"...time, and again"

 

I wrote this several years back. It was the first installment of what became my Time Portal series.

One upon a time,...

On being a Black Time Traveler in America's past. One would have to pick the place year season time of day, and location with extreme care. Unlike pink temporal travelers that can wander into near any era of the West, and more or less not get killed.

Colored temporal researchers have to have rather a lot more care. For example I could appear on the above street safely. Jazz Row 52rd Street in NYC. It's November 18th 1946 9:00pm. I could explore the area with minor cautions. Earlier the 20's or earlier I'd need to take profound care.

For example the Court House steps in Jasper Mississippi at noon on Jefferson's Davis's birthday in 1906 might be a serious problem.

Walking while Black in any part of North America from 1609~AD thru roughly 2200~CE. This would be a life threatening though interesting adventure.

I'm thinking of spending the summer working on a science fiction story called "Black to the Future"

Sub-titled "Safety Precautions for the Black Time Traveler".

Below more recent adventures.

"...kind"

I took my dark matter pocket watch from the fridge. I set it for July 18th 2:24pm 862 BCE Manhattan. Wilderness, and rather cool even though summer. The long jump froze my unit. There four days subjective time as it rebooted. No sign folks I could find. Though they found me, and were watching. I awoke on the second day to dried fish, and nuts wrapped in leaves next to me. I spent four days living being fed, and protected by the Mannahatta people. I never saw the kind folks that took care of me. I left them a figure of a robin I carved. A neon shimmer, and I was gone.

"gone"

I was weary anxious,…like everyone now. So used my dark matter pocket watch, and portaled. 9:23pm Saturday June 14th, 1958~CE, Queens NY.
This to my aunt Agnes’s house.
There through the living room window she was watching TV with my now deceased little cousin Henry. I stayed till the commercials,…Chesterfield smokes, and left.
A Dairy Queen. These were new for them. I had a vanilla cone a coke, and chatted with the lone clerk. He asked about how I was dressed. I said I was from 2020. ‘Came to look up family. He took it at face value. I said “…for me they passed long ago.” …said he was sorry. He asked if we ever went to the moon. I said yes, “…fifty years ago, but we stopped,…we have stuff on Mars though.” He nodded re-filling my coke. I paid with a 21st century $5 dollar bill. Shimmered neon blue,…and was gone.

"...living"

A year ago my dark matter pocket watch my sentient time machine shut herself off. She’s slept in my fridge since. Today she chimed, and woke up.

October 22nd, 1148 CE, 5:36pm.I portaled to what would one day be Virginia. I came to watch the sunset. Still. Quiet. I could hear the faintest breeze whistle in my ears. The buzz of every insect the step of every living thing near me.

I sat, and beheld a pre-industrial evening. The sky empty of men was already filling with bright stars. I scented the aroma of ocean half a hundred miles away. If not for bears I would have slept the night. 

West 28th Street Manhattan,…current time. Neon. Noise. Chaos. 

I had dumplings, and tea.