The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 7, 2031

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Aura (formerly known as Lauren) Gardner dove across the car and tackled her son. “Matty!”

He hugged her tightly back.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t want to leave you. I didn’t have a choice. They took me. They took me away from  you, and I’ve been trying to get back ever since. I never thought I would, but I guess they’re done with me. I’m here. You’re here. Everything is going to be fine.” She backed up a bit. “Let me get a look at you. My, it’s been, what? Fifteen years, maybe twenty? Oh, you have so much to tell me, I’m sure. But first, I need to explain where I’ve been.”

“I know where you’ve been,” Mateo admitted.

“How would you know that? Did you find Edward’s records?”

“Better,” Theo jumped in. “He found Edward. I go by Theo now.”

Aura stared at Theo like he was a ghost and fell back to her seat.

“You were reincarnated too?” the other man asked.

“Indeed...what name has been chosen for you this time?”

“Samsonite,” the man said. “Aura and I felt our new assignments before we left. That’s how we knew that we were jumping soon. But we figured we would land in the eleventh century. What year is this?”

They exchanged as much information as possible, but there wasn’t nearly enough time. Mateo thought that all five of them would be sent to the future, based on what Danica had said about them being a whole party.

Unfortunately, Mateo was wrong. Midnight came and sent both Mateo and Leona to April 7, 2031. They were alone in the clearing. They waited for signs of life but nothing came. They remained there alone for a half hour, hoping to see Leona’s brother, Mateo’s mother, and her significant other. “Leona. We should call them. Danica gave us those phones, remember?”

“I have the phones,” Leona replied in a huff. “I have all of the phones. I forgot to pass them out.”

“Okay,” Mateo said gently. “That’s okay. We’ll find them.”

“Where?” Leona asked angrily. “We’re in the middle of nowhere Canada! Your mother was only familiar with this area back in God-knows-when. Other than that, we have no connection to this town. We don’t know anyone, and we don’t have money! It’s pretty cold here for April, so that’s not great! Our only chance is to get back to Kansas, wishin’ and hopin’ that your family thinks to check there every year, just in case, but that’s practically impossible!”

“Give me one of the phones.”

“I told you. I have all of them. There’s no one to call!”

“Would you just trust me?” She was not happy, but handed one of the phones over anyway. While she walked away to kick the dirt around, Mateo discovered that they had access to the present-day internet. It was a little tough to navigate. Not only was the phone probably from deep in the future, but the internet had changed in the last 17 years. “I found it. Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a hotel not twenty minutes from here by foot.”

“Do you remember me telling you the part about not having any money?”

“At the very least, we can get out of the cold. Hopefully we can work something out. If not, we’ll figure something else out.”

“Great plan, Mateo.”

“If we don’t try something, we’re going to die out here.”

The moonlight was hardly enough to see her face, but she was very obviously fuming. “Good point.” She began to walk away. “What are you waiting for?”

“It’s this way,” Mateo told her.

“Well why didn’t you say that?”

They walked out of the field, along some kind of body of water, past the high school, and through town. They ran a little bit of the way, not only to warm up, but because they were in a hurry to find a way out of their predicament. As soon as they walked into the inn, the man at the counter greeted them. “Welcome to Canada. Here is your itinerary.”

“Pardon?” Mateo asked, slightly out of breath.

“The jet leaves in one hour. A car is being brought around to automatically drive you to the base. From there, a state of the art aircraft will take you all the way to your final destination in San Diego. Shouldn’t take more than two hours.”

Leona took the itinerary. “What’s in San Diego?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have that information. But Mr. Reaver personally came out to ensure that you were taken care of. He said that you would be able to find the rest of your party there.”

Mateo looked up from the packet. “Our family must be down there. But why?”

“Let’s go outside,” Leona suggested.

“Wait, I have a few more questions.”

“Mateo. Outside. Now,” she insisted. She turned to the innkeeper. “Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Reaver will be very pleased with your service.” The innkeeper smiled as they walked out. Once they were out of earshot, Leona pulled him to the side. “We cannot get on that jet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t find this a little weird?”

“Nothing in my life has been normal for the last couple of weeks...decades.”

“Do you recognize the name Reaver?”

“I’ve heard it before. I can’t place it. We know him?”

“His company is the one who bought up the warehouse district where we had our surgeries. He’s been under a lot of suspicion. The authorities haven’t been able to find any evidence, but his business practices are shady at best. He’s responsible for a lot of unemployment, gentrification, and even a standard increase in the business day. He’s basically the anti-Google, and he’s just as powerful, if not more.”

“Why the hell would a guy like that have anything to do with us?” He started to look up Reaver Enterprises on his phone. “Theo is a pretty interesting kid, but I have a hard time believing he’s already networked this much. He’s not yet a teen—oh my God,” he interrupted himself

“What is it?”

He was looking at a picture of Horace Reaver. “This is him. This is the guy who tried to kill me when I jumped to the future.”

“He’s a salmon. That actually makes sense. It explains how he’s advanced technology so much.”

“What are we going to do? He probably has our family. We have to get them back, but you’re right, we cannot get on that jet.”

“This packet has the address of where we’re supposed to go once in San Diego. We have to find a way to get there on our own.” A car pulled up in front of them. The door opened, revealing the inside to be empty. “Run,” Leona ordered.

As they ran away from the inn, Leona looked through her phone for the nearest airport. The directions said that it was going to take almost an hour to walk to Lake Vernon, but they were able to wade through a stream and cross a highway to cut that down. They were exhausted when they arrived. Just as they were deciding whether they should try and figure out how to steal a plane, a woman approached them on the dock. “Can I help you?”

They froze, unsure of what they should say. They had already established that they had no money, but they also had no other form of compensation. They didn’t have a fancy watch to sell, or any special skills to trade. No one in their right mind would help two freaky people looking for a trip to San Diego at two in the morning. They say that honesty is the best policy, but Mateo decided to fudge the truth a little. “An evil business magnate kidnapped our family and is holding them hostage in San Diego. He says only he can get us there in time before he kills them at midnight since he stole our passports. We were going to steal your plane, because we’re desperate.”

“Are you talking about Horace Reaver?”

“We are,” Leona answered.

“Get in,” the woman said. “My brother died of cancer after working for Evil Enterprises.”

They got lucky. True to her word the woman, who refused to exchange names, flew them all the way to California. They were there many hours later than Reaver would have expected them, which could either be very good because he would have no idea where they were, or very bad because he may have decided to kill their family. The woman couldn’t be any more involved than she already was, so she immediately started getting ready to leave after dropping them off on Lower Otay Lake, having not filed a flight plan. The last thing she did was give Leona a few hundred dollars and a gun, saying that they might need it. Leona later said that it seemed very un-Canadian of her.

Mateo and Leona made their way towards the address written at the end of the packet, hoping that it wasn’t a diversion. It took quite a long time to get across town, especially since they were not quite in San Diego from the start. They had to find a cab that was not only driven by a human, but who would also accept Canadian bills. He appeared to be sympathetic to their troubles after they mentioned Reaver again. It would appear that everyone hated him, but no one was capable of defeating him. Mateo couldn’t help but feel like doing just that was exactly the reason he was turned into a time traveler, despite the Delegator’s claim that he had no official job.

They found Aura, Samsonite, and little Theo chained up in the middle of an abandoned warehouse, drained of energy and literally starving. They weren’t even under guard. After getting some food and freshening up, they posited that Reaver was only ever interested in killing Mateo and Leona, and that the jet was engineered to blow up or crash. The only reason he was keeping the other three hostage was so that they wouldn’t be able to make contact. Why he bothered giving them the address was the only thing that truly could not be explained.

Mateo wanted to finally catch up with his long-lost mother, but he fell asleep while they were talking. By the time he woke up next to Leona in the motel bed, it was noon of the following year.

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Crossed Off: Locked In (Part I)

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Very few people were aware of Starla Wakefield’s ability to possess the bodies of other people. She first discovered her gift at a very early age, but instinctively knew that she had to keep quiet about it. The first person to find out about it was her best friend, Alec who was also the first person with whom she switched bodies. He was a couple years older, and was always there to help her with homework and bullies. While she was freaking out about being in the body of another person, he seemed pretty happy about it. He liked to watch movies about superheroes, and saw this as a chance to live one out in real life. He insisted that she would one day grow up and become a superhero herself, and that he would be her sidekick.
Together, they learned how to use her skills both accurately and responsibly. They discovered that she was capable of switching places with anyone in the entire world. She could also possess them without allowing them access to her body; she could see through their eyes while they remained in control, so that they were completely unaware that anything was different; and she could share a body with the owner. After some research in the library, Alec decided to nickname her Avatar, based on the idea that she could cross over from her place to another. Over the years, she collected seven other confidants from around the world, mostly accidentally while testing her limits. She spent her time learning about other cultures, and going on instant vacations. Her favorite switch, however, was in the body of a retired conservationist who spent his days interacting with the feral horses of Cumberland Island, which was only a few miles away.

Soon after Alec headed off for college, Starla began to show unusual symptoms that were almost certainly the result of her ability. She started losing control of her own motor functions. At first, her limbs slouched for minutes at a time, but she was eventually able to regain control. But things were getting worse. The doctors had no clue what was happening with her. After all, how could they? They tested for a stroke, multiple sclerosis, and ALS, among a few other things. Despite showing a number of common symptoms, the neurological degeneration simply was not there. Her brain was sending signals throughout her body, but they were somehow blank messages. There was some kind of loss in translation during transit that current medical technology could not explain.

After several months, Starla found herself forced to remain in a wheelchair. For the most part, she had retained control of her upper body, but her legs didn’t move at all. Every second she was left alone she took the opportunity to take over the body of someone somewhere else who happened to be asleep at the time. That was the only time she had when she could move around freely. She felt bad that these people would wake up the next morning feeling fully unrested, but she had given in to the dark side of her personality. Her worldwide confidants offered to give her temporary control of their bodies, but she felt even worse about that since she knew them.

Starla couldn’t move all of her body but, unlike a paraplegic, she could still feel everything. Sitting in the chair all day was extremely uncomfortable. One day, when she was visiting Alec in his dorm room, his lovely roommate, Kathleen let herself be late for class so that she could lift Starla into the bed. Once she left, they were able to talk freely. “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I’m going to die.”

“Don’t say that. This doesn’t have to end like that, or even be permanent. But you have to stop what you’re doing. I have a theory that the body cannot exist too long without the mind. Switching consciousnesses is probably okay, but if you leave the brain without any purpose, then I imagine it starts to decay.”

“I don’t mean that this is going to kill me. That’s the problem. It’s probably not. I’m going to be stuck like this forever, and my only chance would be to possess some poor schmuck permanently. I know myself, Alec. Without you, I would have abused this in so many ways.”

“I do not agree.”

“Well, you would be wrong. You said it yourself, I need to stop taking over sleeping people’s bodies. I can’t help myself. It’s far too tempting. The only way out of this is to take myself out of the equation.”

“And how exactly would you do that,” Alec asked. “Sorry to be blunt, but you can barely lift a toothpick. How would you lift a gun, or a knife, or even a bottle of pills?”

Fortunately, Starla could still shrug, so she shrugged. “I could make someone else do it for me, literally.”

He nodded, pretending to see her point. “And what if you die while still in this person’s body? Hmm? What if you get stuck there? What if the only reason you can switch bodies is because this body is still a valid origin? Maybe you wouldn’t be taking yourself out of the equation; you would just be killing the one thing that keeps you in control of your ability. Without it, you could doom that person to spend the rest of their life unable to actually live it.”

“I’ll have him stab or shoot me in the chest. That will give me plenty of time to jump back before getting stranded.”

“Okay, but then you’ve just made that person a murderer. There he is, standing over the body of a young handicapped girl. Amnesia doesn’t hold up well in court. They would be put on trial. If they’re bad, they’ll probably do something stupid and get caught. If they’re good, they’ll turn themselves in because they’ll assume they were the culprit, just like everybody else will.”

“You said something about pills?”

“I said something hoping that you would give up this quest based on logic. I see now that that tactic is not going to work on you. So let’s switch to your heart, which is hopefully not as damaged as your crazy nutso cuckoo brain. What about me? I love you, and you’re just going to leave me?”

“I don’t see any other choice.”

“I just gave you a choice. Stay put,” Alec suggested. “Don’t use it at all. It might mean years, or it may only take a few weeks, but your condition may go away. You don’t have a disease. There’s nothing wrong with your tissue. There’s no reason this isn’t reversible. Perhaps you haven’t gotten better because you haven’t given yourself the chance.”

“I’m sick of arguing about this.”

“So am I.”

“Let’s talk about something light. Your new roommate seems nice.”

“Kathleen is great, yeah.”

They sat in awkward silence before Starla slumped over. Alec lifted her eyelids and checked for the signs of body switching, but found her pupils to be normal. She had just fallen asleep, so he took the opportunity to go down the hall to access the payphone. “Hello, Tristan,” he said into the mouthpiece. “No, Kathleen’s fine. Thanks for putting us together. I don’t think I could have handled another semester with the horrible guy the school paired me with.—No, I’m calling because Starla is having bad thoughts. I have a break coming up, and I was hoping to come up to Kansas City to meet you. I think seeing one of her confidants in person will be good for her, and you’re obviously the closest one.—Yes.—Yeah, that would be the plan.—Okay, I’ll figure out how I can convince her. Thanks, bye.”

Little did Alec know that Starla often accidentally slipped into his mind when she fell asleep. She had heard every word.

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Microstory 100: Lifespan Tattoo

Ethan woke up with a slight itch on his arm. He lifted his sleeve and discovered a tattoo that he had no recollection of getting. He had only put his head down for twenty minutes for a nap, and he didn’t drink. There was no way he could get a fully healed tattoo and not remember it. It read Ethan Daniels 2002 - 2044, which was incredibly ominous. He rode his bike to various tattoo parlors in town but they all assured him that they would never ink a 13 year-old without his parents’ permission. He knew his parents would never agree to such a thing either, even if he asked. Eventually, he gave up on finding a logical reason for it, and instead focused on the warning. It was clear that someone was trying to tell him that he was going to die in 29 years. As he continued trying to go about his normal life, the message ate away at him. He took classes and did research online about precognition, ghosts, time travel, and anything else so much as mildly relevant to his situation. He found himself obsessed with the possibility of immortality. He ended up studying longevity in college and began a company of his own that put vast amounts of resources into solving death by attacking the problem from multiple angles. His death loomed, and he was running out of time. The tattoo didn’t show a date, so he had always assumed that it would happen on his birthday, July 10. On that day, despite objections from his team, he subverted safety protocols and uploaded his consciousness to an android body. It worked. The artificial neural network soaked up his brain patterns like a sponge. It was only then that he realized the truth. The tattoo was never predicting the year of his death; it was predicting the year of his birth.

Microstory 99: Problems (in no particular order)

People who refuse to work but expect money from their parents; That my dog is dead; Paper; Ignorance; Machismo; Customer service; Running; Microsoft; Trash; Religions holding back progress; Hypocrisy; Gender roles; Lack of (sex) education; Cheapness of fast food and expense of healthy food; Hunger; People who pronounce en route more like “in route” (that’s not right, it’s French); People eating babies; Yemen; Emojis in place of words; Texting and driving; Sweat shops; Libertarianism; Sports; Animal abuse; PETA; Treating teenagers like their thoughts and issues are trivial; Oil dependence; Neo-nazis; Betrayal; Global warming; Global warming deniers; Facebook; Rapists being considered part of a “culture”; Speed limits; Victim blaming; Slut-shaming; Entitlement; Show cancellations; Expensive healthcare; The sixth extinction; Smart but mean people; People who are above owning a television; Police brutality; People who try to correct my grammar even though I’m the one with the linguistics degree (e.g. claiming it’s wrong to end a sentence in a preposition); Infant mortality; Cold weather; Homelessness; People who are grossed out by the human body; Awkward situations; Claiming that all poor people choose to be poor; Facial and body hair; Shaving; Donald Trump; Utah in general; Nerd/Geek superiority complexes; People who don’t shower before bed (ya’ll got dirty beds); (Young Earth) Creationism; Illiteracy; Inequality; Pollution; Bad drivers (and the excuses for them); Parties of all kinds; Insurance (I pay monthly so that when something happens, I’ve already paid for it. If you raise my rates then you are charging me twice!); Homophobia; Spiders; Apple (the company); Terrorism; States rights; Glamorization of poor role models; People who spell it as theater; Tobacco, alcohol, and other recreational drugs; Apathy; Amazon (the company); Hunting for sport; People caring about a politician’s personal sex life; Car racing; Mormon encouragement of child rape; Colony Collapse Disorder; Freak accidents; Freeganism; Tax loopholes; Depression; Public bathroom doors that open inward; Side effects; Drought; Death; Piercings and tattoos (a.k.a. bad skin); Overpopulation; Guilt trips; Poverty; Disease; Onions; The U.S. Constitution (it’s outdated); Nuclear research for weapons rather than energy; The Lumineers; Scientology; War; The Bible; Idiocracy (the concept)

Microstory 98: The Typist

Diego Villa was considered to be one of the most prolific writers in history. He basically did nothing with his time but write; starting out using a typewriter, and moving on to computers as they became available. For the last couple of years, the physical act of typing had become more difficult. A few months ago, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis which made his carpal tunnel syndrome practically permanent. It was heartbreaking for him to learn that he could no longer continue with the one constant in his life. He had plenty of money, so he didn’t need to work, but he felt useless throughout the day. His computer remained off most of the time, and he would spend hours trying to sleep off the depression. One day, he woke up from naptime with an amazing idea, and for a few seconds, he completely forgot his obstacle. But it quickly returned to his memory. The story would forever be stuck in his brain. Still, Diego couldn’t help but try.

He switched his machine on and just stared at the screen, with nothing better to do. After several minutes of this, a single letter appeared on the screen. What? He kept concentrating, and more letters followed. The more he tried, the faster the words appeared. The keyboard wasn’t moving, so he hadn’t somehow spontaneously developed telekinesis. No, this was all in his head. His brain had figured out how to trick his eyes into seeing something that wasn’t even there. Despite being certain that none of this was real, he sat there for hours, the sentences and a paragraphs streaming out at the speed of thought. Eventually, he stopped thinking of the individual words, and simply came up with the general plot developments. Entire pages blinked into existence instantly. His nose began to bleed and his head burned with pain, but he ignored it. He had to keep pretending. His final push. It was near midnight when he reached the final words of the greatest story he had ever told. Just before the last period could appear on screen, Diego fell over and died. His caretaker arrived the next day and discovered his body. She contacted the family, and within months, they had published Diego Villa’s final novel. It sold more copies than his other books combined.

Microstory 97: Homeless Tenant

Everyday around 8:30, I look in the windows and make sure that no one was in the house that I didn’t know about. Sometimes the homeowner doesn’t leave at all, and I’m stuck outside; but if she does leave, she always returns at exactly 6:30 in the evening. The first time I discovered this house, she had accidentally left it unlocked, but then I found a spare key in her desk. I had an extra one made and have been using it every day since. I don’t ever steal anything valuable. The first thing I do is take a nice warm shower. That way, the water heater has time to compensate by the time she gets back home. She keeps a lot of fruit in her kitchen, so I pick and choose what won’t be noticed. I also like to have a piece of toast, careful to clean up the crumbs. Since she doesn’t own a television, I spend the rest of the day reading the books she has in her library. After a couple years of this, I had all of the narrative fiction read; some of them twice. I moved on to the more technical material that would have been far beyond me before. She was apparently some kind of astrophysicist. I was this close to finishing high school, but I’ve learned more in the last few years of reading on my own than I ever did as a kid. I found her educational literature to be fascinating, and wished that I had had an opportunity to go to college. After exhausting her resources, I started to check books out of the public library, but I would always read them in her house. It felt more like home to me, even though I could never sleep there. One day, I was in the middle of a book about exoplanets, when the door opened. The homeowner walked in and dropped a stack of papers on the coffee table. I’m stunned. “Applications for your GED, college admittance, and financial aid,” she said. “I think it’s time we move you on to a formal education.” How long has she known?

Microstory 96: New City

“I keep hearing people say, ‘this city will be great once they finish building it’ so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna built a new city, right next to the old one. It's gonna be a complete retooling of what we think the definition of a city is. It'll have terrace farming all over the place, wind turbines that look like trees, solar highways, sidewalks that generate energy from foot traffic. It'll be awesome. But no one is gonna live there until it's done. The only people you'll see there are the engineers, construction workers, and hooligans. Teenagers will sneak in to make trouble, and we'll slap them on the wrist, but they're kids; wadya gonna do? Anyway, when the city's completely complete, every single resident of the old city is going to be relocated to the new city. Every home will be nice and new. Even the units for the poor will only be cheaper because they're smaller. Once everyone has been moved—I see that happening in max three days—we're gonna tear down the old city. We're gonna demolish every building and I dunno, like, recycle? Then we're gonna build another town of the future, right where the old one used to be. And then people will be able to move back if they want because, God, we're not fascists. Anyway. That's my plan. Thoughts?”

“You're an idiot.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 6, 2030

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Mateo slept all the way across midnight. The sun was still not out when he found Leona sitting on the other side of the lawn, watching birds argue with each other in a nearby tree. He approached her carefully. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” she said back. “Now I know why you left on the train. I don’t want my family to go through this. I’ve disappeared, and that’s tough, but they’ll get through it and move on.” She looked up at him. “We need to keep them out of this.”

“I agree.”

“But I refuse to go to Utah.”

He laughed and sat down next to her. “You won’t hear me trying to force you.”

“I do wish that I could have said goodbye to my little brother, but it’s for the best. I can’t touch him now that I’ve been activated. I don’t want him to become one of us.”

Oh boy. “There’s something you should know.”

She patiently waited while a car pulled up behind them that they ignored.

“He already is one of us.”

He could feel her surprise, but she did a pretty good job of hiding it. “Since when?”

“Since before he was born. Apparently, we can sometimes be reincarnated. The way I understand it, he died at quite an old age.”

She turned her head towards Mateo, but kept her eyes to the grass. “Then maybe it’s hereditary.”

“How do you mean?”

“Think about it. Out of all the salmon we’ve met, most of them have been related to one of us. Your birth parents, your aunt, your cousin, and my brother. Hell, that doctor and the Delegator might be our children from the future, for all we know.”

“There was a guy who healed me with his blood when I had an allergic reaction after the surgery. He walked through a portal in the wall.”

She looked at Mateo. “Grandson?”

He shook his head with uncertainty. “I don’t know that what you’re saying is how it works.”

She went back to watching the birds. “Yeah, it doesn’t matter either way. I still need to stay away from Theo. Maybe he would need to be reinitialized, and I still don’t want that for him if I can stop it. He may be an old man, but to me he’s just my baby brother.”

“I hate when you call be a baby,” said Theo behind them.

They turned around. “Theo!” Leona cried.

Mateo chuckled uncomfortably. “What are you doing here?”

“I came here to find you. Did you already go in?”

“The chapel? I’m not sure I’m even Christian anymore.”

Theo snorted. “Neither is that place.” Leona pulled herself away when Theo tried to help her up. “You can’t hurt me, sestra.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t have time for this crap.” And with that, he deliberately placed his hand on Mateo’s shoulder. “There, it’s too late. Now is it asking too much for my big sister to give me a hug.”

She looked like she was about to cry, but she jumped up and hugged him, both despite and because of her feelings.

Mateo led the way towards the chapel. “Why are we going in there?”

“Didn’t you just speak with the Delegator?”

“We did.”

“And he sent you here.”

“Right.”

“Why didn’t you leave?”

“We don’t have a car.”

“No, that’s not it. In the daylight, you can see Lebanon from here. You knew you were supposed to be here. He still should have told you. He’s not doing his job right.” He opened the door and stepped in like he was showing them their new house. “This chapel hasn’t always been here. In fact, it was destroyed once twenty-two years ago. But they can’t destroy what’s underneath.”

“What’s underneath?”

Theo smiled menacingly and spoke the magic words. Literally. “Open sesame seed bun! Fresh meat! The coast is clear!” A few seconds later, the entire floor began to descend. It started off slowly until settling into a second set of walls which closed above them to form a new roof. “Hold onto something.” The elevator dropped dramatically, faster than any before, but thankfully slowed down again after a while. “The base is 144 stories under the ground. Engineers and construction workers were sent back in time to build it. We don’t know exactly when, but we think it’s been here for millions of years. We call it The Constant.”

“What is it for?”

“It’s a resupply station. Down here you’ll find meds, food, appropriate clothing for your new time period, etcetera. There are some other creature comforts if you want to take a break from your mission, but they won’t let you stay too long. There’s only one person who stays down here, and she’s always here. Like I said, this is a constant. It doesn’t move through time like our graveyard. It was built in one place, at one time, and then left alone, which means that The Concierge isn’t like other salmon. She’s very special, though.” The elevator stopped.

“She’s special in what way?”

The doors opened. “I’m immortal.” It was Salinger.

“Danica!”

“It’s very nice to see you again, Mateo.”

“How long has it been for you?”

“No one knows how long I’ve been here. They compare notes and have their guesses, but I’ve never told a soul. I won’t make an exception for you, even though you’re my cousin.”

Mateo couldn’t help but embrace her. They hardly knew each other, but she was family, and that counted for something. Leona joined in the hug, followed by little Theo. “Do you regret your choice? To go through the other door at Stonehenge?”

“For the most part, I do not,” Danica replied. “But there are many more minutes than there are salmon. It can get lonely, but I have a television.”

They laughed.

Danica looked at her watch and began to frown. “Unfortunately, you don’t have long here. I’ve been authorized to give you these.” She presented to them five futuristic mobile phones. We’ve put you on a family plan. They won’t run out of battery, and the network will never go down, however they’ll usually only connect to each other. I don’t know for sure, but you probably cannot be separated from them. Time should always tether you to them.”

“Why are there five?” Leona asked.

“That’s why you need to leave. You’re scheduled to meet up with the other two people in your party.”

“You can’t come with us, just for the day?”

“I’m part of the Constant. I haven’t left in—ohohoho! Almost had me there! Let’s just say that I haven’t left in forever.”

“Who else are we picking up?” Leona asked.

Danica shrugged. “I haven’t been given that information.” She looked something up on her device. “I only know that you’re supposed to be in a city called Huntsville, Ontario in less than nineteen hours. Which means you’ll have to speed. I promise not to pull you over.” She winked.

“Will I ever see you again? Will they ever let me back down here?”

“I imagine so. However, I promise you nothing. This is here for when you need it. The basic premise of this whole time travel thing is that you’re put where you don’t belong and have to find a way to survive and do some good. It’s not a vacation; it’s a calling. This place is for furloughs.” With that, they said their goodbyes and left.

The car automatically drove them halfway across the country, and into Canada where they presented fake passports that Theo had drawn up. Presumably, they would know what they were looking for when they found it. They later discovered that they wouldn’t have to look very far. Near the end of whatever it was they were doing, Theo motioned them over. “You should sit over here.”

“What? Why?”

“Just come sit over here with me. That seat needs to be empty. I just know it.”

“For what?”

“You’ll see. Would you two just do it? Have we not yet learned trust?”

Mateo and Leona reluctantly crawled over and sat on either side of Theo. It was awkward. “This is awkward.”

Theo looked at his watch. “It should be happening any minute.”

Leona shifted, trying to get more comfortable. “Are we gonna get hit by a meteorite or something?”

“Just wait,” Theo insisted. “You’ll like this surprise.”

After a few moments of waiting, a formless blob faded into view on the other seat where they had been sitting. Detail by detail, the image focused and became clear. The blob turned into two blobs, then two people, then two people with features. They were kissing each other, but stopped after the transition was completely finished. They looked up and around, but not directly at the other three. “Are we in a motor vehicle?” the man asked.

“We jumped to the future,” the woman continued. “Why is that?”

Mateo recognized the woman. He would know that face and voice anywhere, even though he hadn’t seen her in twenty years. “Mom?”

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