There is a large, old television sitting on a dark wooden cabinet. It is a classic CRT television, the kind that was heavy, deep, and took up half the room. It has two big black dials on the right side for volume and channels. On top of it sits a small, silver digital clock radio. That is perfectly correct for 2004. In 2004, we did not have flat-screen TVs on the wall. We had these monsters.
Under the television, the cabinet has two small doors with tiny round knobs. Nothing wrong there.
On the far right, on a small side table, there is a disposable coffee cup with a brown sleeve. This is our first small clue. Look at it very carefully. The cup is white with a brown cardboard holder around the middle. It looks exactly like a modern takeaway coffee cup from a chain cafe in 2024, 2025, or 2026. In 2004, takeaway coffee existed, of course, but it did not look quite like this. The design, the clean white paper, the modern sleeve, and especially the plastic lid style, feel too new, too clean, too 2020s for a faded 2004 living room. It is like someone from today walked into the past and left their coffee behind.
