Sitting at the breakfast table and your mind is racing. Should you tell her? You leave the table to go look in the closet again where you stashed the thumb drive and gift. Still there.
“I am not insane”, you think. It was real.
You return to the kitchen and your wife is cooking up some eggs for you and kids. You know you should tell her. She’ll believe you, won’t she? You have a thumb drive, gold bracelet and receipt. Just show her the thumb drive. But what if she doesn’t? Are you kidding. She’s never gonna believe you were given ‘passports’ from the future that free people from the ‘quarantine zones’. Listen to yourself. You sound like a madman.
“Where are you?” she asks.
“Huh?”.
“Your eggs are getting cold. You’ve been staring into space for the past 5 minutes.” She knows something is up. She always knows.
Think. Come up with something quick you hope will be believable.
“The market has been really wild today, Doge up about 30% since I did my most recent analysis”. You try to sound happy about the gains but the truth is, you feel nothing. You begin eating your eggs hoping that’s the end of it and shift the focus. “What’s the plan today kids?”
“I’m a monster truck” says the oldest. So naive and innocent at just 3 years old. No idea of the events in the world unfolding. No concept or fear about the world that is coming or what he must prepare for. He climbs down off the breakfast chair and starts to run around the kitchen island.
“vroooom raah!! Look Dad I’m a monster truck!” it brings a warmth to the heart and you fight back a little tear. The beauty of it all. The transient nature of life and death, youth and age, beauty and chaos. One minute you’re running around full of wonder with hopes and dreams, full of possibilities. Suddenly you’re older, shoulders hunched forward holding the weight of the world on them, spending too much time looking at a screen absorbing too much pointless information. It’s these so brief moments in time you’re reminded what you must fight for. These moments where you forget about percentages and prices and what needs to be done or what you have to do. These moments where you just are. This is what it’s all about. It’s this you must protec. A door slams and heavy fast footsteps approach.
“What is THIS!?”. The whole room freezes. She is standing directly in front of you with her left hand on her hip, her leg crossed over the other. Her gaze is penetrating and she looks like she wants to kill. Normally you like when she is triggered because it makes her look sexy. Holding her right hand across her chest clasping her left bicep wearing still only her paper thin silk nightie, her milk filled breasts are pushed slightly up and plumped outward. She’s just breastfed our baby a bit of after spill has come out and soaked the silk around the nipple. You want to ask her if she’s wearing panties. Not this time. This is serious.
In her right hand is holding the gold bracelet and the thumb drive. Fuck. I know what it looks like to her and it doesn’t look good. “Who is she?”. She demands to know. You have to tell her the truth now. You have no choice.