“That’s a girl!” yelled a burly man in a business suit. “What do you
do, Marianne?” Marianne pushed through the crowd that blocked her path,
and found herself being accosted by an older, grey-haired man.
“Marianne, my name is Marianne O’Donnell. I’m a Time Traveler, and I’ve
been sent to collect information on the Institute.”
“Oh, that’s right! Harlow Street is only one block away from here. Why
don’t you go there and I’ll take you back to the Institute.” Marianne
turned to walk away, and was stopped in her tracks by the man, who reached
out and grabbed her arm, turning her in his direction.
“Hey, Marianne, what are you doing? You’ve got no business here!” He
pulled her away from the rest of the crowd, who began to laugh and jest
around her.
“But I’m here to do good things for Time Travel!” Marianne yelled, her
eyes pleading with him to listen to her.
“Oh, I know, I know,” he laughed. “But you’re in the wrong place, and
you’re blocking my way. Let me by, otherwise I’m going to break you out of
here.”
“Please, mister, you misunderstand me,” Marianne pleaded. “I’m not
blocking your way to go through the Institute. I was going to catch the light
here.” Marianne reached her hand out, but he refused to release her hand and
stopped her from walking through the people who were gathered to get a better
view of the Institute. The crowd gasped at his words.
“Oh, Marianne, you’re not gonna do this kind of thing here?” One of the
people behind them stopped her and began to gawk at Marianne, who had her arm
around her shoulder trying to hold her back from the man.
“What are you, anyway? Some kind of terrorist?” This wasn’t the first
time Marianne had been insulted and mocked by people who wanted to see her as
some kind of dangerous extremist, but she didn’t let them intimidate her.
“I’m not a terrorist,” she said calmly. “And yes, I am a Time Traveler.”
“Good for you!” The crowd began to cheer at her and the man behind her
suddenly pulled her away from the crowd and started to shove her toward the
neon sign in front of the Institute. “Hey, you want to go into the place
and take a look?” He grabbed her arm and led her toward the Institute sign.
“Are you even going to listen to me?” She pulled away from him and
started to walk through the crowd, ignoring the people all around her as if
they were part of the crowd and didn’t mean anything to her.
“This way, I need to go to the roof.” The man shoved her into the
Institute, and started to run after her, but she grabbed his arm and twisted
around to the right, and he fell backward into a nearby store window. The
crowd all around them just stared in awe at the strange sight before them.
When the man was finally picked up and returned to the Institute, he and
Marianne stood in the street staring at each other.
“Hey! You’re in the wrong place!” He yelled at her, his face red.
“Now get out!” Marianne turned around and walked away from the crowd, and
the man chased after her like a caged animal.
“I told you I’m not a terrorist,” she said to herself, as she walked
toward the Institute, following the neon signs until she reached the
neon sign over the National Science Institute. She took the information
from the sign and held it up against the window of the building until the
man’s light changed and disappeared behind the street view.
“Hey, you’re in the wrong place!” he yelled at her again.
“Now get out!” Marianne pushed open the glass door of the Institute and
went in.
Marianne wasn’t sure what was going on at first, but she figured out that
she had been followed to the Institute, by the man with the grey hair who
seemed to like to bully and tease people. She then realized that he had
been following her, and she had taken him here to see the National Science
Institute.
Once inside, they took a closer look at the Institute and Marianne thought
that she found something very interesting. The Institute seemed to be made
of glass panes, much like the windows of the skyscrapers all around, and she
asked, “So what is it?”
“This is the Institute where I make time travel, for the people of this
future. If you want to travel to the future, you have to build an
institute.” She laughed at his words, wondering if the man she had just
been talking to was a Time Traveler, since he had been following her.