Blast to the Future

copyright © 2012 by Robert L. Blau

It must have been a gas main. Or something. I don't know how long I was out. But the day was June 23, 2012. That was important to remember. In view of subsequent events.

There was crowd gathered around me in a tight circle. The circle loosened as I opened my eyes and sat up.

"That was quite a blast," said the man who apparently accepted the responsibility of circle leader. "Are you ok? We weren't ... aren't ... sure how badly you're hurt."

"Yes, yes, I feel fine," I reassured the lot of them. "A bit disoriented, maybe. Bit of a headache."

"I called EMS," said the man. "I ... we thought we ought to. I hope you can afford it."

"Afford it?" I replied somewhat muzzily. "Of course. I have health insurance."

"Well, of course, you have health insurance," said the circle leader, "but what good is that?"

"What good is it?" I was beginning to feel odd. "Um, well, ... I pay an insurance company. I have a health issue. The insurance company pays for it. Health. Insurance. Right?"

"Well," he stammered, "not really. It's just a name, isn't it? We give the insurance company money, and they take it. And you have to call that something, so it's 'health insurance.' Getting something back? Novel concept, really."

"If they don't hold up their end of the deal, I'll sue them! You can depend on that!" I retorted huffily, but something icy was beginning to creep up my spine.

"Why would you do that?" a woman chimed in.

"The courts are there to uphold the law and protect us!" I explained, unnecessarily, I would have thought.

"Uphold the law, yes," she agreed. "Protect us? Courts are for protecting corporations from us. " She twirled a finger around her ear in the "cuckoo" sign and whispered, "Quite a bad shock, apparently." But not so low that I didn't hear.

"Then I would write a strongly worded complaint to my representative!" I said righteously.

"What representative would that be?" asked the circle leader.

"Congressional, of course!" I snapped.

"You have a Congressional representative?" The circle leader seemed confused for a moment. "Oh, of course, you don't! It's just the impact of the explosion! Congress only represents corporations ... the real people. Not us. EMS should be here any minute now."

That's when it hit me. The explosion had severed my temporal moorings and set me adrift in time. This was some ghastly future I had landed in.

"I see what happened," I explained. "I have been carried forward in time. That's why nothing I know jives with anything that you know. In my day, insurance companies returned a service for what you paid them and the government served the people. Let's try some other topics. Can the government arrest US citizens and hold them indefinitely without charge?"

"Of course," said the woman. "How else can we combat terrorism? Of course, if you haven't done anything wrong, you're fine."

"How about domestic spying?" I asked.

"Same answer," said the circle leader. "Gosh, I'm sure glad we cleared all that up."

"What day is it today?" I asked.

"June 23rd," he said.

Ah, same day, different millennium.

"And the year?" I asked confidently.

"2012," he replied. "What year are you from?"