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Chapter Four - Stranger than Fiction

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Cass's fuzzy feeling intensified and she thought she had gone completely blind. She could not speak, she could not react; all she was able to do was stand frozen as the energy enveloped her. She vaguely felt something against the shoulder straps of her backpack, realizing that it must have been Thomas.

The ferret girl barely had time to wonder if she had died before she heard a low boom, and in that instant, the energy left her, she regained her vision, and was aware that she was breathing - although gasping would have described it better.

Taking a mental inventory of her current state, she ascertained that she was still alive and that Thomas still held a slightly-too-firm grip on her shoulders. She also determined they were indoors. A couch, some chairs, and a wooden curio cabinet were directly in front of the ferret girl. To her left, she saw a canine woman sitting at a modern-looking wood table eating some soup. The middle-aged woman had an appalled look on her face and her spoon raised midway between the bowl and her mouth. Cass's expert deductive reasoning skills allowed her to conclude that their visit was not expected.

Thomas let go of Cass's shoulders and she watched him look around the room frantically. The three were speechless for a few moments before the woman's expression changed - the ferret girl didn't make herself out to be a proficient lip-reader, but it was clear enough to her what the woman had said, regardless.

"H-hello," Cass stammered out. "Can you tell me what is going on?"

"Yeah, I think I can." She stood from her chair. "Two strangers just appeared out of thin air in my living wearing odd clothing and are asking me what's just happened." She possessed a faint accent that Cass could almost place - it sounded vaguely European. "Normally I would have you sprayed with so much mace you would wish you were on fire to ease the pain, but you look as confused as I do." She entered through the archway from the dining room into her living room. Her fur was short, dark, and sleek, with slim, cropped ears and a brown muzzle. It was obvious to Cass that she had the appearance of a Doberman pinscher, with the authoritative attitude to accompany her stern appearance. Sitting in a recliner and leaving her soup unattended, the woman motioned for the two intruders to have a seat on the couch. Perhaps the strangest thing about this situation is how well-composed the woman was.

Cass and Thomas wasted no time doing as they were asked, and the woman spoke again. "So, tell me, what in God's name are you doing in my house?"

Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, the Junior spoke up first. "We found a weird symbol on a wall on our college campus. I touched it, and the next thing I know my friend and I are here. Wait a second - I have a picture. Let me show you." She fumbled through her sweatpants pocket for her phone. As she did this, the woman asked Thomas, suspicion laden in her voice, "And what about you, Ears? Can you talk?"

"Oh! Um, yeah. My name's Thomas. This is my friend Cass. I'm really sorry for, um, breaking into your house." Cass, meanwhile, had located the picture on her phone and handed it to the woman. She examined the phone before she did the picture. "Is this an iPhone? These are antiques! My parents used these things. Wait a second..." She looked away from the phone and threw a disbelieving stare in the direction of the two intruders. The Doberman woman's piercing brown eyes gave Cass an unsettling feeling. In fact, this whole situation was giving Cass an unsettling feeling.

Wordlessly, the woman turned her attention back to the phone and examined the strange symbol that Cass and Thomas had encountered. She then handed the phone back to Cass. "I have a crazy idea that is about as bizarre as everything else that's just happened. What day is today?"

Cass looked out the window, noticing that it was dark outside, as Thomas spoke. "Wednesday, November twelfth, 2014. Why?"

The woman nodded slowly. "I think you two just time traveled from the past, or something."

Her words rang hollow to the ferret girl, who continued to stare out the window. "We're in.... the future?" Thomas nearly choked on the gravity of his question. "Then what year is it? How did this happen? How do we, you know, get back? Oh God..."

"Whoa, calm down, Ears. I can only give you an answer to the first question. Today's date is Thursday, May eighteenth, 2084. I doubt anybody knows the answer to the other questions... although the truth is stranger than fiction. That probably can describe this whole situation rather well," she mused.

Cass shifted her gaze away from the black sky and cityscape out the window back to the woman. "Okay, so Mrs..."

"_Ms._Petrauskas." The Doberman corrected.

"Ms. Petrauskas, sorry. So what do we do now? Can you help us find a hotel? Do those even exist anymore?"

Ms. Petrauskas leaned back in her chair. "A hotel? How do you plan on making that work? Look, you two might be strangers, but it would be cruel of me to send you off into the world seventy years beyond what you are used to with nothing but the clothes on your back and your backpacks. No, I have a spare room you can stay in. I don't know how long my hospitality will last - I guess that depends how much I like the two of you. But for the immediate future, you can stay here."

The two college students weren't exactly in a position to argue. In unison they began to thank the woman when she interjected: "but if you two are disrespectful to me or my property you will be out of this apartment faster than my voice translator can translate Lithuanian."

The number of questions the confused ferret had was increasing exponentially. Lithuanian? Voice translator?

"For now, let's try to return to a sense of normalcy, okay? If I was you right now, my blood pressure would be through the roof. Are the two of you hungry? I had just finished some homemade minestrone - it might even still be warm. We can talk over food."

Cass didn't want to decline the offer for free food even though she had recently eaten - besides, homemade minestrone sounded particularly appetizing for some reason. She was thankful that food didn't come only in the form of dehydrated pellets seventy years into the future. They allowed themselves to be ushered into the kitchen, which was equipped with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. Apparently this modern look from her time had become a timeless classic in the future. Ms. Petrauskas gestured toward cabinets near the sink for silverware and dishes.

Despite being left on the stove for several minutes, tendrils of steam still emerged from their bowls, carrying with them a savory scent that tickled the ferret girl's sensitive nose. Cass could already tell this was going to be delicious.

Thomas and Cass sat across from the Doberman woman as she resumed eating her food. "So, you two look like you're in college. What are you studying? I take it they don't have VR instruction back around the turn of the century?"

"Well, if they have, I certainly haven't heard of it," Thomas replied. "I'm studying engineering. I am interested in aerospace specifically."

"Aerospace, huh? Well that's a good career choice for someone back from your time, especially the space part. There was a big boom in space travel during the 30s. I can't remember why, exactly. Something about fuel cell technology. Anyway, we have a moon base we set up in the 60s and there are plans to send the first manned craft out of the solar system."

Thomas was at a loss for words, but the his agape mouth and glimmering eyes revealed more than a verbal response could. With a smile, Cass noticed his expression and used the opportunity to chime in. "I'm a chemistry major with a focus in biochem. I wanted to go into healthcare for a while, but I'm not sure what my plans are after I graduate now. Thomas and I were just talking about this earlier today, actually." She took a sip from her soup. Her eyes widened; it was incredible! Savory, but not salty, and hearty despite being vegetarian. The broth was rich and complemented the tender but not soggy veggies, and the brown rice added helped add a bit of weight to the otherwise light dish. "Wow, this soup is delicious! This is possibly the best minestrone I've ever eaten! Oh my gosh."

Ms. Petrauskas smiled for the first time since the two had entered the house. It suited her well - Cass hoped that she would drop the stern act soon. "Good, because that's what you're having..."

Perhaps Cass shouldn't have said anything.

"Tomorrow after I get off work we can go out to get you some actual clothes. You aren't living in the stone age anymore. I can't believe sweats were a fashion trend back in the day."

Cass wanted to interject to say that sweats aren't a particularly fashionable clothing choice regardless of the time period, but thought better of it. "What should we look into wearing? What will help us blend in?" The Doberman sported an ensemble consisting of a navy blue sheath dress covered by a slim-fitting black cardigan. The look was very official, and Cass wondered whether she had just gotten off work or whether this was standard daytime attire in the 2080s.

"I'll help you when the time comes. We won't just be getting you clothes either." She held up a small round pendant hanging from her neck. "You'll need one of these if you want to get very far nowadays. This is an Adaptive-Learning Translator for Acoustic Language Communication, or ALTALC for short. Kind of a forced acronym but it works. This is what translates language for you so you don't have to learn fifty different languages to get by in today's world. Seriously, I don't know how you guys did it back then. I only know English because my parents moved here when I was ten, and most immigrants didn't bother learning English even back when I arrived here."

Thomas and Cass were in wonder. An automatic voice translator that hangs from your neck? "How does it work?" Thomas asked, his inner mechanical engineer showing through in his burning curiosity.

"I'm not sure, I haven't bothered to learn. It's been patented though so you could look it up when you have time."

The topic of the ALTALC morphed into a conversation of technological innovation, and the two college students learned about such advancements as the public availability for nanomachines, cerebral implants, and other cybernetic augmentations. "The really invasive stuff like robotic arms and what have you are reserved for the rich, and of course they have to take anti-rejection drugs to prevent their bodies from shutting down. Again, not sure how or why it works like that, but it does."

The two also learned that sea levels had risen substantially and the planet was teetering on the brink of a food shortage crisis as well as an oil crisis.

"And yet corporations grow more powerful by the day." Ms. Petrauskas looked at the clock. "I don't know if you have checked the time, but it's past ten o'clock. I have to get up early tomorrow to go to work, but we can go shopping when I get back." She grabbed her dishes and the two young adults followed her into the kitchen, where she loaded her plates into an automatic plate-cleaning device the size of a microwave oven.

"My God, the future is awesome," Thomas said to himself quietly. He and Cass loaded their dishes into the sonicator and watched as the soup stains were obliterated by sound.

"Whenever you two are finished, I can show you where you will be sleeping."

Reluctantly, the two tore themselves from watching the dishes get cleaned and followed Ms. Petrauskas down the hallway adjoining the living room. There were two doors on the left and one on the right, and a closet at the end of the hall. "So this first door is where the two of you will be sleeping. Get cozy because I don't want you sleeping on my good living room couch." She opened the door into the guest bedroom. The room fit a twin-sized bed comfortably with plenty of room to spare. A nightstand with a hi-tech-looking light bar turned on literally with the snap of Ms. Petrauskas's fingers, setting the room aglow under a starry night sky.

"Pretty cool, huh? There's no way you will be able to stay awake staring up into the 'night sky.' I doubt they had anything like this back in the teens." She snapped her fingers again and the light bar changed modes to a standard lamp. "There's also a fold-out spare bed in this wall. See the panel?" She pointed at an inconspicuous digital display on the wall opposite from the twin bed. "Most apartments come standard with them nowadays, at least in the nicer neighborhoods." She allowed the two to enter the room while she stayed in the doorway. "I'll let the two of you work out sleeping arrangements. Make sure you make the bed each morning. If I'm gone when you wake up, you can go outside and explore if you'd like, but stay away from the C and D districts - it's a bad neighborhood, trust me."

Setting their backpacks on the floor, the two college students thanked the Doberman profusely, and she nodded in acknowledgment. "The bathroom is just down the hall. I realize you probably don't have any toiletries with you, but there's a pharmacy just down the street, two blocks that way, on the corner of 29th and Chestnut," she stated, pointing toward the end of the hallway. "I'd suggest going now, but it's closed. So you will just have to make do until tomorrow. Anyway, I'm going to get to bed. Take it easy until tomorrow. You have been through a lot." Ms. Petrauskas's stern demeanor made her moments of empathy all the more impactful. She closed the door behind her and left the two in peace.