Further Into The Future!

Chapter 6

"I'll leave you alone to get to know each other. Bye, Mr. Bedford," Laura said, and she walked down the hall and out of my life.

The woman of the group took off the giant sunglasses she had on and smiled at me. She was wearing a long pink dress with an enlarged neck hole, like the newswoman's. As she extended her hand to me the bright light in the room reflected off the curve of her shoulder.

"Hello, Professor Bedford," she said. "I'm Susan, and we're the Time Travelers."

She was so small I felt I could wrap my hand around her waist and lift her up and down like a dumbbell. She had kind Asian eyes and clear, olive-colored skin. Her beauty and gentle nature entranced me.

"Hello, Susan," I said. She slipped her hand into mine, probably eased by the sheen of sweat my nervous mind had for some reason ordered my palm to produce. Her tiny hand felt so fragile in mine that I imagined it would crumble in my grip like a pretzel. Instead of squeezing it I simply let it rest on my palm.

"Hi, I'm Jack," said her much less gentle-looking companion, who was so tall the top of Susan's head was well below his shoulder. He had long black hair and a handlebar mustache that extended out from his face so far I wondered how the curls could possibly hold themselves up. His bushy eyebrows almost converged into each other.

He looked like a pirate. He had a clever expression on his face, like he was thinking of something to make fun of me for, which made me uncomfortable around him. He was wearing an orange shirt and blue cotton shorts.

He shook my hand firmly. This time I feared that my hand would be crushed.

"I'm the undisputed creative force behind this band," he said, and the others laughed.

"This is Dan," Susan said, patting the shoulder of the third member of the group. Unlike the others, Dan was overweight. He wore a blue shirt with a drawing of a mountain on it, which was stretched so far by his belly that it became more of a hill. Under the mountain was written "ALLEGHENIES." He had long greasy hair like Jack, and prickly stubble all over his face and neck. There was a red ring around his lips, like he was just eating a popsicle.

Dan wiped his hand off on his pants before offering it to me, leaving a red stain. His hand was wet and sticky. I had to restrain myself from running to the bathroom to wash my hands afterward.

"Nice to meet you," I said. He nodded in return. His eyebrows were always slightly raised, giving him a benign expression that made me like him, even if he disgusted me.

"I'm sorry - did you say that you're time travelers?"

Susan laughed and grabbed my arm lightly.

"Professor, we aren't actually time travelers like you. We're a rock band called the Time Travelers."

"What's a rock band? I asked them before but they wouldn't explain it to me."

"We're musicians," Susan said kindly, as if explaining it to a child. "We play a type of music called rock music. It's mostly guitars, and singing, and some keyboards."

"Good explanation," Jack said.

"Oh be quiet," she snapped. She turned to me and smiled again. "You'll hear it soon enough. Listening to a rock song for thirty seconds will be better than an hour's explanation from me."

There was an awkward silence as I stood there, confused, and they struggled to think of something to say to a visitor from 150 years ago.

Jack leaned his hairy head into the door to survey the room.