The Man of the Future

By: Brandon James Scott Scholl

“I'm from another time,” he said quietly looking right into her eyes. “I come from at least a millennium from the current year. I was sent here to stop a murder.”
She had to believe him. He had to make sure she believed him. She was the only way that he was going to be able to find out when and where everything was going to happen. If it wasn't for her hospitality two nights ago, he'd still be out in the cold of the city.
“You're pulling my leg,” Clarice said. “That's the kind of stuff you read in books.” Devlin looked into her deep golden eyes. Clarice's expression changed. “You're serious.” Devlin nodded.
Just then a group of men at the bar that were eyeing him turned to face him.
“Hey kid, what's your name?” Devlin thought for a moment. He couldn't use his real name. His name was the same as his relative that was going to be killed.
“Kirk. James T. Kirk,” Devlin blurted out. Then the three men got up in their finely immaculate suits and walked over to his table.
“Well, Kirk. We haven't seen you around here before so we'll let you in on a secret. This here is our town. You follow the rules, stay out of our way, and you'll be fine. Got it?” Devlin nodded. The three men walked out of the shop.
“James T. Kirk,” Clarice asked. Devlin shrugged.
“I was going to say Dick Tracy but I don't know when that was first published. Didn't want it to sound weird.” Clarice rolled her eyes.
“Well you could have come up with a better name. Kirk sounds like a stupid name.”
“Are you kidding me? Kirk was one of the best...,” he stopped. “Never mind. Let's get out of here. I want to show you something.”

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Devlin opened the door to the old barn and walked Clarice inside. They were on the outskirts of town.
“This barn seems to have been abandoned a while ago and nobody really seemed to care about doing anything to it. Perfect place to hide my time machine,” Devlin said. Clarice looked around the second level of the barn and then around the ground floor.
“What are you talking about? There’s nothing here.” Devlin smiled. He pulled a small keychain from his pocket and pressed a button on the top of it. In the middle of the barn appeared a small plane. Clarice was staring in disbelief.
“Cloaking device,” Devlin explained. “It’s a new feature that they installed on these things. Last thing we need to do is mess with the timeline further by having stories told of flying objects randomly appearing in the sky. Bad enough one crashed in Roswell in ’47. People are still ranting and raving about that one.” Devlin pulled open the canopy to the cockpit then turned to Clarice. “Want to go for a ride?” Without saying a word, Clarice walked over to Devlin and took his hand as he helped her into the back seat of the cockpit.
When he had climbed in as well he flipped a few switches and the engines hummed to life. The canopy closed and locked shut and they started to lift off the ground.
“Ready,” Devlin asked.
“I think so,” Clarice replied.
Devlin pulled back on the throttle and they moved forward and out of the barn doors. Then, he pulled back on the yolk and they started to climb faster and faster into the air. He leveled off above the city and flew above it in circles.
“Can they see us,” Clarice asked.
“No. The cloaking comes on as soon as the engines start up and the engines have a device that silences them. We’re totally safe.”
“This is amazing.”
“So, do you believe me now?”
“Without a doubt.” Devlin flew them back down and inside the barn where they both climbed out of the time machine and turned it invisible again.
“Now, I need to find this relative of mine who’s going to be murdered and I need to stop it all from happening. Can you help me,” Devlin asked. Clarice nodded.
At first, Devlin had felt alone. He didn’t know anyone and was going to have to scrounge up whatever he could to survive. Now that he had met Clarice, he felt his luck already improving.