Unalii, 1899 – Dustu and Jim are getting well along in age; Eighty-one and eighty-two, respectively. They still hold a deep brotherly love and respect for each other.

The day we found the soldiers’ map, everything tilted again. I remember it clearly—how the paper trembled in my hand, despite the stillness of the air.

A line drawn clean through Unalii, marked with a red X and the word “Depot.”

“They’ll come in spring,” I whispered. “Just like before.”

Dustu’s jaw tightened. “You said they wouldn’t.”

“I said I didn’t know if I could stop it.”

He turned the map in his hands, staring at it like it might yield a weakness.

“What would you do,” I asked, “if you knew the world was about to break?”

He didn’t answer. Just folded the map and set it into the fire.

“Then we teach them how to survive the pieces,” he said.

Years later—how many I won’t admit—We still sit beside our fire. His hair is mostly silver now. Mine faded to white years ago. We don’t talk much. Don’t need to.

But sometimes he’ll look up from the coals and say, “The fire still burns.”

And I’ll answer, “So long as it remembers where it came from.”

That’s right, ladies and gents, boys and girls, and time travelers of all ages; Changed Tomorrows is back at the top of the active pile! The characters, especially Dustu and Jim are leading me on a merry chase, as usual. Just when I think I’ve gotten them whipped into the vaguest sense of submission they show me, once and for all it is I who am submitting to their whims.

#TimeTravel #NewYesterdays #YAFantasy #JimLWright #ChangedTomorrows