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“Naw, too much blood. What’s next?”
Emily caught herself smiling again. Seemed he did have a really good sense of humor, after all.
She began to rethink her earlier comment about this job taking less time because he was here. It might actually take more if she didn’t get her mind back on business. She turned back to the time capsule.
A cylinder at the side of some packaged items caught her eye. As she pulled it out, she wondered for a moment what she held.
“Of course,” she said finally. “This is an old phonograph record. I doubt there’s even a machine around that can play it.”
“Probably the newest gadget of its day,” Brad said. “If we put the latest CD in a time capsule today, I doubt there’d be an antiquated computer around in the year 2104 that could retrieve the information on it, either.”
“By 2104 I imagine most machines will be obsolete. We’ll all have a computer chip in our brains to store information.”
“Well, at least it’s good to know I’ll still have a job,” he said.
“You sure?”
“Someone’s going to have to insert that computer chip.”
“Unless they have a robot doing it.”
“Oh, great. Just what I needed to hear. Four years of premed, four years of medical school, four years of residency and now I can look forward to being replaced by a robot.”
She chuckled.
After a click of keys he announced, “I’ve entered it as phonograph record of cylinder shape and indeterminate age. What’s next?”
“The newspapers.” She quickly counted them. “There are sixteen here, randomly selected it appears from the two years before the capsule’s burial.”
As she started to rearrange them in chronological order, she found one with the same date as the time capsule’s interment. The lead story was the fact that it was being buried that day. But what caught Emily’s attention was the headline immediately below that one. She grew quiet as she read the story.
“What’s wrong?” Brad asked after a moment.
She looked up, only realizing then that she’d been frowning.
“An article in this newspaper reports that a day before the time capsule’s burial, five members of a local family died when a houseguest went insane and set fire to their home.”
“The article actually uses the word insane?” Brad asked.
“Must not have been considered politically incorrect in those days. The family’s six-year-old boy awakened to the smell of smoke and saw the drapes in flames. The houseguest was throwing lit candles and crying hysterically about demons. He fled the house to get help, but returned too late. The houseguest as well as the rest of his family had perished.”
“That article has upset you.”
His voice had grown gentle. When her eyes rose to his, she saw the concern on his face.
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