The next day the wrinkled woman was back, and she still seemed to believe I was in terrible danger.

“You are in terrible danger!” She said.

I said “really?”

She paused and looked at the picture of Tibet behind me. It was labeled "Tibet". The correct response still had not materialized.

It appeared that the conversation had reached a stand still, so I went back to counting out the register. The customers had no respect for their money, the sheets were folded, curled, and torn. Most of our customers were students or obviously too wealthy to be buying Chinese food for the third night in a row. During the warmer months, we'd get illegals on their way in to town for a movie and a few beers. Unlike the other customers, I never got to recognize their faces. I think that's why I've always assumed they lived happier lives than the rest.

“How much is a soda?”

“A dollar even.”

She grabbed one of the new fruit flavored ones from the fridge. I looked again. Was she having trouble with the door? Her fingers seemed to flicker around the coke. It was like looking into a strobe light - I couldn't tell if they moved too fast or too slow.

“I am coming to you from your past and future.”

I counted out change for her crisp five. “Yeah?”

She was ready for it this time. “Yes. Both at the same time. It is a function of our quantum crystal matrix, we must go back to move forward, and vice versa.” Her fingers did that dancing thing again as she drew back the sheaf of soy sauce smelling ones.

“Do you know if I ever go back to college?”

---

That was the part I finished up on Friday. It needs a good deal of editing, and any advice is much appreciated.

This next bit was written today, and, is crap. I'm not saying that to be modest either. It was one of those situations where I just needed to put words on paper, and let my brain work in the background.

Voila:

---

“It depends – will you travel forward with me?”

“In time?” She watched the menu behind me closely. “Did you want anything else?”

“Don't think of it as moving in time... it's more like taking a vacation in a third world country. Of course, in this example, your time is the third world.”

I looked around the store. She was right – I probably couldn't get away with skipping mop-up tonight. The cooks were already cleaning up in back, so I turned off all the signs outside. The woman had uncapped her coke, and I wondered if she planned to drink it here.