Fuck to the Future!

Ben Turner’s day began as it always did, with the blaring alarm of his phone tearing him away from pleasant, sex filled dreams.

His bleary eyes cracked open to glare at the offending device as he clumsily slapped it into silence. He considered closing his eyes, getting in another five or ten minutes of snooze. But the bustling sounds of activity going on downstairs told him that there would be no peace to be found.

Slowly he sat up, blinking away sleep and glancing around at his bedroom as the cobwebs were shaken from his mind. Science fiction posters lined his walls. Books and comics had begun to form small mountains over by his desk while clothes where hastily thrown about. He’d have to do something about that before his mother pinched a fit.

Stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders, he slowly swung himself from bed and lumbered out of the room and downstairs.

The kitchen and breakfast table was alive with energy as his mother, father and youngest sisters prepared themselves morning meals and exchanged gossip and their daily plans.

Ben mumbled a greeting (a half-hearted ‘goomornin’) and went straight for a box of cereal. He lazily splashed some milk in a bowl, grabbed a spoon, mixed the contents and began grazing like a cow from his place at the edge of the breakfast table.

His father, Peter, looked up from his newspaper just long enough to give Ben a once over and frowned slightly. He was a big man hardened by a lifetime of construction work and outdoorsy activities. That his only son would turn out to be such an unambitious nerd was a source of constant disappointment for him.

Lucy, the youngest child of the Turner clan, had a slight variation of her father’s opinion. She was also thoroughly disappointed with her nerdy big brother, though this came more due to the fact that she was a stereotypical popular girl at her school. With her honey blonde hair, pretty face and athletic body from years of cheerleading, Lucy was beloved and it was a constant embarrassment for her to associated with a skinny nerd.

“Sweetie,” his mother chirped, hovering over towards him, “Mr Daniels called earlier, he wants to know if you could come by and help him move some stuff out of his garage a little bit later.”

Suzy Turner, matriarch of the family, was perhaps the one person in the household who didn’t hold much contempt for Ben’s continuing existence. Her heart shaped face mostly untouched by wrinkles, her body still mostly in shape from constant yoga practice, the blonde mother of three was still a knock out.

Ben swallowed a mouthful of cereal and then looked up at his mother. “Thanks Mom, I’ll head on over there after I have a shower.”

“Don’t know why you waste time with that old kook,” Peter grumbled, folding his paper. “Plenty of jobs out there that are far more respectable than babysitting old folks.”

Suzy frowned at her husband. “Oh hush, I think it’s nice that Ben’s helping out that poor old man. Plus he’s always good about paying Ben for his time.”

“He’s probably a perv, Mom,” Lucy snickered. “Probably gets a kick out of seeing Loser getting all sweaty doing odd jobs for him.”

Ben just rolled his eyes. Mr Daniels had been friends with his grandfather way back and when he heard that Ben was taking a year off before going to college he was happy to offer the young man a part time job over the summer. Though he was a little weird, Ben liked the guy.

“Just because everyone sees you as a shallow sex object doesn’t mean that’s how it works for everyone else,” he replied, finishing his breakfast and leaving the table.

There was a string of insults that followed him to the shower, but Ben didn’t really pay it any mind. Though they were close when they were kids, he and Lucy had pretty much given up on each other once high school started. As with his dad and his constant disappointment it was sad, but he had pretty much grown numb to it over the years.

He showered, changed clothes and was out the door in pretty quick succession. Not having a car would have been an issue, but Mr Daniels only lived a couple of blocks away and he was there in fifteen minutes.

Knocking three quick taps like always, he let himself inside the old house and followed the sounds of cursing and banging until he came upon the old man in his garage, grumbling at several boxes of junk. He turned his wrinkled face and smiled in delight.

“Benjamin!” He greeted, “thank god you’re here!”

“Morning Mr Daniels,” Ben took stock of all the boxes, and all scrap metal and machine parts that littered the cramped garage. “What uh, what do you need help with exactly?”

The old man waved a dismissive hand at the chaos around him. “I’m working on a brand new project and I need all of this cleared away.”

“What is,” Ben gestured to the boxes, “ all of this?”

“Prototypes, failed experiments…junk, in essence.”

This was not unusual. During his youth Mr Daniels had been a fairly successful engineer and physicist. Even in old age he was always tinkering, always working on the next great thing that would change the world.

“So, you want me to shift all this stuff to the curb?”

“Oh no, no, no. Most of this stuff is far too dangerous for simple garbage men to dispose of,” he pointed up, “I’ve got some room in the attic, so we’ll keep them up there until I can figure out what to do with it.”

The work began as the two lifted and moved the boxes of junk upstairs. It was difficult work and after forty minutes or so they decided to have a break, with the old man going to the fridge to get them both a soda.

Ben decided to peruse through an open box and examine the “prototypes”. Mostly they were semi-build devices that he couldn’t hope to comprehend the purpose of, but one object stood out to him.

It was small and disc shaped, fitting within the palm of his hand. He casually tapped at its screen and something lit up, revealing a clock face. Only it didn’t just give the time, it also gave the exact date to the month and year.

He couldn’t say why. He had never really been one to snatch or take things that didn’t belong to him, but without thinking he took the strange little device and tucked it neatly into his pocket.