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A Million and Seven Ways to Live

Time had never moved this fast before; the universe must have been showing us our futures, showing us how the world would reward us for ending the time skips.

By Miranda EnglishPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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Twenty grand could change a life. At least depending on where I was for the moment and assuming I could keep the money over the time hops. But the sign had been here for a week. The games and challenges had changed with every jump, yet the poster stayed. Always said twenty grand.

The challenge was marked for today. For now, it was to see who could ride a bull the longest, but the universe would change it again.

“Some man named Seven dropped this off for you.” I paused in the doorway of today’s job as my boss spoke. I didn’t even get to hit him with my daily joke of ‘what are we doing today?’ He held out a little black notebook. The edges were worn, the outside of the book obviously had been thrown around for ages, and the pages were used and crinkled. I stared at it. I didn’t reach out for it. He glanced up when he noticed I wasn’t going to take it. “He said it was yours.”

“I don’t know anyone named Seven.” I reached for it anyways. Almost as if brought on by the book itself, the view from outside of the windows changed. The street cars and cobblestone streets changed to the sparking unknown. I stood in a futuristic fuel station, stars and moons not far from the glass looking out. I pulled myself up onto one of the big chest freezers, crossing my legs, and opened the notebook.

The first page had four lines outlined.

Skin to skin

Will make time’s spiral stop.

A competition to win,

A victory of forever on the hilltop.

The rest of the words disappeared under my gaze, clearly not for me. Whoever Seven was, he knew about the time jumps. And the book knew how to make them stop.

I looked up panic, suddenly aware of my employer giving a speech to everyone working. People had stopped where they were walking, some leaned against the counter. I glanced toward the pop coolers.

A man was leaning against one of the glass doors with his arms crossed, listening just like everyone else. The gears in my head stuttered, pausing on the man. I was stuck on him.

He finally spared a little glance toward me; the crooked smile verified everything.

He was Seven.

I blinked as I turned away from him to focus on anything else, but I was in a dark room crowded with people. A band was playing on stage and I was in a trance again.

I stopped to the right of the stage. The light illuminated Seven as he strummed his guitar, serenading the people with his perfect voice, then pulling away from the microphone to make a little show of it. His eyes caught mine immediately and he smiled.

I crossed my legs, finding myself in a big chair on a stage with too many people looking at me. A woman was asking me about a best selling fantasy book I had written, showing me glittery artwork and pictures people had created in my name, but before I could answer, I found Seven’s eyes in the crowd.

My shoes sunk in soft earth, wind brushing around me. Over the hill, I could see the growing city below us. Time had never moved this fast before; the universe must have been showing us our futures, showing us how the world would reward us for ending the time skips.

“The book said this is where we’re supposed to meet.” Seven spoke, making me notice that he might have been standing next to me the whole time.

“Are we going to remember anything when it stops?” I looked at him as he took in the city. He shrugged.

“We might remember that.” He pointed to an engraved brick. Seven loves Million.

“Was that you or the book?”

“I’ve known about you a lot longer than you’ve known about me, I just didn’t know how this would end.” He paused, finally meeting my eyes. “Twenty grand seemed like a good place to start ov--” As he was talking, the world changed around us. We were at the start of the universe's challenge, bows in hand and staring down two targets.

We both readied our arrows and released. His was a dead bullseye. Mine was just barely to the right of center. As we turned to look at each other, we were staring at opposite ends of a bar.

“And for answering 1967, Seven wins!” The tv above the bartender emitted a loud train horn and suddenly we were standing in an old steam engine, barrelling toward a bridge. In panic we both looked at each other, masked and holding bags of god knows what.

“What kind of competition is this?” I hissed, shaking the bag to reiterate my point. He shrugged and I followed his lead, both of us peeking in the bags. He had stolen more. Seven laughed, and leaped from the train. I wasn’t far behind him. The air pushed past me as I descended toward the river, and the cold water revitalized my need for victory.

When we both came up for our breaths, we were in an olympic sized pool. I shoved myself from the wall, letting my lungs burn as I fought for my place against the next wall. When my hands hit the cool tile, I came up again to declare my victory over him.

As he mumbled a curse, he sat his losing cards down on the green felt table. I cheered, standing up to pull the chips toward me.

But my hands moved against a steering wheel and my body was against a leather seat. The hood of the car glittered against a starry sky and the tires felt like they were riding on air. My engine kicked as I jerked in front of him, effectively passing him just in time to fly over the finishing line.

I was propelled from the car and landed hard in the dirt. The world smelled of smoke and the mud stuck to my skin. He landed not far from me. The metal handle of a sword was tight in my hand. I shoved myself up from the earth. I spun just fast enough to block a winded blow from him.

The metal turned to sharp stone against my skin. I clawed and swung my way up the side of the mountain, but no matter how hard I pushed my body, he remained just ahead of me. He climbed over the edge like a man scattering for his life, and cheers erupted over the cliff. I closed my eyes, pausing on the mountainside to catch my breath, but when I opened them - it had all changed.

It was dark. Seven’s face had just barely come into view when I looked down at the black notebook in my hand. The leather material against my fingertips felt so foreign, so uncomfortable in my hand.

When I looked up at him, he was holding the twenty grand from his victory.

We were something; two people who had lived hundreds of lifetimes pushed together by the universe. By a book and twenty grand.

“I’m scared.” My voice sounded empty and lost in the dark around us. He nodded slowly, his eyes looking as cloudy as mine felt. “What’s going to happen to us?” I held the notebook out like I wanted him to take it.

“Whatever it is, we’re going to do it together.” He answered. “We’re going to start over. It has to work.”

“What if we don’t remember? What if we get separated again?” But of course, neither of us knew the answer to that. Both of us were afraid of what came next. What might not come next. Our future was coming and it was going to be permanent.

Seven held his hand out. I could see him trembling slightly. A heavy breath filled my lungs as I prepared myself to reach out. But reaching out seemed so easy compared to the rest.

I grabbed his hand and we fell into each other, our joined hands clutched between our chests. His free arm threw around my shoulders to keep me close, and I put mine around his lower back.

We braced for the explosion. We braced for a collapse of the world around us. We braced for everything to end.

But it all seemed to fade instead. The end felt as gentle as falling asleep, the feeling of sinking that’s hard to remember. A calm darkness and a peace of mind.

I woke up alone. My mind was calm and the body I belonged in felt rested. When I went to sit up, a piece of paper crunched in my hand. I let go of it in mild panic, then lazily stretched from the couch to get it off of the floor.

A page from a notebook,

Half of a prize.

Two chosen overtook,

Time’s ever changing challenge dies.

Find your partner on the overlook,

Under purple skies

And begin anew.

I didn’t understand. Where was this from? Who was this from? I took a small glance around the room to see if I could notice anything out of place, but even the place itself seemed weird. I had been here, I knew it deep down, yet it also seemed so unfamiliar.

Why couldn’t I remember anything?

But an aching gnaw in my chest pushed me out to my car. Drove me out on the highway. Guided me up the back roads leading to the park. The roads leading to the overlook. Then my feet took over, walking along the trail.

There was a man sitting at one of the scenic benches that stood over the entire overlook. Nervously, he gave a little wave. I waved back. As I started over, he stood and met me in the middle.

“Do you have a notebook and ten thousand dollars?” I couldn’t help the awkward little laugh that came with the absurd sentence.

“Yes!” He held up the black notebook in his hand. “Do you remember anything? Because I woke up with a notebook and money next to me and I have no idea where either came from.”

He frowned when I shook my head. “Nope, I don’t remember anything either. But what I’m getting from all of this is that we must have won at something pretty awesome, and I’m going to say it was sword fighting.” I teased. He laughed, the tenseness and weirdness of the situation melting from his shoulders.

“We raced in space and played high stakes poker.” He added with a joking nod of the head. He glanced down to try to find the next part of our conversation but he noticed something among the engraved bricks that littered the overlook floor. He chuckled.

“Hey, that’s my name.” He pointed at the brick a hop or two away from us. I read it and couldn’t help the little smile creeping on my face.

“Your name’s Seven?” I glanced up at him, and he nodded. “That’s funny, my name’s Million.”

“Well, according to the overlook, I loved you at some point.” We were both quiet for a moment, taking in the city bustling below us and the train track standing over the river flowing around the buildings. It all seemed so small from our view.

“Do you want to go get some coffee? We have plenty of money for a cup or two.” I offered, calling both of our attention back to each other. Something felt right about this. We were supposed to be here. We were meant to find each other.

“For twenty grand, we better be able to get more than a cup or two.” He laughed. “Let’s buy the coffee shop.” His smile was radiant as he started walking toward his car. I skipped with my heart to catch up, ready to race to our new adventure.

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