Indeed it was late, the couple had returned home from the movies past midnight. I continued to wait in the dark corners of the room until the lights went out. It was the witching hour by the time their breathing slowed indicating the switch into deep sleep. Soon they would dream. I slithered from the shadows and hovered over the woman. Cathy? Mary? Who remembers anyway, I tried not to stay too long in one place. Unless the nightmares were consistently too good to pass up, that is.

But it’s rarely worth the risk now. Not like the old days when people were written off as insane. My favorite was when people believed, some even saw you, and they had enough respect to pay tribute. You didn’t have to siphon here and there, just enough to keep going on to the next place.

Glimpses, I’m guessing fragments of the movie, took shape in the woman’s mind. A darkened alleyway with the sheen of a recent rain painted the scene. Cornered and starting to panic, a woman backed her way into a brick alleyway. Why do they always do that? Silly animals, humans. Multiple male figures, features as dark as the alley, but otherwise undifferentiated, blocked her only exit. Screaming, she runs face first into the brick wall behind her.

Visions shift to another scene, this time a corn field outside of town. Same set of men chasing the same woman. Must have been a cheesy horror flick. But they don’t make ‘em like they used to anymore. I sighed. Guess now is as good a time as any. Eyes closed, yes I have eyes, though not in the way a human expects; I sniffed the dream air and followed the scent to where it originated. Dreams are kept in the same part of the brain, but each person is different so the path to get there is also. At the edge of the nightmare, the vision changed from the scene itself to a dim gray emptiness. Here it is.

A golden orb floated in the gray, unattached and unmoving. Willing my spirit form, I reached out a tendril of power towards the orb. As we connected, power surged into me. It tasted like what I imagined mulberry’s would, though I had never eaten physical food. It was sweet, dark, and a little tangy.

Outside, the woman’s body stirred. Humans never like the feel of the contact, even though it doesn’t actually hurt them. This is what makes it dangerous though, the mind fights the intrusion. Time to go. Snapping out of her body, I regained my position in the dark corner of the ceiling over looking the sleeping couple. She rolled over, curling into her husband.

I left their house through the crack under the front door. Drifting past houses, still dark with sleep. There should be enough time for another. My senses spread like veins as I passed each house, searching for my next meal. Aha, there.

Floating up the porch steps and sliding under the door I paused and listened. It was a male this time, and I could sense the dream had just started. Into the room I went, hovering over his still form, sheets had been cast off and sweat beaded his forehead.

Dim gray light, an austere room. A cell, maybe? It had a single bed and sink, turning I saw the man with his fists pounding the glass “wall”. There were no doors. He looked around the room and then up. Spotting an opening, he removed the A/C vent, pulled the bed directly underneath and pulled himself up and into the duct. Following him, the duct collapsed as he crossed into the next room over. He tumbled out onto the floor, where a scuffle ensued with the occupant. I lost interest in the show unfolding and began my search.

At the edge of the cell block the light faded into a deep black void. Here. Once the the dream faded to black the orb appeared and I again reached my power towards it. At contact, I was pushed out of his subconscious and for a moment hovered over his body, which was twitching as if electrocuted, before being pulled back in down the tether of power that had initially connected us. Guess I better be quick with this one. His subconscious was fighting me, so I pulled the energy hard and fast. Outside, his body had progressed from twitching into bucking, so I severed the connection, shooting out of his subconscious bouncing off the floor to the ceiling where I stayed waiting for the man’s dream to settle. Instead, he jolted upright in bed.

“Who’s there?!” He said looking around and wiping the sleep from his eyes. “Show yourself!”

Silence stretched for several heart beats before his breathing slowed and he relaxed back onto the bed.

“Just a dream. Get yourself together John, the house is empty. As usual.” His lids fluttered shut as he pulled the covers up and over his head.

That was too close. I thought as I glided out of the house. The light glow of dawn was just peaking through as I floated through the still dim street. Towards the end, there was a dense patch of trees far enough away from people and the every day goings on, so I found a nice patch of shadow and rested. As I listened to the birds chirp, the air shifted around me and the landscape changed.

I was back in my realm, the realm of dreams. It isn’t like the physical realm of the humans, the dream realm is more of a collective consciousness of all beings that dwell here. I floated through several dream spaces; a coming baby, a human flying, a big promotion. This was the hope level. Coming to the central space which was a vortex leading through all dreams levels, I followed it down to the processing floor.

Processing was made of a churning, moist mist resembling a cloud formation and as we added our dreams to the mix, little bursts of lightning would spark between them. Eventually, the process would push the cloudy visions up level after level, continuously adding to our home.

Exiting the way I came, I returned to the human realm. Night already blanketed the streets, the moon an amber sliver between the trees. Lights still illuminated many of the windows. My senses picked up a house filled with enough negative energy that I was sure would result in a nightmare. Gliding under the door, I explored the house. Immaculate, verging on sterile. The master bedroom was modern and dim with accent lights, but there was a nice spot just above the bed in the corner of the ceiling.

Waiting, but not for long, the wife came into the room and prepared for bed. She kept looking over at me from mirror she used while attending to her nightly skin regimen. Another sensitive, I should tread carefully. Thinning myself along the crevice so I didn’t darken the shadows quite as much, I watched her finish up and headed towards the bed.

“Relax Janet, you’re just imagining things. Shadows are just shadows. There are no red eyes, just normal shadows. Go to sleep.” She said, fluffing her pillow and getting under the sheets.

Grumbling as she got comfortable, “You would probably be more at ease if your husband was home to check the house and not fucking his secretary at the office late into the night. But what can you do.”

She adjusted her eye mask over her face and instantly fell asleep, it wasn’t long after that before short dreams flitted behind her eyelids. I waited until the sleep deepened and she was the least likely to startle when I fed. Here we go.

Two people, tangled in sheets, a third steps out of the darkness with gun drawn and aimed at the others. So much blood. The sheets, originally white, reddened with the crumpled figures. The woman stood shaking, the look on her face said she debated turning the gun on herself, but instead it clattered to the ground as she fell holding her hands to her face. I left the bedroom scene as it started to morph. The edge of the dreams melted into a pale pink light, misting like blood rain all around. Her orb was more hidden than the others, but after groping for it in the mist a moment, I found it. As I began to siphon the energy, her physical form bolted up right with eyes wide open.

“Who’s there?! Jack, is that you? Are you home?” Panting slightly, she gingerly stepped out of bed. I was partially expelled from her psyche but still connected through her dream which meant she was more likely to know when she saw me. Besides I was tethered to her so I couldn’t easily hide, so I choose to stick to her back, just out of sight.

“I can feel you, show yourself!”

Impossible. Right? I’m not able to touch humans, I usually just pass right through them if we happen to run into each other. Maybe because we are still connected? I need her to fall back asleep before she starts draining my energy instead. With only a tendril still connected, I kept to the shadows as she moved through the house, checking for anyone or anything not supposed to be there.

We are not designed to stay straddled between the physical world and the subconscious mind, so as she pulled me with her, our energy created a spark and like a matchstick the ceiling caught fire. She screamed and ran through the house, my Smokey form trailing behind, and a string of fire that only grew hungrier as we went.

Thunk. Thud. Unconscious, she fell after running head first into the front door. I snapped back into her mind, siphoning every once of energy I could take as quickly as possible and snapped out. The house was fully aflame as I slid under the door.

An officer came out of the back. “Clear, but we have three more bodies.” He pointed. “This door is padlocked.”

“I’d be very careful entering in there,” the man in the chair said.

Knibbs ignored him. Two officers pointed their guns at the door while Knibbs kicked it down.

“It’s only wires and Play-Doh-like stuff in here,” an officer said.

“Clear the building,” Knibbs yelled. “Call the bomb squad. Everyone out, clear the downstairs apartments, too. Nobody stays in the building.”

He grabbed the good arm of the man sitting in the chair. “Don’t handcuff me, please. It would be excruciating. I just got shot.”

Knibbs scowled at him, but led him down and out of the building. “How much C-4 explosives are in there?”

“Enough to flatten City Hall,” the man replied.

Creasing his forehead, Knibbs took him to a patrol car. “Check him for weapons and then handcuff his good arm to the back of his belt. Take him to the hospital to get checked out.”

“Yes, Sir.” The officer frisked the man and then sat him in the back of the patrol car. The man had no ID or anything in his pockets. The officer opened up his notepad. “What’s your name?”

“James Teel.”

“Really? Huh, I’m Officer Teel, and I have a son named James.”

“Little Jimmy is a good kid. You should restore his allowance. He didn’t mean to break that window.” The man grinned at the officer’s confusion. “But I can’t say he won’t do it again, especially after today.” He laughed at his own joke as he looked up at the third floor.

Officer Teel shook his head. “Not funny.” He drove to the hospital.

Knibbs walked back over to the sergeant. “What a mess.”

“Bomb squad has cleared the crime scene. You can go back in. What does it look like in there?”

“Guns and dead bodies all over the place. Thirteen killed and one wounded. I don’t know if the wounded man is a good guy or a bad guy. We have him in custody so we’ll find out.”

“I don’t envy your investigation,” the sergeant replied.

Knibbs made his way back upstairs. The crime scene investigators were processing the apartment. Knibbs gazed down at each of the dead men one by one. It was something he always did to try and figure out what they were feeling when they were killed. Most of them had a look of surprise, but the one in the kitchen seemed angry. Knibbs could only guess at their emotions, but it served him well.

The crime scene tech came up to him. “Most of the guns are across the room from the victims. Only one of them had gunshot residue on his hands. He only shot three times before they killed him according to all the bullets left in his clip. The others were ambushed, but he fought back. All the guns have the serial numbers filed off, except for the one in the corner. The worst thing is, I think that it has a police serial number on it. I’ll have to check our database and see if it’s one of ours.”

“That’s interesting. We can’t trace the guns then.”

“No. We’ll run ballistics on them and see if any of them have been used in the commission of a felony, but that’s a very long shot.”

“Thank you.” Knibbs gave a sideways glance at the man at his feet with a very surprised expression. “What do you think these men were up to?”

“No good. We found blueprints of our City Hall building. They had red X’s on the foundation in several places.”

“City Hall?” he creased his forehead. “Could the explosives they have leveled City Hall?”

“Easily.” Someone called over to the tech, and he left Knibbs standing there. Knibbs headed downstairs and then back to the police station. When he entered, he asked the sergeant if the man they arrested was back from the hospital yet.

“He’s in interview room one. He won’t talk to anyone but you.”

Knibbs creased his forehead. “How does he know me?”

“He didn’t say, but he asked for you by your full name. He also claims to be James Teel, which is Officer Teel’s son’s name.”

“He seems to know a lot about us. Are his prints in the system?”

“No, but he had a lot of gunshot residue on his hands. He’s a shooter.”

Nodding, Knibbs said, “He might have stolen one of our guns, too.” Walking into the interview room, Knibbs sat down across from James. “You’re in a lot of trouble. Let’s start with the truth. What is your real name?”

“James Andrew Teel. You can call me Jim.”

“Hmm, you’re going with that?”

“It’s all I got.”

“Fine, birth date?”

“August 6th, 2013.”

Knibbs glared at him. “Why are you playing games with me? That would make you twelve years old.”

“Actually, eleven. I won’t turn twelve in this timeline for a month.”

“This timeline? What do you mean by this timeline?”

“That one’s going to be a lot harder to explain.”

Teel knocked on the door, so Knibbs left Jim sitting there and went out into the hall. “What’s going on?”

“I just came back from the hospital. They said his wound had glass and what looks like titanium in it, like he was wearing a watch that the bullet smashed into.”

“I see, thank you.” He went to go back into the interview room, but then stopped and asked, “What’s your son’s middle name?”

“Andrew.”

“What’s his birthday?”

“August 6th, 2013. Why?”

“This clown is claiming to be your son.”

“I heard. The thing that is really creeping me out is, he knows details about my family that we haven’t told anyone.”

“I’ll get to the bottom of this.” Knibbs walked back into the room. “Are you still going with the ‘I’m an eleven-year-old’ story?”

“I never said I was an eleven-year-old. I’m twenty-four, but I’ll be twenty-five in a month.”

“Then how could you have been born in 2013?”

“I’m not from this timeline. I’m from a different timeline, twenty-one years in the future.”

Knibbs leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. “Right, you’re a time traveler.”

“I told you it was going to be difficult to explain.”

“Let’s try this. Why did you break into the apartment and shoot all those men?”

“Orders.”

Folding his arms, Knibbs asked. “Who ordered you to do it?”

“You did.”

Knibbs stared at him for a minute. “I did?”

“Different timeline. You are a captain in my timeline. You ordered our unit to take out the group of terrorists. You even came along with us. The rest made it out, but my chronometer took a bullet. I couldn’t use it to get back to my timeline.”

Knibbs gazed at Jim’s bandaged wrist and then shook his head. “Why would I order you to kill all those men?”

“They would have blown up City Hall a few days from now and then surrounded the building. They would kill anyone trying to get in or out. One hundred and ten people would have died, including seventeen officers and one court reporter named Susan Knibbs.”

A chill went up the detective’s back. “I need a break.” He stepped out of the door.

The sergeant came up to him. “Is everything okay?”

“This guy knows all about us. He knows who my wife is and Officer Teel’s son is. This is so strange.”

“It gets worse. The gun we found with a serial number on it?”

“Yes?”

“It is a police serial number. We contacted the manufacturer. The serial number hasn’t been used yet.”

“That’s it.” Knibbs stomped back into the interview room. “Who are you really?”

“Officer Teel of the anti-terrorism task force.”

“I see. Where is this, what did you call it, chronometer?”

“We aren’t allowed to bring future technology into the past except for the chronometer. It was damaged beyond repair. I flushed it down the toilet. The gun wasn’t going to fit down the toilet, so I put it against the wall. It’s the same model you use now, so no new technology.”

“How many of these men did you kill?”

“I killed three. One of those at the front door, and the two in the kitchen. You killed two at the front door, and the rest of them killed the others. The guy in the kitchen is the only one who shot back.”

“You just admitted to murder.”

Jim shrugged. “I won’t be here long.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to my timeline. You won’t let me rot in the past.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Not this you, the other you.” Jim smiled.

Knibbs opened the door. “Take him to a cell.”

Not believing all the things he had just heard, Knibbs took a walk in the park to settle his mind. I ordered the murder of thirteen men? I would never do that. Where did he get the gun?

All the unanswered questions upset his stomach. He walked across the street and bought a milkshake. When he sat down, a man in a uniform sat across from him. “Hello, Hal.”

He looked up at the man with captain’s bars on his shoulder. His nametag read Knibbs.

“Who are you?”

“I’m you.”

He shook his head. “Another nut case?”

The man scowled. “I want you to take a long, hard look at Susan when you get home. I’ve had to live without her for twenty-one years. The technology came along. I used it in a moment of clarity. Now, because of me, you’ll have her next to you for years to come.”

Knibbs swallowed. “How can any of this be true?”

“I’ll let you figure that out. I need my man back. If I walk into the police station, they are going to realize that I’m not their captain yet. You, they won’t blink an eye if you walk in and talk to Jim.” The captain slid what looked like a watch over to Knibbs. “Give this to Jim from me.”

Am I really thinking about doing this? He picked up the chronometer. He thought about his wife, Susan. “I will.” Then he made eye contact with the captain. “Thank you for saving her.”

I’m back in London, spiffing to be with my wife and kids. I was thinking, as one does, Britain really should be on a roll.

But we’re getting left behind BIG TIME.

Due to just ONE THING we’re missing.

So, we speak the global language of business, we have the world’s most robust legal system, a timezone bridging the US with Asia, we’re a leading financial centre, we have some of the best universities, an incredible history, a strong tech sector, we make the best fish and chips, and we have a diverse and highly-educated workforce.

But we desperately need to wake up to an economic reality which is that the UK simply cannot succeed WITHOUT high levels of IMMIGRATION.

The maths is brutal, we Brits aren’t having enough babies. The birth rate for UK-born women is 1.5, well below the 2.1 replacement rate, forget a healthy growth rate.

We have a shrinking workforce, spiralling taxes, the wealthy leaving, and the Japanification of our economy.

The irony is that we view the solution to this problem as the problem itself.

Immigration.

Listen, the UAE has built an incredible economic engine by aggressively growing its population to 90% foreign-born. They view people as a resource, not a burden, and built the infrastructure to match. 500,000 Brits now live there.

And Spain’s economy grew by 3.2% last year, 4x faster than the Eurozone average, widely attributed to immigration. 90% of new jobs were filled by foreigners. Despite having 15% fewer people than us, Spain took in 50% more immigrants, and the result is that their economy grew 3x faster than ours.

The thing is, migrants arrive as ready-made taxpayers, the state saves on 18+ years of education and childcare.

Further, over half of the UK’s fastest-growing startups have a foreign-born founder. Immigrants are risk-takers who create jobs.

Immigration is the ONLY way we can reverse the cycle of increasing taxes and an ageing population.

The common pushback is that “Britain is full, we’re a small island.”

This is just false.

If the UK were as population-dense as Singapore, we would have 2B people, we have just 70m. Singapore’s population doubled since 1990, the UK’s grew just 18% in that same period. But we can’t cope?!

Meanwhile, Dubai targets increasing its population by 60% by 2040.

We don’t have a space problem, we have a planning problem, we have an attitude problem.

We need ambition, like a ~100m population target by 2040, and then build for it.

Yup, we need a new era of nation-building. New green cities, modern high-speed rail, new hospitals and schools.

And, sure, like Dubai and Singapore we should make sure immigrants aren’t given some free pass, they need to be legal, they need to work or they’re out.

And passports need to be WAY harder to get, you only get them if you’ve proven you add value to the UK.

Listen, the UK can either manage its decline, as we’ve been doing, or we can engineer our resurgence through the very people we blame all our problems on, immigrants.

Sour Cream Chili Bake

What’s the easiest but most deadly mistake to make on a motorcycle?

I’ll list the top 3 – they’re all easy mistakes and they’ll all see you having a very bad day.

1 – Not realising that you really are invisible to car drivers. This isn’t hyperbole, a lot of the time the perosn in the car will legitimately not see you or not be able to work out how far away and how fast you are going. It’s often not negligence, it’s to do with the way our stupid monkey brains process visual information. Basically, we see a series of small static pictures (saccades) and our brains put them together and “make up” the video portion. This is to stop your vision being constantly blury whenever you move your head. The problem is that small veicles can fall inbetween these pictures – an effect called saccadic masking – and the dumb monkey brain doesn’t put them back in when it’s making up the video.

Sorry mate. I didn’t see you!

You’re told to ride as if you’re invisible – you absolutely are. Do not, ever, assume that the driver has seen you. If a car pulls up to a junction assume they will pull out and ease off, ready to brake.

2 – Carying to much speed into a corner and panic braking as you’re going round. Your brain ells you to slow down, you’ve been taught to slow down with the front brake. But if you do that hwile oging round a corner the bike will stand back up and you’ll be heading into that fence on the outside of the bend. You’ll probably see it coming and not be able to take your eyes off it, but the bike will go where you look and now you’re going over the fence and into the field behind it.

If you need to scrub speed in a corner, keep your eyes where you want to be heading, ballance the front brake with the rear and apply more steering input. I would highly reccomend doing during a controlled corner when you don’t really need to, rather than waiting to try it for the first time in the situation above.

3 – Going way too fast for the road. It’s really easy to get yourself into 100mph+ speeds on a bike, but it’s also really easy to come out a corner and be doing 80mph before you even realise what you’re doing. The problem is, your stopping disance increases exponentially with speed. at 60mph you’re looking at about 50m stopping distance – at 80mph that’s over 90m. Yeah, bikes can stop quicker than cars, but you lose a lot of control when you do it.

Be aware of how long it will take you to stop if you need to. And practice stopping hard from speed. Industrial estates at the weekend are a great place to practice, giving you space and time to build up the speed and the braking force before you have to test it in front of an unexpected sheep in the middle of the road. You’ll find that when you really understand how long it takes to stop, you’ll be better at gauging the speed appropriate to the road.

Keep it sunny side up folks!

Yield: 72 servings; 6 large casseroles

Ingredients

• 15 pounds ground beef
• 2 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 2 (No. 10) cans drained kidney beans
• 2 (No. 10) cans tomato sauce
• 13 ounces taco seasoning mix
• 5 to 6 pounds shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
• 5 pounds tortilla chips, broken
• 3 pints sour cream

Instructions

1. Cook ground beef and onions until meat is browned and onions are tender; drain.
2. Stir in beans, tomato sauce, taco seasoning mix and 3/4 of the shredded cheese.
3. Sprinkle 3/4 of the corn chips in the bottom of six casserole dishes.
4. Cover with beef mixture.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Spread sour cream over chili; top with remaining chips and cheese.
7. Bake for 5 minutes longer.