The Leaf

Glitch

Raymond

Multiple cars left the Mudi front lawn at the same time as if a signal had told the boring people the night was over. Couples like the Wesleys left the younger, more vibrant couples to party into the morning.

Driving home, the autopilot left Raymond ample time to evaluate his odds of success in following Tony Wesley's life choices. Lowered by how much he didn't want to remind Claire of him.

The passenger seat framed her dress in black leather, diagonally cut by the seatbelt she always gripped when her husband was driving. Now her arms followed her body, relaxed as she watched the city lights, turning her head whenever she saw something that might interest him.

"That's the oldest building in the city, standing tall for almost a thousand years," she showed lights that failed to make sense to Raymond. Spotlights focused on portions of greyed out walls, the full picture inaccessible to him because of how badly his eyes hurt. As opposed to when in his virtual lives, he couldn't rewind to see it better. He could search through a public record database and identify it, but he would never see exactly what she wanted him to see.

"When we pass the next intersection," he recognized the place he'd been hoping all his past life he'd get to without triggering any alarm, "The glitch starts. Thirty-four hours of no recorded data. Starting at 23:09, 11:09 PM."

"And we can do whatever we want?"

"That's the beauty of this portion of the map -- after the glitch, everything is exactly as before, making it unnecessary for anyone to try to recover it. The entire neighborhood is so content that their life just continues more or less the same. Life-changing events are rare, months apart. Because it covers Saturday night and Sunday through the day, nothing changes so there'll be little interest in getting that information back."

Claire didn't turn, still looking out the window. Her legs stretched out of her very short dress in parallel lines, covered by the same smooth skin as the one covering her arms, white made blueish because of the brighter white of her dress. Metallic short nails tried to pull the hem lower to cover more of it, and Raymond realized he'd been staring.

"Is everyone so... content? I always thought they were pretending to be happy. Like me and Tony were," she verified his reaction with a side glance.

"Actually, our data shows everyone is at least as happy as they look. Small problems, yes, recurring fights that get solved and then reopened. Your friend Nico is happy, her wife too. They enjoy spending time together. As their friends, your friends."

"As I've said," he reminded also himself, "You are one of the last remaining leaves of your time. We simply missed how Wesley operated, or your life would've been fixed too."

The red light marked the last block before Haywood Street, where the Wesley home was second on the left, identical to the all the houses inlined with it. The same exterior paint, shining white.

"It's why there are no beggars on the street," he said. "Anywhere."

The clock on the dashboard kept showing 11:08 PM, it should've changed already. Just as Raymond was about to irrationally blame some sort of Superior intervention, it went to 11:09.

Claire didn't understand, "What's a beggar?"

Claire

"People who ask for food from others. Usually homeless, left to fend for themselves," Raymond explained. "Without refactored history, you would have seen them on the street, then discussed as a problem on TV. How to make them disappear from public view. Not searching for a solution, just to push them further from everyone else."

"What's there to discuss, just give them food and shelter," Claire couldn't imagine a world where an orphan like her wouldn't have everything provided for. Her education had never been an issue, let alone survival. Or care even, as the state's social services were very effective. It didn't make up for the death of both her parents before she was four, but she couldn't blame the workers who constantly visited her. They did care about her, it was her who preferred to keep away.

"A lot of things get unnecessarily discussed over the course of multiple histories, leaving others not discussed enough. Like how in another time, Nico would've also kept the fact that she had been born biologically male, but for very different reasons."

"Why would anyone care?" People didn't really comment on other people's life decisions, at least not with Claire.

"They don't now, but there were times when that would have required an explanatory conversation. Even saying it to the wrong people could've made her a target. Me saying it like this to you would've been considered a breach, considering the dangers involved."

Raymond kept looking at the clock, so Claire turned to see him better, "The glitch... started? We can be ourselves?"

"Yes, and also practice the more difficult parts of our arrangement," he said.

"Is that what you meant by us getting used to each other?"

"Yes, it's important we are comfortable around each other," the car parked itself as he kept his eyes on her. "We can't fake your stats, so your responses need to read as close as possible to the logs. Since you like... interacting with your husband in bed, we can't be awkward or unaccustomed to each other's touch."

Like in high school, trembling hands discovering new joys. Claire missed that feeling, so she was happy to have a reason to recreate it.

"Unfortunately I can't connect to your WiFi's ancient protocol so I can't show you the next scene we need to reproduce but it's not that acrobatic. I can guide you through it."

So serious, Claire smiled to herself in the passenger mirror, one last check before getting out of the car.

He waited like Tony would have, then followed her inside the house. Claire left her shoes in the middle of the living room, "I'm gonna ignore them for however long this glitch takes. Tony would've freaked," she smiled to Raymond, blocked by the stiletto obstacles.

He looked back at her again, liking her game, same grin he had whenever meeting her deviousness up-close. Like it was always new to him.

"So, you've watched videos of me and Tony?" she asked to rattle him, expecting some sort of hurried denial, maybe apologies.

"We're not as ashamed of sex as you are. Generally, everyone knows everything about everyone," he avoided the personal angle. "It's like watching two people playing cards. And it's not videos, it's information."

"I don't care either way, as I haven't done anything yet," Claire said. "I'm just wondering how your mind works."