Rick struggled to wrap his brain around what was happening. It seemed like time was accelerating for everyone around him, but everyone was still filling their normal roles. His sister still said she was 5 despite looking, speaking and acting like a girl 8 or 9 years older. And the girls on the porn site still listed as teens despite appearing close to 30. And then there was her mother mentioning the inordinate number of deaths overnight.
“Mom… Melanie…” Rick began, suddenly very aware that his voice seemed lower than last night. “Answer me honestly. Have you noticed anything strange going on today?”
Melanie, her physique clearly closer to 15 now, rolled her eyes. “No, weirdo.”
Rick left the room unsatisfied. He needed more information. It was about 10 am, and he knew one of the local stations had an early newscast starting. He flipped it on, searching for clues.
The anchors he knew to be a man with grey hair in his mid-to-late 50s and a blonde woman with shoulder length hair around 30. Their billboards were all around town ever since she joined the show a year ago.
When the newscast began, he could tell the issue wasn’t relegated to his family. The blonde anchor’s features looked a little sharper, lines on her face more pronounced, while the male’s hair was bright white and his voice a bit gruffer than Rick recalled. He also seemed to be squinting at the teleprompter and losing his place in a few stories.
One story caught Rick’s attention: a trend in a lower birth rate. The anchor used the word “plummeting.” This had Rick worried. Could time be passing too quickly for enough people to procreate? Between this and the number of deaths his mom mentioned… Rick got a chill.
Then Rick stopped still. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked nearly 30 himself. Bigger, stronger, more beard stubble than he recalled. And was his hairline receding a bit?
That’s when the doorbell rang. He heard his sister run to answer it…