"Do NOT put me on hold again," Mark clenched his fists and grated his teeth. I've been..."
The most irritating muzak possible began playing, fraying Mark's last nerve. He'd dialed a number he had located at the back of the instruction booklet and had been butting heads with unhelpful people operating the phone lines on behalf of the makers of tomorrow's future, TransDem Laboratories.
"Hello, Mr. Walters?" An accented voice asked with polite hesitation, inviting him to confirm.
"Who's this? What happened to the last guy?"
"Sam transferred your case to me, Mr. Walters," the man on the other end of the line explained, apparently satisfied that the transfer had been the correct call. "I see you are calling about your Chronivac... Four point oh, is that correct?"
"It's not my Chronivac," Mark nearly groaned.
"If it's not your Chronivac, may I have the name of the registered user..."
"Look, I don't have time for this. My husband... I guess he's the registered user... "
He heard the sound of fingers on a keyboard, then, "Oh, that would be Mr. Rivera?"
"Yes, but..."
"Could you please put Mr. Rivera on the line?"
"No, I fucking cannot put him on the line!" Mark gulped air to calm himself before he lashed out and smashed something.
"For the third time, my husband turned himself into a fly..."
Mark bristled at a surprised burst of noise that sounded suspiciously like it was about to be laughter before the man collected himself. "That's sort of different," the man said. "We don't get too many insect calls."
"Will you..." Mark cut off what he meant to say next. He didn't want to risk another transfer.
A pause lingered. "Are you still there Mr. Walters?"
"Yes, I'm here." He drummed his fingers on top of the shiny Chronivac 4.0 unit on his husband's desk. "I need to know what to do..."
"Do?"
"About Brad... about my husband..."
"That would be Mr. Rivera?"
"Yes." The scream almost escaped his throat.
"So, he is a fly, and obviously cannot come to the phone, but it sounds like the unit is working," the man just kept talking, although the words all melted together in Mark's overtaxed brain.
"He's been crushed!" Mark blurted out. "Beneath a fucking water glass!"
"That's... uh...unfortunate," the man said. "But the failsafe should have kicked in the moment..."
Mark grasped at the man's use of the word "failsafe."
"That's why I'm calling you," he said.
"Presuming he activated the failsafe, of course..."
Going on that assumption, Mark pushed ahead. "Just tell me what to do next?"
"Do?"
"To get him back... with the failsafe..."
"Oh. Right. Yes..."
"Well, when in close proximity, the failsafe should have activated automatically," the man sounded puzzled. "When you say crushed..."
"The device was in his lab, downstairs," Mark said, filling in gaps for the man. "It...it happened upstairs in the kitchen."
"And he has... was the crush terminal?"
Mark almost laughed. "My father-in-law smashed a glass on top of him! What do you think?"
Mark heard the man cough. "I see..."
Waiting felt like a slow torment.
"You will need to get him close to the device," the man explained. "Well, maybe you should get the device close to him... well, the...ummm, the remains..."
After a quick inhalation of air, Mark nodded. "I can do that."
"But..."
He froze, already on the way out of the room, Chronivac in hand.
"Yes?"
"The device will have to determine the best way to remedy the situation," the man said. "Sometimes that can involve some minor quantum reality mending..."
"What the...what do you mean?"
"The device may need to ever so slightly need to modify your immediate reality. I'm thinking I should send out a response team to..."
"There's isn't time. You've been so helpful." Mark ended the call. "Not!"
The phone began ringing on his way upstairs, but he refused to answer.
Back at the call line, the Trans Dem Labs support team member had redialed the number, anxious to impart the obligatory warning. When no one answered, he contacted his supervisor.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Mark stared at the glass on the counter, reluctant to commit himself to picking up the glass and confirming Brad's fate.
When the device beeped suddenly, he saw a "failsafe activated" message appear on the screen. There was a flash of light...