Fiction - The Cleverest Thing

* This piece was accepted by a now-defunct ezine called 6tales. It's my shortest piece so far. At first I thought Easter Island would be a cool place to meet my destiny, but after twenty minutes on that rock I was quickly disabused of that notion. The major port city was indistinguishable from any resort town on a Caribbean island, with throngs of American tourists and sidewalks taken up by tables with umbrellas. I spent the day on visiting the history museum, took in a few giant head statues, and even spent an hour in the most popular bar in town. Nothing life changing seemed to have occurred. I was here because I asked myself to come. I wouldn’t be lying if I were to say I wasn’t too surprised when I received a message from the future. Winner of the Intel Science Talent Search, studied physics at MIT, started a successful business before getting my degree, and accumulated an eight figure net worth before thirty, I was one of the rare specimens blessed with a brain gifted equally in both hemispheres. I was home writing an email to my lawyer when I received the first message. It said something stupid like hello. I was about to ignore it when I noticed that the sender’s handle was the same as the one I used in high school. I asked for proof, and the screen was filled by a list. The name of my first crush, the place of my first and only experience shoplifting, and other things privy to no one else. Finally, I asked, “What do you want?” “You must be on Easter Island on November 11.” “Why?” “To meet your destiny.” “And what is it?” “Every item on your to do list fulfilled, times ten.” “Wouldn’t contacting me like this alter your timeline?” “Not if I remember this conversation.” “What do I do when I get there?” I never got an answer. It seems like the connection died at that point. Apparently the new device still had bugs. ***** I went back to the hotel room after supper and checked my email. I found what I was looking for in the spam folder. It was sent exactly fourteen minutes ago. “If you’re reading this message, then that means my plan worked and unfortunately that also means I am no longer available to answer your questions. There is really no reason for me to write at this point, but I need the closure. Remember those Greek tragedies we read in college where the hero’s downfall is always attributed to hubris? Well, in my (our?) case it’s humility that did me in. You see, even though most of the people who met us think we’re cold and calculating, we actually possess a strong moral center, and there’s just no way I (we) would have gone through with what we did if we had even an inklings of the consequence. The one time I underestimated myself the world has to pay. The specifics aren’t important; let me just say the phrase “five deaths make a tragedy, five billion deaths make a statistic” doesn’t stay true when the five billion cursed your name with their last breath. I have a chance to make it right, and unfortunately you must play a part. On November 11, at 3:11 PM GMT, an earthquake (8.6 Richter Scale) was detected off the coast of Chile. The ensuing tsunami was estimated to be 300 feet high when it reached Rapa Nui. I timed this message to go out fifteen minutes before its ETA. BTW I attached the schematics for the Temporal Communicator to this message. It basically points a modulated tachyon beam to interact with fiber optic cables at Earth’s past location. I really hope you would take a look. It really is the cleverest thing we’ve done.”