Calibrations

New Jersey 2002

"You owe me a fucking explanation," Gerard said as he approached the mysterious man. He still had no idea what the mysterious man was doing here, where he had been for the last ten years, or if he was even real, but Gerard was about to find out. He'd get some answers out of the mysterious man if it killed him.

The mysterious man paused and took a sip of his coffee. "You're right," he said. "I'll answer your questions, but I can't do it here. Why don't we head outside for a little bit?"

The mysterious man gestured toward the door, and Gerard followed him out of the house. They wandered through the neighborhood, going down all of the side streets and passing by all of the little shops and houses. The mysterious man didn't say a word, but Gerard didn't mind the silence. It was peaceful, listening to the birds and crickets in the distance. It took his mind off of everything that had happened so far that night.

They were about a block away from the house where the album release party was presumably still going on when Gerard finally asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm you from the future," the mysterious man answered.

"Yeah, right," Gerard said. "You're saying that just to mess with me."

"I'm serious," the mysterious man said.

"That's not possible," Gerard said. "Time travel isn't real."

The mysterious man sighed, exasperated. "I don't want to argue over this," he said. "Just humor me, okay?"

"Fine," Gerard said. To be fair, if the mysterious man really was a time traveler from the future, it would explain a lot: why he'd said that he was in the wrong year, how he was seemingly able to vanish into thin air, why he and Gerard looked so much alike. He just couldn't bring himself to believe it. "What year are you from?"

"2019," the mysterious man answered.

"Wow, that's pretty far away," Gerard said. "How old will I be in 2019? Forty-five, right?"

"I'm forty-two, actually," the mysterious man said.

"Either I've gotten a lot better at math, or you're not really me."

"Trust me, I haven't gotten any better at math since I was your age. I still can't add most of the time."

Gerard paused and then asked, "So if you're from the future, then what are you doing here?"

The mysterious man thought about it for a while, trying to find the right words. Meanwhile, Gerard stared off into space. "Frank dies," he finally said.

"Everyone dies eventually."

"That's not what I meant." He paused again and then said, "Three years ago, Frank was on tour with his solo project..."

"Three years ago? Like, when I was in college?"

"Sorry, I meant three years ago relative to my time," the mysterious man said. "You know, time travel is just so confusing. The Watch has a whole handbook on situations like this, but who the fuck wants to conjugate verbs in the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional?"

"Whatever, Figment," Gerard said.

"What did you just call me?"

"Figment. Because you're not real. You're a figment of my imagination."

"I swear I'm real, but honestly, that's not a bad nickname," Figment said. "I should give you one too. What do you want me to call you?"

"Gerard is fine."