Buying Time
A Short Story by
Teel
McClanahan III
Modern Evil Press
Phoenix
ISBN: 978-1-934516-71-3
Copyright 2010 Teel McClanahan III
Some Rights Reserved.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, entities and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
Cover image Copyright 2010 by Teel McClanahan III
Published By Modern Evil Press at Smashwords
ISBN: 978-1-934516-71-3
and the heart
This is a single short story excerpted from my collection of short stories and essays called Time, emiT, and Time Again. This story is just a glimpse into the lives of two young people who fall in love at first sight - and the time-bending company they both work for. If you enjoy this story, I encourage you to purchase the full collection, available as a single eBook - along with all my other books and short stories. Thanks for giving my work a try.
-Teel McClanahan III
Brian fell in love with Lacy the first moment he laid eyes on her. Luckily for both of them, Lacy experienced the same thing a moment later when her head turned and her eyes met Brian’s for the first time. Their eyes locked for a moment that felt as though it had lasted hours, and when Lacy’s attention returned to the dry lecture her new boss was giving her she’d missed part of his explanation about how her apparent experience of time compression was made real by their patented processes. She continued to smile and to nod and Brian was the only other one to notice anything had been amiss in that strange, electric instant. Their boss continued his spiel.
Brian tried not to stare as Lacy was shown around the back hallways of the Chronomatics facility, and Lacy pretended she wasn’t stealing glances at Brian as he pretended to monitor the steady rhythms of the dilation control systems. What seemed too soon to both of them, Lacy’s tour took her and the rest of the new hospitality specialists off to another area and out of sight. Brian continued to stare after her, his eyes resting on the spot she had vanished from until something beeped out a warning beside him, bringing his attention back to his work.
• • • •
What could you accomplish today with just a few more hours? Finish that big project before the deadline and ahead of the competition. Get more work done without sacrificing time with your family. Read a book. Learn an instrument, or even a new language. Make more of yourself by adding more time to your day.
When you buy The 4-Hour Instant ® from Chronomatics, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. In the total privacy of one of our Instant Offices ® you’re able to accomplish four full hours of uninterrupted work in less than 1.5 seconds. No email, no phone calls, nothing to keep you from the task at hand, and all without being out of reach to the outside world for more than a moment.
We take care of all the details so you can focus on what’s most important to you: How you spend your time.
Multi-Instant ® bundles are also available; the more time you need, the more you save. Ask a sales associate for details.
• • • •
Brian approached Lacy and began to help her unload depleted batteries and CO2-filled filters from hospitality carts, plugging them into the huge arrays of battery chargers and filter regenerators that surrounded them. “They make everyone work the back, at first. Even new salespeople have to spend a couple of days recharging batteries. You’ll be out on the floor in no time.” There were nearly three hundred batteries sitting in their chargers for each Instant Office ®, over half of them being charged at any one time, and each one the size and weight of a car battery. The hundred CO2-scrubber regenerators took nearly as much space as the batteries and chargers and, Brian knew, nearly as much electricity. “My name’s Brian, by the way.” He offered his hand, as though for a handshake.
She took his hand in hers, simply holding it as she replied, “I know. I asked around. You’re the guy that keeps all this technology running, from what I hear.” She smiled and squeezed his hand slightly. “I’m Lacy. I’m supposed to be a hospitality specialist, but I’m stuck loading and unloading carts back here for two weeks before I get to start working out front.”
“I know. I asked around, too.” He smiled, glad to still be holding her hand. “When Gary gets back from his vacation in two weeks you’ll get to add pushing the hospitality carts all over the building to the loading and unloading of them, and I’ll hardly have a chance to see you any more.”
“That gives us two weeks of seeing each other all day long.” Brian’s phone chirped loudly as it received a message from one of the control systems. “Though I suppose we’ll have to spend some of that time working.” Lacy glanced at the carts, only half-emptied and not yet begun to be restocked with fresh batteries and filters, but held softly to Brian’s hand.
Brian pulled out his phone with his free hand and glanced at the message it displayed. “I suppose we will.” His hand began to release hers. “These systems won’t maintain themselves.”
“And these carts won’t unload themselves.” Her hand began to release his. Their heads turned back toward each other and their eyes met once more. “Brian.”
“Lacy.” Their hands squeezed each other as though each were holding on to the other to keep from falling, though falling further was exactly what they were doing through that touch.
“I’m glad I met you.”
Brian’s phone chirped out another alert, a door clattered open as someone shoved a heavily-laden cart into the back, and suddenly they were both back to work, each feeling the other’s hand as though still held.
• • • •
We know it can be difficult to find the time to get the rest you need. In the shuffle of such vital priorities as your family and your work, getting a good night’s sleep can easily slip by the wayside. Working longer days and longer workweeks, especially if you’ve been adding a few hours here and there to try to get ahead, can really wear a person thin.
We understand your struggle, and we have the solution. The Instant Night’s Sleep ® allows you the opportunity for a full eight hours of uninterrupted sleep in less than 3 seconds. In the comfort of one of our Sleep Chambers ® you’ll be enveloped in perfect* darkness and silence as you drift to sleep on a bed pre-configured to your preferred specifications**. Eight hours of bliss later you’ll be gently awakened by our hospitality specialists to find that oversleeping is a thing of the past.
Instant Naps ® are also available at select locations in 2-hour increments. Ask a sales associate for details.
*Audible sound below 0.5 dB SPL, visible light below 0.0001 lx.
**Adjustable-firmness mattress with optional memory foam. Adjustable-angle beds available upon request.
• • • •
“How do you like being a full-fledged hospitality specialist? You look exhausted.”
“I am. Sales are up and schedules are getting tight. I barely have time to clean up after one appointment before the next group wants to get their clock stopped.” Brian and Lacy were sitting across a small table from each other in the cramped Chronomatics break room, holding each other’s hands and forgetting to eat their lunches. “I wish I was still back here with you, Brian. We hardly see each other now.”
“I know. It’s killing me, too. But in a few weeks I’ll have enough money saved up from after-hours jobs and we’ll have more time together in the evenings.” Brian smiled at her, at the thought of more Lacy in his life. “I almost want to cancel a few jobs so we don’t have to wait as long. I’m sure I can figure out a way to make do with less.”
“We can be patient. We see each other enough to get by. It’s not like you aren’t climbing into bed next to me when you finish moonlighting every night, and we do work in the same office all day.” Lacy felt addicted to his presence, but cared enough for him to be willing to put off her own pleasure to help him reach his goals. “Keep working, Brian. Keep saving. You’re going to get into MIT and you need that money for tuition and living expenses. Remember how you explained it to me: If you work two jobs now, then you won’t have to split your attention from your studies later.”
“I won’t even find out whether I’m accepted until next month. I might be doing all this work for nothing.” Brian released Lacy’s hands and looked down, then pretended he’d done so in order to tuck into his lunch.
“Don’t be silly. They’re sure to take you.” Lacy nibbled at her own lunch a bit. “And if they don’t, I’m sure Mr. Cheeseman will have something to say about it. Though I can’t imagine they’d ignore your personal recommendation letter from the founder of Chronomatics.”
Brian couldn’t feel his face becoming flush. “That doesn’t make it a sure thing.”
“How many letters of recommendation do you think Mr. Cheeseman has written to college entrance boards, Brian?”
“One,” he admitted.
“That’s what he told you. That he’d never written a letter of recommendation for anyone before, but when he heard you were saving up to go to school…” Lacy reached out with one hand to grab his, to be sure she had his attention.
“…he offered to write one. I know. I never asked for it.” He was looking her in the eye again.
“But you deserved it, Brian. You’re a genius. Your enhancements improved energy efficiency threefold and have already saved Chronomatics billions. Before you started tinkering with Mr. Cheeseman’s systems, right here in this building, only the ultra-rich could afford to buy time. Now almost anyone can afford a few extra hours.”
“Sub-genius,” Brian muttered, “technically I’m only 98th percentile.”
Lacy let out an exasperated sigh, then continued, “Close enough, Brian. Close enough to impress the big man, and I’m sure you’ll impress ‘em at MIT, too. I know you believe it, too, or you wouldn’t have been saving all this time.”
“You’re right. I just don’t think I’ll really be able to accept that it’s all happening until I’ve seen the acceptance letter. Until then…” Brian felt plagued by doubt and insecurity, but was bolstered by the joy and love of Lacy’s presence and was electrified by her touch. These complex and conflicting emotions created a sort of whirlwind inside him, almost to the point of physical nausea. “…it feels like I might lose everything at some bureaucrat’s whim.”
“Not everything, Brian. No matter what MIT decides, you won’t lose me.”
Brian’s face softened into a smile as her words helped calm his inner storm, a ray of sunlight overshadowing any doubts he might have had about his future. “Thank you.”
• • • •
Have you been waiting for the day the future finally arrives? Are you eager to drive your own flying car, take a vacation on another world, upgrade your body with cybernetic parts, or fulfill some other dream of a tomorrow that can’t come fast enough for you? If you could take a ride in a time machine, would you be glad to see it only goes one way, into the future?
We’ve had similar dreams ourselves, and Chronomatics is ready to fulfill those dreams, as a pleasant night’s sleep in one of our Pause Pods ® whisks you into the future. You will be given a mild soporific to help you drift gently off to sleep in one of the same beds we use in our Sleep Chambers ® before being transferred into your Pause Pod ® where you will spend the next ten years in just under nine hours, then wake up refreshed in a literal world of tomorrow.
You’ll have at least a day to decide whether you’ve arrived in the future you’ve always been dreaming of, or whether you’d like to spend another night’s sleep in a Pause Pod ® and wake to an even more advanced future. When you do decide you’ve come far enough, Chronomatics will be there to give you the extra time you need to get you up to speed in an instant.
Discounts available when returning to your Pause Pod ® within a day. Ask a sales associate for details, and about our new Sleep-Away Century ® promotion.
• • • •
Brian burst through the front door excitedly, and Lacy leapt off the sofa when she saw him come in. “I have great news!” They both shouted at once.
“Oh! You got in!” Lacy ran across the room and into Brian’s arms, embracing him. “Congratulations, Brain. I knew you would.”
After a few moments in a long, close hug punctuated by soft kisses, Brian said, “I’ve been accepted. Even with the acceptance letter in my hand it’s hard to believe, but I’m going to college. No one in my family has ever done more than a couple semesters of community college, and I’m going to MIT in the Fall. It’s… I don’t even know what to say.”
“It’s a huge accomplishment, Brian. I’m so proud of you. You’re going to do great.” She grabbed the packet of information he was holding, saying, “I want to see this for myself.”
“I’ve got to send Mr. Cheeseman a thank you card. I could never have gotten here without him and Chronomatics.” As Lacy flipped through the paperwork and brochures, Brian searched for his box of cards, asking her from across the room, “What was your great news?”
“Oh, yeah!” Lacy dropped the pile of paper onto the coffee table and ran over to Brian, waving a white plastic wand at him. “I think I’m pregnant.” Brian stopped what he was doing, stood up straight, and spun around to face her, seeing the wand for the first time. She pressed it into his hand. It had a very visible pink line that could not have been mistaken for anything but a positive result. “I’ve scheduled an appointment to see a doctor to be sure, but I bought a three-pack of these, and they all came out the same.”
“Wow.” Brian smiled at the plastic wand in his hand, then smiled wider at Lacy. “I thought we were being pretty careful.”
“We weren’t always careful,” she replied, emphasizing the ‘always’ both vocally and with a tilt of her head in the direction of the kitchen. He grinned and nodded, remembering more than one risky decision made in a moment of passion. At least the fall from the counter hadn’t broken any bones. “I know it’s sooner than we’d talked about having kids, but…” She trailed off a bit, hoping Brian was taking the news as well as he appeared to be.
“It’s great news, Lacy. Better than my news, even.” Brian wrapped his arms again around her, enjoying the pleasure of her embrace. “It’ll make finals interesting in the Fall, but I just know everything will work out. This is our second little miracle. One more and we’ll be eligible to become saints.”
“Our second miracle? What was the first?”
“Meeting you was the most miraculous thing to happen in my life until this. I’d thought getting into MIT was going to be the thing that changed my life, but I hadn’t counted on meeting you. You’re my miracle, Lacy.”
Lacy responded with her lips, though not in words, replying with every ounce of her being that he was her miracle, too.