Our Present to the Future

Ghost Command – Two Days Later

After dropping their kids and Slimer with the Junior Ghostbusters, the New York City residents took a flight out to meet their friends at Ghost Command. It was the first time they’d visited the haunted house in over five years. This was mostly because retirement left all the men free to travel whenever and wherever they wanted, and they went on lecturing trips abroad all the time. This was just like another trip for the New Yorkers, just to visit their friends this time.

On the other hand, the women were mostly able to come along because they’d taken vacation days for the camping trip. Jessica was still a reporter for WGPN, but she was no longer in the field. She was recently made the senior anchor, and her husband and kids teased her that her cushy new job was making her soft. Janine remained the office manager for the New York team comprised of the Junior Ghostbusters and Meghan and Kenny Carter. They mostly took their orders from Janine. Kayla was still an orthopedic surgeon, and Dana had returned to the New York Philharmonic just after the Vigo incident. Alice had retired from Ghostbusting along with the men, but she had accepted a proorshorship at SUNY-Downstate teaching a course in parapsychology. Kel was still running her restaurant, and Winston was now a lot more active in the day to day operations. So it seemed that Futura came looking for them at just the right time. It struck Egon that the timing of her problem was an odd coincidence, but he kept this to himself.

When the New Yorkers arrived at Ghost Command, Futura was already there waiting for them. Neil was there too, as he was now the senior member of the Ghost Command team. He promised to watch the Kong and Spenser kids and to keep them out of trouble. Jake and Eddie smirked at each other, remembering a time when it was Neil, then known as Corky, who needed to be kept out of trouble.

Trying not to grin in his nephew’s face, Jake removed the Time Turbo from the Ghost Buggy and handed it to Neil. “You know how to set it to wide angle?”

“Yup.” Neil made the adjustments as he answered his uncle.

“Here are the coordinates you’ll need.” Futura handed him a sheet of paper with several numbers and a date. “By the way, Neil. How are you dealing with married life? You and Sharon are going on two months now since the nuptials, right?”

“It’s great, Futura. Sharon’s amazing.” He smiled when he thought of his wife, whom he’d met in Washington, D.C. when she was still working for the U.S. Mint, which he’d helped to save from the angry spirit of the mother of modern American feminism.

“Okay. Stand together over there, everyone. Close together like you’re posing for a picture.” Neil entered the coordinates as they followed his instructions.

“How does time travel feel?” Ray asked Jessica.

She shrugged. “It doesn’t feel like anything. You just feel like you’re moving through space, and then you’re in another time.”

“Fascinating,” Egon replied.

“Do I need to take some Dramamine?” Peter asked with a look of distaste on his face.

“Not unless you want to. We aren’t actually going to move through space because we’re not in G.B.,” Jake explained. “You’ll just feel like you’re standing still. This is how we returned the dinosaurs Prime Evil brought to modern day San Francisco back to the Paleolithic era a number of years back. We tried it out on ourselves later to see if it was any different.”

“I take it you’ll make sure we can get home again, Futura?” Alice asked.

“Naturally,” she replied, and then she was gone in a flash . . . literally.

“I love it when she does that,” Kel muttered.

“All right, Neil. We’re ready,” Jake said.

Neil took careful aim. “Smile, folks. You’re history.” He fired the Time Turbo and his twelve targets disappeared in a burst of light.

Their destination: the 31st century.