Summary

Elan Mastai begins Chapter 1 with an unnamed narrator claiming, “I come from the world we were supposed to have” (1). What follows is a first-person account of this world: flying cars, jet packs, “the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have” (1). The narrator occasionally addresses the reader directly, explaining that “you” probably do not quite understand because “you” live in the current version of reality. While he is still vague at this point, the narrator makes it clear that the world he comes from was altered because of his actions. The narrator also calls attention to the form of the narration, wondering what tense and point of view are appropriate to describe an alternative present. He mostly remains in present tense, however.

Chapter 2 initially switches to third person narration, in which the narrator’s name, Tom Barren, is revealed. Tom describes...