Flash Fiction: The Loop
Prompt from
at Stop Writing Alone:A friendly dragon living in the forest invents a gadget that will change the world… add a jail break.
By Vince Wetzel
On one hand, Jason thought, he had to finish this tonight.
On the other hand, he knew it would happen, or else he wouldn’t be here right now.
Here in his workshop, a 10,000 square-foot warehouse on his 100-acre compound in Northern California, Jason was working on something that was so monumental that it would change the world. It would change time itself.
But part of him wondered what if he didn’t complete this task tonight? What if he set down the sauntering iron, stepped back, sat down and had a beer? What would happen? Would all of this around him disappear? Would he even exist? Or would he be in a maximum security prison?
Jason did step back. He breathed deep. If ever there was an existential crisis, this was it. But, forty years ago, he was told specifically to finish this task tonight. That everything that would happen to him all depended on him finishing.
So, he went back to work. And by 10 p.m., he was done. All he had to do was flip the switch, push forward the detailed plan that was given to him all that time ago, and for the rest of his life, he’d be finally free. There would be no more expectations. He’d live in comfort. He wouldn’t have this obligation hanging over him.
He looked at the device, just a walk-in chamber, almost looked like an outhouse. He thought back to a movie of his youth, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. They got a few things right, he thought. He went to the desk and gathered the papers that he meticulously copied from the documents he received 40 years ago. He put them in a large resealable plastic bag and placed them in his leather satchel.
Jason went back to the chamber and entered. In front of him was the display that he installed in the last year. He remembered when this all seemed like science fiction to him. A phone? A touchscreen? He remembered the moment in 2004 when the iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs. He was in a Starbucks and he spit out his coffee as he read the news. The technology was real, and his capital was about to increase 100-fold.
Okay. This was it. The moment of truth. Time to test if his blind faith was well deserved or if this was one big 40-year-old joke and he was about to burst into flames. After all, he had followed the instructions given him. Sure, he studied theoretical physics and got a Masters. But he had the answers beforehand. So it wasn’t that hard. But still, was this really going to happen?
He pushed the buttons on the iPhone. The bubble came up.
Initiate?
A breath. Then he pushed Yes.
There was a glow that enveloped the chamber. It shook. It rattled. Jason didn’t breathe for the next thirty-five seconds until everything stopped and he wasn’t engulfed in a ball of flame.
When Jason stepped out, he was back on his father’s sod farm in Bakersfield, CA, just like he said he would be. Right next to him was his dad’s farm truck, a 1977 Chevy with duel tires in the back. And just like he remembered, there was a hideakey with a spare set in the passenger wheel well.
Oh my god, this is real. He had blindly put faith in the old man for 40 years and now he knew.
Jason drove downtown and straight to the jail where he would need to bust out the man who would retain the legacy. It was time to pass the torch.
He parked the truck on the side street. He pulled out the papers for which he paid a lot of money in his 30s, when he could barely afford to, and pulled on his glasses, adjusted his tie and walked into the jailhouse.
Jason approached the front desk of the police station to the desk sergeant. He wasn’t good at acting, but now he had to put on an Academy-Award winning performance. But he knew that it worked before, so at least that gave him some confidence. Jason cleared his throat.
“Yes, I’m here for Jason Kingsbury,” Jason said. “I have these orders from Judge Rensfield to release him.”
Another test to see if Jason had made the right choices. Did he pay the right forger and make the right bribes to pull together these right court documents. He tried to look calm, but his heart was beating faster than he had ever felt before. After all, his very existence depended on this working.
The Sergeant looked them over. Then he went to his own papers and shuffled through them. Jason almost laughed. No computer. No digital cross referencing. But what was that look? One thing about digital records, there is a trust and an abdication of human scrutiny. This Sergeant wasn’t falling for that. He took a closer look at the document.
“Judge Rensfeld sent this?” The Sergeant asked. The old man didn’t say anything about this part. Was Jsaon screwing up? Was this the end of the line? Jsaon tried to look calm, though his insides were exploding.
“Yes,” Jason seemed to say. Jason was going to be discovered. He was sure.
The sergeant continued to look.
“Maybe I should call him,” he said.
“Go ahead,” Jason found himself saying. “But you know Judge Rensfield. You interrupt him while he watches Peoples Court and he gets upset.”
It was a guess. He remembered watching Judge Wapner as a kid and it was around this time of day.
The sergeant considered this.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “I’m sure it’s fine. I’ll have him released to you, Mr. Tresman?”
“Yes, Michael Tresman.”
“Have a seat and we’ll send him out,” the sergeant said.
As Jason sat, he knew the first hurdle was met. Now, was a leap of faith. He had to convince the young man released into his custody to change his entire life. Otherwise, everything, even his own life would unravel.
Jason waited. Forty-five minutes later, a young 18-year-old kid stepped out, wearing baggie jeans, a stained white tank top and a flannel shirt.
“Jason,” Jason called. No reaction. Jason sighed. He hated what he had to say next. “Dragon.”
The young man turned and looked warily at the man.
Did I really look this stupid? Jason thought. He shook off the thought. He couldn’t judge if he was going to accomplish this next part of the plan.
Dragon walked, more like strutted, to Jason. He was intimidating, but Jason remembered, the tough exterior was only a front.
“What’s up? Who are you?”
“Let’s get out of here.” Jason said, leading Dragon out of the police station. The sooner they left, the better.
When they got to the street. Dragon stopped and turned back to Jason.
“Hey man, who are you? How’d you get me out?”
“You gotta come with me man,” Jason found himself reverting to the dialect he adopted in high school. He caught himself wondering how it came so naturally, even after all this time.
Dragon walked behind him silent. Jason remembered Dragon was working out how he got out of jail, after committing grand larceny by stealing pipe from a farm, just a couple of miles down the road from his dad’s plot of land. Dragon’s scheme was ill conceived from the start. And he was caught, his truck with hundreds of feet of pipe with no explanation of how he got it. Dragon just wanted some extra cash to lift his truck higher. God, he was dumb.
When Jason and Dragon reached their father’s car, Dragon stopped cold. Jason predicted this as well, the conversation coming back as if it was yesterday.
“Yo, how did you get my dad’s truck.”
“The keys in the front wheel well.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Same way I know that you’re a genius with math and science but tanked tests because you didn’t want to be a smart kid. That you go to the library to read Scientific American. That you want to go to MIT, but your plan is to go to community college first, because that’s more acceptable.”
“What the fuck man?”
“Get in.” Jason said, opening the door.
“What the fuck man?”
Jason removed his glasses. He remembered this precise action from 40 years ago, but now saw the effect from the other side. This was nuts, Jason thought. This was real and it was happening.
Dragon stumbled back, recognizing the aging face in front of him. He was so stunned that Jason had to push him into the truck. As they drove, Jason explained everything. How forty years ago, he had been approached by an older version of himself and presented a specific set of instructions that would take place over the next forty years. Some of those instructions included purchasing various stocks at the right times, studying the right courses, making the right choices and conducting the right experiments. It was all written down and if he followed these instructions to the letter, he would be rich. He would have everything he needed and in 40 years he could do whatever he wanted.
“Wait, so like, I become you?” Dragon asked as they pulled back to their father’s sod farm.
“If you follow these instructions,” Jason pointed to the plastic bag. “No deviations. You have to do everything at the right times. Or else your life will cease to exist as you know it.”
“Fuck,” Dragon said.
“But you will have invented a gadget that will change the world.” Jason smiled.
The chamber was still there, and Jason smiled. He wanted to stay longer and give Dragon more advice to help him along the way. But he remembered that the old man who appeared before him forty years ago had not stayed long either. It was time to move on. Time to get on with the rest of his life, free from these expectations.
“But,” Dragon started. Jason raised his hand before going to Dragon and placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Look, it’s all in those sheets. I know you can do this. I know it because I just did it. You’ve got this.”
Dragon didn’t move. Jason touched Dragon’s cheek. Wow, it was so young and so smooth. The next 40 years were on their way. Jason was more excited than he’d ever been. His new life awaited him.
Jason stepped into the chamber. He gave a final wave to his younger self and looked at the embedded iPhone. He tapped the screen a couple of times before the prompt came up again.
Initiate?
Jason pressed Yes for the second time in two hours.
Again, the glow, the rumble. Then everything went black.
And it stayed that way.
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