As Blaine left the high school parking lot, he decided to go to the one friend who wouldn't be at school or work. Blaine met Kalvin Brown when he was Blaine's boss at the food court in the mall. Since then, their friendship had bloomed and lasted longer than Blaine could have expected. Blaine remembered his conversations with Kalvin before he went to the mental hospital. The memories of Kalvin brought up the fact that he never got a chance to tell him anything before he got sent back. Did he even know he got out of the mental hospital?

Kalvin had moved from Idaho to attend college here and loved the small mountain town atmosphere and outdoor experiences so much that he never left. Kalvin stood just over five foot six, freckled with a light brownish-red ponytail, and was always a little on the chubby side.

Kalvin earned his bachelor's degree from the local college but never had to think about a career. Through some wise investing and extraordinarily good luck, he was able to live very well with only the occasional job whenever he got bored.

As they became closer friends after high school, Kalvin taught Blaine how to shoot, camp, and fish. He was the one who got Blaine more involved in all things outdoors and created a spark that pushed Blaine to do a lot of things he probably would have never dreamed about.

These "man skills," as Kalvin called them, stemmed from Kalvin's time in the Army. He said he would have probably been a career soldier but was medically discharged after completing a tour in Korea. Blaine was never able to get the complete story from Kalvin, but he did know that it wasn't a combat injury, and drinking was definitely involved.

Blaine had admired Kalvin from day one. He was surprised to find out a short, fat guy would be in charge of him, but Kalvin quickly put him in his place with some well-timed and witty insults. The fact that on the first day Blaine worked with Kalvin, he witnessed Kalvin escort an unruly, drunk customer from the mall also helped solidify Blaine's admiration of him.

The customer started to yell at Blaine when he messed up his order, and as tactfully as possible, Kalvin had told him to keep his voice down and to be patient with the new employee. The customer responded with a wild swinging fist across the counter towards Kalvin. Without any perceptible effort, Kalvin deftly manipulated the fist and directed it to the cash register. The man screamed as the bones in his hand shattered.

Blaine didn't see how because he was too distracted by the screaming man, but Kalvin had quickly jumped the counter and had the man's other hand twisted behind his back. He softly told the man that he would not press charges or break his other hand if he decided to leave now. The man responded with wide eyes and a short "OK" and ran as fast as he could toward the exit. Kalvin had earned Blaine's respect from that first encounter, but Blaine always wondered and could never figure out why Kalvin had put up with him as a defiant teenager.

Blaine pulled his truck into a spot next to Kalvin's old Chevy Nova in front of his single-wide trailer. A pang of remorse suddenly hit Blaine as he realized in the reality he had just left, he had essentially died last night. Even if that other voice took over, it was no longer him. Kalvin would not be able to know that he actually shifted to another time, and Blaine didn't even say goodbye.

Blaine decided if there were anyone who would be capable of understanding or believing what had happened to him, it would be Kalvin. Blaine's internal monologue was trying to decipher the best way to convey the truth to Kalvin without getting him another psychological evaluation at the mental hospital here. He didn't have any lottery numbers to give him, nor anything provable in the near future. He could tell him what's in store for him, but as soon as he tells him, it becomes a philosophical conundrum as to whether it happened because he was told about it.

As Blaine reached up to knock on the door, it opened to a double-chinned, unshaven face.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

"Aren't you supposed to have pants on?" Blaine said, reflexively glancing down at Kalvin's heart-printed boxers.

"Touché, come on in, but I'm not putting on pants."

As Kalvin opened the door to the humble two-bedroom trailer, it dawned on Blaine that at this point in time, he had only known Kalvin for about six months, nothing compared to how well he would know him into the following decades. Blaine looked around the living room and was reminded of all the good times he had had here. He had had his first drink sitting on that stool, spent countless hours playing video games on that chair, and lost his virginity on that couch while he was house-sitting for Kalvin.

"So, what can I help you with?" Kalvin asked as he pulled a beer bottle from his fridge and popped the top off.

"I suppose it's sort of a philosophical question," Blaine said, sitting in his favorite spot on the couch.

"Gonna have to be more specific than that, sunshine. Philosophical questions are a dime a dozen, and most are bullshit," Kalvin mused with his unique, cheerful condescension.

"Well, theoretically, if you could travel to the past without worrying about all the paradoxical stuff, what would you change?" Blaine said as if it were just a random thought that had crossed his mind.

Kalvin stopped drinking his beer mid-swallow, nearly choking on it, and stared at the seventeen-year-old sitting in front of him.

"Blaine, you need to tell me exactly why you are asking me this. No variation of the truth, a kind of truth, or a half-truth. Tell me why you want to know that."

The seriousness of Kalvin's voice shook Blaine. He had prepared himself for the usual banter and juvenile mocking that Kalvin was notorious for, but he was not ready for this. He felt he needed to take a chance. In the worst case, he would claim he was joking to get a rise out of him, but Blaine had some deep, innate feeling that Kalvin knew something. That was probably what drew him there in the first place.

"Yesterday, I was forty years old; this morning, I woke up to this," he said, gesturing to his body, "and I need someone I can trust. I know we have only known each other for a few months but in the future we..."

Kalvin cut him off. "Stop talking." He told him without even a faint glimmer of his usual humor. Kalvin took another drink from his beer without breaking his terrifying stare into Blaine's soul. Without saying a word, Kalvin got up, went to his cabinet, and grabbed two glasses and a dusty bottle of unopened scotch. Blaine immediately recognized the bottle as the same one he had drunk the night the voice first came to him. He felt a shift in his mind as if it were trying to right itself after being flipped upside down.

Kalvin filled the two glasses in front of Blaine with the ridiculously expensive scotch. Blaine was still trying to understand what was happening when Kalvin grabbed one of the glasses and handed Blaine his beer.

"Hold this," Kalvin said after a long swallow.

Blaine took the beer as he tried to get a read on Kalvin. Kalvin took the whiskey bottle and thumped it down on the top of the beer bottle.

Blaine had played this game in the Army. Take one beer bottle and hit the bottom of it on another beer bottle. The hit agitates the beer on the bottom bottle, and it fizzes out all over. The first time it happens, you either let it foam all over or try to stop it by putting your thumb over the mouth. This results in beer spraying everywhere. After the first time, you learn that the only way to avoid this is by drinking it fast.

Blaine instinctively brought the beer to his mouth and started to chug.

"What year was it?" Kalvin said after his first sip from his whiskey glass.

Blaine kept drinking until he felt the pressure subside. He set the beer down slowly while he held Kalvin's piercing stare. He had made a mistake in telling him. This response wasn't possible. He had already said too much, but it seemed it was too late for him to claim he had been joking.

"2023, but I won't say another word until you explain what the hell is going on."

Kalvin finally broke eye contact and looked up as if doing some complex equation in his head, then downed the rest of his whiskey and looked Blaine in the eyes again, slightly more relaxed.

"You know Adam," Kalvin said, but Blaine couldn't tell whether it was a question or a statement.

Blaine quickly tried to sort his memories for any Adam that might be important in this situation.

"Dr. Latourney?" Blaine asked, vaguely remembering his first name was Adam.

"Well, not yet," Kalvin said, finally cracking a smile, "or at least he wasn't a doctor when I knew him."

Blaine decided at that point that his brain might just explode. It just wasn't adding up. He was supposed to be getting advice about how to cope with coming back to this time, but instead, he was finding more questions.

Blaine stared, waiting for him to explain, as his mind raced for any plausible explanation.

"So, Adam and I were stationed together in Korea. He told me the same thing you just did. Well close. He said he was from the future and we were friends in a different future. He told me some things that convinced me he was legit. In fact, come with me." Kalvin held a slight grin as he carefully carried his glass to his bedroom hallway. His excitement was showing.

Kalvin motioned for Blaine to follow and walked into his bedroom, straight to the closet. Blaine had been in this room maybe twice in his life and never near his closet, so his curiosity grew as they approached. Kalvin pushed back his clothes on hangers to reveal the empty floor of the closet. He reached above his door and grabbed a screwdriver off the shelf. He took the screwdriver and pried the edge of what looked to be carpet from the closet floor. A square from the carpet started to wiggle loose. Kalvin lifted a three-by-three-foot square piece of carpet from the closet floor and revealed a small door with a keypad on it. Kalvin quickly pressed in a code, and a clunk sounded from below the door. He grabbed the door and swung it open, revealing a dark hole leading under the single-wide trailer. A dim light from somewhere deep in the hole illuminated a ladder attached to the floor.

"A false floor to a secret room. How cliché can you be." Blaine said, his confusion deeper than ever.