“THE YEAR 2045”

The day is Sunday and Anna wakes up lazily from her bed, after taking a shower and dressing up she heads downstairs and sees Chef-20X delivering breakfast to Mary and Peter. She sits on her chair and Chef-20X gives her coffee, as she sips her coffee slowly, she looks at her parents. She wants someone to start a conversation of some kind, but after waiting enough she says, “Where is Reed? I know he doesn’t have a girlfriend and he doesn’t know how to play any sport either.”

Mary chuckles and replies, “The Company is his girlfriend, I don’t know what has gotten into him these past few days. He spends so less time with all of us, he is working on a project. He says it’s huge and will change the way we look at the world!” hearing this something slips out of Anna’s mouth, “He sounds just like you, when you wanted to travel in time!” Hearing this Mary stops drinking her coffee and looks at Anna with wide open eyes, “What did you just say? Time…travel? Where the hell did you see this? Who told you about this?”

Looking at her mother Anna gets a little scared and nervous. “What the hell mom? Why are you looking at me like this? It’s not like I killed someone. I was just snooping around the company’s old database, you know…looking for some projects which couldn’t be completed in those times and I just found this audio recording of yours.

I mean yeah it was fragmented and damaged but I was able to restore it and listen to it!” Mary becomes louder and screams at her, “Oh! So in other words you hacked into my archives and rebuilt a deleted audio log to get ideas about a new project? Is that right?” seeing her mother’s reaction Anna gives a guilty look to her and stares at her beacon and eggs. Her silence was obviously a ‘yes’, seeing her reaction Peter tries to cool down Mary. He holds her hand and says, “Come on now, she made a mistake right. As parents we have to forgive our children too. She’s had enough of your scolding now.” he looks at Anna and says, “Alright Anna, time to apologize to your mother.”

Anna says in a low voice, “Sorry mom, I shouldn’t have done that. Please forgive me.” Mary accepts her apology and they all eat their breakfast. Anna may have apologized to her mother, but the way she acted when Anna mentioned time travel still felt weird to her. At first when she had heard the audio log she didn’t pay much attention to it, but seeing her mother’s reaction Anna knew that her mother was hiding something from her and so the whole day Anna had dedicated herself into finding out more about time travel.

Sadly she had found nothing of interest and she eventually gave up. She still had a feeling that Mary was hiding something from her. She was obsessed with her mother’s old research and time travel. She went out of her room to drink some water and saw that Mary’s shoes were not there.

She asked her father where she went and he said, “She just went to meet a friend of hers, she will be back soon.” It was certain that Anna wanted to know more about this from her and so she waited for her mother’s return. Mary had traveled a few kilometers out of Hawkesbay and stopped at an old neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. She looks at the old house as she gets out of her car. She moves to the front porch and sees the garden with uneven grass and the dirty garage door. She reaches the front door and stands firm, she takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell.

A small camera comes out from the door and scans her face. After the scan is finished a voice from the camera says, “Mister Mark has been informed that he has a visitor, please wait for his response.” A few moments later Mark sees Mary on his camera feed and goes to open the door and greet her. “Mary Maximus, what are you doing at my door today?” he says, as he gestures her to come in. She see’s that the house is a mess, there are things scattered around. It was as if the house had been ransacked.

An old photo of Mark and his team is on the wall which is quite dusty. Looking at all this she says, “Jeez Mark, what happened to you? You were very organized and punctual what changed you to this extent?” Mark offers Mary some water and says, “Well, it was entirely fault, there are some things in our lives which we take for granted…you know, things which are so very important to us and yet we never give them value.”

“Not unless they aren’t there anymore. Forget about me tell me what brings you here after so many years?” Mary clears her throat and says, “Well, I just wanted to meet my old team mate and since you are the only one alive and living near Hawkesbay I thought it would be a good idea to visit.” Mark smiles and replies, “Ah the old team! Those were some of the best days of my life and that project, I still think we could have done so much more with it, if you hadn’t changed your mind and purged it all.”

Mary looks at Mark and asks, “You haven’t disclosed anything regarding that project…or the research and experiments to anyone have you?” Mark gives Mary a disappointing look and says, “And here I thought you came to me to say hello. No! I haven’t and I never will. If you don’t trust me just shoot me right now since I am the only one alive who knows excluding you!”

Mary feels guilty for acting this way. She did not even care about him until she felt insecure and wasn’t sure if he had spilled the secrets. “I’m sorry Mark, I just wish I could have…you know…kept in touch. I guess I still am the same… right. Building my tower happiness on top of the grief and suffering of others!”

Mark smirks at her and says, “We all wish that our lives were something different than what they are now. But we cannot go back can we?” and they both start laughing at each other. Mary gets up from the chair and decides to go back home.

Before she opens the front door Mark asks her to spend time with her family and to be honest with them, Mary takes his advice and when she opens the door a young man stands in front of her. She looks at him and then at Mark whose expressions are suddenly changed. “Oh…this is…my nephew…David. He comes to meet me often.” Mary greets him and waves Mark goodbye and heads back home.

Back home Anna is waiting anxiously for her mother to arrive. Just as the front door opens and Mary comes in Anna comes rushing to her, seeing Anna in an anxious state Mary gestures her to calm down and says, “Come to my room after dinner, I think I owe you an explanation!”

Anna smiles at this and gets excited. Her mother was about to tell her a secret. But in reality this secret was nothing to be excited about, because this was going to change her life in ways she never thought possible. After dinner Mary asked her to come to her room and once she entered her mother started, “I always had this feeling you know…that a day like this would come. When someone would be asking me THOSE things I don’t wish to tell them, but since you are my daughter…I think it should be fine to trust you with this secret of mine. Yes! I worked on figuring out time travel. Yes! I traveled in time too.”

“But it was an ugly road to achieve something which we shouldn’t have achieved in the first place. You know when you are working on something. You don’t think of the consequences, you don’t weigh the advantages and disadvantages. You just want that thing to exist so bad that nothing else really matters. I traveled different worlds Anna, worlds so bizarre and unreal. In some you were a writer. In some Reed was a famous actor. I finally understood that the universe is just a river of possibilities and probabilities. Yes, we would like to change a thousand things, but the question is should we really change them?”

“Do we really know the consequences of changing a tiny thing in history? Do we really meddle with time? Do we really become Gods of our reality? The answer is No! We don’t! Some things are better left unchanged and untouched and TIME is one of those few things. So I destroyed all the research dismantled my team and kept all this away from the world. Humans are fragile, we are easily swayed with greed and power, and we must never have this power ever! You understand?”

Anna listens in awe as her mother reveals her secrets. Her eyes wide open and her heart beating faster with excitement and fear. “Holy shit mom! I mean, how did it feel? Seeing all those universes…going back and forth in time. I mean what and how could your team have done it. There are so many questions in my mind---” Mary stops Anna and says, “Anna! I told you about this so that you would accept it and move on. I don’t want you to obsess over this nor do I want you to snoop around the old database anymore. Just leave it. I told you the truth and now you must protect it!”

Anna nods at her mother and promises to keep this conversation a secret. “Does dad know about this?” Anna asks as she reaches to open the door and leave. “Yes! He does but only selected parts not the whole.” Anna goes to her room and lies down on her bed. She cannot stop thinking about different realities and different worlds. “Traveling in time! I wonder how it feels! Maybe this is something I will never experience! But still it seems fascinating and scary at the same time!” she says as she prepares to sleep.