You know I’m spending a lot of time writing now, yes?

My current novel, I’ve got a scenario that I’m not sure about, and wondered if anybody had any ideas?

Two people, one in the past, the other in the present. You can imagine, I hope, that the one in the present could do all sorts that might help the one in the past. Pass information, for example. “Buy shares in NVidia” would be a good piece of advice at the moment. Or possibly, “get the **** out of Iran”. Or the USA, come to that.

But I want to twist this. What could the person in the past give to the person in the present? What’s a good thing that existed in the past but which maybe doesn’t excist now?

The motivation would be benevolence. So they wouldn’t want to pass anything nasty. I’m currently thinking that it’s a grandparent/grandchild link, so they’d want the best for each other.

So the timescales are roughly two generation’s difference. So, “present” is around now, “past” maybe 1970 – 1990. Ish. Doesn’t need to be exact.

Also, we can assume that both of these people are inordinately wealthy. So something like “past” secreting a van Gogh somewhere for “present” to find wouldn’t work. “Present” is already rich.

One of my thoughts was if “past” hides a De Lorean somewhere, only I think that’s already been done 🤣.

But seriously, another thought is maybe something that could be used as a weapon – a weapon sent from the past could be pretty untraceable in the present, or maybe could be obtained then but not now. Does anybody remember paraquat, once sold over the counter here as a weedkiller, if I recall? I’m really not keen on introducing weapons into the story, but it’s a thought.

Possibly my best thought is some kind of heirloom. Because that’s the one thing from the past that we’d find most valuable, surely? Especially something from a grandparent. But I fear that doesn’t make for a very interesting story.

Anybody have any other ideas? Thanks.