Arnesto Modesto_The World's Most Ineffectual Time Traveler by Darren Johnson

Author:Darren Johnson [Johnson, Darren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-06T22:00:00+00:00

***

The next day, with Katrina off to work and Melissa and Carlos off to school, Arnesto tried playing around on his computer. Not feeling it, he tried reading, then playing video games for a while. Deciding a nap might be just what he needed, he shut off the console and television and headed to the bedroom.

He paused to admire the family pictures on the wall. There was one of him and Katrina taken at a friend’s party before the kids were born. In it, he and Katrina both wore big, genuine smiles. Arnesto smiled back. There was one of Katrina with baby Melissa, the most beautiful baby ever born. There was one of Carlos by himself as a toddler. They had pretty much every combination, including a couple of pictures of all four of them. But no Preston.

Arnesto decided to remember what those pictures had looked like. What could it hurt? It was an innocent comparison between timelines. For one thing, a few of the current pictures had to be removed in order to squeeze in Preston’s photos. The one with Carlos making a funny face got replaced by one with all three kids. There was one of Arnesto that he was only too happy to replace with one of Melissa trying to teach Preston how to play catch. And Preston’s baby photo would be right about there, the fourth picture in succession if you were walking down the hall toward the back of the house. Oh, that picture. It was a fine photo of a handsome baby boy and one of the larger pictures on the wall, more of a close-up than the others. Arnesto remembered that the picture’s prominence had amused him. He had always wanted to ask guests what they thought of it.

“Do you think it’s a giant baby, or merely a regular-sized baby with a giant head or even a regular ol’ baby caught in a tiny parallel universe?” he wanted to ask, but never did.

He chuckled which quickly gave way to a smile, which in turn gave way to a frown. He never did unleash his giant-baby-related humor on anyone, and now he would never get to. He burst into tears. Did most fathers who murdered their sons cry, he wondered? No, stop that, it wasn’t murder. What was it then? What do you call it when a man, using his own unique form of prescience, chooses to not give birth to a son he’s supposed to have because he’s so selfish that he doesn’t want to raise a child who happens to be a little rowdy? And how could he deny Melissa and Carlos the brother they were supposed to have? Who was the monster now?!

He stopped crying, but now his head was spinning. It was time for that nap.

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