A Fork in the Road

There was a knock on the door. Archie almost stumbled as he walked up to it, feeling nervous and sweating buckets. He fixed his hair first, stretched out his shirt, and then put on a smile before he opened the door.

The first thing he noticed was the purple hair and a black flame tattoo that went around the man's neck like a collar. His ears were pierced from the helix to the lobe, and one of his eyebrows had three diagonal slices of hairless scar tissue.

They looked like the dictionary meaning of the term "polar opposites". Archie had on a clean collared shirt in his favorite pastel blue color over a brand new pair of khakis. His brown hair combed neatly to the side. The only thing that they had in common was the genuine smile on their faces at seeing each other.

"Oh wow," They both said at the same time. Surprise made them gasp and then two seconds later they were laughing until they were red.

"Yeah. Wow is the right word."

Archie was positively beaming, and so was this man. It was Archie who extended his hand first and when the other man reached for it and shook it, they both felt so blissfully joyful they were reduced to tears.

"I am so sorry! Oh dear god, I am so embarrassed—"

"No, no! Please. It's okay—"

They both stammered as they wiped their eyes, both the same shade of icy blue.

"Okay! Oh boy. Uhm, do you want some tea? Or coffee?" Archie added an option, though he of course knew what the other man would say.

"Tea, please. Chamomile, if you have it. If you don't, that's perfectly fine. Any other kind would do." But they both knew chamomile was the only tea Archie ever bought.

Archie invited the man into his living room as he hurried to his kitchen to prepare the drink. The man, looking around with eyes wide open, had one of his hands covering his open mouth. He looked at every piece of furniture, every detail with a knowing, familiar look.

"Xander, please make our guest comfortable!" Archie shouted from the kitchen.

"Certainly," a robotic voice overhead responded.

The massive flat screen television high up on the wall blared to life. It was on the sports channel, the one that Archie was watching last night before he went to bed. Blinds slowly rolled down to filter out most of the harsh sunlight as warm, ambient lighting brightened up the high ceiling. The man heard a spritzing sound before the wonderful smell of lavender filled the air. The counter by the wall hummed to life when the distinct sound of popcorns popping filled the living room. It smelled wonderfully of cheese powder, and the man's mouth was soon watering.

When Archie came back, he carried with him a tall pitcher of iced chamomile tea, something he didn't need to ask his guest if that was what he wanted because of course it was.

The man waited for the popcorn to be done and then did a little happy jump when a bowl popped up from one of the counter's hidden compartments. A mountain of orange-colored popcorn was sitting beautifully in it. He took this bowl out, thanked Xander, and then brought it to the table where Archie was pouring their drinks.

"You named your assistant Xander," the man said.

"Yeah. What about you?"

"Sandra," the man said. He then nodded towards the television. "I won a hundred and fifty last night. Bet against the Maroons on the third round."

Archie laughed. "Did you really? So they're called Maroons over there, huh? Here, they're—"

"—Burgundys. Yeah."

Their laughter was interrupted by a high-pitched beep. The two of them turned towards a black gadget that looked like a watch that the man wore around his right wrist. It said there 01:49:35.

"Would you look at that. Ten minutes have already passed?"

The man nodded. "Eh, well. Let's not let this get us down. Still plenty of time!"

They finished the bowl of popcorn in less the time it took for their introductions. The chamomile tea was gone just as fast. Archie and the man talked about everything and anything they come up with.

Do you have pets?

Oh, yes. Two dachshunds named George and—

—Peter! Yes, yes. Me, too. But, they weren't technically mine. They're owned by my neighbors, the Gilfoys.

Martha Gilfoy?

No, Marsha Gilfoy!

Close enough!

And then when Archie started feeling thirsty, he asked Xavier for some beer. The rustic art piece on the long coffee table disappeared into the compartment underneath it and was replaced by a neat row of beer mugs. The machine whirred some more and up came a silver faucet. Archie turned the tap on and filled two mugs to the brim with ice cold beer. He handed one to the man and raised his.

"To meeting you and to Stellar Co. for making this happen!"

"Amen!" the man responded and then clinked his mug against Archie's. Together, they drank the beer that Archie had to have imported from overseas. He once had a taste of it when he went abroad on a trip, and since then he lost any and all liking for the local beers.

"So, what do you think of it?" Archie asked.

"What, the beer? This is my favorite! This is from my hometown!"

"No way. You're from Munich?"

The man nodded. "Well, I was born there. I moved to California for fifteen years or so and then went back. Nothing beats the feeling of home, I guess."

Archie nodded. "I was born here in California. Never really left this place. I just moved around, you know. Now that I think about it, my mother used to go to Germany a lot because she worked as a model and, uh, well her contract took her there a lot."

"So you could have almost been born there, too, huh?"

"Yeah."

The high-pitched beep went off again. This time, when they both looked, the timer was down to 00:14:32.

"Holy hell, 14 freaking minutes."

The man pursed his lips and nodded. Time flew right by. Already, he was feeling a kind of sadness not a lot would be able to understand.

"Listen, Archie," he said. "I hope you don't mind if I just go right ahead and say it. I don't even know if it's the same thing, but I have to try."

When Archie swallowed, there was a dry click in his throat. He took a deep breath, knowing and yet not knowing what the man was going to say. He clenched his fists but he nodded stiffly.

"Did it happen to you, too?"

Archie sucked in air and held his breath. The man nodded in understanding.

"I just wanted to ask how you dealt with it?"

Archie rubbed his palms against the knees of his khakis and closed his eyes.

"Oh god, this whole thing is crazy," Archie said, the pain on his face visible.

"I'm sorry I brought it up. Forget about it."

"No," Archie replied. "I don't know if this is ever going to happen again, so let's... let's make the most out of it."

Archie composed himself and took another deep breath.

"I don't even know where to begin. I did feel as if my whole life was sucked right into hell at that very moment I walked in to that room." Archie's eyes looked deep into the man's, searching for an understanding that he was hoping would be there.

"I didn't walk into a room. Cops knocked on my door to tell me my father shot my mother and then drove the car they were riding in to the middle of the lake. A few months later, I found a box in their room where my mom kept her diary. She said she thought her husband was losing her mind, and I knew what she meant, Archie, because I saw everything with my own eyes. But I didn't say anything. Not a word. At the darkest point in my life, I kept thinking that I could have saved her. That I could have saved them. If I had just said something."

Archie looked away. The memories of his own past came flooding back. His parents were fighting again because his mother saw his father with another woman. Like the man, Archie had known about it because he had accidentally seen them together at the mall a few months before. Archie felt like that last fight wouldn't have escalated to murder if he had just said something to someone.

"I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't think I've ever completely dealt with it. I lost my own goddamned mind for a while. It's honestly a surprise I'm still around."

"Hm."

"Yeah."

"Do you still blame yourself?"

Archie looked at the man. "There is a rotten part of me that wants me to do just that. But that part wants to wallow in misery forever. I refuse to live my life like that.

No, I don't. Not anymore. But it doesn't mean my heart is any lighter. Maybe it'll take me two decades to grieve my parents, maybe a lifetime. But you know what else I realized?"

"What's that?"

"That no matter what may have happened between them, their love for me was outside of it and unaffected by it. That week I caught my dad cheating on mom was the worst week ever. He wasn't sleeping at home anymore 'cause they just fought if they were in the same room, you know? But he still made it on my birthday. He came. He gave me that stupid dinosaur set I had been bugging him forever for. And my mom? She wanted to strangle dad, but she started nothing. It was my day. And they swallowed their pride for me that day. May sound like a small thing, but it's really not."

The man appeared to be deep in thought, and then his face broke into a sad smile. "I didn't know what schizophrenia was back then, and I didn't know what it did to the human brain. But I was eight, and I could understand that something was terribly wrong. There was a night when my mom had gone to her parents for an emergency and it was just me and my dad there. We were eating spaghetti, and then all of a sudden he started talking to the plate. I asked him if he was okay, but he couldn't hear me. He started talking about demons taking over the world and that they were going to look like regular humans. But not my boy, no. He said. I will kill them if they touched my boy."

And then the man broke down in tears.

"He killed my mom because he thought she was an impostor, Archie. He killed her because he thought he was protecting me."

Archie wrapped his arms around the man without a second thought, and when he softened in his embrace he felt as if his own misplaced jagged pieces were pushing back into their own spaces.

"Hey, hey. It's over now."

They wept and held each other in a silence that stretched for what felt like forever, but in that space of time all that mattered was that they found each other—against all odds, they found each other.

And then the gadget beeped one last time. It sent a mild vibration to alert the wearer that time was up. The man looked sadly at the timer: 00:00:00. But when he looked at Archie, there was a smile under the tear tracks.

"Thank you."

Archie shook his head. "No, thank you."

They both turned towards the sound of a car engine going up the driveway.

"That's me," the man said, sniffling.

Neither of them wanted to stand up and go out but that was what they both did. They opened the door to find the android that Archie had talked to half a year ago when he was still trying to make an appointment. When Stellar Co. responded to tell him that they found a 99.92% match with him, Archie screamed in ecstasy.

The android's almost flawless human design was only deliberately broken by the processor lights shining out of her eyes. She greeted them both with a smile.

"Good morning. Before anything else, I again would like to thank you for your support of Stellar Co. How was the experience?"

Archie and the man looked at each other, their sad smiles telling everything that words couldn't.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Stella. Thank you."

The android bowed in acknowledgement, and then gestured for the man to proceed to the car.

"This is it," he said to Archie. "It feels so... so strange to see you in front of me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be possible... like... never."

"I know. I know the feeling."

They both stared at each other.

"I'll never forget this. I'll never forget you."

"Me, too."

Stella smiled. "Mr. Arthur Harrison, please get in the car. We are ready to transport you back home."

Arthur held Archie's hand one last time before he turned to leave and made his way to the car. When the door slammed shut, Stella turned to Archie once more.

"We will be mailing you the receipt for this transaction. Thank you so much for being a patron of the Alternate Reality Cross program. We hope to see you again soon."

Archie wasn't paying attention to Stella anymore, but that last line made him look up.

"Wait, I thought your contract specifically said we are only afforded this experience once?"

The android didn't respond at first, but a smile slowly spread on her face. "We don't know what the future holds, Mr. Hamilton. But I think it's safe to say we can be sure of one thing: you will be back."

Archie wanted to ask what Stella meant but she had already turned to get in the car. Archie watched as it sped down the road with the man who was him, but not really; living in a world so different from his, but not really; who had walked down a path that looked a lot like his...

...but not really.

You'll be back.

And Archie knew she was right.