In Search of Ponce de Leon

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: Story must be about a someone that travels through time.

In Search of Ponce De Leon

“What do you mean my credit crystal has been turned down?” Seth asked, trying not to shriek as panic and disappointment fought for space in his frontal lobe.

He had been paying down his crystal for months so that he would have enough room under the limit to rent a replicator he could take with him on his discreet foray. Seth had been planning this for months; setting up the fake excuse for being out of town and reviewing hours of time-footage so that he would be in just the right place at just the right time.

It wasn’t cheating. She was his wife no matter what the date on the calendar said. It was just that she was starting to show a little wear and tear. It wasn’t her fault. Who lived to be a hundred without a few lines here and there; maybe a few extra pounds to boot? The simple fact was she no longer tapped his libido the way she did when she was a young philly of seventy.

A quick time-jump with the replicator and he could make a copy of his wife from a more pristine era. No, it wasn’t cheating. He would just have two of the same person.

But something had gone wrong. His crystal was charged to the limit. How could that have happened? Only he and his wife had access to the account. That’s it! he thought. She must have gone out and bought that new purse she had her eye on.

I’ll give her what-for, he thought as he burst into the house.

Confusion filled the room as his wife screamed and a youngish looking version of himself rolled off of her and ran into the bathroom. Seth walked over to the nightstand and saw the replicator rental receipt.

Word count 300