Wonder of wonders! William was cleaning out the attic when he found an old genie lamp. William rubbed it and out steamed a genie via the spout. William couldn’t believe his luck. To begin with, he’d always thought the story of the genie granting three wishes was a load of bunkum.
“Not so!” said the genie. “But unfortunately, two of the wishes have already been used.”
“First there was Paula. She wanted to visit the Late Cretaceous Period and pick up a Futalongkosaurus’s egg for her eleven year-old dinosaur-loving son. Unfortunately, when she set out, she forgot to take the lamp with her and couldn’t return.”
“Then there was Mervyn. Mervyn wanted to experience a hot and steamy threesome. He died of a massive coronary a few minutes into the action.”
“And now there’s you!” said the genie. “What is your wish?”
“I wish,” said William, “to see the world as it will be in five hundred years.”
“Very well,” said the genie. “Good choice.”
William looked. The future was black and empty. There was nothing there. Not even a desolate landscape.