This is the story of two people who are only able to live for one day every year. Every 24 hours, they are sent forward in time exactly 365 days. After finally getting used to this life, however, Mateo’s family and friends begin to systematically disappear, while no one else even remembers that they existed. It is up to him to find a way to bring them all back. This is the table of contents for volume 3. Click here to see the table of contents for 2015, and here for the table of contents for 2016. I run a new installment every single Sunday at 16:15 Central Time, so wait for that time and go crazy.
June 23, 2108
The first thing that Mateo’s once-mother, Aura Gardner wanted to do was start planning the wedding...
June 24, 2109
Mateo had his face buried in his hands. Literally everyone on the island was standing around in a jagged semicircle...The first thing that Mateo’s once-mother, Aura Gardner wanted to do was start planning the wedding...
June 24, 2109
June 25, 2110
June 26, 2111
They woke up at the break of dawn the next morning. He had the urge to gather everyone yet again to make sure Arcadia hadn’t lied about her plan. No, everyone was still here. Everyone, except for Baudin, of course...
June 27, 2112
Saying that Gilbert was Mateo’s favorite person in the world would be an overstatement, though he did care about him...
June 28, 2113
The good news was that Paige not only retained her memories of the missing Gilbert, but actually experienced a gain. The more she thought about him, especially on an emotional level, the clearer the flashbacks became for her...
April 30, 1945 (Reprise)
It was like looking at himself in the mirror. Except that there was no mirror, and he was literally looking at himself...
June 30, 2115
Things were awkwardly silent when Mateo was sent back to his own body in 2114. He found himself lying on the ground, the movement of the sun making it clear that time had passed while they were in the past...
July 1, 2116
A not insignificant part of Mateo thought that maybe the driving course in the middle of the jungle never existed, or would be taken away by the time he returned to the timeline...
July 2, 2117
Over the course of the last however long it had been, Mateo learned to ignore his timejumps. This allowed him to sleep through the night without freaking out...
July 3, 2118
Over the course of the next couple of hours, the first immortal remained motionless on the ground. Mateo felt bad about hoping he was dead, but was also sort of over that kind of guilt...
July 4, 2119
In the morning, Mateo threw the three remaining bottles of the water into his bag and headed out. This could be home, but he also had the instinct to explore the rest of the island...
July 5, 2120
Ambrosios was so freaked out about not being able to kill Mateo, and steal his blood, that he was frozen...
July 6, 2121
When Leona Reaver was thirty years old, she was senselessly killed in a car accident. Her husband, Horace, flew into a fit of rage, and killed a great many people. It hadn’t been his first time, but it was the first time it had had consequences...
July 7, 2122
Last year, Leona and Horace tried to work out their problems between each other, but they weren’t able to get very much done. Neither one of them wanted to do this, and it was just too weird and stressful...
2121 – 2123
Just before hitting the water in 2121, the scene changed, and Mateo Matic found himself in the middle of a city. He was just standing there on the sidewalk, as if he had been there for the last few minutes...
July 9, 2124
Leona sat up in hers and Mateo’s bed in the morning of July 9, 2124. She hadn’t seen him for days, but she had always known that he was all right. Well, perhaps all right wasn’t the right term to use. Alive was just about as far as she could take it, but that was enough for them, because they couldn’t really ask for more with lives like these. At present, he was like a rock, completely unmoving, and barely breathing. She even checked his pulse a few times to make sure he really was still alive...
July 10, 2125
Mateo jolted and fell out of bed upon the sound of screaming. He tried to stand up, but his legs were so weak that he just ended up doing the wobbly...wobbly walk...
July 11, 2126
About a week and a half after Mateo and Leona left the timestream, most of Vearden’s injuries showed few signs of improvement...
July 12, 2127
Little Brooke started crying. She had been left alone for the last several hours. Fortunately, some of that was while she was asleep, but once awake, she realized that she was alone...
July 13, 2128
Mateo and Juan did not immediately go to Florida. They first traveled back through the teleporter pool, and onto the Tribulation Island...
July 14, 2129
Juan Ponce de León—the presence of which Mateo would probably never get over, and certainly Leona wouldn’t—carefully woke Mateo up on the fourteenth day of July in the year 2129...
July 15, 2130
The first thing that Mateo did when he woke up in 2130 was take inventory. He didn’t need to know how much fish they had in their tarp aquarium, or how long their alien coconuts would last before they climb for more. No, he needed to know who was left on the island...
July 15, 2130 (continued)
“Who were those two?” Mateo asked Arcadia.
“Kayetan’s friends. Or rather they were once friends.”
“Will he help us?”
“Not likely.”
“So you’re saying maybe...
July 17, 2132
At the moment, it seemed to be nearing the noon hour of 2132, and the three captives had yet to see any sign of their jailers. All they had to look at were their cell bars, and a cave wall...
July 18, 2133
After the Easter Island ordeal, Arcadia and Mario ferried everyone back to Tribulation Island, stopping in Old Kansas City first to retrieve Aura...
July 19, 2134
The rest of the gang had not been brought back yet when Mateo and Leona returned to the timestream. The first thing they saw was a bearded and disheveled Darko jump out of the bushes and try to attack them...
July 20, 2135
Sometime in the interim year, Darko and Marcy had grown closer, and formed a solid romantic relationship. To everyone else, this seemed perfectly normal, and though Mateo and Leona knew they had been gone for that year, it still seemed far too fast for them...
July 21, 2136
Dar’cy Matigaris was born on February 14, 2136. As it turned out, her mother was already pregnant the last time Mateo and Leona were in the timestream...
July 22, 2137
There were only seven of them now. Well...eight, if you counted Dar’cy, but she was only sixteen months old. Marcy didn’t necessarily count since she wasn’t part of the original group, and her expiation was already complete...
July 23, 2138
Last year, Arcadia warned Mateo and Leona that they would be better off getting all their sleep in that evening, because the expiation would start immediately...
July 24, 2139
“Leona,” Mateo said, “this is Serif.”
“Oh?” she asked, like a mother to a child who’s just brought home that new friend she can tell will be a bad influence...
July 26, 2140
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July 26, 2141
“Well, I didn’t want to go with the obvious reference and tell you to run from the creepy walking mannequins,” Vearden began as he was leading them into something he called The Gauntlet, “but as you can see...” He presented his surroundings with his arms spread wide. “...it really is..bigger on the inside.”...
July 27, 2142
Serif was going to have to spend the entire day resting in the privacy hut, while the others were charged with getting a start on Aura’s expiation...
July 28, 2143
While most people left on the island had had an entire year to recover from the craziness that was their pre-wedding celebration, Mateo, Leona, and Serif had none...
July 29, 2144
Come morning, Mateo and Leona met with a woman named The Officiant. She operated at a level of law that goes beyond humanity, and real time...
July 30, 1818
Everyone was all smiles at breakfast when they awoke in 2145. The only person not smiling was Mario Matic, who no longer existed...
Circa 1921
It was blistering cold once Arcadia apported them through time, to a new date, theoretically in the past. The group huddled together and looked around, seeing only snow, clouds, and the hint of civilization a ways away...
April 8, 2024
Things looked quite familiar after Arcadia apported them back to Earth in the past. She sent them off rather late in the day, for a reason they did not yet know...
August 2, 2148
No one was torn out of time come August 2, 2148. During breakfast, Mateo kept doing a headcount, making sure that he wasn’t crazy...
August 3, 2149
Mateo National Park wasn’t the only thing named after him, but it was the largest, and it alone was too much. He didn’t love that they had done that, but he could see why they would feel the need to...
August 4, 2150
Fancy Dardieti doctors were able to fix Mateo’s fist up in no time, completely removing the pain within minutes, and healing the bones within hours...
August 5, 2151
Real!Mateo, the one that belonged to this reality—even though technically no Mateo belonged here—didn’t have to spend much time with his alternate self in 2150...
August 6, 2152
Arcadia forced them to stay in the constructed reality, as she called it, for the rest of the day. Though her plans had already been foiled by Dar’cy’s heroic sacrifice, Arcadia didn’t want to risk making things worse by opening the dimensional doorway until she absolutely had to...
August 7, 2153
At the moment, Mateo was sitting on the floor, up against the wall. Lincoln, Kivi, and Darko were there too, along with The Weaver, and Porter...
August 8, 2154
When Mateo went to bed last night, Lincoln and The Weaver had not yet returned from finishing the LIR Map...
August 9, 2155
Before the strike of midnight central, Mateo helped Lincoln escort Zeferino down to the dungeon, and install him in the cell he would have to call home for the next year. He didn’t seem too bothered by this. After thousands of years of living, a single year being trapped in one room probably wasn’t that big of a deal...
August 10, 2156
There was no green car in the garage, just a Taurus that looked eerily familiar. Mateo and Lincoln called back upstairs to tell this to the Gaius, The Superintendent. “Oh, that’s right. I’ve not gotten it back yet. Must be a sign. We’re all better off with you staying here...
August 11, 2157
Lincoln and Darko were still standing in about the same places they were the previous year when Mateo returned to the timestream...
August 12, 2158
There was nothing special about the twelfth day in August of the year 2158. That it was Mateo’s last in existence did not matter much to the universe. When most people die, the worlds keep spinning, despite what others may feel about it...
August 13, 2159
Leona woke up next to Serif feeling rested and renewed. Today was the day, they were finally going back to Earth. There were a few people on the island yesterday who could have taken them, but that was a whole year ago...
August 14, 2160
After a quick check-up for Lincoln in the hospital, which proved he was in perfect health, the team booked passage on an interplanetary ferry to Earth...
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