Chapter 4: Things Fall Apart
In 1988, former law student James Baker met the love of his life, Meredith Eden Smith. The two married the following year and moved into an apartment in Naperville, half a mile from Route 59. The two had a child, Alex Baker, and James begun to produce sculptures and paintings in their studio apartment to support his family. A year after Alex was born, they moved to Waukegan for a cheaper studio. While this meant a longer commute to the local train station to get to Chicago for Meredith, this meant roughly a thousand additional dollars a year for them.
James, that was Dad’s name. I felt a little guilty for forgetting it, as he did carve me several wooden figures of famous people, and I still have them. They went unsigned, after all. I flipped through a few more pages looking for more.
In 2007, Ashley Smith had become ten, and met Isaac Jameson, a younger friend that she could discuss Pokémon with. The two hit it off almost immediately, and while their situation in Jefferson was significantly better than five years prior, it was not ideal for the family. Meredith was working sixty hours weekly and often refused to dip into the funds James had left behind for the family. Ashley and her brother had turned to spending time at friends’ houses or their library, and the two were playing RuneScape on their mother’s account to pass the time. In 2008, a letter from James arrived in their mailbox, but was unopened and promptly shredded.
In 2011, Ashley Smith had a run-in with Richard Wake, and believed to love him. Or so she thought, as while Richard was a nice friend, Ashley decided she was not ready nor currently interested in romance, and the two left it at that.
…That is how that happened. I guess I really did, at that time, realize something about myself I kinda put away. I wasn’t really into wanting a romantic relationship. I liked my friends a lot, and wouldn’t know what to do without them in my life. I’m so lucky I live in a time where I can call up Isaac or play a game with him even if he’s still out living in Jefferson. I wondered how Isaac was doing. The last I saw of him, he was a nervous wreck over me leaving town so suddenly. Hell, I wasn’t ready to leave, either. But Mom was always looking out for good jobs, and New Infinity had both that and cheap schools. She actually seems happy out here compared to Jefferson, and I don’t recall anything from when we lived in Waukegan, so maybe it was the same deal there.
In 2014, she moved to New Infinity, and became an interesting subject to Felix. She almost immediately knew of it being a digitized civilization, almost ruining the experience for everyone. In fact, it almost crashed Felix’s system, which would have left him with just an empty base and a few thousand lives in purgatory. Felix kept a close eye on her to ensure she wouldn’t cause any more problems, but soon discovered that she meant no harm, and that the greater risk to his safety and security lay somewhere within the original code he stole from the Happy Infinity Compan—
Wait, Happy Infinity? The database company? He got the software from there? I shrugged, and tucked the book in my backpack. After all, I had been reading for quite a while.. Nathan and Franklin wanted to hang out and invited George and I to play some Super Smash Bros. Since they added Mewtwo, I have been getting very good with them, and posed a serious threat to them all. I headed out, and suddenly realized what the book meant by its cryptic warning.
The sky was blood red, and buildings were crumbled. An eerie wind blew all around. I was scared. I didn’t even realize I hadn’t seen or even hear Mom or Alex. Were they okay? How long was I reading? I heard footsteps. I pulled the book out and clutched it in my arms. Maybe the book had answers? I was terrified.
“Ash, what is this?” a voice asked in a solemn tone.
From out of the dust and smoke surrounding a fire stepped Felix, cut and sad-looking. “I’m sorry, Felix! I didn’t mean to! I got carried away! But I learned so much about you now, though. Can’t you fix this?”
He glanced around, and took the book from me. I could see the skin of his hands from tears in his gloves. It was gray and discolored, with a black ring around his right middle finger. “Hmm, well the book is pretty corrupt.”
He set it down, took out a Modifier (with the screen cracked and flickering), scanned it, set a bunch of variables, and handed it back. “This book was messed up bad,” he said, “but I think I rendered it inert. There might be a little here and there. I can’t get rid of the pages or anything, and I’ll just burn it like I did another duplicate copy. But, tell you what, I’ll let you take what you want from this copy. It’s yours.”
I already had everything the book had on Felix, it looked like, so I flipped to my own chapter and ripped the whole thing out. Felix took out a paper clip and fastened the pages together, and folded it up. “You hold onto that, Ash. Everyone reads this book different. Give me just a moment, Ash. I’ll go roll this back and advance a few days, back to today. But better, I guess.”
Felix walked away, stepping over what looked like a burning skeleton on the street. I turned back around to see the crumbling remains of what was my house. I looked down at the papers I was given, and flipped through them again. I noticed a whole page I had skipped, and my interest was piqued. But suddenly I was back in bed.
Had Felix really done it? I got up and looked out the window. Rain had just stopped falling, and birds had revealed themselves from within the trees. Felix was standing at the tree opposite of my house, and tipped his hat to me. He had done it. The most impressive part to me was that he was not mad at me in the slightest. I had stolen from him, refused to read his warnings, and intruded on a life it felt like he wanted to forget. Maybe Felix was a nice guy, after all. I silently apologized to him, waved out the window, and sat down to work on the rest of my short story. I specified that time travel existed, but even in the most dire of circumstances is it acceptable to stop and go back to the beginning and try again.
Thank you, Felix.
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