At 10:47 p.m., Professor Sonny Steele boards a nearly empty New York City subway train. He's fifty-three, exhausted, bitter, and convinced that the best years of his life are behind him.

Then a young woman sits across from him.

She's holding a copy of a book he wrote years ago. She knows his work better than most of his students. And she has questions about time travel that even he struggles to answer.

What begins as an argument about physics becomes something neither of them is prepared for.

Before she leaves, the stranger asks him to make one promise.

Twenty years from today. Exactly.

But what if the future has already happened? And what if the one thing you desperately want to change is the very thing that was always meant to be?

Twenty Years From Today is an original science-fiction short story by Raj Shankar, exploring time travel, regret, family, and the extraordinary power of a single conversation.

Every story ends with an impossible choice. What would you choose?

🎧 Listen now on Impossible Choices, a podcast featuring original short fiction by Raj Shankar.

📖 Want to read the story? Visit our website for the written version: www.threecatspress.com

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© 2026 Raj Shankar. All rights reserved. This story is an original copyrighted work by Raj Shankar. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or adaptation is prohibited.