believe you know what that is.”
The man, seeming offended, shouted “No it isn’t! I’m perfectly fine, of sound body and mind. This here is Chingford-round about 15 miles north of London, and I am but a mere cottager working the lands of the Gardiners. I have been working here, I were born here, and I’ll likely die here. My name is John.”
I had a strange feeling I was in a different time period. Why? Because this guy seemed like a humble 19th century farmer. I decided to ask him the real question: “Well this is weird. I seem to have wound up in England. What year is it dude?”
John, amused at my question, stated, “Why it is the year 1816. Only a year since Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and sentenced to his exile at St. Helena. My son served as a sailor in the Royal Navy, fighting those dastardly French.”
Feeling rather shocked, I took some deep breaths. I needed to tell John I was from the far future, but wasn’t sure how without being considered crazy. Finally I pulled out my phone and took a photo of him, with some flash emanating from my phone.
He shouted, “Oi what did you just do? What was that weird, bright light? And how did it emanate from that weird device you just had?”
I walked over and showed him a color photo of himself, staring back at him peacefully. His eyes widened with shock, and he was taken aback. Like really aback.
“Yeah I’m from the year 2017, two centuries in the future. A lot of technology and cool stuff has has happened/been invented between now and then. And it looks like I just got sucked back in time to this here point in time. I’m from the United States of America, which is why I’m natively speaking English despite being of Indian heritage.”
John looked at me like I was freaking high or something, but then he seemed to get the point of what I was saying. And then he became rather excited and started asking me a barrage of questions like “Has the Lord Jesus come back?” or “Has the country been taken over by Catholics?”
“Woah slow down there bro.” I said, chiding him. “Jesus hasn’t come back yet, the monarchy is still under the Church of England, and people still die. Although women can now vote, and there’s a female Prime Minister right now. She’s the second female to hold the office.”
John was shocked. “That is so unbelievable, even shocking. I must bring you to the Gardiners at once, to relay the news. Oh the Lord has truly blessed us with a miracle.”
“Or it was some quantum phenomenon that happened. I dunno really. Take me there. How far is it?”
“Its about half a mile down the road. We can reach there by horseback. Have you ridden before?”
“Yeah like one time. I didn’t fall haha.” I said, looking nervous. John lead out two horses.
“You take the one on the left then, Manav” he said, absolutely butchering the pronunciation of my name. “He’s very friendly for children and ladies…….. and those with little riding skill.”
“No offense taken, haha” I said, calming him. Let’s go.
And so we rode off to the Gardiner estate, and I somehow managed to survive the trip without being thrown off the horse or veering off the road. I was excited to meet this family, very excited.
