Arnesto Modesto: The World's Most Ineffectual Time Traveler

Cutting Ties

Outside Katrina's Apartment

Wednesday, September 18, 1991

3:30 p.m.

"It's good not owning a lot of stuff, isn't it?" Arnesto asked, looking into the fifteen-foot U-Haul barely a third full despite containing all their belongings. "What time is it?"

"About 3:30," Katrina said. Arnesto shut and locked the cargo door. "Perfect. Time for one last lap around the college before heading to the highway. You can drive, I have one loose end to take care of," he said, tossing her the keys. After a quick stop at the manager's office to turn in their apartment keys, they left the complex, drove downtown past Mona's, and arrived on campus.

They drove past the dorm where Arnesto had paid $440 each month for one of the creaky twin beds in a shared bedroom he had hardly seen since moving in with Katrina more than a year and a half earlier. Despite having moved out, the university still forced him to pay because he was younger than twenty-three. Somebody had to pay for the new sports arena. "College: America's greatest racketeers," he said. Katrina ignored him. She was busy getting used to driving the truck, which was much bigger than anything she had driven before.

They drove past the administration building, where employees were trained in the fine art of extortion. Next came the student union. Things were quiet at this particular time; there were only two visible student protest groups marching outside. Arnesto watched them for a moment, then lost interest and resumed his search.

The quad came after that, followed by the library. Arnesto had gone in once for a few minutes his freshman year. As a computer science major, he had little use of the place and never returned. On one side of the library was the buyback area, where if one had managed to keep his eighty-five-dollar textbook in pristine condition the entire semester, the university would happily buy it back for a buck and a half.

On the western edge of campus, and a full mile from his dorm — a long walk during the lengthy Massachusetts winter — sat the computer science building. Inside was the computer lab, where Arnesto spent many evening hours hunting for errant semicolons. Across the hall was the printer area, where after emailing their completed projects, students could wait in line for other students paid two dollars per hour to retrieve their printouts from the row of dot matrix printers behind them.

At last, driving past the soccer fields on the final leg of their loop, Arnesto saw what he was looking for. He eyed the skinny young men jogging alongside the road in their matching uniforms, including shorts revealing far too much of their long, twiggy legs. Arnesto felt a little embarrassed for them, even though it was the current fashion. They passed the bulk of the team before Arnesto saw a familiar mullet on the head of one of the frontrunners.

"Slow down a little," he said to Katrina as he rolled down his window.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hey, Terrance!" he yelled out the passenger window as the truck began overtaking the mulleted runner. "Stop shoplifting! You're going to get kicked out of school, idiot!"

Katrina was almost as surprised as Terrance, who didn't recognize the person who had just yelled at him. "Friend of yours?" she asked.

"He was once," he said, rolling up the window. "It's complicated. We can go now. On to California!"

* * *

The cross-country road trip to the Bay Area took about a week. A week after that, he was scheduled for an interview at Smiling Axolotl Games, his old job. He arrived ten minutes early, parked, and walked in.