Hereafter
By Samuel Peralta, first published in Synchronic
A time-traveling man keeps returning to the woman he loves — but due to the limitations of time travel, years pass in between each of his visits. Meanwhile, the woman ages with every passing year, while he stays young as ever — and both must confront the reality that while their love may be timeless, the woman's time on Earth is passing far more rapidly than the man's.
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It's mid-September, 2006, and Caitlyn is staying at her mom's house in Toronto before her deployment to Afghanistan. She sees a young man collapse, and rushes to his aid. As she helps him up, the two lock eyes, and each is immediately familiar to the other. The man, Sean, and Caitlyn grab a meal, and Sean says he'd like to make a trip here again, this time next year, to see her. Caitlyn explains sadly that she'll be away serving in Afghanistan. Before he leaves, Sean hands Caitlyn a medallion he'd been carrying — a spiral nautilus. Now it's September 2007, and Caitlyn is serving in Afghanistan when an explosion injures two people. They are both brought to the base Caitlyn's stationed at, and when she rushes to help them, she hears one of the men saying her name. It's Sean, and he's dying. She's not able to save him. September, 2009, Caitlyn returns to Ontario after finishing her military tour. She goes running near her house and stumbles across Sean in the woods. She can't understand how it can be him; — she watched him die. Sean explains that he's a time-traveler, and says that he's sorry about Afghanistan — he only traveled there because he really wanted to see her; he didn't know he'd end up dead. Caitlyn turns from Sean and runs away. In September 2012, Sean appears on a beach in Salinas while Caitlyn is picnicking. He explains to her that time travel is based on the Fibonacci sequence — so his travel is limited by the numbers in that series. There was a one year space between his first and second trips to Caitlyn, then a two year space, then a three year space. He'll have to wait five years, now, before he can see her again, in accordance with the Fibonacci series. In September 2017, Sean travels to Caitlyn and proposes to her. In September, 2025, he returns to see their daughter, Shauna, playing on a playground. Caitlyn bemoans the fact that Shauna will never have a relationship with her father. In September 2038 Sean returns, having just missed Shauna's wedding. And finally, in September 2059 he travels back to find Shauna, sitting at Caitlyn's grave. Shauna tells him she knows who he is, and gives him back his nautilus medallion. Sean drops to his knees at Caitlyn's grave, and Shauna drives away.
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