Welcome Back!

Here today we’re playing our hand at writing prompts. I’ve seen many of these little sentences that encourage beautiful lines of thinking. I wanted to have a go at this.

Our prompt: A Conversation with a Time Traveler: What Would You Ask Someone from a Thousand Years Ago?

{…}

This incident occurs later on in your life. You live alone in a small apartment. A loud knock was heard on your door early in the morning. You are sitting on the sofa watching the television. The knock seems to have easily slipped your mind. The knocks get louder and you are forced to open the door. Your body groans as you get up from an extremely comfortable position. Your hand reaches for the metal handle of your door. The cool metal touches your hands and you push the handle down. As you open the door, you see an old-looking man. His face has traces of loose skin and his eyes, which are brown, look extremely tired. The part that confused you the most was his clothes. He was wearing some brown rags and seemed to have wanted to move in an incognito format. Even though he wanted to not be recognised, his attire seemed foreign and somewhat ancient. He looks like a man who is not from here at all. The both of you stare at each other in silence for the next few minutes. The man was the first to speak up. He refers to you by your name, which leaves you quite stunned. He says that another person had told him to come here for the time being to wait. Wait? You ask him what he meant. He says he is from the past, approximately about a thousand years ago. Your eyes open wide, you are intrigued by this man and want to further question him. You ask why your house was the location that was chosen by the ‘someone’ for the man to rest. The man sighed and replied, saying that was the least of your concerns. Well, yes, it technically was the least of your concerns. However, a strange sense in you told you that this man meant no harm and was telling the truth, though your mind could argue with that. Somehow, you let your gut feeling win and allowed the outsider in your house and served him some tea, which he seemed to have had before but did not recognise the liquid under the name ‘tea’. Perhaps tea existed a thousand years ago but not under the name tea.

Now, coming to the point of the essay, you are in the room with this peculiar man who seems to be from the past. His clothes support his words, he was wearing rags of shades of brown. You want to make the most of his visit. How? You feel like you have millions of questions bubbling inside you, but you don’t know where or how to start. You take your phone out of your pocket and click for an AI help bot. This is where I come in! I am an AI assistant who is going to help you make the most of your time with this person. First things first, you gotta ask questions. That’s extremely important. What type of questions? Alright, let me give you three examples of the agendas you can ask.

Starting with the introductory questions. I think it is better to start with questions like ” What is your name? How old are you? What do you like to do? Although these questions may seem rude, I highly doubt that a person who is from a thousand years ago would be aware of the current behavioural etiquette. Go for a straightforward format and don’t beat around the bush. Why? Probably because he might not understand the purpose of your question.

Coming down the list, you must ask him about his surroundings. What do I mean? I mean something like where exactly did you live before you came here? What were the types of people he used to either work with or live with? Why did he like or dislike where he was living? Make sure not to make this like an interrogation session, something more interactive. Allow him to ask you questions.

Coming to the most important question you must ask. Lay down a set of information obtained in our era about his land during ancient times. Let him take his time and go through these documents. Then ask him the big question, are any pieces of this information true? This question will allow us to know what aspects were discoverable, hidden, or misinterpreted. It would allow you to know which part of your history textbook was lying.

It seems that your interaction with this man went well! You were lucky enough to be able to ask all your questions before his companion knocked on your door. It seems, due to your interactive sessions, this man is pretty happy to get these chunks of information from you about this era. He decides to trust you and tells you something. He is a time traveller whose travels may have ended up in the wrong place. Another person is helping him with the necessary. You smile at the man as he leaves your apartment. As your AI assistant, I hope you found these pieces of information I gave you helpful. So, until we meet again, reader.