Primed by Prime Time

The perma-tanned TV chat show host grins having introduced a line-up of guests who need no introduction. He says they'd also hoped to talk to Simone Hernandez from Duluth, inventor of the first working time-travel machine, “But it turns out she's only eight years old!”

It's a joke. The name, a complete fabrication. The audience lap it up.

But, by sheer coincidence, sitting cross-legged in front of the television in Duluth is eight-year-old Simone Hernandez. Goggling at the screen, she considers. She's good at math and loves science fiction. He must mean her.

Her life's mission has just been set.