Stands, as of my current timeline. In the future, the floods caused by the mega-quake leave the Space Needle almost entirely underwater. You can see the saucer-shaped top of the structure, if you get close enough, but otherwise it’s entirely submerged. In this current timeline, however, the Space Needle is still where it’s supposed to be, and the city remains unflooded. And so, I can clearly deduce that I’m in Seattle, preflood. From the look of the technology I’ve seen on the people around town, I think it’s also fair to say that we’re in the mid-twenty-first century, likely not too far from the time of the earthquakes. That’s probably why I’m having so much trouble finding a damn newspaper.

Unfortunately, I think I’m going to have to do the thing. You know, the cheesy time traveler thing. Stop someone on the street, ask them what year it is, pretend I don’t notice the deeply suspicious look they give me.

Hold on . . . I think I have an idea!

UPDATE—

DATE: OCTOBER 10, 2073

19:10 HOURS

Success! Rather than stopping a stranger to ask them to tell me the year, I stopped a stranger and asked to borrow his phone. Time and date were right there on the home screen. It’s October 10, 2073, right around seven p.m. Why did I come here, now?

Let’s see . . . what was I doing in October of 2073, at around seven o’clock at night? 2073 was before I started working at NASA, so I must’ve been . . .

Oh right—of course.

I know where I’m going now.

UPDATE: 20:45 HOURS

And I made it! I’m currently standing outside my old office at WCAAT, staring up at my window, watching my past self work.

In, oh, about two hours from now, I will officially discover time travel.

That’s why I came back here. Because this is it, the beginning of everything.

I should be attempting to get back now, but there’s a part of me that wants to stay here a while and watch my past self work. In just two short hours, I will be at the happiest point in my entire life (short of my wedding day and the birth of my daughter, of course). Is it really so bad to want to experience that moment again?

UPDATE: 23:13 HOURS

Oh dear . . . I had forgotten that, back in 2073, my ingenious solution for testing my theory of time travel was to travel back in time myself, come to this exact spot, and wave.

I only just remembered and managed to duck behind a tree before my past self strolled out onto the sidewalk right where I’d been standing and waved up at yet another past self of mine.

Three selves! All in one timeline. I’m fairly certain I’m breaking some law of physics here.

In any case, I think it’s time I head back home.