When Joan, Randy, and Jennifer decided to go scuba diving that day, they never thought they'd find Michigan. There it was, just sitting there at the bottom of Lake Michigansea. They had known that at one point, there were five Great Lakes and an entire region up here, but these ruins seemed to be the first proof that anything existed in the area surrounding Detroit, an ancient city that produced primitive transportation devices called "automobiles". In fact, there were such automobiles in most driveways in the Michigan village.
Upon swimming through the front entrance, nothing remained except some ancient coins and remnants of tiling. Jennifer pointed excitedly to the room on their right, where they found not one, but TWO computers! And two telephones! And an antique filing cabinet! And plastic bags from a place called "Meijer's"! Randy thought that the second floor would be even more interesting.
It was! On the room to their left, they found the springs and bed posts of an old spring matress. Some fabric still remained, but much of it had decayed. The bathroom had an actual porcelain toilet, various hair product containers believing to have dated back to the 21st century, and a scale, an indication of the weight-obsessed culture that dominated the end of the second millenium A.D.
Joan let Randy and Jen explore the largest room while she examined the smaller room on the other side of the house and to the left. One bookshelf appeared to have once held many books that have now rotted. Another one stored magazines, which were protected by their glossy coating. She pulled out one and discovered that it was a "Seventeen" dating back to October 2005. She would have gasped, had she been above water. She has heard of this "MTV" but has no clue who "Kristen" is or what "Laguna Beach" is. She decides to leave the rest of the magazines in their place and simply photographs them. They'll bring a whole team out here next time so as not to damage anything.
Underneath lay some artifacts from ancient Australia, including a boomerang, a mauled container of Vegemite, and a photograph of smiling youth in ancient Sydney. How did these artifacts end up 5,000 miles away?
Remnants of leopard-print wallpaper clung to the wall. On this wall she noted an ancient poster, apparently depicting the cover of the "Rolling Stone" publication. "Green Day: How the Brats Grew Up, Bashed Bush, and Conquered the World." Wow, they conquered the world? They must have been extrememly powerful. And what is this "Bush" and why did they want to beat it up? She has heard both names tossed around; it is believed Bush was a corrupt leader of ancient America. Green Day was a political group, considered quite liberal at the time, who expressed their views through song.
Under the metal framing that probably once supported a coffee table, she found some aluminum disks, some leathery material, a digital clock, and a metal frame holding an incandescent lightbulb. The disks were similar to what they had found at other sites. These are the "compact discs" that played something of great importance and sold millions of copies according to what is left of records from 10,000 years ago. On them are cryptic messages, such as "The All-American Rejects Move Along" "Franz Ferdinand" "HIM Dark Light" "My Chemical Romance Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" "Green Day American Idiot" (the occupant must have been a member of this political group) " and "weezer make believe". The glossy covers have those same cryptic messages on the front, as well as more detailed ones on other pages. Why did these disks have such significance to the ancients? Is it merely music, as some of her colleagues believe? Or were they brainwashing devices, an early form of mind control? Did the ancients believe these disks would bring them special powers?
One wall had a mirror and a dresser. Under the mirror she found makeup, strange devices believed to have helped take care of fingernails, jewelry, and candles. In the dresser drawers there were only fragments of clothing left. Next to the dresser were the remnants of a bookshelf/desk. On it were ancient copies of the famed Harry Potter books. These things were worth a fortune, even if you couldn't read the words inside! In the drawers, there were various objects ranging from ancient writing mechanisms to spectacles to a toothbrush to staples. Joan had no idea the primitive Americans were so advanced. She couldn't wait to get back here again. She returned to Randy and Jen. When they surfaced, she told them what she had seen.
"Wow!" They said in unison when she was finished.
"You don't seriously think anybody will believe us, though, do you Joan?" Randy said. "I mean, they don't think anybody lived down here ever."
"Well then we're going to have to drag them down and prove them wrong." Jen declared.
