Dateline: the City

In a flash of light, a sound! Crackling like gunpowder, spinning wildly, headlong into our world. Storm clouds, lightning, booming thunder loud enough to crush cinderblock and then, a shadow against the sky. He stands, stooped and hairy, knuckles scraping the macadam rooftop. Naked, save for a stich of leather across his waist. He shakes his fists and screams heavenward, roars as sensation returns to his shivering skin!

He has arrived. He is here and ready to go where none have dared.

Heavy-browed, with matted hair and sharp teeth. Eyes like burning coals plucked from the depths of some smoking mountain. Hands, calloused and knobby; hands that have flinted spears from volcanic glass on his island home. Hands that knot twine, hew timber and race through the wet hot green of the forest canopy. Hands that have cradled newborns, bloodied wild beasts and touched woman-flesh.

The signs were there and a few interpreted them correctly: that he was coming, flying through the spiral of time to rescue Mankind.

Rain pelts concrete and steel and glass. He leaps, soars to the earth. This world; a man-made forest. So strange, yet he feels no fear. His fingers snare a ledge and he flips himself up and over, hair flying in the wind. He grins that toothy, savage smile and is exhilarated. This man knows no fear.

I watch him swing from a flagpole, a perfect arc silhoutted against the stars. The flash of lightning imprints his negative upon my retinas. I pull my coat closer and step into the street as he touches the earth, this Earth, for the first time. He grins.

"I has made it!" he smile-snarls in an ape-ish drawl. His command of English is tenuous but he learns remarkably fast.

"So you did. So you did." We clasp hands and he laughs, a bit crazy, a bit sane.

His people call him Ja'im Oh-gho-to. We call him Jungle Jim. He's from the future, our future. He's a genius born from a race of supra-intelligent humans. A race so intelligent that they no longer have any use for technology save for the fire, the spear, the stone. They have re-evolved to this primordial state. At peace with themselves and their world. I envy him.

His expression changes suddenly. "Ko-Ko." He utters the unfamiliar words. "Koko!" he says this and mimes lifting a bowl to his lips.

"Yes, yes...Jim. Of course, it's freezing and you're half-naked. We'll stop and get some hot chocolate for you."

I unfold the extra raincoat from under my arm and he slips into it...a bit tight around his chest but it keeps the rain (and the stares) away. A quick cab ride, south on Lamont and a left at the old movie house. A tiny cafe where my friends are waiting. Streamers and balloons, a cake, the works. The whole place to ourselves to greet our new friend. Suprise parties being unknown to him, he has no idea what is in store.

This should be a fun visit.