Part 3
Elena smiles at you as you both climb onto the jaunting pad. You can tell that John and TIM think you've made the wrong choice but you want to have a look around and just get a feel for what has happened since you left. After all things cant be that different. You think about all the changes that happened between 1960 and 1980 and realise that when you got right down to it most things hadn't changed much. People still lived in families, the trains still ran on time, people still went shopping and bought food to eat. If there had been so little fundemental change in that twenty years why should the next twenty be any different?
You jaunt into a quiet alleyway, clogged with large blue bins and weeds.
"I know it's not much to look at." Elena apologises, "But no one ever comes down here before closing time in the evenings. We needed somewhere quiet to jaunt into." She pulls the loose blouse she's wearing outside her skirt down over her jaunting belt and takes a minute to look you up and down. You fidgit nervously.
"Is something wrong?" You ask.
"Well...no, not really. I was just thinking that you're lucky that long hair and leather jackets are back in at the moment." She smiles warmly. "It's alright, Jay, you look fine." The smile becomes slightly sympathetic. "Are you sure you wnat to go off on your own like this this morning? I know everything must have come as rather a shock yesterday."
"I'll be alright." You assure her for what feels like the hundredth time. "As TIM reminded me before we jaunted he can jaunt me back there at any time."
"Well, okay." She agrees thoughtfully. As you spoke she has been leading you out of the back street and into the promenade of a shopping centre. As of yet the shops are quiet and shuttered but there are already a few people wondering up and down as if waiting for them to open. Elena leads you to the front of a travel agents and hesitates. "Look, Jay. This is where I work and I'd probably better get in there. The shops should all be opening within the next ten minutes so there should be plenty here to interest you. If you want anything or need anything just call me and I'll try to come. We can certainly meet up for lunch somewhere." She pulls a wallet from her shoulder bag and a note from that wallet. She presses it into your hand. "This should be enough to cover a couple of snacks and some coffee or a magazine." She tells you and you accept it without looking down.
"I'll be fine, Ellie." You tell her again.
She scowls a good natured scowl.
"Don't you start!" She tells you firmly. "It's Elena!"
*
You wander up and down the street for several minutes after Elena ducks under the half raised metal grill that protects the Travel Agent's door. Many of the shops on the high street are familiar to you but some are completely new to you and you wonder if they are just local stores or whether the companies have started on a national level since you went away. With a rattle of metal shutters the first shop opens its doors and like a chain reaction the shops to either side add to the clatter as they open for business. You peer through windows trying to decide where to go first. In some of the windows are brightly coloured posters advertising special offers and you are shocked at the prices that they claim represent fantastic opportunities. You pull the money Elena gave you from your pocket and look at it more closely. You had assumed that it was just a pound note but to your surprise you now find that it is a whole tenner.
You go first into a W H Smith's reassured at the usual mix of newspapers, books and stationary. You gaze at the newspaper headlines trying to decide whether you are pleased or dissapointed to find the familiar combination of celebrity gossip and political shenanigans on the front pages. You are certainly dissapointed to see mingled among them the same stories of conflict and unrest in the middle east that you have seen in the papers all your life. Perhaps the details of the conflicts have changed but the Saps are still fighting amongst themselves as viciously as they ever have done.
You drift out of the shop and into shops full of clothes, shoes and other designer luxuries. Here and there among them are shops full of fantastic electronic equipment that in outwards appearence seems almost more advanced than some of the equipment you were familiar with from the Lab. You know that the slim lines of the mobile telephones and computers conceal technology far less technologically developed than the Galactic Federation's. Even so the progess the saps have made in the last few years appears astonishing. From the way the machines are advertised and priced they must be almost commonplace in this new world.
You feel vaguely depressed as you wander into a coffee shop and stare in bemused confusion at the list of italian words that seem to represent variation on the common theme. You scan the short descriptions rapidly, aware of a queue already forming behind you. You select a drink almost at random and listen in amazement as the people behind you bark out their orders in impatient and stressed voices. You sit on a stool by the window and watch the people go past as the town centre hits the height of it's morning trade. You sip at your masively overpriced mochachino and wonder if you'll ever get used to your new and busy surroundings.
You leave the coffee shop as the noise levels rise beyond comfort and decide to explore a little beyond the confines of the shopping centre itself. You brush against Elena's mind, reassuring her and checking that you will be able to home back in on her from anywhere nearby. Just a street away the facade of busy commercialism fades away. You drift from quiet residential street to quiet residential street until you realise that the houses in this georgian terrace all bear small plaques offering professional services of one kind or another. Solicitors and lawyers rub shoulders with private doctors and dentists. The street is quiet, not needing to advertised for its clientelle in the same way as the high street services. The only other people nearby are a man and woman holding the hands of their son between them. The boy looks to be around ten years old and smartly dressed. His parents are wearing designer clothing and their faces are anxious while the boy himself just looks miserable.
For some reason the boy is attracting your attention and you meet his dark eyes with your own. A curious recognition passes between you and then, in a flash, a view of a country house and a plea for help from a mind resigned to it never coming.
"Frankie! Lift your feet up properly." The boy's father jerks him to one side breaking your eye contact but the man isn't watching his son's feet but is studying you with some antagonism.
"Peter," The woman is concilliatory. "Frankie has just had a hard morning of tests. Be gentle."
"The boy has to learn discipline." The man tells her, still looking at you.
You keep walking past them but as you do you can hear the boy's tired thoughts and his frustration washes over you like a wave. You have no doubt this is another Tomorrow Person. But he's so young! Is he just a potential TP? He felt like more than that. You worry about the suspicion in his father's eyes and don't dare turn the instant you are past them but keep walking for a minute thinking about your options.
Do you:
a) Go back to the Lab and see what the others think?
b) Follow the child and his parents?
To return to the start click here.
To skip this storyline and start another click here.
You are currently on Path 6.
Click here to return to my homepage.
Email me on tiylaya@yahoo.com with coments or suggestions.