Chapter One: A Gypsy Lost in the Twilight Zone
March 14, 2003
Deming, NM
Marc arrived at the call center roughly ninety minutes after getting off the phone with Ryan. He ended up catching a ride with a neighbor heading South, then walking to the center from the highway. He was going to need to figure out how to get back home, but for now, he was more interested in getting to the office. He needed to talk to Mary.
As soon as he walked through the security check, one of the intraday monitors waved him over. He couldn’t remember his name, but they rotated people through that job so fast that it didn’t really matter.
“You better get on the floor ASAP. Your queue is getting slammed. It’s been like this all morning.” He pointed to the row of computer monitors, many of which had rows of flashing red lights filling the screen.
“See, all red. Ryan’s pissed you are late too, so watch out.”
Marc was surprised by the moment of human behavior. He was used to ignoring the intraday reporting team. They were mostly tasked with pointing out people with lower stats so management could pull them in for “coaching”.
“Thanks.” He said as he slid into the office. He was tempted to head straight for the HR office but was also a little scared of what he would find there now that he was there. Instead, he walked over to his old desk.
It was strange, he could still remember every detail of his time in the other world. Sixty years of memories, like it all just happened. But he had definitely returned to his old body. He had no abilities or powers. He could also remember everything exactly as though he had been here yesterday. It took a moment, but every action and movement felt normal and familiar.
He pulled into his cubicle and sat down, powering on the PC with practiced ease. As the computer was powering up, Ryan appeared at his row.
“Finally? Are you serious? You are like, two hours late! Have you seen the monitors?” His voice was low, but the urgency and annoyance in his voice was very real.
Marc looked at his old supervisor. He hadn’t seen him in over half a century. He couldn’t help but smile at the nostalgia.
“What’s so funny? You’re lucky I called you in. If you missed today, you would be gone. Just like that. Seriously. You owe me one.” He growled.
Marc could remember how much he hated this man. He could remember those feelings, but he no longer felt them at all. This was just a kid. Getting upset over nothing at all. It was a bit sad, but nothing unusual.
He could also remember going through hunter training with Grenn. The Guid instructors could be very intense. Any behavior that was not exactly to the expectations of your leader would get you screamed at, then get you penalty duty.
But after going on patrols and hunts it became clear how important the discipline was. Everything moves so fast. There was no time to think. If every member of the team did not do exactly what was expected of them, the consequences could be dire.
Over the years he had the opportunity to see those consequences many times. He looked at how small Ryan was. He looked like a school kid playing pretending he was some big important boss. He knew it wouldn’t help to mock him or push back, so he buried his feelings and put on a face of contrition and compliance.
“Yeah, Sorry Ryan. Thanks for covering for me. Owe you one. Get you a coffee later?” He replied.
Ryan was a bit surprised. The target for his frustration obediently taking his jabs. Before he had a chance to regroup Marc swerved.
“Computers up. I’ll grab the next call off the queue. Sorry about being late.” He grabbed his headset and clicked on the call manager.
Ryan stared at him for a few seconds, then gave up. He called back over his shoulder as he walked away.
“You’re gonna need to skip your break. We are all hands until we get rid of this red.”
Marc shoved his hand out at Ryan and gave a thumbs up. Then took his first call of the day.
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It turns out the spike was not as bad as it had appeared to be and by lunchtime, things seemed to be calming down.
After he set his status to lunch, he walked towards the canteen. Ryan looked up from his desk but didn’t say anything.
Marc smiled as he walked away. How this kid had gotten to him in the past was a mystery. Ryan was just a normal guy. Marc had met so many over the years. They could be selfish and petty, they could even be greedy and cruel. But under all that, they were basically the same. Most people want safety and comfort. If you can assure those basic needs, then they can be easy to deal with.
Right before the lunchroom Marc turned and went down the hall toward the HR room.
Standing in front of the closed door, he knocked a couple of times and waited. A female voice came from inside and beckoned him in.
As Marc walked into the room, he remembered every detail The cabinets, the desk, the cheap office chairs, the noisy air conditioning vent. Everything was exactly the same.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Everything except the woman behind the desk.
Sitting at the desk was a different person from the one he was expecting to see. The woman who called him in was sitting behind the desk, with a salad and a cup of coffee in front of her. She was older, maybe 50? Dark hair, with white roots starting to show through. Medium build and a hawkish nose holding up a pair of thick glasses.
“Sorry, I am in the middle of eating my lunch. Is there something I can help you with?” She asked, somewhat impatiently. She was obviously not happy to have her lunch interrupted.
Marc was stunned. “Umm. Is Mary in today?”
“Mary? Mary who?”
“Mary Lopez. She is the HR manager?” The statement came out as a question.
“I’m afraid you are mistaken. I am the manager here. And there is no Mary in this department.” She pointed to a plate on the desk.
[Karen Sibelius - HR Manager]
Marc stared at the plate, then at the woman, stunned into speechlessness. He was not prepared for this situation.
“Is there something I can help you with?” She asked impatiently.
“If not, this is my lunch hour. You can stop by during regular hours if you have any HR-related questions or issues.” She said, somewhat perfunctory, and looked pointedly at the door.
He hesitated a moment. Then turned and walked through the doorway which slowly closed behind him.
“Now what?” He thought to himself.
With no ideas, he went back to the lunchroom and grabbed a cup of free coffee. He realized he didn’t have any cash in his wallet, so he couldn’t get anything from the vending machines.
He had been hungry many times, so skipping a meal would be no issue. He just stared out the window trying to understand what was going on.
After his break was over he grabbed a cup of coffee and some sugar and half&half and walked over to Ryan’s desk.
He placed the coffee on the desk and Ryan looked up from his computer with an irritated look.
“Thanks again for covering for me this morning.” He said, placing the sugar and creamer next to the cup.
Before Ryan had a chance to say anything Marc continued.
“The queue seems to have calmed down. If you want, I can probably do some callbacks.” Marc offered.
Ryan looked back with a deeply skeptical and suspicious look.
“And, it would be great if I could hitch a ride back North after work. I couldn’t get the car going, so I had to hitch a ride in this morning.”
Having discovered the reason for Marc’s behavior, Ryan smiled, his superiority reinforced.
“You live in Silver City, right?” He asked.
“Yeah, If you can take me as far as Bayard, that would save me. I can walk the rest of the way.” Marc offered.
Ryan thought about it for a moment. Then answered.
“Sure, no problem. And if you can help me with a few of these, that would be great.” He reached over and grabbed about two-thirds of the callback forms on his desk and handed them to Marc.
“Sure thing. Not a problem.” Marc said, then walked back to his desk.
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Ryan ended up taking Marc all the way back to Silver City and dropping him off in front of his house.
Marc had to chuckle to himself about how easy it was to deal with people like Ryan. They weren’t the terrible human beings that he used to see them as. Just normal people trying to carve out the best place in the world for themselves with whatever tools they had at their disposal.
Ryan even offered to give him a lift back to the office on Monday if he couldn’t get his car running.
Marc thanked him and went into his house. Head still spinning through the events of the last day.
Just as when he had been sent to the other world, nothing made sense. Everything just happened without any explanation. He had prepared himself for his end. Welcomed it in fact. But the look on Kira’s face. Something was wrong. Something happened.
Now he was back in his old body. In his old life. Nothing remaining of his once great power. Nothing except his memories. In fact, he still had all his memories.
He realized that he still had his perfect memory, at least his memory of the other world. He could remember every moment. Every smell, every taste. From the first second after he was transported, to the last look on his companion’s face.
He could remember that world better than he could his life here. He still had the same difficulty recalling his childhood which was normal before he left this world. He could remember some of the kids he went to school with, but not many details, or even their faces. He still couldn’t remember most of the names of the people he had worked with over the last year even.
His memories of the other world were perfect, but it was like they were stored in a different part of his brain. As though it wasn’t himself, but someone else who did all that, then copied it all into his memory somehow.
Everything he had learned about dimensional magic, which was arguably not that much, told him nothing about what might be the cause of this. He wondered if what he was seeing was even real, or perhaps this was just a dream he had in the split second as the energy supporting his existence evaporated.
The disappearance of Mary was also a cloud over his thoughts. It was as if she never existed at all. What did this all mean? What was he going to do now?
He lamented the loss of his power. On the other hand, considering the many thousands of times he had cursed his weak and immortal body in the past, he welcomed the return of his normal, human body.
Sure it was a bit rough compared to the purified version that he got in the transfer, but it could grow. It could get older. Maybe even grow a beard someday.
He missed Kira. Thoughts like these were her bread and butter. She lived to chide and harass him. It felt so lonely to be without her sharp insults.
“Like you could ever grow a decent beard anyway, or chest hair for that matter.” He said to himself with a chuckle. Saying her lines in her absence.
He looked around the house. It was… well, it was a dump. He missed his personal space. He could fabricate anything he wanted there. A mansion with the softest beds. A full kitchen with every tool imaginable to cook anything he had ever eaten in this life.
The dirt and grime, The peeling wallpaper. The bathroom. Oh God the bathroom. He needed a cleaning spell so much right now.
He laughed. Hardly what a follower of the Path should say. He thought he had done well, abstaining from the unnecessary use of magic. Living with nature instead of trying to control it.
Now at the first sight of a cockroach he was ready to pull out a lightning bolt.
“Oh shit! A cockroach!”
He scrambled around looking for a shoe or a book or anything to defeat the great beast occupying his kitchen. After half an hour, he gave up the battle as lost and hid in his room.
Marc spent the weekend starting the process of rebuilding his life. He had been gone for no time at all, but he was no longer the same person.
He managed to get the car working again. Happy that his mechanical abilities, meager as they were, had not disappeared in the last 60 years. If anything his memories of working with the craftsman and Earth mages of the other world seemed to guide him to the problem with his carburetor faster than normal.
Then he went to the Walmart and raided the cleaning supplies. He scrubbed the double-wide, top to bottom, and threw out most of his old junk. His old papers went into the bin, and his toys went to the family next door, although he kept his video games and books.
By Sunday night he had scoured the kitchen, replaced the old wallpaper, and… decided the bathroom could wait until next weekend.
Where was a good cleaning spell when you needed one? Or a fire spell?
He was ready to head back into work on Monday. He wasn’t sure if he would keep working there, but for now, it was a place to build up some cash. He needed resources, and for that he needed money.
On Monday, the Second Iraq War started.