Life In the Future — Part Five
By Alex Shvartsman
The following morning Peter put on his best suit and went to the interview. Some people were great at first impressions but lost their luster and crumbled the more you got to know them. Peter felt that he was the opposite—a solid candidate who struggled to impress quickly. The interview was a grueling affair involving several meetings and a written test, but Lippert’s prediction had given Peter the extra boost of confidence he needed. He felt more at ease despite the high stakes, more sure of himself. He was a character in a story that had already been written. And not just any character, but the protagonist. He left the interview feeling that he had performed as well as the Peter from the essays.
As soon as the interview had ended, Peter called Yuriko.
“I never doubted you for a second,” she said. “Also, Uncle Ricky found your man. He lives right outside Columbus … I’ll text you the address.”
Peter plugged the address into his GPS—another technology Lippert had predicted. “Columbus is on my route back to New York. I won’t even have to go far out of my way.”
“Are you sure you want to go see him?” asked Yuriko. She hesitated. “Suppose you’re right and this guy is the real thing. Do you really want to know your future?”
Peter’s thoughts raced. “Some of it,” he said. “Not all of it.”
“Exactly. Like, if someone offered to tell me the date of my death, I wouldn’t want to know. And if you interact with this person, there’s no telling what detail he might let slip that you wouldn’t want to know.”
“Or he could clue me in on which stock is going to be the next Apple or Google,” said Peter.
“I haven’t read as much science fiction as you have, but I’ve read enough to know that almost any story dealing with prophecy and prediction is a cautionary tale,” said Yuriko. “Think about that.”
Alex Shvartsman is a writer, translator, and anthologist from Brooklyn, NY. He’s the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Over 120 of his short stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and many other venues. His website is www.alexshvartsman.com.
Copyright © 2025 Alex Shvartsman