Bad Sign

“END OF THE WORLD”
Those words were written on a sign in all capital letters. The sign was a little wooden plank, and the words were carved into it. The sign was about at eye-level, and stood just on the edge of a cliff overlooking a barren wasteland. The ground was dirt and covered in dust as far as the eye could see. Nothing moved, not even the wind, and the air was stale and tasted dry.
“Where are we?”
A middle aged man bit his lip. It was his habit when he was nervous. He found he did it a lot, even when he wasn’t conscious about his anxiety. Everything about his life made him nervous. His nine to five, Monday through Friday office job made him nervous. His plain, ordinary personal life made him nervous. His average looking wife and average kids made him nervous. He was just a nervous man.
“Isn’t it obvious? The sign says the end of the world.”
The little red-headed girl shook her head at the nervous man. It was obvious, at least to her, but she wasn’t sure the nervous man was all that smart. He had no idea why they were all together in the first place. She didn’t either, but at least she could fake it. Plus she wasn’t nervous at all. It took a lot to make her nervous. Usually she was just excited about new opportunities. This was just another adventure for her to learn and grow from, and she loved every bit of it.
“But…this isn’t the end. The land extends further, I can see that. How can we be at the end if we can take another step?”
The nervous man bit down harder on his lip. He really just wanted to go back home. Back to his old, boring, but consistent life. Nothing excited ever happened, but he was content with the monotonous lifestyle he led. He definitely did not like being around these two people at all. The little girl was just too optimistic for his liking, and the old…man…hardly talked at all. But when he did, it just made the man even more nervous.
“I don’t think the sign means we are at a place. I think it means we are at a time.”
The little girl was always practical and logical, though much more happy than the nervous man, and especially more chipper than the old man. She looked up at the sunken dark eyes of the elder companion.
“Wouldn’t you say so, Grandpa?”
She called him Grandpa, even though she had no idea who he truly was.
“Yes.”
The old man was more skeletal than any living person should be, and gave the impression that his body had died long ago, but his mind would not lie down to rest. He scared the nervous man, since the nervous man saw the old man as a future version of himself.
“But how did we end up here? I didn’t think we could travel through time.”
The nervous man wrung his hands together. Another nervous habit; he was very nervous now. He didn’t remember much of anything that happened lately, except what the little girl told him, which he wasn’t sure if she made up or not. This lapse of memory only made him cling to the past more.
Answering the nervous man’s question, a little worm popped out of the dirt at the base of the sign. The worm had no eyes, no ears, no mouth; it was just an ordinary worm. Yet the trio could hear the worm speak clearly.
“I can answer that for you. Are you sure that’s what you want to know?”
The three companions looked down at the worm, and then the little girl spoke. She was the first to speak to new, unusual things like this. These kinds of things scared the nervous man, but the old man remained unnerved. He had seen far too many things in his life to be startled by a talking worm.
“What else would we want to know, if I may ask?”
“Why certainly!” The worm was very polite. “There are two questions you may ask me that I must answer, but I can only answer one. After that, you are on your own.”
“What are the questions?”
The nervous man bunted in, talking loudly to make himself seem more intelligent and understanding than he really was. Nobody fell for it.
“How did we end up here? And where do we go from here? Those are the two questions I must answer. But remember! I can only answer one. So think it over carefully amongst the three of you. I can wait as long as you need.”
The three travelers huddled together to discuss their options. The nervous man wanted badly to know how they got there. He did not care to know what they need to do next; all he cared about was the present, and getting the facts straight about the past.
The little girl desperately wanted to know what to do next. She did not need to know how they got there; they were there, and nothing could change that, but knowing what to do next would be a great help.
The old man said nothing.
They talked about this for days, neither of them budging on what they wanted to do. The worm sat there listening; he had heard these arguments plenty of times before, and would hear them plenty of times more. They always ended the same way. This was no exception.
Finally, the trio had had enough. The nervous man walked away pouting, saying something about youth being wasted on the foolish. The little girl stood there crying, but eventually walked away as well; the tears still streaming down her innocent face. The old man was left alone with the worm.
“Well I’m sorry, but I can’t answer anything unless everyone is present. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
The old man nodded his head. He had seen this many times, and each time was the same.
“Better luck next time, old chap.”
The worm buried back into the dirt, leaving the old man staring at the sign. He would not walk away. He would stay there, just as he always had, and await the arrival of the new travelers. They never remembered how they got there, but they all got there just the same.