text: It was a sweltering day in the middle of July in New York City, the kind of day when the humidity was so high that it felt like you were walking in a thick soup. Billy, who was fifteen years old at the time, had spent the entire day cooped up in his apartment, trying to keep cool and stay out of his mother's way; but she told him to go outside, and that's what he did. While out and about, Billy found a strange, shiny object on the ground outside the entrance to Central Park. It was a Galaxy S22 cell phone and charger, but Billy obviously didn't know that; he just thought it was an interesting-looking thingamabob. He was aware that it was a device that required access to an electrical socket. Billy's mother was a little bit of a technophobe, and she didn't like using any newfangled gadgets that she didn't completely understand. She told Billy she didn't trust the unusual contraption and wouldn't let him plug it in. Secretly, she didn't want to unplug her new Toastmaster 3000, a device that promised to deeply burn toast in a matter of seconds. Despite this, Billy considered it to be an interesting thingamabob and did not want to throw it out. It was a sleek rectangle made of black glass, and he was intrigued by it. So, he decided to keep the object to fix his wobbly table, and he positioned it to support one of the legs of his table. The most influential invention of the 21 century just ended up sitting there for the rest of the summer, collecting dust, supporting a table that would be garbage by the end of the decade. In September, Billy's friend invited him to play baseball at his house. Billy noticed an unused electrical socket while searching for additional gloves. Billy remembered the strange object he had found over the summer and asked his friend if he could plug it in, to which he agreed. He was so excited to find out what would happen if he plugged it in that he hurried back to his apartment to get it. The thing started moving as soon as he plugged it in and turned it on, so he knew it was working. When the screen displayed a logo, Billy and his friend were astounded to realize it was a television they could hold in their hands. At first, they were more concerned with some of the games on the device, such as the calculator, flashlight, and their favorite game, camera. They would sit there for hours taking pictures of inane things such as the cat, themselves in the mirror, and food. I guess, no matter the time period, humans will always want to take pictures of their food. The boys do end up learning about Google Chrome when it is accidentally pressed. The phone was connected to the internet from 2023. They both are big fans of Charles Lindberg, so they search for planes and immediately find pornography. 24 hours later, they stumble across Wikipedia and begin to educate themselves on issues in the future. They spent the next few days using every second of spare time they had to explore the internet and read about a wide variety of topics they had never heard of before. They were sure that everything that happened before their time was correct because they checked it against facts they looked up in the library. They started to believe that the events that were going to take place in the future were also accurate. Billy, who was adamant about doing something about the device, brought it to his uncle, a nearby university professor. His uncle was fascinated by the device, and he listened closely as Billy and his friend filled him in on all they had discovered. He urged them to arrange a presentation for the university officials in the hope that those individuals could judge whether or not this technology could forecast the future. At the presentation, the boys warned the officials about The Great Depression because it was set to begin at the end of the month. Everyone listening becomes very depressed because they all have their money in banks. One of the officials was spotted slipping out the back; there is no evidence to suggest that he went directly to the bank and withdrew all of his savings. The boys then discuss World War II, Hitler, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Everyone listening immediately gets wide-eyed and has a horrible feeling in their stomach since they were all alive for the Great War. They desperately want to hear more, something a little more optimistic, but they don't tell the boys that. The boys begin to discuss major events further into the future. They discussed such topics as the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Agent Orange, Napalm, the Nuclear Weapons Arms Race, domestic terrorist attacks, school shootings, 9/11, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, and COVID-19. A grown man started to cry. "Is there anything that happens that is not tied to death and destruction?" The man asked in desperation. The boys nodded as they continued, "they found out that the Earth is flat, we faked a moon landing, aliens are locked up in a military base in Nevada, and the government implants a tracker just under the skin in all infants." In the front row, a man passes out, prompting a woman to hug the person next to her. The officials decide to take the thingamabob, place it in a box, set it on fire, pour acid over it, and then bury it in the Nevada desert, fifty feet deep. They conclude that the future is the future, and whatever will happen will happen for a reason.