St. Michael

You would think we would know better. But what difference would just one warning make?

“I told you! You will never listen!”

“What is it this time?” I sighed.

You know what it is!”

Of course, I knew. It was in and out, hardly a thought was needed, and it was done. If nuclear weapons could be made easily, time travel would have an equal. But we aren’t talking about only possibilities here. This is the real deal.

“Are you going to listen?”

“No.”

“All I had to do was think about it. Then it was a fact, finished. End of story.”

“So you changed our entire timeline on a whim?”

“No stupid! That’s not it at all. It must have been meant to happen. It’s just one small detail!”

But she was so far out of her depth, my wife, that it was a complete waste of time. Our son had red hair now. What a catastrophe.

***

I had to get to work. I didn’t feel anything coming on. My son was a little upset. But he was on his way to school, or was he? Better check.

I call up the stairs from the front door. “Honey is Kyle gone to school?” No answer. I try again. “Honey!” That should do it.

“What?” She comes to the head of the stairs.

“Is Kyle gone to school?”

“No. I’m keeping him home.”

“Why?”

“You should know why!”

“So he is going to miss an entire day’s school work on account of his hair changing color?”

“That’s right! Go to work. Go slay your dragons and let me run something for a change.”

That was my trigger for the next episode. I have to say this time travel is way different than people think. Everything is connected. You can say it isn’t, but how can it not be? I could feel it coming on. That word dragons. She shouldn’t have said it.

***

Now you are thinking a dragon showed up. No its like a code. The word dragon can mean anything that you can imagine a word like this could be used for. And it has to relate to red hair. Then add to this the fact that a whole bunch of things make both things possible and you get stuff happening that I can’t begin to tell you about.

I’ll give you just a taste. Red hair, hair on fire, from a dragon. Too easy. Try again. A dragonfly flits near a cardinal and is promptly eaten. Said cardinal runs afoul of a turkey vulture, and this bird is shot by a man with red hair. Hmm. Then you wonder if the hair is an inborn trait, my son acquires a genetic predisposition to get red hair from something completely nonsensical. And you would be right. So, science goes out the window on account of time travel?

Or am I being fooled, and there is no time travel at all. Something unexplained. I think of that seventy’s movie, The Exorcist. Just entertainment? I mean, if the devil exists, wouldn’t he hide himself so well, popping up when he felt like it? And he likes to fool people. You know that Quija board, the one people play with? That’s just child’s play to the devil. You only think you are getting messages until you really do. Then what? How do you explain that?

But what is time travel? Do we really travel, or are we just trying to explain things?

***

My wife is really upset now. “You did it again!”

“What?”

“I feel sick! Take me to the clinic!”

I wander into the kitchen. All over the table are these red bulbs with green stems that looked like a kind of fruit. She was trying to make something from things I had never seen before.

“When did you start eating things like this?”

“Dragon fruit? I have always eaten it.”

“No, you haven’t!”

I extend my hands to her. “Shush, stop talking! You’ll say something you’ll regret!”

But it was no use. She starts accusing me of things. Getting angry. But I must wonder, how does she know that I am the cause of everything that goes wrong in her life? Or am I really the cause? I have no control over it. It’s all just explanations. But to whom are our lives being explained? Certainly not me.

***

I didn’t tell you what she actually said. Good thing. I get a break for a change. I mean if I had told you, we would have another episode. Then my wife would be even more upset. All things are connected, even things we don’t believe in. You too. Hang on, there’s a text. I’ll look at it later.

There’s another episode coming on. But I’m learning. I already didn’t explain anything to you, so there’s that. But this episode will be based on nothing at all! How is that possible? I guess we’ll find out.

There’s a blinding flash and a presence that sends me to my knees. I never felt this way before. I’m in our living room and I can’t see the TV we leave on all the time. I feel like I know nothing.

***

So, we’re getting ready to go. A new life. The old apartment is infected with something. Shelves move and things topple down. There are strange noises at night. Ghostly apparitions. Should never have tried that time travel stuff. I’m a child playing with matches. It shouldn’t be allowed. You would have to wonder why it stopped though. Couldn’t be anything I might think I controlled. Had to be some other.

It’s in the text. The one I’m afraid to read. It’s not that I’m afraid of spam or phishing or whatever they are going to call it next. No, I’m afraid now. So that text message is strictly off limits.

Do you want to see it? You are not afraid? Oh, fine then. Here take my cell phone. You can mail my cell to me at my new address. Don’t open it until you can’t see my car anymore. And please, pretty please delete it once you are done!

“Enough!” the text reads, from St. Michael.