Undoer

      Paula was furiously vacuuming the living room and shouting at her daughter, Mary, to hurry up and finish the dusting already. Just then, little Tommy rushed in wielding his toy sword. Tommy’s cries mixed with the noise of the vacuum cleaner. Paula sighed. Her parents were arriving in less than an hour and she still had to finish making the dinner.

           A deafening “crash” came from the kitchen. Paula rushed over to see Mary surrounded by broken plates she was carrying to the dining room. Tommy was standing agape while Paco whined.

           “Ugh, not now!” grunted Paula and turning to Mary, said aloud: “Please get the Undoer and clean this up”.

           Mary ran to the closet and pulled out a small tablet. She entered the password, then set the time to five minutes ago. Pointing the tablet toward the mess on the floor, she clicked the “Undo” command. Instantly, the shards of the broken dishes started twirling around and coming back together, exactly how they were five minutes ago: whole and unbroken.

           “Thank goodness for the Undoer!” said Paula as she walked toward the stove. “Mary, please help your brother pick up his toys in the living room.”

           “Why can’t he do it himself?”, muttered Mary and to Tommy, she said: “C’mon, shorty!” They left the kitchen, bickering.

           Paula put on an apron, got a cutting board, and started chopping carrots. “Ouch!” she cried as fresh blood started oozing out from the cut on her finger. She pressed on the cut to stop the blood flow. However, as soon as she let it go, the blood started dripping on the carrots again. Paula reached for the Undoer and set the time to three minutes ago. She pointed it at her finger and clicked on “Undo”. The blood and the scar vanished.

           “Nice little gadget”, thought Paula, as she wondered how people lived without it in the past.

           At seven o’clock sharp, the doorbell rang, and a disembodied voice announced the arrival of Paula’s parents. Paula pulled off her apron, patted her hair, and rushed to open the door.

           “Mom, Dad, how wonderful to see you!” Paula said as her parents walked in. Her mother, Patricia, was a short, slender woman. She looked around the room critically and Paula was pleased the house was clean. Paula’s father, Jim, came in limping and carrying a cane. He was a bit taller than his wife, with a round face and a balding head. Tommy and Mary rushed in to greet them.

           The dinner was a pleasant affair where Tommy and Mary told the grandparents all about their school and various sports competitions. After the desert, Mary and Tommy were excused to go to their rooms.

           Patricia turned toward Paula: “How are things with Bill?”

           Paula dreaded this conversation every time her parents came over. Bill and she divorced over a year ago. Theirs was a turbulent marriage, twelve years full of violent quarrels, usually caused by Bill coming home drunk. The police were called a few times, so the neighbors also knew about their problems. Every time she returned home from work, Paula would rush from her car into the house so no neighbor would get a chance to talk to her. She was ashamed of Bill, and of herself.

           “It’s OK now, since we moved”, Paula said. “He hasn’t found us yet”.

           The divorce hadn’t stopped Bill from coming to the house, banging at the door in the middle of the night, asking to see the children, and shouting “this is my house, too, dang it!” Two months earlier, Paula’s parents encouraged her to move across town.

           After her parents left, Paula went to Tommy’s room. The boy was already asleep. Soft moonlight fell on his face.

           “He’s my little angel”, Paula thought as she kissed him and turned off the lamp.

           Mary wasn’t asleep yet. “Hi mom” she said. “Are grandma and grandpa gone?”

           “Yes, honey”, Paula said sitting at Mary’s bed. “It was good seeing them again.”

           Mary was quiet, then she turned to Paula: “Mom, I’m really happy here. I’m glad we moved.” Although left unspoken, Paula knew Mary was relieved that her father wasn’t bothering them anymore. Paula hugged her daughter and kissed her on both cheeks. Mary slid down her pillows and said, “Good night, mom”.

           As she was falling asleep that night, Paula thought that she loved her kids so much she couldn’t imagine her life without them.

           Paula was dreaming that she and her kids were at a Zoo, watching a gorilla rattling his cage. It was amusing at first. However, as the rattling became louder and more violent, Paula tried to shout, “Stop it!”, but no sound came from her throat. The banging intensified. Paula jerked upright, looking around confused. Then she realized the banging came from the front door. She grabbed her robe and rushed toward the window. The moonlight was bright, and she could see her front door. “Bill!” she gasped “How did he find us?”. Bill was standing at the door, banging his fists on it, and shouting something incoherently. Then he walked toward Paula’s car and lifted up an object that looked like a bat. He then swung it down and the side window shattered.

           Her hands trembling, Paula dialed the police department. After providing all the information to the dispatcher, Paula rushed to the kids’ bedrooms. She found both children mercifully asleep. She then went down the stairs and crept toward the front door. She didn’t want to confirm to Bill that she indeed lived there, just in case Bill wasn’t sure. A few minutes later, a police car pulled in and two officers came out. They approached Bill who started shouting at them. “My wife … my kids…I’ll be back, Paula!” Paula could hear him shouting. The officers handcuffed him and locked him in the car. Then, one of the officers came to the door and Paula opened it immediately. She gave the statement to the policeman, saying that she had a restraining order against Bill.

           “Well, that doesn’t always stop them, does it?” said the policeman sagely. “We’ll take him in and let him sober up overnight. You can press charges against him.” The policeman turned to leave, then stopped and said:” Ma’am, you may want to get a gun.” Paula stared after him.

           The next day was Monday, so Paula dragged herself out of bed. She woke up the kids, made their lunches, and sent them off to school. She then drove her car to town to get an estimate for the car window. After making an appointment for that morning, she left the car and walked to the cafe across the street.

In the restroom, she looked at the mirror and gasped. The previous night’s ordeal made her look very tired, with large bags under her eyes. She splashed her face with some water and combed her hair. “Not much better”, she murmured.

           In the café, she ordered black coffee. As she sipped it, she looked around. It was pretty early and there were few customers.

           “Paula is that you?” said a deep voice behind her. She span around to see a tall, tanned man smiling at her. “James!” she gasped. “Oh, my, fancy seeing you here!” Paula smiled widely.

           “I’ve been visiting my parents over the weekend. I was on my way back to Boston, actually. Well, I’m glad I ran into you! May I join you?” “Sure, said Paula and motioned toward the chair opposite.

           It turned out that James was a medical doctor. He was happily married to Paula’s childhood friend, and they had three kids. They parted ways about an hour later when Paula got a call from the car shop.

           While driving home, Paula thought about James. The two dated for a year before James got accepted to medical school. He asked Paula to come with him. However, she couldn’t leave her parents. Her father was just diagnosed with bone cancer and her mother was devastated. Fortunately, her father recovered, but was left with a limp. Paula always regretted not leaving with James. He was very handsome, but also gentle and considerate. Within a few months, though, Paula met Bill and within a year they were married. She wished she could change her past. Then she thought of something and sped up.

           At home, Paula rushed to her computer and started searching the online stores. She had recently read about a new kind of Undoer that was based on a breakthrough technology. Like everyone else, Paula, of course, had an Undoer. However, hers was an older model.

           When she reached the page selling the new-age Undoer. She looked at the price. “Well, it’s expensive, but it’s not going to bankrupt me.” She ordered it, and was told it would arrive the next day.

           The following morning, Paula paced anxiously checking through the window for a delivery vehicle. Her package came just when the kids came back from school. Paula patiently fed the children, read Tommy a story, and tucked both of them in beds. Then she went downstairs.

           She hastily opened the package and pulled out a shiny new tablet. It was wider and longer than her old one, by just as slim. She turned it on. The Welcome Screen asked her to sign the Disclosures, which she hastily did. Then a new screen asked for her permission to sync the new device with the old one. She clicked “yes”. The next screen asked if she’d like to see a tutorial. She again clicked “yes”. For the next twenty minutes, she read in amazement about various features of the device. When the syncing was done, she took a deep breath and clicked on the Calendar file. She remembered vividly she met Bill at a party on Valentine’s Day, thirteen years ago. She found and clicked on that date. The Undoer then asked her to select the Place and Person. She did.

           The Undoer blinked several times and said: “Proceed?” She answered “yes”. There was a high pitched whooshing sound that stopped as suddenly as it started. Paula looked around. She was in a different house with fancy furniture. She looked out her front window and saw a different car in the driveway. She called her parents. Her mother answered.

           Paula said: “Mom, Bill was here last night”, and held her breath.

           There was a silence, and then her mother said: “I’m sorry, dear, but Bill who?”

           “Oh, never mind”, answered Paula with a smile. “I’d like to have you and Dad here this weekend. I have some great news.”

           “But dear, we can’t just get up and go to Boston in a few days!” her mother answered.

           Paula’s heart started beating fast and she said, mom, I need to go.” As she hung up, she heard footsteps.

           “Paula, dear, do you know where I left my briefcase?” James deep voice came from his study.

           Paula rushed to the study and saw James sitting at his desk. She ran to him and kissed him. He returned her kiss. They slowly walked upstairs to their bedroom.

           When Paula woke up, James was in a deep sleep. Paula smiled, then gasped. She got out of bed and rushed toward the bedrooms on the other side of the staircase. She opened all the doors, but there were no children asleep. Paula rushed toward the Undoer and franticly searched for the Redo function. There was none. At the bottom of the opened page, she read:

“Warning, Undo actions cannot be reversed.”