The Historical Comfort Society

Chapter 1

1.

For posterity reasons, I must write down my life story. Eventually, I am not sure exactly when my story will be told; but for the sake of helping future scholars, I might as well write it all down and pray that it survives the millennia. I am sure it will, since The Society keeps meticulous records and no doubt will want to check that I am behaving. I just do not know for certain if, or when that will happen.

My story will be written as if it were a journal, but dates and times will be a bit muddled. You see, when you have lived a life as I have lived; time becomes quite confusing. I have lived a life both then and there, both in the past, present, and future, and my memories go forward and backward. So I will try my best to keep things as linear in my life as possible.

Gosh... I am only on my third paragraph now and I am desperately wishing I had a computer to type this on, or even a typewriter! I suppose that is the price I must pay for the life I have chosen now. I will persist.

My story begins in a city far across the sea that has not yet been founded. If you by chance are one of my grandchildren reading this, I beg of you to not yet scream in terror and run off to your parents. Please, read my story before you cry "witchcraft"!

Where was I? Oh yes....

Los Angeles April 2457

It was a cloudy day in the city, the clouds so dense that I couldn't see the Nuclear Hover Vehicles or NHVs we called them, flying up ahead. I was so focused on getting to my destination, that at one point I almost bumped into an old electric vehicle. I stared at the old, outdated form of transportation, with its rubber tires, chuckling to myself over how people at one time (long before I was born) thought that Electric Vehicles were the future. They were quickly replaced, however, with the much more effective nuclear-powered vehicles with their micro-reactors that we know and love today.

I was so anxious about being late to my very first day of orientation at The Historical Comfort Society that I inadvertently ended up being a whole half hour early. It ended up not mattering much since I wasn't the only one who was that early. Three others had arrived just as I had.

I supposed that was why we were all here, for we had all been selected for our intelligence, trustworthiness, and, of course, punctuality. I gave my three other companions a friendly smile and nod and sat down in the waiting area that had been set up for us. The building that housed the HCS was one of the finest in the city, with large windows, hyper elevators, and clean architectural lines that drew the eye upwards toward the pinnacle of the interior of the building.

"They have the clouds dense today." The man sitting next to me said.

"I hear they're starting preparation for fire season early," I responded, looking out the windows and up at the dense layer of manmade rain clouds that blanketed the city. Some decades ago it became the new solution for drought and fire.

"My name is Gavin Hughes by the way." He said extending his hand to me, his voice thick with a foreign accent I couldn't quite place and his skin a deep ebony color.

"Nell Austen." I responded, taking his hand in mine and giving it a customary shake in greeting.

"I am a graduate of the Central Sahara University, and you?"

"Africa! That's amazing, how was the flight?"

"Oh not bad at all, it only took 45 minutes this morning by NucAir."

"I have yet to fly on one of those. I graduated from NYU, I took a hyper train to get here last night."

"What was your major? I majored in linguistics." He said, crossing his arms across his chest and relaxing further in his seat.