Future Texting

By María Guadalupe Treviño Grauzas

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It's been almost two years since it happened. My whole life changed because of a series of text messages which I will always remember. My story started 1 year and 10 months ago, in a very small town that doesn't even have a name. In 2019, October 21st, Monday, to be exact, I received a series of text messages that as I said, changed my entire life.

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It was a very cold evening, so everybody was inside their houses, and just as everybody else, so was I. My name is Jack and I was 18 years old when these events happened. I live in an unnamed town since it only has 15 houses and 7 stores. My house is one of the biggest and it is typically a meeting place since I live alone.

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At exactly 3:00 p.m. I got a text message while doing schoolwork in my computer, and it was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me since. The message came from October 21, 3000 at 3:00 p.m. I was very confused and was scared because the message said,
"Jack, your whole life is going to change as I text you these messages. But you have to be open minded to believe anything."
I decided not to listen to it since hackers were very common these days. I upgraded my security systems in all my devices and thought I was good to go and kept on working.

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Finally, I was done with all my work, so I started watching a movie until I got interrupted by the buzz of my phone.
"Unknown contact," said the screen. I never thought that a text message could make my skin crawl.
"If you don't take this seriously then the entire world will change and there will be nothing you can do about it."
I ignored it again, but I got another text:
"To prove this to you let me tell you, tomorrow at exactly 5:00 p.m. you will have a sudden snowstorm, and the snow will be 3 feet tall and your dog will bark three times just when one of your windows shatters."
I decided not to answer until tomorrow to see if this person was correct.

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UNKOWN ID

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Jack, your whole life is going to change as I text you these messages. But you have to be open to believe anything.

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If you don't take this seriously then the entire world will change and there will be nothing you can do about it.

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To prove this to you let me tell you, tomorrow at exactly 5:00 p.m you will have a sudden snowstorm, and the snow will be 3 feet tall and your dog will bark three times just when one of your windows shatters.

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As I was doing classwork on my computer, snow started falling. I didn't worry since snowing was very common in fall and winter in my town. But around 4:30 p.m. it started to get worse, and I could not even see out of my window. Snow was falling hard! 2 feet of snow and counting. My dog, Spot, was curled up in my lap until the clock hit 5:00 p.m., the wind picked up and Spot barked three times and one of my windows shattered.

My mind was tossing and turning as I was cleaning up the mess of the window and boarding up the hole where the window used to be. As soon as I finished I sat on the couch and decided to text the unknown texter.
"Who are you?"
"I know this will scare you, but I'm from the future".
My heart pounded out my chest. I knew I shouldn't believe an unknown texter that could be a hacker, but it all seemed too perfect to be a coincidence. I quickly texted him back,
"This all seems a little confusing to me, so I would like another prediction of what is going to happen tomorrow".
The "Future texter" as I now call him, texted me with,
"Tomorrow the snowstorm will give you five feet of snow and most of the community will ask to stay in your house."

The next day the storm was still going and the snow was falling and rising higher than ever, just then I received a call. The call was from the mayor of this small town and he said,
"Jack, the snowstorm is getting out of control and the people needs a good place to pass it on, " said the Mayor, " we need all the help." He then asked the expected question, "Can the community stay in your house?" "Everybody will bring food, water, sleeping bags, and supplies," he added. "What do you say?"
The future texter was right! My mind was blown away in that instant!
It took me a while to answer back since I was shocked that the texter's prediction had come true.
"Of course Mayor, I'll welcome you all", I replied.
"Thank you Jack. This will not be forgotten."
All of those people would need help getting out of their houses, so I headed out into the storm and helped as many as needed it to come into my house. When I came back to my house with the last person everybody was already setting up tents. I then went to my room and texted back to the future texter.
"You were correct. I think I believe you now". I immediately received his answer.
"I'm texting you to warn you about the future and what it has become. The world isn't what it used to be, and I need your help to fix it. The oceans have become home to plastic instead of fish. Trees and forests are less abundant than houses, and air in the atmosphere is getting unbreathable. All of this must be fixed. Please help me Jack while you still can."

I knew all of those things were problems in reality, but I didn't think humans weren't going to be able to fix them. With all of the campaigns going on, I thought most people would have come into reason. But now I had to warn everybody of what the world would become if we didn't change asap.

The snowstorm lasted for five days, so everybody went back to their houses to fix any damages. The Mayor stayed for a while, so I decided to talk to him about the texts and the worldwide problem that we had.
"Mister mayor", I spoke, "I have an urgent matter to be discuss...",
the mayor interrupted me,
"Well Jack my boy, what is this about?"
I was really nervous because how in the world I was going to explain him that someone from the future was texting me! I took a deep breath and started,
"In the past few days I've been getting texts from someone. This may seem crazy, but he's from the future! He predicted all of this would happen and he says that our planet will die if we don't do something about it."
The mayor had his mouth wide open, but then he started to laugh
"Ha ha ha, oh Jack. Don't you know hackers are like flies these days, but someone from the future? Ha ha ha!"
I kinda expected this to happen. But I had to bring this matter into light.

I started packing my bags. I was decided to get a newspaper from New York City to publish my story and show him the texts as evidence. Although I thought it would be a very difficult mission, I was willing to go for it.
"Have you done anything about this matter Jack?" texted the Future texter.
"Yes, I'm packing my bags to leave to New York City hoping someone puts this matter into light."

As soon as my flight landed, I received a video from the future texter. I didn't know what to expect to see since this was the first time he sent me a video, But, then I thought that I really would like to see the other world.

video here

This video showed more proof of the problem we're facing, too much contamination, almost no trees, and lakes and oceans polluted! This was just in time and it would really help me state my point.

At 6:05 p.m. I finally got an appointment for tomorrow at noon to see a reporter and show him everything.

I relaxed in my room and was preparing my case for people to believe me. Suddenly I realized that I could turn out to be into the hero who saved the world from chaos or the crazy man speaking nonsense.
I got another text message from the future texter a bit more friendly than a warning.
"Jack they may think you are crazy, so I'm going to send you a picture of the future. It will be hard for me because we are not supposed to tamper with the past. But I know you can take advantage of it."

The time had finally come to go to the newspaper and get the story published. After waiting for a while, a man came out to get me and invited me to his office. We sat on the couch and started talking.
"Good afternoon!" said the man, "I'm Scott, and you are?"
"I'm Jack" I said.
The greetings were long because I needed to make friends with him if I wanted him to believe me.
"So about coming here, I have an urgent matter concerning everyone in the world." I explained.
"Well of course why else would you come here?"
"I've been getting texts from a future texter, as I call him, and he is sending me warnings about the future of our world. The entire world will change and pollution will reign and trees will be in danger of extinction. I know it sounds crazy but you need to believe me."
We were both silent for a moment until Scott finally said,
"Well I'll see if I can get this published, see you later".
When he said that my heart jumped to the roof.

"CRAZY MAN THINKS FUTURE IS POLLUTION" stated the headlines of the newspaper.
Disappointed, I packed my things and decided to go back home, but just as I was about to leave a van pulled up in front of me. A man in black then came out and told me,
"Get in please"
I thought this was like a hostile situation and doubted if going in or not. But I knew that I had nothing to do with them, so I jumped into the van.