Phases of Time

There is life. Then there is nothing. The door had these words emblazoned on it, like a sense of warning but also as a sense of certainty. Lem tucked her hands into her jacket even deeper and walked to the closest window, which overlooked the city. Life was continuing, as it always had. People milled in and out of buildings; people milled in and out of the sidewalks. Flying cars flew throughout the skylines. “Lem?” A female voice interrupted Lem’s onlooking. She turned around to find a woman dressed in a green fatigue type jacket and pants, with brown boots. Her eyes were a piercing shade of green and her straight black hair was pulled high into a ponytail. “I am Lem.” The two women exchanged a formal handshake. “My name is Katrina. Please follow me.” Lem followed Katrina down a hallway with blue closed doors and they stopped at the end of the hallway. They entered a room, with a translucent glass desk, two white chairs were on each side of the desk, and the room was surrounded by books on wall covering shelves. There was a vase of blue violets on the desk; surprising Lem because flowers were a rare sight outside of greenhouses at this time. A digital device tracking news was sitting on the desk as well; occasionally beeping. Lem presumed the beeping was the update of the minute-to-minute headlines. “Please sit.” Katrina motioned and Lem took the seat opposite of her. “Do you know why you are here? Lem kept her hands tucked into her jacket, to avoid Katrina seeing her fidgeting hands. “I can make assumptions, but I am not sure of the correct one,” Lem responded. Katrina nodded. “We live in a time where things move at an incredibly faster speed. And it is more than the elimination of half of our days. Things do not have a lot of maneuvering as they once did.” Lem was hearing Katrina, but she had been hearing these words for some time. Her father said them once a day at least. He would pass her a cup of coffee, tell her time was of the essence and then proceed to tell her all the things she should accomplish in twelve hours. “Aim for eleven and a half. Give yourself a grace period of thirty minutes. But remember we sleep five hours. The extra thirty is not for a slumber.” He would say these words meticulously every morning, as he grabbed his cellphone and headed off into the world.

              “It is important that we continue to have the right mindsets to survive on this planet.” Katrina’s words interrupted Lem’s thoughts again. “In a recent diagnostic test, you ranked extremely high in basic functionality, but the tester detected a small flaw.” Lem gripped the insides of her pockets as Katrina spoke. Katrina pulled a sheet of her paper out of her jacket pocket. “You seem to have occasional thoughts that we are nearing the end of our time on this planet.” Lem felt a pit in her stomach but when she spoke, her voice did not display any lack of confidence. “I think that is partially due to my current placement.” Katrina nodded as Lem continued to speak. “The community asks. They know we are surviving but they know we were never prepared for the current phase of our existence. I believe the term most people use is, wingin it.” Katrina laughed. That surprised Lem because Katrina had remained unreadable until that moment. “I think that term is appropriate most days.” She continued to speak. “The tester labelled your thoughts as a flaw because the tester is meant to detect our feelings. Flaw is the only word it could be labelled under. Checking the box as other would have implied a list of things that would have caused restrictions.” “Restrictions?” Lem asked. Katrina sighed. “Restrictions lead to more tests. More questions. That is how we detect who is working for the other side….” Katrina’s words trailed off. Lem knew what that meant and was thankful Katrina did not elaborate. “So, what does this mean for me?” Lem asked. Katrina placed her hands on the desk in front of her. Lem noticed she was wearing a glowing ring on her index finger. That was the sign that someone was in the Higher Council. Word was that if the ring stopped glowing, you had betrayed the Council and humanity. “Do you have proof that our time is limited?” Lem could still feel the pit in her stomach. “I recently found an old newspaper from 2065. In it was a list of things we could face in the next century. Some of it was comical but some of it was not. One of the most striking things on the list was, what if we ran out of time completely. We run twelve hours a day now. We sleep five hours. We must do that because of the axis of the Earth. The way the sun operates. It was not our choice. Everyone did not adapt. We lost more than half of the population….” Now Lem’s words trailed off. That was twenty years ago. Betrayal was a word thrown around a lot. Someone had betrayed humanity. Someone had cost the world immediate damage. Someone had tipped the clock in another being’s favor. The details were still far and few between. “I think that your brain has shifted to ideas of preparation and survival. A basic human emotion.” Katrina spoke, her face almost appearing grief stricken now. “The Council constantly shuffles through research. We hold meetings daily. We understand the possibility of what could be. There is never a moment of relaxation in some minds. That is a new form of grief. The grief of…never fully knowing.” The ticker on the desk beeped. Katrina looked at the screen and sighed. “A herd of birds ran into a car. We have not perfected traffic patterns in the sky, at this point.” Lem shifted in her seat. “I do not have proof. I just have thoughts. I cannot say, with full certainty, that I can eliminate the thoughts. I also work in the community of media. It is our job to discuss things. If this causes me to lose my placement, I suppose that is just the consequence.” Lem noticed her voice sounded much more confident than she felt. Still. Katrina sighed, once again. “My job is not to metaphorically brand you with a scarlet letter. You will not lose your placement or face restriction. But I will make one recommendation.” Lem awaited Katrina’s next sentence with uncertainty. “I will make the recommendation that you be allowed access to the Green Room.” The Green Room was a room with filled material. Books, old computers, and old newspapers/magazines. You were only allowed access to it if you had high ratings by the testers. The tester concluded that you had a high enough intelligence to be trusted with substantial information. Few people got high ratings. The system was much more complicated and difficult than Lem could describe or comprehend. “As a member of the Council, I have the power to make certain decisions. I find the fact that you can have these thoughts extremely important. Most people’s thoughts revolve around what to eat for dinner, what sports team to bet on and what new television show to watch.” Katrina looked at Lem with a sense of urgency. “The human race may evolve but is still at its deepest forms, not the most prepared. You have your placement because of your intelligence. We only place individuals in media that demonstrate a certain degree of understanding…and compassion.” For the first time, Lem felt the pit in her stomach begin to disappear. “I appreciate the opportunity.” Katrina nodded. “As you know, you cannot allow anyone else access to the room, or your privileges will be revoked, and you will face a hearing. Also, we have twelve hours of working time in a day. You are expected to continue to use it wisely. Time is an obligation. We are not in 2024 anymore. We had twenty-four hours in one day then. Time was a leisure. Now it is not.” Katrina looked down at the ticker. “Now you have five left. Finish your day wisely.” Katrina stood up then and beckoned for Lem to follow her back down the hallway. They reached the glass door that led to the end of the offices and opened into a hallway that held an elevator. Katrina stopped short of opening the door. Nobody was in sight, but Lem did not expect there to be. The Council’s building made it seem like everything was one’s own private entity.

              “The access will be granted the next day.” Lem nodded and reached out to shake Katrina’s hand. Katrina took Lem’s hand but held on. “I wish you the best Lem.” Lem nodded and before she let go, she asked Katrina, “Tell me. How long do you think we have? Truthfully.” Katrina’s face remained expressionless, but Lem noticed her eyes held sorrow. “Not long enough.” She let go of Lem’s hand and disappeared back down the hallway. Lem tucked her hands back into her jacket and moved with urgency to the elevator and down to the bottom level of the Council’s building. When she stepped into the late winter’s brisk air, she took a deep breath. The words not long enough still ringing through her mind. She decided at that moment, not long enough meant barely any time at all.