A Visit From Tomorrow

[WP] A homeless 23-year-old living in a van receives a visit from a woman in bizarre clothes. "Almighty ruler!" she says, kneeling down. "I come to you from the future where..." She trails off as she scans the surroundings. "I'm... sorry, I knew you came from humble beginnings, but..."

******

I usually came out of my van by 9 AM, spit into a metal bucket, and stuck three peppermints into my mouth as I prepared for the days odd jobs - side gigs in the subway, brief help at construction sites, or begging on the street. If he made good money, he'd eat french fries, drink a beer, and sleep.

Barely anyone knew this place existed, and even if they did, hardly anyone ever came here, except for the dollar wh*res every now and then who were basically in the same boat as I.

So you can imagine my surprise to see this foxy lady dressed in strange hippie clothes standing hands akimbo right outside my motorhome that morning. She kept on looking at me, smiling.

"Uhmmm... isn't this too early for you guys? Like, I didn't even... er... request your services today," I said, wanting her to leave so I can begin my 'ritual'.

"Supreme commander! I'm humbled to meet you," she said, saluting and kneeling down. Her smile was quite toothy, and she seemed to be honestly pleased to see me. Must be drugs.

"Are you on meth? I don't sell meth," I said, deciding to walk past her, she followed me eagerly, looking at my motorhome.

"Woah, even though I know you came from small beginnings, this is actually quite low. I mean, how did you do it? How did you reach that level in the future?"

"What future?"

"The one I came from."

I looked at her, sizing her up and down. Her clothes were bizarre, but she didn't look high. She didn't reek of alcohol, so she was normal. Just speaking gibberish.

"I think you need to see a doctor. You must be hallucinating or in a state of delirium," I said, shaking her to see whether the effect could wear off.

"Wow, he just shook me! Wow... Anyway, I'll prove it to you," she said, touching her watch. Suddenly, a holographic board popped up from it. She twiddled with a few controls and instantly, she vanished - to apparate beside me.

"What the fu-"

"Teleportation. It's something you developed 15 years from now. You rule the world as a whole by then. All the continents have met and fused, and it's called Pangaea,"

"Pangaea?"

"Yeah, that's the name. You managed to bring in so many technological advancements and conquer the powers of the world. You rule in harmony anyway, which is surprising; also, the conquer of the world was done without any extreme violence or bloodshed,"

"Ah, kinda sounds like me. I don't like stressful situations, so there's no way I'd support them," he said, stopping to look at her.

She grinned back.

"This is unbelievable. Me? Supreme Ruler? It just doesn't sound plausible. How the hell did it happen?"

"Unfortunately I cannot tell you that. Do you know how many of us have tried to reach you? 50," she said, looking at him. "Time travel is still not all-figured-out yet, so we can't be sure to arrive at the very location and time we want to be at," she said.

"But that doesn't answer my question. If you're not here to tell me how I did what I did, why did you come then?"

"To tell you to lay off the french fries. The time I'm coming from is in chaos; you died from a heart attack, due to the high levels of cholesterol in your system. Everything is in shambles and there's a power tussle,"

"How far from this year is that time?"

"I can't say. Divulging such will, in one way or the other, affect the time-space continuum. We can't know the effect, so we'll just have to avoid the risk. Telling you who you were going to be is already risky anyway," she said.

"Wow, so I actually did kill myself? That's messed up. How the hell am I supposed to lay off the french fries? Look at me, I'm a complete loser."

She stopped, looking at him, before looking sideways as though checking to see if she was being watched.

"I could get killed for this," she murmured, thrusting something heavy into his hands. When he looked at t, it was a big bar of gold.

"The hell?"

"Do something with it. Invest. Create. You have a degree in Mechatronics Engineering, don't you? Don't waste it. I'll see you in the future" she said, fiddling with her watch before away.

He never even got to ask after her name.

******

20 years later, as he looked outside the window at the glorious city, he smiled.

It was that gold bar his beloved wife had given him that brought him here.