Again
MONICA WENZEL
“Wait!” Someone shouted at Noah. Someone who sounded like him.
Someone who looked like him, too, except for his bandaged wrist and dirty clothes.
“Don’t do that.”
Noah stopped with his hand on the time machine door. “Are you me?”
“From the future. I came back to stop you.”
“Wait, it worked!”
“Not exactly.”
“But it worked. I gotta warn them.”
“They won’t listen. Save us the trouble. Don’t go.”
“I have to try.”
Noah entered the machine before he could stop himself. Another dirtier Noah ran up to the time machine. They looked at themselves.
“We didn’t listen?”
“Again.”
Monica lives in Minnesota with her family and cats. She teaches high school Spanish.