Playing with Chronos

“Michaela! Where’s Michaela?” Zoe screamed at the top of her lungs. Tears were falling down her face, streaking her wedding day make-up, and a lock of hair had fallen out of its place in Zoe’s extravagant hairdo. Michaela came in through the old oak door with panic-stricken eyes.

“Here! I’m here!” she announced while heaving up her strapless pink dress.

“Everyone out!” Zoe ordered and the other bridesmaids shuffled out as quickly as they could, acknowledging that only a best friend could solve whatever Zoe’s problem was.

“What happened?” Michaela asked as calmly as she could manage.

“My father has thrown a tantrum and is refusing to walk me down the aisle! How is this even possible?” Zoe bawled.

“Why would he do that?” Michaela frowned, reaching out to place a comforting hand on Zoe’s arm.

“He said that I barely talk to him, and that I should have Mom walk with me instead because I clearly love her more, and he’s refusing to change his mind, and-” Zoe explained, being cut off by her own weeping.

“I’ll go talk to him?” Michaela suggested as Zoe fell into a chair and grabbed a water bottle.

“It won’t…” she began, trailing off as she saw familiarity in the water bottle’s logo. “Let’s go back in time.”

“To when?”

“When I was a child, when he took a liking to gambling and started to drift away from Mom and I,” Zoe breathed, disappointed to see Michaela frown.

“If you changed that, there would be so many consequences, Zoe. You can’t change something so significant, surely,” she countered as Zoe reached into her handbag. She revealed the Chronos and closed her eyes, signalling to Michaela that she was going to go through with it.

“No!” Michaela exclaimed as she lunged forwards, shocking Zoe as she reached out to grip onto the Chronos as well. “I’m not letting you do this alone.” Zoe smiled through her tears.

“If you stay here, you’ll forget about all of the stress I’ve put you through by travelling through time with me. You’ll have a normal life again,” she proposed but Michaela shook her head.

“Who knows what changes this will bring. It might erase our friendship, and I never want to forget you. We’ve been through so much,” Michaela justified. Zoe accepted that her best friend wasn’t going anywhere.

“Okay,” Zoe said with a nod before resting her finger above the hourglass button. “Do you remember that summer’s evening you were playing in the backyard with me, and your father yelled at you to come back? And we both got really scared?” Michaela’s face fell.

“That’s something I’ll never forget…”

“Well after you went home, I walked in on my parents arguing about my father’s gambling. It was the first time I had heard anything about it, so I want to go back to that moment,” Zoe explained.

“I’ll think about it too, so it’s clearer,” Michaela agreed and then they both focused on the memory. Once Zoe pressed the button, the browns of the wood in the room became hazy and warm oranges and greens of a summer’s evening spun into the mix. Michaela became entranced with the younger version of herself, sitting in Zoe’s sandpit and laughing with pure joy as she pressed sticks evenly into the top of her sandcastle. The two girls’ happiness was broken by the growling of Michaela’s father, his tone so livid that it made them both tremble as Michaela got to her feet. Child Michaela hurried around the fence and into her lounge to receive an unnecessary scolding, and the two transparent adults walked after child Zoe as she too went back inside.

“Did you ever find out what put him in such a bad mood?” Zoe wondered as she stared over the fence at the child version of Michaela beginning to cry.

“No,” Michaela sighed, not looking as she knew it would only dredge up pain she had tried so hard to bury. “Let’s just fix your father and get out of here.”

“Right,” Zoe agreed as she fiddled with the Chronos in search of an appropriate command to sway her father’s life choices. “What do you think is better, ‘love family more’ or ‘more responsible’?”

“Love family more, definitely,” Michaela answered and Zoe selected that command. She stood behind the child version of herself as she peered through the kitchen doorway, clutching a teddy bear as she watched her parents shout about gambling. Zoe inhaled slowly to calm herself, gave a quick mental reassurance that she was doing the right thing, then zapped her father. Moments after the silver ray had been entirely absorbed by him, he turned and noticed his daughter in the doorway.

“I remember this. He yelled at me, for the first time ever,” Zoe whispered as she unknowingly took a step back from the scene. Michaela grabbed her hand and halted her, already noticing a change in Zoe’s father’s expression.

“Zoe, darling, I’m so sorry,” her father breathed as tears welled in his eyes. He then turned to his wife, pleading for forgiveness. “You’re right, I need to stop, for my girl…”

“It worked,” Michaela smiled before embracing her friend, glad that Zoe was not only going to have her dream wedding but also that some of her childhood pain had been healed.

“I feel better already,” Zoe remarked before movement outside the window caught her attention. She approached the window and peeked over the fence again, watching Michaela’s past-self experience a similarly traumatic moment. “I can fix that.”

“You don’t have to,” Michaela quickly countered but Zoe shook her head.

“It’s the least I can do, after you’ve helped me so much,” she insisted while flicking through the different command options. Zoe decided a simple ‘happier’ order was sufficient and zapped Michaela’s father. The unknown pain was eased and he stopped taking out his rage on his child. Instead of continuing to yell at her, like Michaela recalled, he scooped his daughter into his arms and apologised profusely as he fetched her an ice-block from the freezer.

“That’s amazing…” Michaela muttered as she felt a weight come off her shoulders.

“All right, let’s go back so I can get married,” Zoe declared and Michaela turned to her to smile, but instead hesitated.

“Except you’re in a t-shirt and shorts instead of your wedding dress,” she pointed out. Michaela then looked down to see herself in a similar outfit instead of her bridesmaid dress.

“Maybe it’s tomorrow. Or next week,” Zoe said with a wince, uncertain as to what had happened.

“Let’s go back and find out?” Michaela suggested and once they were both holding onto the Chronos, Zoe hit the return button. The blue pastels of Zoe’s old house swarmed upwards to form a sky and green swirled around their feet to create grass. Once they were back to normal, Zoe hid the Chronos 300 in her back pocket. Standing before them were Jayden and Blake, looking to the sky as they laughed and shouted about how awesome something was. The girls diverted their gaze upwards and saw a model airplane swooping around the sky, being controlled by Jayden in his backyard. Zoe stepped forwards and Jayden held out the remote control to her.

“Let me guess, you want to fly your favourite wedding present again because you can’t stay away from it for two minute?” he asked and she grinned, taking the controls and making the plane fly in a couple of loops. As she did so, she noticed that her engagement ring had been switched for the wedding ring. Her heart sunk as she realised that after all her efforts to try to have a perfect wedding, she had missed out on it.

“All right, as amazing as that plane is, we should get on with our game. I’ll be late to work if we don’t get started soon,” Blake said and Zoe groaned.

“Okay, I’ll stop…” she sighed, forcing herself to land the model airplane. Michaela turned to head back to Zoe and Jayden’s house and spotted the packaging the plane must have come in, a large box that had been gift-wrapped and its instructions and spare parts were lying amongst the grass nearby. She crouched down to pack it away when suddenly a mop of blonde hair appeared by her side. Michaela naturally flinched away from Blake, expecting to become the victim of a practical joke.

“I’ve got it,” he said, taking over and packing the remaining items into the box before lifting it up. Michaela remained frozen for a few moments as she watched Blake carrying the box back to the house, wondering where his politeness had come from and why his jokes were missing. Nonetheless, she stood and followed Zoe and Jayden towards the tennis court, smiling wide as she watched them walk arm in arm with adoring gazes still on their faces. She couldn’t help but wonder if they were destined to be together, regardless of the changes they had made in the past. Distracted by the happily married couple, Michaela walked through the gate after them without a second thought and she was met with a burst of water from behind her. She screamed with fright and spun on her heels to see Blake tossing the hose aside as he howled with laughter.

“I thought he had changed,” Michaela muttered to Zoe as she handed Miachaela a tennis racquet.

“It was too good to be true,” Zoe grinned before bouncing over to her side of the court. Michaela playfully glared at Blake as he strode across the court, but she became a little concerned when he didn’t stop at his half of the court and instead continued towards her. Blake closed the distance between them and swooped his arms around her, pressing against her wet back and bringing her against his torso as he kissed her. Michaela was so surprised she dropped her racquet and couldn’t find it in herself to kiss him back.

“Don’t be mad, you know I think you’re so smokin’ I have to try to cool you off,” Blake muttered as he pulled away, resting his forehead against Michaela’s and smiling down at her with a sense of care that she had never seen from him before.

“Can you keep your hands off your girlfriend for at least ten minutes so we can have a decent game?” Jayden called out and Blake laughed, letting go of Michaela and heading to his side of the court. Michaela slowly picked up her fallen racquet and then glared at Zoe who just shrugged back with a cheeky grin. Clearly more had changed than they had anticipated.