Whatever. Hassan left for work. I tapped around the Portacle, unimpressed. I remembered my teacher in high school had told us about how, way before CalTech’s Tabula Rasa AI could blank-slate someone’s online presence at the tail end of the Cloud Cold Wars, within twenty years of the internet’s widespread usage the technology had become completely boring and normalized. Even with phones offering access to all human knowledge, people mostly used the internet to look at pictures of puppies while on the can. Hassan’s world wasn’t hugely different, where humanity had mass-produced miniature versions of the Farsight and people asked them whether they should have frozen yogurt or chocolate cake for dessert. I guess humans have a way of repeating themselves, no matter the universe.

“Who needs help choosing between chocolate cake and frozen yogurt, anyway?” Yusuf chimed in, frowning at one of ten identical black button-downs in Hassan’s closet. He’d given us the go-ahead to borrow some clothes. “Chocolate is subjectively better.”

“Amen.”

Yusuf pulled on a pair of jeans and a light gray sweater. I found some clothes at the back of the closet that must’ve been Rui’s—ripped up jeans, a T-shirt, and a baggy red flannel. He was into grunge, which I was very much living for. Maybe he wasn’t totally a boring saint. I tugged a baseball cap low over my forehead in case anyone would peg me as Figueiredo’s double, like Rui. The hat and the flannel made me feel very rough trade. I tossed the clothes we’d stress-sweated and slept in into the oversized microwave-looking clothes sanitizer in the hallway closet.

We trekked out of the gated townhouse neighborhood and towards the train station the Portacle said was nearby. I kept expecting to see flying cars. Even with everything we’d fixed over the past fifty years, this place still made ours look like a shithole. The manicured lawn of the community gave way to a sidewalk with a moving track that threaded its way into what looked like a shopping center made of stone and glass. With this weird, glowing new world waiting for us.

*   *   *

I’m gonna hit pause here in my monologue because I promised Yusuf before he left that I’d think about time.