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Anne Marie examined the frozen landscape outside her window, leaves paused in a brief moment as they fluttered to the ground. Upon a moment of reflection, Anne Marie decided things would be easier to understand with coffee in her system. She had half boiled the water when Matt came out downstairs from his attack bedroom and regarded the window curiously.
?Not getting any closer??
?You?d think Chronovision would be a little easier to crack,? Anne Marie said. ?This is attempt number three and I still can?t get the glass to behave right??
?What about the goggles?? Matt asked, picking up the spectacles on the table.
?Functional, but I don?t like the narrow field of vision,? Anne Marie said. ?I don?t want to lock out reality. I want a way for people to look back on the past as something to have on in the background, ya know??
?Yeah,? Matt said. ?You?re getting there.?
Anne Marie sipped her coffee and scoffed. ?Right??
?Hey, senior year independent study isn?t supposed to be easy,? Matt said, sitting on the counter and regarding the frozen scene. ?The window is still in one piece, right??
?Yeah, but this is the first time I?ve gotten it to do anything besides be a window.?
?Come on, you?ll get something.?
Anne Marie took a sip of coffee and stared at the frozen scene. ?I suppose it?s closer to what I want.?
?That?s the spirit.?
?I just wish my advisor wasn?t coming by today to check my project.?
?Bennett likes you.?
?She likes everyone, but I still need to show progress?real progress??
?You got the goggles working.?
?I need a more practical application than just goggles. Trying not to cut??
?Reality out,? Matt nodded. ?Got it. We?ll have to figure out what?s next when we get there.?
?I just hope I don?t ruin the windows. If this isn?t removable, it?ll be hard to explain this to our landlord.?
?Well, you got until much later tonight to finish it,? Matt said, wrapping Anne Marie in his arms. ?I?m gonna go make rent for the week.?
?Have fun at the shop. Make good decisions or good potions.?
?I?m glad you made it an option,? Matt said, running upstairs to get ready for work. Anne Marie took another sip of coffee, adjusted her glasses, and set an alarm for an hour before her advisor was supposed to come by for a visit. That left her with most of the day to make real progress. The first thing to do was clean the window from her last experiment, removing the potion components with a rag and disengaging the runes she?d made around the frame. Then it was back to formula.
Levitating strangely helped Anne Marie She sat with her legs crossed and hovered a few feet off the ground with a book in her lap and her coffee cup close at hand. She?d lean forward to examine other references and check past iterations for flaws in the rune structure. She would only float down on the rare occasion that she ran out of coffee and then would go back to work. When she?d enrolled in wizard college, this wasn?t what she had in mind.
Anne Marie?s freshman year was much more of the whirlwind she?d been hoping for. The Humbrin?s School for Applied Magics was one of the only schools in North America that would accept students without an invitation. Anne Marie had always been interested in magics, from basic card tricks to the invisible magical forces that held modern society together. When she was accepted, she started studying everything that she could possibly find. Her first year had been about trying everything, even joining in transfiguration club as an extracurricular. She?d met Matt when she was a fox in a game of transfiguration tag. Even though he was a junior, they became fast friends and fell in love.
Her second year required a bit more focus. Matt and Anne Marie spent as much time as his schedule would allow when he was finishing his own senior project. Anne Marie spent months trying to focus more on her specialty, but the problem was that all of the magic was too interesting to her. She spent a few weeks hyper-focused on transfiguration, another month of divination, then weeks of summoning until she finally found alchemical technologies. An often undervalued section of magical learning?ridiculed for its oddness and propensity for creating ?baubles and trinkets??Anne Marie thought that the merging of magic and technology would represent the future of the arcane.
Junior year, Anne Marie and Matt moved into the same apartment while she was finishing school. Matt got a job slinging potions and supplemented his work with night shifts at a magical coffee shop. Anne Marie worked sometimes, but she was on the accelerated track to get her Alchemical Technologies degree. Part of her regretted being so unfocused in her first few years, but her advisor confirmed that she could still graduate on time with an increased workload. The only conundrum was going to be deciding her senior independent study.
Senior Independent Studies were practically a requirement at Humbrin?s School for Applied Magics. While a student could graduate without one, any magic worker would only make their mark with an independent study project. Matt?s had been focused on the applications of recreational potions for healing purposes. The biggest problem with an independent project was that if you were a standard course of study, you just had to be careful not to repeat previous projects. In Anne Marie?s case, she didn?t have to worry about an original project because almost no one graduated from her program.
From her first meeting with her instructor, she knew that she had an interest in time. In the time she?d spent in divination, she knew that the future and the past were of equal import to people. The problem was that it took time to get an accurate reading on the past. So, Anne Marie decided she wanted a simplified way to see into the past without too much effort or energy. Her advisor, Professor Katherine Bennett, was fascinated by the prospect of simplified Chronovision and approved the study. ?Even if it doesn?t work,? Professor Bennett concluded, ?Chronovision is fairly untapped in our field. Making it more accessible could change our field?and possibly eliminate the archaic and difficult methods of divination.?
?No pressure though, right?? Anne Marie said.
?In our field? Experimentation is more valuable than success,? Professor Bennett laughed. ?Try, fail, try again, fail better.?
?Not much of a motto, is it??
?Sadly, it doesn?t translate into Latin. I?ll check on your progress later. Get to work??
The weeks that followed were full of long nights studying, failing, and trying again. She?s managed to get something functional, but the effects were limited and very temporary. The goggles only allowed one person to view alternate times at once, but Anne Marie wanted everyone to be able to see at the same time. Diviners and psychics were the only ones who could see the past as it was. Anne Marie didn?t see the point of replacing one ineffective method of seeing the past or future for another.
Frustrated, Anne Marie uncrossed her legs and padded barefoot over to the kitchen table. She sighed and refilled her coffee cup, staring out the frozen moment through the window. Looking around, Anne Marie sighed at the unfortunate failure. Dismayed, she grabbed the goggles and started adjusting the lenses. She walked over to their living room and crossed her legs to sit on a cushion of air. She watched the couch and saw two figures. She knew they were the after images of her and Matt watching TV together. She found that she kept going to this spot in the apartment?s timeline. It brought her comfort. It brought her peace.
?You know,? Anne Marie said, running her hand over Matt?s arm, ?most people who just graduated would be going out and drinking themselves numb in ways that they?ll regret the next morning?? Anne Marie told Matt.
?Yeah, but I don?t wanna forget this feeling,? Matt smiled. ?I?m sure I?ll have plenty of hangovers in my life, but I only get one night feeling like I?m on top of the world.?
?As if,? Anne Marie said. ?You?re gonna live on top of the world.?
?Everyone?s got a potion mixer these days,? Matt shrugged. ?Even if I?m one of the best, no one is gonna know me. Not like they?ll know you.?
?Everyone is gonna know you?? Anne Marie said, shifting and running her hand over Matt?s hair. ?You?re a good potion mixer.?
?If anyone knows me? It?ll be because of you. You?re gonna really change the world, I can tell.?
?Tonight?s about you, not me.?
?Anne Marie, don?t you ever let anyone tell you that you?re inferior. Potion makers are a dime a dozen, but true genius? That?s once in a hundred years. If anyone is going to live on top of the world? It?s gonna be you.?
?I?d think there?s enough room at the top for both of us.?
?Well,? Matt smirked. ?Technically, since the Earth is a sphere? We?re always on top of the world. In space, there?s no top or bottom.?
?Then we?ll always be on top of the world together,? Anne Marie smiled and pressed her lips against Matt?s lips.
In the present, looking through the glasses, Anne Marie reached up and made an instinctual adjustment to the goggles. She wasn?t sure if it was because she was tearing up or not, but the picture was giving her a headache. She wasn?t sure why, but something about the picture was out of focus and made her?
Anne Marie reached up and tore the goggles off her face. She checked, the structure of her goggles and compared them to the window. With a loud groan, Anne Marie slapped her forehead and cursed. ?Damn it, I?m an idiot!?
###
At almost eight o?clock on the dot, a knock on the door still managed to catch Anne Marie by surprise. She had thankfully taken a break to get dressed in something besides pajamas, so she wasn?t answering her academic advisor in pink shorts and a tank top.
?Professor Bennett!? Anne Marie looked at the clock. ?Come in! Sorry, it?s been a busy day.?
?A breakthrough??
?Yes!? Anne Marie said, rushing over to her desk. ?Come look at this. I think you?re gonna be impressed!?
Anne Marie had spent the afternoon on the balcony welding the frame she?d built together and used a summoning to task a minor elemental spirit with getting her two, huge panes of glass that occupied the frame. Professor Bennett tilted her head and inspected the device, seeing torsos and legs pass without full bodies on the other side.
?Fascinating?? Professor Bennett tilted her head. ?Not as ergonomic as the goggles, though.?
?Agreed,? Anne Marie said, ?but this is a more impressive scope. Here come take a look??
Anne Marie adjusted a few knobs on another side of the frame and the image flickered for a moment. She turned a big lever on the side, adjusting the quality of the picture. Professor Bennett squatted to get a better view and saw a somewhat ghostly image of Anne Marie assembling the frame mechanics together into the machine that now stood in the middle of the room.
?Interesting?? Professor Bennett rubbed her chin and nodded. ?What?s the range??
?I haven?t tried going too far back,? Anne Marie said, ?but at least as far as the goggles. But, if nothing else, it?s a proof of concept!?
?It absolutely is!? Professor Bennett smiled. ?What was the inspiration??
?I realized that time isn?t two-dimensional,? Anne Marie said. ?The goggles work because they?re two sets of glass lenses, but a traditional window is just one! So, by adjusting the focal length of the lenses? We change the clarity of the chronovision!?
?Excellent work, Anne Marie,? Professor Bennett smiled. ?I dare say this will count as enough progress. I?d suggest trying to get a model capable of looking back into the past at least?ten years.?
?I was thinking the same thing,? Anne Marie nodded. ?But?if I can?t--??
?You will,? Professor Bennett said. ?But I think this is sufficient enough to tell you that you?re going to pass your independent study. Excellent work??
?Do you want to help me get things a little clearer?? Anne Marie asked. ?Honestly, just having someone to talk at would be helpful.?
?I was hoping you?d offer to tell me a bit more,? Professor Bennett took off her blazer and rolled up her sleeves ?It?ll be much easier than trying to guess it out once I get one of my own!?
In a spare room on the second floor of his house, Erik fixedly stared at the closed window. It looked like an ordinary window: two thin panes of glass, white wooden frame? just a simple country-style window in a simple country-style home. He stared, and he stared It was for hours that Erik gazed at the window, unsure why he was so transfixed by it. He could see his reflection in it: his short, espresso-brown hair and clean-shaven face, and his piercing sky-blue eyes. The presence of his image felt odd to him. It felt wrong. He got the inclination that he should ignore the window altogether, and, for the past three months, he had. Before, Erik never had the time to even notice this window, let alone the room it was in. But, here he was?just him and the window, staring increasingly intently at it. And for a moment, Erik felt the window staring back at him. He shivered, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
Erik had worked as a stock trader downtown; he conducted business over golf or drinks, loved the thrill of the market, and said things like, ?You gotta spend money to make money!? Right until the end, he had been working long hours at the office, attended many happy hour business meetings, schmoozed the bigwigs from the corporate office while they stayed in town. Having such a well-paying job allowed Erik and his husband Adam to buy this house only a few short months ago. They?d purchased a humble little two-storey cottage home, with three acres of land and no neighbours. Adam had always dreamed of living the farm life away from the hustle and bustle, but Erik was more of a city person. They made a compromise and moved just far away enough to be able to breathe in the cool country air, but close enough to the city so that it was only an hour?s drive away. Then, they hired the most acclaimed interior decorator they could afford and had the place completely updated? all except that one room. It isn?t that they couldn?t afford to do it, or that they didn?t want to, they?d simply? overlooked it. But then the market crashed, Erik lost his job and all their savings disappeared in rotten investments. Now all Erik could do was think about that room and that window.
Cautiously walking up to it, Erik ran his fingers along the side of the frame, trying to figure out how to open it. His fingers passed over the dull edge of a nail that pierced through the frame into the moulding. Looking closer, he noticed another nail right beside it, and then he saw even more around it. Twenty-two, he counted. Sighing heavily out of frustration, Erik turned to leave the room and slammed the door on his way out. He?d have to deal with it later, Adam would be home soon.
While Adam was away all day long teaching, Erik was left at home with nothing but idle time. He?d casually peruse the paltry job offers online, plan elaborate but modest dinners for when his husband came home, he?d bite his fingernails almost religiously, or otherwise, he would fuss around with the placements of tchotchkes, returning to one in particular on the mantle over and over, only slightly changing its direction each time. Without a job, without direction, Erik felt lost. He wanted nothing more than to be able to get out of the house and do something spectacular again and feel important again. His talent was being wasted here, he thought. But now he?d discovered this ominous window in his home, and though he didn?t want to notice it, his curiosity had a hold of him. The window had given him purpose.
That night over dinner, Erik told Adam about the window, who listened politely but who clearly did not share Erik?s enthusiasm on the topic.
?I mean, it?s a whole room we just didn?t care about!? Erik declared. He excitedly thrust his knife back and forth through his eggplant parmesan until the knife screeched the plate underneath.
?No, yeah, for sure,? Adam responded, wincing at the sound of steel on porcelain. He twisted his fingers through his medium grey hair, bored.
?I?m definitely going to get it open tomorrow. Definitely. Definitely, I am.?
?How?s the job hunt going?? Adam slouched in his chair and knew the answer already.
?I?ve been looking. Trust me I have, but there?s nothing worth my time. It?s not like I enjoy being cooped up here all day.?
?Well, it?s just that it?s been two weeks already, we have a mortgage to pay and I can?t do it on my own with only a teacher?s salary??
?I said I?m looking, okay?? Erik snapped. Adam toyed silently with the vegetables on his plate. ?Anyway, I think tomorrow I?ll get a hammer or a crowbar or something and try to pry it open?
?What are you talking about??
?The window!?
?What window is that again?? Adam asked through a sigh.
?The one I keep talking about! The one that you don?t want to notice! Yeah, maybe I?ll get a jackhammer or something if those tools don?t work! That?ll do it for sure!? He laughed as he spoke, his mouth full. Erik chewed on his vegetables, grinning the whole time and looked at Adam in his hazel eyes, though it was more like he was looking past him rather than at him. Adam dropped his gaze downward, disappointed, and continued playing with his food.
***
The following morning, at the crack of dawn, Erik rose out of bed, saw Adam off, and set to work on the window immediately after. He had barely slept all night thinking about this moment, shifting endlessly with nervous energy and anticipation. From the basement, Erik retrieved Adam?s toolbox and marched quickly upstairs to the spare room. Erik dumped the toolbox upside down, dropping all the tools, nails, and screws everywhere, creating a cacophony of metal clinging and clanging against the hardwood floors. He frantically rummaged through the mess to locate the hammer and began fervently trying to pry out the nails from the window frame. He managed to loosen and remove a good half of the nails, but the other half weren?t sticking out far enough to get at with the hammer as easily. Grabbing the flathead screwdriver, Erik leveraged the tip of the tool against the frame of the window and, using the hammer, pounded the screwdriver into the frame. With reckless abandon, he tore pieces of the frame, along with the nails, from the wall. When finally he wrested the last nail from the frame, Erik was elated. This was it. This was the moment he?d been waiting for, for all his life it seemed.
Erik lifted the window open gently and gave the window the respect he thought it deserved, savouring the moment. When he?d opened it fully he felt as though he?d never truly seen the outdoors before, not really. The clean-smelling autumn air crept in and wrapped around his body, caressing his face as though he was being invited to come outside. A calm, gentle feeling washed over him.
Erik, still holding the screwdriver, reached both his hands through the window to welcome whatever sensation had been beckoning to him. He felt a lightness in his arms, weightless as though his arms were submerged underwater. Erik?s hands began to tingle, and the screwdriver lifted out of his grasp ever so slowly, rising into the air. His eyes opened wide, and his smile followed suit, and he let out an innocent chuckle of astonishment. He observed the tool rising upward like an invisible hand reached down to grab it from on high. This is what Erik had been waiting for. This was the meaning he?d been searching for. Erik thought the last couple of weeks finally meant something, that he?d finally escape the torment of the day-to-day monotony of living in this house, with no job and no prospects. Finally, he had something. He had this.
Erik, gripping both sides of the open window frame, excitedly put one foot on the other side, then his head, then the rest of him until he was completely on the other side, only, instead of falling, it was like he was floating in stasis. His body tingled, like pins and needles after going numb. Erik turned his hands over in front of his face in amazement, then he looked at his legs, his feet, he couldn?t believe it, he felt like he was glowing.
?I?m flying!? he shouted to the world. ?I?m actually flying!? He laughed uncontrollably, startling the birds in the nearby tree. They fluttered past him before settling back down on the house. He began to drift upwards, and the wind blew and twirled him around like a top. The scent of daisies and lilac filled the breezy air which danced around him. With childlike wonder, Erik delighted at the moment, drinking in every last bit of how marvellous it was to be weightless and hovering thirty feet in the air.
Then, slam! Erik spun around to see that the window he?d climbed out of had closed suddenly. The colour faded from his cheeks. He leaned toward it, but he didn?t move. He just kept lifting into the air. He was about fifty feet above the ground now, and panic and horror replaced his feelings of joy and bewilderment. Erik flailed his arms and legs, imitating first the breaststroke, then freestyle, then simply flailing around. He tried to traverse through the air and get back to the house, but, unlike water, the air had no traction. Instead, he only twisted and turned around in place, while he continued to rise higher and higher.
?Help!? Erik gutturally screamed. But no one was around to hear him. He screamed again and again to no avail. Just a slow, gradual rising in the air. He screamed his voice hoarse for as long as he could, then he just wept.
The October sun was now beginning to set and, though it felt like an eternity to Erik, only a few hours had passed. It was a calm, cruel and torturous ascent through the sky. Eventually, Erik had drifted so far up that his house looked like a miniature model? like a child?s toy. He longingly stared at his home the entire time he strayed further away until he finally witnessed Adam?s car pulling into the driveway, home from work. Reinvigorated and hopeful once more, Erik screamed for help through his sobs. Erik bawled into the palms of his hands when he realized his husband couldn?t hear him, his tears streaming from his eyes and falling to the earth. He needed Adam. He wanted him. He wanted him to hold him tightly in his strong arms, to not let him float away. But the space between them had grown immeasurably. Erik let his limbs hang loose in the stratosphere, losing all hope of escaping this situation, and he resigned himself to his fate.
***
Adam pulled into the driveway to his quaint country home, and stepping out of his car, he felt a drop of water land on his face. Fearing it was about to rain, Adam hustled to get his things out of the car but, looking up, he didn?t see any clouds. Odd, he thought
He collected the mail at the door and shuffled through the letters. Bills. With a huff and a groan, Adam dropped the mail and his things at the door and hurriedly made his way to the bedroom on the second floor. On his way, Adam noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a room; a room he?d never really seen before, and it was empty except for his toolbox which had been haphazardly thrown about along with all of its contents.
?How very odd,? Adam vocalized. ?How did this all get here?? He speculated how his toolkit could have possibly gone from the basement to this strange little room. Had anyone been there? He got nervous. Furrowing his brow, Adam bent down to clean up the mess. As he stood up, Adam gasped. He hadn?t noticed that there had been a window in the room this whole time. He was worried someone had broken in. But, using his tools? It didn?t make sense to him.
He felt the sudden urge to collect his hammer and a few nails from his toolbox and seal the window shut. He replaced the bits of the window frame that had been torn off and he tightened them securely with nails, firmly closing the window shut from possible intruders? he assumed. When he finished, just for a second, Adam thought he remembered something, but couldn?t quite grasp what it was.
?Déja vù,? he remarked to no one. ?This has been a weird day.? He picked up his tools and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Suddenly, Adam found himself standing in the hallway holding a toolbox in his hand.
?W-what am I doing standing here with this?? He spun around in place, puzzled. There was nothing around him to indicate why he was just simply standing in the middle of an empty hallway with his tools. ?Madness.? Adam put them away in the basement and moved on to his bedroom, but he had a funny feeling, like butterflies in his stomach. He glanced back behind him as if expecting to see something, and, just for a second, he thought he saw a door in the hall. But when he looked again, he didn?t see anything.
?Weird,? he said through his breath, ?like déja vù, or something.? He stopped. Had he already said that? Hesitating a moment, he pushed the thought out of his head and moved inside his bedroom to lie down on the bed. Closing his eyes, he began to wonder. In the back of his mind, he felt like he was forgetting something? something important. It was like reaching for a memory that didn?t exist, and it was nagging at him.
Adam turned on his side and opened his eyes. He knew why he felt uneasy. The mortgage payments were catching up to him, and he was worried he couldn?t afford to keep living in the house of his dreams. Besides, his king-sized bed, all these rooms, this big house? It was all too much for only one person, Adam thought.
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