Three friends, one Saturday, three messages. They are all about the same trip to the mountains — and every message chooses a different future.
Jasur, 9:14 p.m. "We are meeting at the bus station at six. The bus leaves at 6:20. I have three tickets in my pocket."
Dilnoza, 9:31 p.m. "OK. I am going to take the big bag — my mother is going to make food for four people, so we aren't going to be hungry on that hill."
Sherbek, 11:02 p.m. "I will come!!"
An hour before that message, Sherbek was not going on this trip at all. Three tickets, three friends, and he was not one of them.
At six in the morning he was at the station with a small bag and no ticket. "Don't worry," he said. "I will buy one on the bus."
The bus was full. There were no tickets left. The driver looked at him and pointed at the road.
"It is going to be a long day for you, boy."
At eleven o'clock the three friends walked to the top of the hill. Sherbek was already sitting there with bread and two bottles of water.
"How?"
"A man with a lorry was going to the next village," he said. "He stopped because I was standing in the road."
Three futures, three sentences: we are meeting (arranged), I am going to take (decided yesterday), I will come (decided in that second). English tells you not only WHAT happens tomorrow, but WHEN you decided it.