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    Chapter 2

    tab "Hello." I look up, and see a man, his eyes locked onto me. He somewhere in his thirties, brown hair brushed back behind his ears, dangling down to his shoulders. He's wearing a tuxedo, a tie cooly hanging from his neck, going almost all the way down to his waist. I don't say anything. I just continue to stare at him.
    tab "You look surprised," he says with a smile. No kidding.
    tab "Wh-what happened?" I finally crack. "Where'd you come from? I thought everyone left--"
    tab "No," he answers quickly, then strides towards the window and closes the bloids. "I've been here for hours. Three, to be exact."
    tab "N-no! No, you haven't...I mean at least...at least I didn't..." He puts up his right hand as a quiet gestrure.
    tab "Please. Be quiet. I need to show you something." He pulls out a mini video camera from his pocket, and lifts the screen. He walks to me, and shows me the screen, clicking a video. The video plays, and from the beginning of the video, I know what it's about.
    tab It's the race I was just in. The gun cracks and I take off. Delayed, just like it happened earlier. I'm in the lead, and in seconds, it's all over. I've crossed the finish line, still remaining in first place. That's when something strikes me.
    tab "Wait," I say, and the man pauses the video. "I never crossed the..."
    tab "Shhh," is his reply, and he continues the video, as I continue to watch. A boy walks up to me, whom I immediately recognize as the kid in second place. I don't hear what he says, but he doesn't look happy as he flails his arms in the air. I say something back to him, but he doesn't seem too happy with what I say either. He gives me a shove, and then I'm on the ground.
    tab At this point, I look pretty ticked off. I get up, and grab his collar. I throw him down, and watch for a few seconds him on the ground. He wipes the sweat off his face, and leaps back up, ready to take me down in a wrestle. The coach stops this, and starts to give us a lecture of some sort. The video stops. The man closes his eyes and says,
    tab "You died two hours later." Huh? Now I was even more confused. "Before you left, the kid you saw shoving you around stabbed you to death with a swiss army knife."
    tab "No way," I breathe out. "I'm still here! I'm alive!" He opens his eyes and smiles, replying,
    tab "True enough. That's because I saved you."
    tab "This is--that's impossible! He didn't--why would he stab me? I got first, he got second, so what? Big deal!" He shakes his head, and says with a frown,
    tab "I was hoping you'd tell me. Guess that's gonna be left a mystery now, huh?" He stuffs away his video camera into his right pocket.
    tab "This--this doesn't make any sense," I say, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to make sense of it alll. The man's frown raises, as he announces,
    tab "I don't believe I've introduced myself. I'm Tom Jacob's, Time Jumper, the past's guardian angel."


    tab "Yeah, right," I say. "And I'm Lance Armstrong. Please to meet you." With that grin still planted on his face, he tilts his head and replies.
    tab "Really? Maybe I jumped to the wrong time..."
    tab "Cut the crap!" I shout. "Look, I don't know who you are, but I don't really care. And you certainly can't make me believe that you're some...some...time traveler or something who saves innocent lives like some super hero." He pulls out his video camera, and shows me the picture of the video. On the bottom right side of the screen, it read "May 6th 2009, 4:12 p.m.", the exact time I had my race today.
    tab "I'm the one who taped this," he says, and puts the camera back in his pocket. "For you, it was today, but for me, it was 15 years ago." I don't say anything. I can't. So he continues,
    tab "I told you, I'm a Time Jumper. I'm from the future. In my time, I'm 32. But here in yours, I'm 17."
    tab "So...They've invented a time maching in only a matter of 15 years? We haven't even scratched the surface of time traveling!"
    tab "Technology is growing at a faster and faster rate every year. By 2014, the internet as you know it was outdated." I pause, letting it all sink in. Then I say,
    tab "All right. I almost believe you. Almost. But if you're really telling the truth, then let me travel with you...where ever you're going." Mr. Jacobs winced, and quickly objects,
    tab "Absolutely not. Out of the question." He's waving his hands back and forth horizontally over and over, and then turns his back to me. He walks over to the window, and slits the blinds open, looking outside. What a paranoid freak.
    tab "Why not? Name one reason!" Immediately, his whole body pivots to me, as he exclaims,
    tab "I could name a hundred reasons! One, my next next mission has--has nothing to do with you. Two, it would take too much time to fill you in on time traveling, and no offense, but you might slow me down. Three and most importantly, you can only go backwards in time. We haven't figured out how to go forwards, so you'd be stuck back in time and you'd never be able to come back to your present day."
    tab "Not a hundred reasons," I point out. I know I'm being irritating, but I can't help it.
    tab "But very important reasons!" he counters.
    tab "Well, if I can't go with you, then I'll live the rest of my life thinking you were some sort of lunatic." He shrugs, and starts to the door.
    tab "Frankly, I don't care. I told you the facts. Whether you choose to believe them or not, that is not of my affair." He begins to turn the door knob, I suddenly I stop him, shouting,
    tab "Wait." He lets go of the door knob, and turns his head to me.
    tab "Yes?" I take a deep breath, and say,
    tab "I really want to go with you. I don't care if I ever come back. I just want to go with you."
    tab "Why?"
    tab "I don't have anything to look forward to here. You broke my leg..."
    tab "But I saved your life!" he quickly added.
    tab "Maybe. But running was my life before. Now I won't be able to run. For awhile, at least." He closes his eyes as if he's thinking hard. Then he opens them and says,
    tab "A wheel chair. We need a wheel chair."