THE MOMENT
"Can't say I'm not surprised...," Otis grumbled as he checked the date. It was arguably bad news and he sighed as he left the bed to start his day on a sour note. 20 years ago was when the first reset happened, and he'd just assumed things would proceed as normal this time. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided people as a whole weren't ready to move on yet. Through absolutely no fault of his own, Otis and the rest of the world were reset one more time; and, he wasn't thrilled about it. Although, it did explain why his wife wasn't there when he woke up. That was the real reason he wasn't surprised. Confirming it with the date only piled on extra disappointment and a decent amount of bitterness. Why couldn't humanity seem to get its act together?
The reset was handed down by a multiversal corporation named Sharp Development and meant to be a test. It happened again, and Otis assumed it meant that the rest of the population wasn't ready. He felt like their civilization had failed somehow. Other people failed, anyway. Otis was confident he was one of the 'good ones' and not at all why they were starting from 2005 again. He had his mind right.
He didn't start out in a great mood, and going through his morning routine alone chafed him even further. By the time he left the house, he was as grumpy as he'd ever be, even in the next 20 years or the previous two decades. Traffic was the same as it always was, full of idiots. After a 30-minute commute, he pulled into the parking lot, turned off the car, and sighed. He was an accountant for over 40 years now, technically. He didn't want to do it for another 20 years; he didn't even want to do it for another eight hours.
"HEY!" a sudden tapping at his window startled him. "DO YOU WORK HERE?" An annoyingly familiar face grinned at him; it was his closest 'work friend', Justin. Otis had generally tried to keep his work and private life separate; it was even more necessary after the first reset. But, he'd found himself surprisingly compatible with Justin in an 'Odd-couple' kind of way. He didn't want to be at work; but, at least Justin made it manageable. He sighed one last time to get it out of his system, then smirked at Justin as he got out of his car.
"I will in about 20 years," Otis nodded at the joke as they headed inside.
"Man, I really thought we'd get to go on to 2026 this time!" Justin kicked off the friendly conversation.
"Yeah, me too...," Otis agreed. "Idiots. What're you gonna do, right?" he shrugged. Along the way somewhere, he'd made peace with the situation through his annoyance. The biggest part of the whole test was to illustrate how flexible the concept of 'time' was, and at the very least, he'd learned that lesson already, even if the rest of humanity hadn't.
"I think there's only one idiot this time," Justin chuckled. "You didn't catch the news yet, did you?"
"Huh? No," Otis shook his head.
"Yep. After all the votes were tallied, 2025 won by one vote. But, there were a ton of people that didn't vote at all. If only one more had, we'd be tied and I think that would've been good enough to start 2026."
"Oh.. that's a bummer...," Otis nodded. He was sincere about that statement because he didn't actually vote, and it made him feel a bit guilty. He had assumed 2026 was the obvious choice, he'd realized a large portion of people preferred to live in the past, even if it wasn't. He would vote next time for sure, if he was still alive in 20 years. ".. but, I guess in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make a difference. That's what it's all about, right?" he deflected.
"Sure, sure," Justin nodded as they rode the elevator up. "Time and numbers are made up, and humanity can choose to agree on any of them... that's all well and good. But, man... I hope I can see 2026 before I retire," he chuckled. "Anyway, how's the Mrs.?" he asked.
"Good, I'm sure," Otis nodded. "I missed her this morning. Since we're counting through 2025 again, she had to go make sure her mom didn't get too confused. It wasn't so bad the first time; but, she's a fair bit older now...," Otis said. "She took over some old calendars to explain that according to how we used to keep time, we're technically in 2066 now; but, the numbers are pretty irrelevant."