{"id":3747,"date":"2023-08-16T16:34:44","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T20:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3747"},"modified":"2023-08-16T16:34:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T20:34:44","slug":"a-timely-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3747","title":{"rendered":"A Timely Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author&#8217;s note: This story was created from a Picture Prompt.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>A Timely Visit<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Picture-prompt-Steve-Jobs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3748\" src=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Picture-prompt-Steve-Jobs-300x260.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Picture-prompt-Steve-Jobs-300x260.jpg 300w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Picture-prompt-Steve-Jobs.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The year was 1959. Paul and Clara stood peering from the bedroom doorway of their Mountain View, California home at their five-year-old adopted son. Paul dressed in his formal attire and Clara in her floral print dress. They gazed lovingly at their son, lying there peacefully with his teddy bear by his side, smiling. The angle at which they were looking at him prevented either from seeing what he held in his hand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSweet dreams, Steven,\u201d they both said as they quietly closed the door.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The boy waited for a few minutes until he was sure they were gone and then opened his eyes and said, \u201cYou can come out now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a darkened corner of the room, a man stepped forward. He stood six feet tall and wore a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck, Levi blue jeans, and New Balance sneakers. He wore round rimless glasses and sported a short, neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He seemed out of place. But the boy was too young to notice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat did you think of the toy I gave you?\u201d was the older man\u2019s question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt was fun,\u201d young Steven replied. \u201cI got to take pictures of my teddy bear, and when I pressed on one of those things on the screen, I even heard some music. What is it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a special kind of telephone,\u201d said the stranger, \u201cAnd it can do so much more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHow does it work? Can I keep it and show my parents?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSorry,\u201d said the man, \u201cIt is something very special, but it is too soon to share it with others. I just wanted you to see it and think about what a wonderful thing it is. Maybe, you can even think of more things you might want it to do. Someday, when you are almost my age, you can build one yourself. And then you can share it with everyone in the whole wide world. What do you think of that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The boy thought about it and said, \u201cThat would be cool! Maybe I can even sell it and make a lot of money for Mom and Dad.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou\u2019ll make a lot of money for yourself also,\u201d said the stranger as he retrieved the phone from the young child. \u201cI have to go now. You probably won\u2019t remember me when I leave. You\u2019ll think of this as a dream. But don\u2019t ever forget what I showed you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The boy looked up at the stranger as he turned to leave, \u201cBut who are you? What\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy name is Steve. As to who I am, someday you\u2019ll know me as well as you know yourself. Sweet dreams, Little Steve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the boy\u2019s eyes began to close, the man in his dreams, if it was a dream, disappeared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author&#8217;s note: This story was created from a Picture Prompt. A Timely Visit The year was 1959. Paul and Clara stood peering from the bedroom doorway of their Mountain View, California home at their five-year-old adopted son. Paul dressed in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=3747\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[408,177],"class_list":["post-3747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-stories","category-story-writing","tag-picture-prompt","tag-writing-prompt"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3749,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747\/revisions\/3749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}