The present as the characters reveal it. The future the writer has plotted out. The future as a function of how the characters respond to the present. The future as reconstructed by characters' reactions. These subtleties are a tightrope that you as a writer walk all the time without necessarily being aware of it.
Some authors deal with it instinctively, others mechanically.
These layers are the threads of that elusive sense of total immersion we all shoot for and admire. It is a conceptual symmetry between the reader's suspension of disbelief, the character's relating of the tale, and the spell of imagination that you as a writer are casting. A watchful eye toward balancing these levels of indirection contributes to a sense of a living, breathing world populated with characters we love and hate. Imagine yourself sitting next to the fire, pen in hand, while the protagonist spills out everything that has happened to him. Some writers actually write their material this way.