I got my family back in one piece and we found future Henry sitting in my favorite chair, drinking my Orange Juice. I shook my head. I had to get this save humanity thing behind me and get this guy back into the future so he wouldn’t drink all my Orange Juice and I could sit in my chair. There is just something uncomfortable about someone sitting in your favorite chair!

We talked into the evening and future Henry settled down to sleep on the couch. The next morning we were awoken to a frantic knocking on our bedroom door. It was my future self and he looked as pale as I have ever seen him. Without a word, he handed me the morning paper.

“College Professor killed in head-on collision with a tree!”
Last Night, Doctor Michael Thomas, a professor at the local university, seemingly lost control of his vehicle out on the interstate and ended up crashing his car into a tree. He was killed upon impact………. 

I was in shock! Here we were so close to succeeding and then to have this happen! My future self must be right. For some reason, fate herself must be involved and determined to make this as difficult as possible!

I showed the paper to Emily and she wordlessly handed it back to me. Then, she walked into the Anna Marie’s room and brought her out. For the rest of that morning, Emily did not let our daughter out of her sight. Emily knew what was going on and it was almost as if she didn’t trust me to make the right decision.

At this point, I did not know what the right decision was. My colleague who claimed he had the answer was dead! I was for taking everyone back in time, say to last month. This way Doctor Mike would still be alive with enough time to synthesize a formula to change Anna Marie’s DNA and end this nightmare we were caught in.

My future self shook his head. “You forget the Terminators!” he said but I shrugged my shoulders.

“I was able to travel in time and get my family without interference,” I pointed out. “I did not encounter a Terminator!”

“But I did,” my future self said. “Yesterday, when you jumped into the future, almost instantly a terminator appeared. I was still standing in the back room at the time. Luckily, for us, the terminator was facing away from me. I grabbed the first thing I could from the workbench and it happened to be your bottle of hydrochloric acid. I threw it at the Terminator and the bottle broke, covering the robot with acid. It turned, just as the acid was eating it’s metallic covering away and then, it blinked out! I assume it returned to the future for repair but I do not doubt it was ready to track you through time! I think our time travels are done until we fix this problem!”

I felt defeated. I did not know what to do and I collapsed on the sofa. Emily put Anna Marie in her chair and began to feed her. My future self just stood, looking defeated.

Then, future Henry turned and moved to the front door. “I think better while I’m walking,” he said over his shoulder. He opened the door and disappeared outside, pulling the door behind him. I was unable to say anything or stop him. I looked at Emily but she gave me the raised eyebrows look and went back feeding Anna Marie. I went to the door to follow my future self but he was already out of sight.

I joined Emily in the kitchen. “I wonder what he is going to do?” I asked out loud but Emily just shook her head.

“He said he wanted to walk!” she answered. “He is you Henry! What would you do?”

“Emily, I think he is desperate! I think he may do something to end this. Something we won’t like or approve of!”

“What do we do then Henry?” she asked and made faces at Anna Marie. Our daughter giggled and I touched her head, feeling her thick blond hair. Kissing the top of her head, I stood up and walked into the bedroom. I had hidden the gun in my sock drawer and I took it out. It was still loaded and I walked back into the kitchen. Emily saw me and her eyes went wide. She grabbed for Anna Marie but I smiled.

“I will not allow anything to happen to you or Anna Marie! This is just in case my future self comes back with something underhanded on his mind!”

It was less than an hour when future Henry opened the front door. There was a ghost of a smile on his face and he locked the door behind himself.

“What have you done?” I asked and he reached into his pocket. I was holding the pistol behind my back and I brought it out, letting him see I was armed.

Future Henry pulled his hand from his pocket and held it out. In his palm was a bottle. It looked like the bottle that Doctor Mike had in his office. The bottle that he said would fix our problem BUT may create side effects! My future self had broken into Doctor Mike’s office and had stolen it!

I shook my head! “You are not giving that to Anna Marie!” I stated, holding the pistol up. “You don’t know what that stuff will do to her!”

“I know it will fix our problem!” my future self insisted. “But I was never planning on giving it to Anna Marie! I will give this to Christopher! Then, he cannot pass his intelligence gene onto young Henry!”

I heard a gasp from Emily and I knew she felt the same way about this that I did. I did not want to hurt anyone but we did need to fix this problem! “What do you plan on doing?” I asked. “How do you plan it give this formula to young Christopher?”

“We are going to invite the Matthias family over for a party or for dinner or for a social gathering. All I need is for you to come up with an invitation to mail to them. Create an invitation they can’t refuse and post it here!
Paula Jeri

"Henry darling, how are you going to get this family over here, honestly???" Emily quizzed me as she sat Anna Marie into her high chair for a snack. She glanced over her shoulder at me, one eye brow prettily cocked up. I winked at her and said "I know JUST how to do it!!! Leave it to me...." as I sauntered out of the kitchen and into my den. Sitting down to my roll top desk, I grabbed a note and a blank sheet of paper from our wedding invitations. We had ordered so many, we had quite a few left over and this was a case where we needed every extra bit of help. I penned a fancy dinner invite (good thing I had taken some Calligraphy courses in college!) and then sat back to think carefully on the note I planned to include. A sudden inspiration hit me and I bent back over the desk, scribbling like a mad man. When I finished, the invite was worded to have them come to dinner on Thursday, October 14, and the note, if I do say so myself, couldn't have been any better if Shakespeare had written it!!!

" Chris", it began, as if we were old friends, "The wife is throwing this little dinner party, but I wanted to pull you aside to talk to you about a possible opening in my department at the University. I think you'll be very interested. Do come and bring your wife and son. Looking forward to seeing you, Henry" I signed it with a flourish and sat back, patting myself mentally on the back. Its well known all over the university that Christopher Sr was mad to get a position there. His position at the state college was not as well paid nor as prestigious, and this was the very bait that would have him and his family knocking at our door long before 7:30 that evening. 

I dashed in to show Emily what I had accomplished. She read through, then looked up at me with stunned surprise in her eyes. "Henry, that's BRILLIANT!! But....what about the next day. How are you going to tell him there IS no position??" I patted her pretty head and said "I'll simply tell him the position was not in my department after all, that I was mistaken. I'll be sure to tell him that night that its strictly on the sly, and not to be mentioned. Anything it takes to get them here!" She gave me her soft smile, hugged me tight and said "I'm so lucky to have married such a genius!!" I just blew across my nails and brushed them on my coat. All in a days work!!

Ending written by Jeri

Kaye Marion
Ona Rhonda

Rosie