730. All's well that ends well

It was three in the morning, or maybe four.
The last of the guests had made their syncopated walk from front door to cab door.
The house was a mess in the best possible way.
He latched the lock and turned out the lights.

729. A piece of advice before you go

Look to the day after tomorrow and the next and the next.
Do as much good as quickly as you can for as long as you can.
What else can we do?
We're here to save the universe, aren't we?

728. Huckster

He was on tv once or twice a week.
People trusted him because he wore nice suits and threw bricks at orthodoxy.
The opinions he expressed were very wrong and very popular.
That's what made him so dangerous.

727. Adjective

Today was going to be a big day.
Today, she was getting her adjective.
She was hoping for stupendous or maybe magnificent.
All the best superheroes got adjectives added to their names.

726. Wide angle

He stood back and surveyed the scene.
It was a mess.
The floor was thick with garbage and sticky like taffy.
Those goddamn kids and their midnight cult movie showings were the worst.

725. Tonic

Sharon eased back behind the bar and stepped out of her shoes.
The bowling alley was empty except for a half dozen young men in suits.
They were shouting for more gin, again.
She watched one of them pitch a ball into the gutter, sighed, and reached for the bottle.

724. The princess, the farm boy and the pirate

I'm not really comfortable discussing the particulars, but I have time travelled six times.
My favourite trip was May 25th, 1977.
I went to Star Wars with my father.
Sometimes you just can't worry about altering the existing timeline.

723. Holy Toledo

Toledo is a city in Ohio on Maumee Bay.
In 2014, people will begin to see images of Jesus Christ on everything from toasted bread to stains in alleyways - in Toledo.
In 2015, our lord and saviour will make his miraculous return - in Toledo.
It seems too bizarre to be true, but the man in front of the liquor store is quite insistent.

722. Toolmaker

His trip through time was one-way.
He spent his first weeks in the past building a weapon from the circuitry and assorted technological detritus in his pockets.
Using the stars and the landscape to guide him, he buried it in the exact spot where he'd tried to dig to China as a boy.
Things were going to be different this time.

721. Union busting

Alford and Abernathy ran the factory founded by their grandfather, Eustace.
Their falling out split the family in two - permanently.
It also meant the eventual collapse of their grandfather's empire.
As the factory failed, it consigned the town of Union to a slow death.