The Museum of Future Past, Part 3
Issue #504 Keith’s SciFi Musings Sunday, February 18, 2024
“Should we run now or later?” said George, in a kinda joking but not really sort way.
“You don’t run from Grandma, man. Ever.”
“First time for everything.”
But then it was too late.
The Everybody’s Favorite Black Grandmother lady was out of breath by the time she reached us at the edge of the lawn of weeds, but she never lost her smile while she ran/jogged that entire distance. She clamped her fleshy hands onto her hips and shook her head as she looked up at both of us, from one to the other. She was pretty short. Also, I couldn’t help but notice she was standing right on the edge of the lawn. Like, the exact edge.
“Lord, have mercy! You boys gon’ and made an old woman run all the way over here! You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
The next thing I noticed was that her smile didn’t seem to be quite like a smile. Like it was carved on top of a mask that covered something else, something I wouldn’t like if I saw its face.
“We should probably get going,” I said.
“Yeah,” said George. “I think maybe we got off the bus before our stop.”
The woman continued to smile at us for an uncomfortably long time, then she cocked her head to one side.
“My name is Miss Cora. And I am so pleased to meet you both.”
Another uncomfortable silence ticked away before George said, “OK.”
“And this is your stop. I have been waiting for you boys for quite some time now. Truly, I do not like to be kept waiting. But for you, they were willing to make an exception.”
“They…?”
“Come along. The exhibits are waiting. And they tend to get hungry when they get restless. Very unpleasant when that happens. It’s never polite to keep your future waiting.”
“Wait. Hold up. What kinda..”
But by then Miss Cora had already turned around and was making her way back toward the museum. This time she didn’t appear to be in much of a rush…and me and George were following her. You ever seen a Spike Lee movie? Those scenes where one of his characters look like they’re moving forward but not using their feet? So it was sorta like that, except it wasn’t a movie. Turns out it was the last few minutes of our life.
comealongcomealongcomealongnow.
The exhibits were hungry indeed.
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