Time Shock

                       Time Shock 

(Submitted to the X prize contest in 2017. It didn`t win.)

      I sip my coffee while waiting for my daughter to

arrive. A perfectly ordinary everyday thing  except it`s not

really coffee and its apparently been twenty years since I`ve

last had a cup.

      This coffee, if I can call it that, is a futuristic

hodge-podge of pseudo-coffee grown in a lab. Apparently all

the real coffee died about ten years ago from some sort of

fungus. They were able to save some of it, but it`s value

as a cash crop was useless, which destroyed a few economies.

Ah, the things you miss being thrown in time. It tastes pretty

good though. If I hadn`t had the real stuff forced into me to

the tune of 10 cups a day, I`d have never known the difference.

      So this is San Francisco. Looking around at all of

the fantastic buildings and trees everywhere I`m impressed. I

never would have expected that my first real trip outside of

Japan would have turned into such an adventure. Just think today

I could get real fake coffee, travel in an self-driving

flying car just like in the old movie "Back to the Future",

and sit in a floating hover chair at Starbucks, just like

in the old comic books. While just a few days ago I had to

contend with regular hybrid engines, regular chairs and real

coffee. Well I guess two out of three ain`t bad.

      If you had told me before I left Japan that this would

happen I would have just guessed you were drunk. Saying that

I`d be traveling through time twenty years rather than just ten

hours, please. I always had a fear of planes but this is crazy.

      Though from what I`ve seen since I got here the passengers

on the flight are lucky to be alive. If you call having everything

you ever known ripped away from you lucky.

      Nobody could tell me what happened or why. The physicists

at the airport had a big meeting where they spouted long,

important sounding words full of mathematical theories and

other mumbo-jumbo. The government promised to help us get in

contact with our relatives and any next of kin still living.

I just tuned it out probably because of shock. However I`m here

now so I probably should just make the best of it.

      I glance at my watch, 2:30. My daughter said she

would be here at 3pm but if she`s anything like her mother

she`ll be late. No matter it gives me more time to watch

the people and think about what I`m going to do now. I`ve never

actually taken the time to do either so it`s kind of refreshing.

I take another sip of this coffee. It`s starting to grow on me.

      Part of me wants to try out my English skills on

these Americans. After all I spent six months learning the

language at the local chain school back in Tokyo. It was

tough and my teacher was kind of scary but I was getting

pretty good there and had somewhat conquered my fear of

asking where the bathroom was. That`s all useless now. When

we got off Flight 008 they passed out Universal Translators to

everyone and those things did a really good job of changing

the language into Japanese. I could swear that these

Californians really speak the Osaka dialect like a pro.

Although if I meet a real Obachan here I think it might

just blow my mind.

      It`s too bad about the English lessons. I was really

ready to give my presentation and showcase my poster. I`d

spent days preparing the text, having the teacher check on

the grammar and syntax. Even going so far as to practice

giving the presentation with him ironing out all my

pronunciation problems. I was excited to present the latest

research in the fight against cancer and ignored everything

else in my life. Now that`s all obsolete. All my research doesn`t

really count for much and my time wasted.

      In the 20 years I was gone nanotechnology exploded. I

remembering reading about it but most of the work was still in

the theoretical stage. Now they can insert computers directly

into the cell`s DNA and attack the cancer at the source. There`s

no need for destructive surgery, dangerous chemo-therapy or

anything like that. They can cure the deadliest of cancers

within a short week. Which basically means I`m out of a

job. I never really liked doing surgery so I`m not that

disappointed and I might be able to catch up with the latest

technology. However it appears that you need an engineering

degree to preform surgery these days. I hate math. Just doing

the calculations for the poster almost destroyed me.

      I take another sip of the not-coffee. The taste still

hasn`t really sunk in yet but I`m getting a handle on it.

All this fake food is quite strange too. I`ll admit I was a

bit overweight back home but I did eat lots of vegetables.

Just too much beer sometimes. Now the hamburger I tried

from the fake cow grown in a lab was quite tasty. Big, healthy

too from what the man said. No fat, salt, or other deadly

things that could kill me. The beer too was made from all

healthy, non-alcoholic stock. I haven`t eaten this well

since I still lived at home with my mother.

      Part of me wants to stick with the beef from back home

though. While this new stuff may be healthy I just don`t think

that these Westerners actually know how to make good food

despite all their technological advances. There was too much

on it and the taste just didn`t sit very well with me. I will

admit that when I usually ate a hamburger back home I was left

with a rather bloated feeling. The beer however was delicious,

head and shoulders above back home`s and with no hangover I could

get used to that.

      "Can I get you anything sir?"

      "No that’s okay. Thank you."

      "Very well. If you have any questions please don`t

hesitate to ask. It isn`t everyday we get a time traveler

in here."

      The owner was very polite and friendly. So unlike

the American`s I`d heard about on TV. What`s more, nobody

has tried to mob me even though everybody knew who we were. I

can see some people staring at me but they don`t come over. When

we got off the plane the news reports showed everybody

everything. It seems the freedom of information act wasn`t just

a show. As well in the few days since we landed I`ve had every

test possible and some that I would have never guessed existed.

Apparently I was carrying some sort of deadly fungus on my foot

that would have killed me in 30 years. That`s gone. The media

was always there watching us and recording us. However they were

never invasive and when a few passengers told them to "Get

Lost!" they did. Very respectful. Not like what I remember from

the 2017 TV news reports.

      Back in Japan I would have had 200 microphones shoved in

my face all looking for a single sound byte. I like this better.

The people back home were always polite except when you

screwed up then they`d pounce on you like hungry sharks.

This laid back attitude is refreshing.

      3:00, she`s late. I can`t wait to see her. If this was

the old me I would have been incredibly stressed by now. She

said that she`d be here by 3:00 and I would have expected her

to show up before then. I hated people who weren`t punctual.

I was always so stressed by the clock. I had every minute of

every day planed. When I wasn`t in surgery I was in a meeting

or else doing something with my co-workers. I rarely had much

time for my family. It was causing me a lot of stress but I

couldn`t stop.

      I still remember the last conversation I had with my doctor

before I came here like it was last week. Well it was only a

few days ago in truth, but he was really worried about me.

      "When was the last time you took a vacation?"

      "Does a trip to Okinawa count? I went there for a

conference last year."

      "Did you do any relaxing?"

      "No, I didn`t have time. I flew down there in the morning

and had to come back the next morning. I was scheduled for

surgery."

      "I`m going to be blunt Takeda san, you are slowly killing

yourself. Based on these readings and the fact that you`ve been

working eight weeks straight I can see early warning signs of

karoshi, working yourself to death. You are 37 years old but

if you keep going at this schedule you will probably drop dead

within a few years, or possibly even tomorrow."

      "No. That can`t be true. I`m just a little chubby from

the bad food I usually eat, that`s all."

      "No you are in danger. I recommend that you take a week

vacation, somewhere, anywhere. Rest, relax and come back a

new man."

      I left his office worried. I was coming here the next day

and was going to have two days to relax before my presentation.

I was looking forward to it It would have been my first real

vacation in three years. I wasn`t expecting a twenty year

vacation though. I do feel like a new man so I`ll have to

thank him, if he`s still alive.

      I finish my cup of fake coffee and signal to the server

for another one. I`ve actually come to like it but it`ll never

replace the real stuff. A robot wheels itself over and politely

requests my cup and pours my refill. I take a look at the robot.

I`ve never really liked them, even before I came to the future.

It looks cute enough and the light blue colors really make it

seem relaxing but there is something to be said for human

customer service. That`s one thing I don`t think I`ll really

be able to accept here in the future. While the people are

friendly all the menial jobs are done by robots. There are just

too many of them. Some things were probably better left in manga.

      I start my new coffee. My daughter still hasn`t arrived

but that`s okay. I can wait a little bit longer. Before I hated

being separated from my daughter for even a day even if I never

really saw her, I was so busy with work. While it`s been just

five days from my point of view for her it`s been twenty years.

I`m excited to hear all about her life. When I spoke to her on

the video phone yesterday, I still can`t get over the 3d image,

I couldn`t believe it was her. She`d changed so much and I`d

missed it all. If anything that is my biggest regret from this

whole fiasco.

      She started crying and promised to meet me in San Francisco

as soon as possible. She`s 29 now and married. I can`t wait to

see how she`s changed. I just wish I could have been there even

though part of me knows I would have been too busy to actually

have been there. My wife wouldn`t have had to do it alone though.

      I guess the only good news from the whole trip through

time was that my wife left me. We were in a loveless marriage

anyway so my supposed death gave her a convenient out. That`s

probably not the best way to resolve a marriage but it happened.

I guess that was one of the reasons I was working so hard. She

seemed to like the money it brought in but she was rather lazy.

I couldn`t count the number of times I`d come home to a mess

that just hadn`t been cleaned up because she was too busy playing

games or the dinner purchased from the local convenience store

because she couldn`t be bothered to turn off the TVR and cook

dinner. I wasn`t much better though. We just grew apart.

Apparently the new man she found is pretty good for her so I`m

happy.

      Now I have the chance to find something new. I`m still

37 and single but I don`t know if I`ll get married again. I didn`t

really like it but it was what my mother wanted. She passed

away about a year after I disappeared. I miss her but she wanted

me to be something I wasn`t.

      It feels weird saying it but I like having all of these

options open before me where I couldn`t see anything before.

I guess the thing I have to think about now is what to do with

myself.

      You know I think this might be culture shock. Well since

I went through time you could call it time shock. I`ve read about

this. When you move to a different country with everything being

so different you can`t help but fell overwhelmed. It`s like that

but not in a bad way. I might like it here. For one thing it`s

a lot better than the stifling attitudes I experienced just last

week. I don`t know if I can get used to that again. I take another

sip of my coffee and place it down on the table.

      "To-san?"

      I look up and see her. She`s beautiful. My little girl.

She no longer has short hair and missing teeth. She looks perfect

and I missed it. I can feel the tears well up in my eyes and

guilt rising up through my stomach into my chest. How come I

couldn`t be there to see you grow up? Why did I have to work

such crazy hours? Why did it have to take being shunted twenty

years into the future to realize just how much I was wasting

my life.

      I think I`ll let my tears flow as I stand up and give her

a hug. She joins me in the blubber fest. Before I could never

have done this. There was too much stoicism to accept any sort

of mental outburst like this before. I`m embarrassed but maybe

I can chalk it up to jet-lag.

      Later when we`ve calmed down she tells me about her life.

She`s a doctor too, said she wanted to follow in my footsteps.

However she`s not really into research. She practices a more

natural healing style. I guess with the rise of technology the

Japanese people started to feel lost and needed the holistic

medicine of nature. She`s been able to find new naturalistic

cures that work wonders with the mind while still learning how

to use the new nanotechnology. She`s one of the experts in her

field, combining the healing powers of science and the soothing

powers of nature. I`m so proud of her.

      "I have to take you back home To-san. You`ll never

recognize how Japan has changed. People finally realized that

the government had over-concreated everything and took a stand.

They were even able to bring back trees and parks to Tokyo."

      "There were parks in Tokyo. I took you to some of them."

      "Those weren`t parks. They now have grass and places to

run, play soccer, have a picnic. It`s like a whole new world."

      "Yes it is." I take another sip of my coffee as I imagine

the places she`s describing. I really want to see them. I loved

Tokyo but it was usually rather ugly.

      Sitting here in this café talking with my grown-up

daughter I`m struck by the feeling that this is just the start

of an exciting adventure. Next she wants me to meet her children

and husband. She hasn`t mentioned Yuriko, but that`s not

surprising. However there`s no rush. If anything I`ve been here

two hours and haven`t felt the urge to start rushing anywhere.

Before I would have gotten antsy and had to do something. This

is the longest I`ve spent relaxing in five plus twenty years

that I can remember. I never want it to end. Deep inside I know

I`ll have to join this world somehow but for the moment my hectic

pace is gone, all the demands that were killing me have ceased

and I can finally enjoy the moment here with my daughter and

it only took 20 years.

      If only they actually had real coffee.