The Red Firefly Synopsis

Bill begins his Saturday morning as usual, when a small explosion and a man in a Hawaiian shirt suddenly appear in his closet. This stranger (Joe) insists they are best friend and has traveled back in time three years to carry out a master plan created by Bill in the future.

Bill agrees to help the man gather provisions needed for the scheme. While gathering items, they stop at a pawnshop where Joe pays off the loan on a large ruby ring, which is a family heirloom belonging to a friend. He knows the pawnshop will burn down later that night and the ring would never be seen again.

From the time spent together, Bill realizes this man knows too much about his personal life to be a random stranger. They run into other friends who also do not know the Hawaiian shirted stranger and Joe observes their lives without his influence to find they are all better off without him except for Bill who is missing a special piece of his life and his heritage.

To prove they are best friends, Joe takes Bill to a fishing spot on the Pine River outside of town. He explains this to be the spot where Bill's Grandpa George caught a state record trout on the day Bill was born. Bill recognizes the spot from an old photograph of his grandfather. Joe also explains that Grandpa George had a special red fly pattern he tied that should have been passed down through the generations. However, Bill's grandfather and father died when he was a baby and he never learned how to fish or had ever seen this red fly.

After spending the morning with Joe, Bill agrees to help him with this master plan. In exchange, Joe offers to help Bill get back the missing piece of his heritage.
He explains how in the future they come to possess a discarded government surplus time machine. After reading a book (The Senator's Deal) about a Senator's botched assassin-for-hire plot three years in the past, Bill (in the future) developed a plan to recover a missing briefcase filled with a million dollars. They enlist the help of Bill's wife Cindy who thinks Joe is a con artist.

She tries to get the mystery man to confess as to what he is really trying to do. After a search of his gym bag she finds, a book (The Senator's Deal) with a published date in the future, along with a picture of Joe at a table in a bar with Bill and Cindy. There's another woman (Mary) in the picture that she has never seen before.

During an exchange of conversations and stories of adventure (from the future) Joe shares about the Bill and Cindy, they hear about a life they wish could have been.
Cindy realizes that Joe has some kind of alternate motive. He confirms her suspicions but will not disclose his actual agenda.

The master plan leads them to a bar on the edge of town. Joe describes the events of the night, before they happen. Even though all of his stories of past events involve drinking beer, he only drinks water at the bar. When a biker near the front door leaves, that’s their signal to execute the plan.

Hiding in some bushes, they watch the Senator hand the briefcase full of money to the biker. The police break in after Joe grabs the case and a chase ensues. They find the briefcase never contained any money, elude the police and wind up back in town at sunrise.

Joe explains that he didn't really come back for the money; he only wanted to save the life of the mysterious woman in the picture (Mary). On that same night three years in his past, he drank too much, wrecked his car and killed Mary his fiancée. As they walk through the park Mary passes by and says hello. Joe is then transported back to his time period.

Now back in the present, Joe once again finds the world not as he remembered. Bill and Cindy are his friends, but most everyone he encounters is angry with him including the host of a local children's show (Captain Andy) who tries to kill him. Mary is alive only now she is pregnant with his baby and has a deep hatred for Joe whose memory is fading.

Bill now has a new master plan to help his friend get his life back to the point where it should be at this time. It must all happen before Bill's birthday, which is tomorrow.

He takes Joe and Mary, along with his wife Cindy who is also pregnant, to the top of a mountain to be married by an Indian Chief. Mary, who takes every opportunity she can to physically hurt Joe, thinks the time travel story is just a foolish attempt to evade a commitment to her.

Trying to put an end to the marriage talk, she makes a deal with him. If he can produce an engagement ring within one minute that is so wonderful it'll make her cry, she'll marry him.

Joe pulls out of his pocket her grandmother's ruby ring that he rescued from the pawnshop. She cries at the sight of the ring when she realizes all the stories were true. They are married at the top of the mountain right before Mary and Cindy go into labor.

While holding their newborn sons, Bill explains to Joe how the time machine can only be activated for one more trip that he will use on his birthday. After considering all the possible places in time he could visit, Bill decides to get back that piece of his heritage that Joe said belonged to him.

The story ends with Bill standing in the Pine River receiving fly fishing pointers from an old man named George who shows him a special pattern that he tied. He holds up the fly that he calls a Red Firefly.

If you would like to read the first three chapters of The red Firefly, send me an email to: mgwallace64@gmail.com