Tuesday Has Been Canceled

This is your reminder that Tuesday, September 10th has been canceled. All activities which are scheduled for, intended for, or predicated upon the existence of Tuesday, September 10th have been canceled. Rescheduling of related events is strictly forbidden. At the sound of the tone, there will be 300 seconds remaining before the activation of Protocol Hecate-Alpha. It is recommended that all personnel locate a secure area in the event of loss of consciousness. DING

"So what are you going to not do with your Tuesday this year?" Dr. Eates flipped his file folder shut and leaned back in his desk chair; the announcement had changed his tone and body language significantly and it was time to get casual. The chair was an old, worn, wooden thing but it had a deeply satisfying creak to it especially as he cranked back like this. He took good care of it, changing the spring every six months, oiling the joint, weather-treating the wood for the dry environment of Site-19's R&D wing.

"Well," Dr. Wilkes similarly relaxed in her seat but the fixed back had stopped her from mirroring the body language of her co-worker. "I scheduled one of my divorce arbitrations for tomorrow."

"Michelle, I'm impressed. That's actually very tastefully spiteful."

"Thank you, Manny. I was proud of the idea at the time although it took a bit of convincing to get the date set that far out. I think my ex took it as a sign I wanted more time to work things out. But…"

"But you know what you know and he doesn't."

"Precisely."

Dr. Eates raised his hands behind his head and interlocked his fingers as he idly studied the ceiling tiles. Dr. Wilkes uncrossed her legs, shifted her weight to the other hip, and recrossed them with the other leg atop. The moment of silence was nice.

"What about you?" Michelle asked her idle coworker.

"Prostate exam." Dr. Eates said flatly.

"Manny, I can't tell if that's one of your jokes or not but that's probably not the type of thing you should skip. Health is important."

"It was a joke, Michelle."

This is your reminder that Tuesday, September 10th has been canceled. All activities which are scheduled for, intended for, or predicated upon the existence of Tuesday, September 10th have been canceled. Rescheduling of related events is strictly forbidden. At the sound of the tone, there will be 120 seconds remaining before the activation of Protocol Hecate-Alpha. In order to preserve normalcy, absences which have begun on Monday the 9th and end on Wednesday the 11th or later will honor Tuesday the 10th. DING

Dr. Eates thought out loud, "Do you ever wonder how many of these we lost before we became aware of the anomaly? How many of those days floating around in our heads are implants and how many are real? The Foundation was around long before you or I got here and presumably, the anomaly was too. So, how many…?"

"Oh, you haven't looked?" Dr. Wilkes batted her eyes and smirked over the answer, which she already knew.

"No, I can't. I'm a Containment Specialist, not a researcher. And, in case you didn't hear the PA, this one already has a set of ConProcs that work just fine."

"Yes, I know, I just wanted to rub it in that I know and you don't."

Manny rolled his eyes at her small victory and blew a long sigh out through his nose. "I should probably put my hands down for this."

"You probably should." Dr. Wilkes fished around in her purse until she withdrew a light blue piece of rubber shaped vaguely like a horseshoe.

"What the heck is that?"

"It's a mouthguard," She spritzed it with a small spray bottle, some sort of gentle cleaning solution. "For if I pass out. I had a mild concussion thanks to the last one of these and I'm not about to repeat that. I need my leave time. Vegas trip coming up."

Manny shrugged at the idea. It seemed like an apt precaution.

This is your reminder that Tuesday, September 10th has been canceled. At the sound of the tone, there will be 60 seconds remaining before the activation of Protocol Hecate-Alpha. If you or a member of immediate familial relation was born on September 10th, please report to Pataphysics upon the conclusion of this Hecate-Alpha event. DING

"It's kind of cheap that things have to play out this way."

"How's that, Manny?" She secured her purse beneath the chair and settled back in, mouthguard at the ready.

"Well if at least one of these happens every year and you live to be at least sixty, that's at least two months of your life just out the window that you don't get to live. You can't get them back. I might have done some really neat things with tomorrow."

"At least you can just do them the day after."

"Can I though? Things still change. It's not like we all just skip tomorrow and stay in bed. Things get different; not necessarily better, not necessarily worse, but they do get different. Maybe I won't be able to do the things I wanted to. What if…what if I was innocent of all of this and my wedding was supposed to be tomorrow?"

"Manny, you know paining yourself over shit like that is how guys like you wind up at the bottom of whiskey bottles with dead careers, right? Keep your chin up. Don't make me go into the propaganda machine any deeper than I already have." She leaned forward and held her hand out, palm open and facing up as she slipped the mouthguard in.

The furrowed brow of Dr. Eates softening, he too leaned forward as his chair reliably creaked and groaned. He took her hand. "Yeah, I know you're right Michelle. It's just…you know how I get. She would have been 38 tomorrow."

"I know." They held each other's hand in gentle reassurance, both attempting to relax. The static of the PA crackled to life. "She gets tomorrow so that you and I can have the day after."

Protocol Hecate-Alpha begins in 5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Tuesday had been canceled.





