“If you could travel back in time, back tto when you were a lad.  Would you give your younger self any advice for their future?”

To be honest it was not the conversation starter I expected when I had went to work that day but it was a Tuesday morning and outside the rain was hammering off the windows.  That made it as good a day as any to be asked strange questions.  Putting a hand against the coffee vending machine, I looked round, somewhat wearily at my co-worker.  His face was lit up as he waited for my reply.

“To be honest it is not something I have ever given much thought to.”

It was not the answer he was expecting, that much was obvious from the flaring of the eyes.  He moved closer to me and dropped his voice.  It seemed only polite to bend closer to him to better listen.

“That does surprise me, to be honest I thought that you of all the people in here,” his arm waved generally behind him indicating the office drones, “would be the one who would have thought about a situation like this.”

I smiled and took my now full paper cup from the machine.  “Sorry to dissapoint you.” I volunteered,  “Why do you ask?”  As I moved backwards, he moved forwards keeping the distance constant.  He continued speaking in an almost whisper like manner.

“Never mind.  You see a very strange thing has happened to me recently.  I think my future self has come back in time to warn me about something.”

Great, I thought, as if Tuesday could not start any weirder, now I have to extricate myself from a mad co-worker and then avoid him for the rest of the day.  Sipping the warm, bitter liquid I started to think about how to best proceed.  He looked genuinely spooked as he continued.

“I saw him last night, standing outside my house.  I put it down to tiredness.  Then this morning he walked past me.  I’m telling you, I am very worried that something bad is going to happen. Especially now.”

That was it, I was hooked.  He was indicating the car park outside the window.  I glanced down the four floors to the concrete and saw him standing there.

It was definately the weirdest start to a Tuesday for some time but not as weird as it was going to get later.