Over the next few days, Johnny Boy pretty much moved in with us. I told my parents he was a friend from school who was having some trouble at home and just needed a place to spend a few days. I think they were too stunned by my use of the word "friend" to ask many questions, and we were essentially left on our own. We spent a lot of time in my room with the music on loud enough to muffle our conversation.

It was during these few days that I learned most of what I undestand about the future and how I figured into it.

The way he explained it was that even though he might be more closely related to my as-yet-unfathomed children and grandchildren, that closeness was only in the dimension of time. 

"Time," he told me, "is actually the most elastic of all dimensions. It's changeable, easy to manipulate. Or, at least it will be from your standpoint. It's not nearly as steady as your world thinks it to be."

He went on to explain that, although the Y chromosome in me and all my male descendants would remain virtually indistinguishable and unchanged, that DNA wasn't the true crux of the bloodline.

"It has to do more with quantum mechanics," he said. "The way the individual atoms that make up our DNA interact. The best way to describe it would be like the ebb and flow of a tide."

Our DNA, Johnny Boy's and mine, were like mirror images, he said.  While mine ebbed, his flowed. We were as interconnected as the moon and the oceans. We pulled on each other. That's why, he said, when I touched him, I was virtually invisible to the TBA guys.

"It's like they can't tell where I end and you begin," he said, "the markers they're looking at sort of mesh." 

And it was this aspect of bloodline that Johnny Boy had stumbled on back in his time. It was information, he noted, that he was not supposed to know, much less understand.

"They're mapping this out for the entire population," he told me. "Do you understand the power in this? It makes deciphering the human genome look like a mud pie!"

I was beginning to figure it out.

"So what do we do?" I asked, for what felt like the hundredth time. "How do we keep these goons from zapping me..us...out of existence? I mean, you're a nice guy and all, Johnny, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life holding hands with you."

He laughed at that. But I wasn't trying to be funny.

"I told you I have a plan," he said. "And I think it will work."

"You think?" I didn't like the sound of that.

"Well, I've been right so far," he said, doing a bad imitation of sounding convincing. I mean, my life was on the line here! Yeah, I know, his too. 

"What we need to do," he continued, "sever the connection between us."

"Excuse me?" I said, "but I thought we were talking about atoms, here. Ebb and flow. Quarks and particles. How exactly do we do this thing?"

"Simple." he said. "All we have to do create a link between us. A perfect combination that is equally connected to you and to me. A brand new connection."

"Excuse me, again," I said. "But what the hell are you talking about?  it sounds like you want me to have your love-child!"

He laughed again.

"I prefer to think of it more as a missing link. But, if  love-child works, for you. How far has cloning come in this century?"