A Peek into the Future

Ding, ding, ding! The doorbell rings 10 times in a row, which is the thing I hate the most when delivery people are urgent and keep pressing the button. I put my hands on my ears to minimize the sound and run towards the door. Even though the doorbell is annoying, I always like checking out what is delivered.

I open the door, only to discover a small brown Amazon box with a tiny bow on top saying “Special present, do not throw away”. Curiously, I lifted the box, finding the box very light. I carefully opened the box and peeked inside.

Inside, there was a small red leather pouch and a plastic bag. When I opened the pouch, I found a tiny thing similar to a computer chip. It made a mumbling sound, and when I listened to it closely, it had a voice recording, and suspiciously, the voice was similar to mine.

What I heard was: “Hello, I am your future self. I need to tell you, serious things are happening right now. The world is in chaos, and I need your help. You see, if you can learn some things, for example, how the Earth works, I can apply what you‘ve learned and use it right now. I need to be working on my work, which is designing time-traveling tools, like the one you are using right now. I need you to help me in order to bring the world back to peace.”

Future self? How is that possible? I always wanted to time travel and invent a time machine, so perhaps it was possible. I felt doubtful that this was real; maybe it was a prank from my dad, but I kept listening. “You should be going to Anchorage, Alaska, for vacation, right? Stop by at the base of Flattop Mountain, take a sample of the very shiny brown rock very close to the edge. Coordinates: 61° North, 149° West. Aliens have destroyed Flattop Mountain, so I can’t investigate the rock. I think the rock has a key mineral that can stop aliens from attacking us. Don’t let anyone know what you are doing! All the information you learn will be automatically sent to me. Good luck, younger self!” The voice recording stopped.

It felt real, but I didn’t completely believe it yet. I remembered I haven’t opened the plastic bag yet. Then, I noticed the plastic bag wasn’t plastic. Probably something like plastic that doesn’t harm the environment, I thought. When I ripped the top open, there was a metal box and a note saying, “This is a tool to investigate the rock. Simply rub the box and it’ll show you the data. A gift from your future self. ❤️.” It must be real, then. To try it out, I put a regular stone I found on the ground into the opening of the metal box.

Numbers and words appeared immediately on the box. Aluminum: 27%, Quartz: 22%, etc. This tool is so cool! we went to Alaska, I secretly put the metal box into my backpack. When we walked by Flattop Mountain on a hike, I quickly rubbed the box onto a large, shiny brown rock of Flattop Mountain. Hopefully,world.