FICTION
The Note — Janice’s Choice
The wait — Lena, Jasper and Rajiv’s
Janice Phillips had always prided herself on her rationality. As a project manager, she thrived on clear data, precise plans, and predictable outcomes. But in 2020, as the world was shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself questioning everything. Each day brought new uncertainties, and the clear-cut world she once knew had become a fog of ambiguity.
One chilly morning, Janice arrived at her sparsely populated office. The usual hum of bustling activity had been replaced by an eerie silence, a reminder of the pandemic’s grip on the world. As she settled at her desk, something caught her eye — a piece of paper lying atop her keyboard. It hadn’t been there the day before.
Curious, she picked it up. The handwriting was neat, almost clinical, and the message it bore was nothing short of bizarre:
To whoever finds this,
We are Jasper, Lena, and Rajiv, speaking to you from the year 2055. The world has collapsed, and we are on the brink of no return. We have found a way to send this message back in time. You must prevent key events from unfolding — focus on the environmental tipping points, critical political decisions, and advancements in technology that lead to surveillance and control. The fate of billions depends on your actions. Time is short, but it is still in your hands.
Janice blinked, rereading the note several times. It sounded like the plot of a sci-fi thriller, not something that should be sitting on her desk. Yet, as outlandish as it seemed, something about the note felt unsettlingly timely. The pandemic had everyone on edge, and the world felt more fragile than ever.
Her first instinct was to dismiss it as a joke, perhaps left by a colleague trying to lighten the mood. But who would be in the office to do such a thing? Most of her team was working remotely. The thought made her uneasy.
She continued reading:
To confirm receipt of this message and communicate with us, locate a small metal box hidden behind the vent cover in the utility closet on the first floor of this building. This building will eventually become my apartment and makeshift lab. Place your reply in the box, and we will retrieve it in our time. Any information you can provide us may be vital to our efforts.
This is our last hope.
— Jasper, Lena, Rajiv
Janice felt a surge of irritation. It had to be a prank — an elaborate one, perhaps, but a prank nonetheless. She crumpled the note in her hand, intending to throw it away, but something stopped her. The timing of the message gnawed at her. The world was already unraveling in ways she had never imagined. What if this wasn’t a joke?
She set the crumpled note on her desk, the words still echoing in her mind. The logical part of her brain urged her to ignore it, to go on with her day as if nothing had happened. But there was another part, a part she usually kept quiet, that whispered to her about possibilities — about what might happen if she didn’t at least check.
With a frustrated sigh, she picked up the note again, smoothing it out. Her gaze lingered on the line about the utility closet and the metal box. It was ridiculous, she knew that. And yet…
She stood up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor. There was no harm in looking, was there? If nothing was there, she could dismiss it entirely and get back to work. But if there was something… She shook her head, trying to silence the wild thoughts running through her mind.
But instead of heading to the utility closet, Janice walked to the wastebasket. With a firm resolve, she tossed the note in, letting it fall among the discarded papers and wrappers. The sound of it hitting the bottom felt final, almost satisfying.
She returned to her desk, determined to focus on her work. There were deadlines to meet, schedules to maintain, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by fantasies. The rational part of her mind took over, pushing the strange encounter to the back of her thoughts.
But as the day wore on, Janice found herself glancing at the wastebasket more often than she cared to admit. The note had left an imprint on her mind, one that refused to fade. By late afternoon, she was no closer to shaking off the uneasy feeling that had settled over her.
She stood up once more, this time with a slower, more deliberate motion. She walked back to the wastebasket, bent down, and retrieved the crumpled note. With careful hands, she smoothed it out again, staring at the now-familiar words.
Maybe she wouldn’t check the utility closet today. Maybe not even tomorrow. But the possibility lingered, a quiet thought that whispered to her in the moments when the world seemed too chaotic to make sense.
For now, Janice folded the note and slipped it into her bag. She would hold onto it, just in case.
Meanwhile, in the year 2055…
Three figures sat around a flickering light in what used to be a modest apartment, now transformed into a makeshift lab. The room was dim, filled with an uneasy silence as they waited. The windows, thick with grime, barely let in the faint glow of the ruined city beyond.
Lena Kovac, a brilliant physicist, stared at a cracked tablet, her fingers tapping restlessly against its edge. Jasper Jones sat nearby, his expression grim as he sifted through old schematics, the weight of their task heavy on his shoulders. Rajiv Mehta, their engineer, paced back and forth, glancing at the crude machine they had spent years perfecting.
“Do you think she found it?” Rajiv asked, breaking the tense silence.
“She has to,” Lena murmured, though doubt tinged her words. “We’ve calculated everything. The message should have arrived by now.”
Jasper leaned back, rubbing his temples. “Even if she found it, there’s no guarantee she’ll believe us. She could dismiss it as nonsense… or worse, throw it away.”
Lena shot him a sharp look. “We have to believe she’ll listen. If we lose this connection, everything we’ve worked for is gone. The future we’re trying to fix is… gone.”
Rajiv stopped pacing and knelt beside the machine, adjusting one of its controls. “If we don’t get a response soon, we’ll need to recalibrate. We can’t afford to wait much longer. Time is running out for us.”
The three of them exchanged glances, knowing the stakes all too well. The message they’d sent to the past was their last hope — a desperate gamble to prevent the world from falling into irreversible chaos. But without a reply from Janice, their plan would unravel before their eyes.
Lena’s voice broke the silence again. “She’s our last chance. If she doesn’t help, there’s no coming back.”
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