Chapter 4: Thanksgiving Dinner

When Thomas finished his summary of their morning spent together Denise said, “Yes, that’s pretty accurate.”

Before she continued, her mind wandered again, asking the questions she had been pondering all morning. Why was she teleported into the future? What was expected of this Thomas when he knew nothing of the situation? Where was the Thomas she knew? What are the consequences of traveling forward in time? Last year the consequences were painful to Thomas. This year, other than not knowing what was happening, and assuming she would return to the eighties, there did not yet seem to be any downside to the trip.

Thomas snapped his fingers repeatedly. “Hello, earth to Denise. You still with me?”

Denise blinked her eyes a few times and nodded. “Yeah, just thinking about your summary and your question of why. Honestly, I do not know. As of now, you know as much as I do.”

“Bullshit,” Thomas retorted. “I think you know a lot more about whatever the fuck is going on.”

Denise’s mind drifted again as she thought about her situation. It was her decision this time. And after she decided, three times just like Thomas did the previous year, there was a bang and the next thing she knew she woke years in the future. She looked down and saw the hands of a older woman, not the smooth soft hands of her twenty-something body. She had yet to find a mirror to see how her faced looked. Obviously, Thomas was in his fifties, too. He was heavyset and gruff, even more so than he explained when he talked about his old life. To be such a rough individual surprised her a little bit as the picture he painted of himself was not good. This person in front of her was worse than she imagined.

Thomas snapped his fingers again. “Stop going to la-la-land. What are you thinking? Figure out an answer?”

“No, but I have question. It is nothing related to what we have discussed. Can we go out and get something to eat? You don’t have anything left in the fridge. And selfishly, I want to see what the world looks like in the future.”

Thomas looked at her for a long moment then said, “Sure, what the fuck. Not sure I really buy this bullshit but we can go for a ride. Only place open on Thanksgiving day will be some fast food joints and the truck stop.”

Before Thomas got up, Denise also asked, “And is that your cell phone?” She nodded to the device on the end table to his right. He gave her an incredulous look.

“What? Yeah, it’s my phone, so what?”

Denise kept her voice even as she asked, “Can you show it to me?”

Thomas gave her a questioning look. He was clearly trying to think of a sexually-laced comeback to her question.

She said, “Think back to high school, the time I just came from. Do you ever remember seeing a cell phone?”

He tilted his head and then shook it. “This is fucked up, you know. But, you are right, I do not remember seeing a phone in high school.”

“Well, that’s me. I’ve never seen one. Just a few hours ago I was in the eighties.”

“Damn it all to hell,” he muttered. He patted the armrest of his chair, “Come over here and sit. I’ll give you a brief look-see.”

She sat next to him as he unlocked the phone.

“This is the browser, my email app, a stock tracker, the camera, photo viewer,” he pointed to small pictures on his screen as he said each name. She had a vague idea of what he was describing based on Thomas’s descriptions but really had no idea of what it all meant.

“And it is a phone, too?” she asked in awe. “You have told me about this technology but to see it in person is unbelievable.”

“Yeah? Well, these days, a five year knows all this shit. Enough show and tell. Let’s go,” he said abruptly.

Thomas rose quickly, bumping against Denise without saying excuse me or offering an apology.

They spent the next two hours driving around town. She marveled at how much had changed, but also at how much was still as she knew it from the eighties.

They ate at the truck stop. As a nod to the holiday, the buffet included sliced turkey and stuffing. Being inside the truck stop was a first for Denise. She was surprised at the emphasis on diet, gluten free, low calorie, and vegetarian options.

“It’s the state of the fucking world,” was all Thomas said when she asked about the food.

“You know,” she started tentatively, “in the timeline I was in, you do not curse that much. Here, you have a sailor’s mouth and curse pretty much non-stop.”

Thomas drank the last of his beer. “No shit? Well, it’s who I am. Don’t like it? Fuck off.”

“I’ve got a question for you,” Thomas said suddenly. “If you just appeared from the past, then we didn’t fuck last night, did we?” It was clear he had wanted to ask the question since he first saw Denise in his bedroom.

“No. When I gained consciousness I was in the chair you saw me in, fully dressed. I had been awake for about ten minutes before you got up.”

“Is that so?” was all Thomas said. Denise was not sure if his response was acknowledgment that they did not have sex, or disappointment that his high school fantasy was not fulfilled. Even if it was, he would not have remembered so it was a moot point.