Epilogue

Seriously, you gotta wonder. Will he ever be back? Maybe he got pulled way back - like, way back - and ended up with those wild, hairy cavemen from the Stone Age. Or maybe he’s chilling in the deep, dark Cretaceous Sea. Or hanging out with those freaky, giant lizards from the Jurassic period.

He could even be, like, right now - if you catch my drift - wandering around some plesiosaurus-filled coral reef, or next to some lonely, super-salty ocean from the Triassic period. Or did he jump forward in time?

To a time when people are still people, but all the mysteries of our time are solved, and all our problems are, like, totally figured out?

To a time when humanity is at its peak: because honestly, I can’t believe these last few years, with all the half-baked ideas, confusing theories, and constant fighting, are actually the best we’ve got! I’m just saying.

He - we talked about this a lot before I even built the Time Machine - wasn't exactly thrilled about the progress of humanity, and saw all this civilization building as just a bunch of pointless stuff that would eventually collapse and destroy everyone who built it.

If that’s true, we gotta live like it isn't. But the future is still a total mystery to me - a huge, blank space, just lit up a little bit by the story he told.

And I've got these two weird, white flowers - all dried up, brown, flat, and brittle - to remind me that even when people lose their minds and strength, there’s still gratitude and kindness left in their hearts.