Microstory 1209: Mireille Travert

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Mireille Travert was a loving and protective individual. When she was a little girl, she would treat her dolls like her children. She would change their clothes, and pretend to feed them, and place the eldest in charge while she was gone, which was a pink dog. When her little brother was born, she took care of him too, and not just for pretend, but for real. She was like a second mother to him, and he would grow up to realize that he needed the extra attention. When she was eleven years old, her parents finally felt that she was mature enough to babysit other people’s children; a sentiment that her customers would come to share. She developed a very good reputation around the neighborhood, and was soon in very high demand. Business grew to be so good that she was no longer able to keep all of her clients happy, so she needed to find a way to expand without adding extra minutes to the day, or cloning herself. Of course, the only solution was to recruit other teenagers, and form what some might call a club. She couldn’t just ask her friends, and casually delegate jobs to them. If she wanted to maintain her credibility, her associates had to be as good as she was, so she didn’t let any of them work alone until she felt they were ready. She actually developed an apprentice curriculum that any candidate would have to pass before they could take jobs on their own. The group grew so big that the people she once trained became good enough to train others, so they could expand even more. Well, there were a few legal issues with this business; mostly that it was getting to be a real business, and there were tax issues with that. She argued that she wasn’t taking a cut of other babysitter’s pay, so it couldn’t be considered a childcare service. The authorities didn’t see it that way, and suddenly she had all this legal paperwork to fill out. Because of this, she never ended up going to college, because it would have been a waste of time and money. If she wanted to study, she could do so when she was out on a job with kids that weren’t too high maintenance. Though, to be fair, she rarely took such jobs, because they were better suited for newer recruits, which she was now calling employees.

She was first exposed to the world of time travelers when she was eighteen years old because of a client. Horace Reaver had the ability to predict the outcome of sports competitions and lotteries, so he was quite wealthy, and was able to procure Mireille’s services personally, even though his daughter was old enough to take care of herself. She always assumed he more so wanted Paige to have a friend than a babysitter, but the money was real good, so she didn’t vocalize her concerns. While Paige and some other family friends were off having an adventure, Mireille was placed in charge of a young girl she would eventually learn was her cousin, from the future. She didn’t want to be part of any of this, but because of her involvement, she was now on the radar of the powers that be, who just so happened to need someone with her particular skills. For reasons most people don’t understand, the powers don’t ever let the parents of choosing ones care for their young past the age of three, if those parents are aware of time travel. If they’re ignorant, they still may not be allowed to keep their kids, though, so that isn’t a very strong rule. Again, it’s unclear why this must be the case, but because of it, the children have to go somewhere. The PTB chose Mireille to be the resident daycare provider; to raise these children until they were old enough to go off on their own. She was a terrific caregiver, so it was a fitting assignment. The problem was that she wasn’t salmon, and without undergoing some changes, time travel could have serious negative medical effects on her. The powers that be didn’t give up, though. They sent her to a chooser named Dr. Mallory Hammer, who was working on a way to allow a human to experience nonlinear time without suffering from its side effects, through a new type of temporal therapy. Fortunately for Mireille, Mallory refused this procedure, for she had a strict code of ethics that she broke for no one. Mireille had no intention of supporting these people’s needs either, so she was grateful to have an ally. As far as anyone knows, Mireille is the only person in history to outright refuse the demands of the powers that be, which effectively lessened their power and influence. She moved on with her life after that, and though no one could have called it normal, she did get to experience it doing what she loved; caring for children.