It was 4:30 in the evening he has already finished his work at the office. It was not unusual for him to browse the internet for the last 15 minutes before he packed his bag to go back home. He has been punctual about when he came to office and when he left. there was no changing it. Working in a private firm at a senior executive, he has been punctual about the work and the family. He has been married for seven years to his high school sweetheart and had two daughters.
He has checked his latest portfolio and has seen a decline in his stocks by 7 percent. Undeterred, for this was not a news, he closed the tab and opened another and keyed in google.com with a dexterity of a professional. Having nothing to search in particular he absent-minded keys in his name, and the search results popped up. There was nothing that he has not seen, except for the third result. He clicked on the link since it was particularly interesting. The title read
"Timothy Walters named the next CEO of Coultier Entreprises"
'There has to be a mistake in here.' he thought. He was yet to have an interview with Coultier Enterprises for the post of VP. This is certainly a mistake. The news of him leaving his current company was supposed to be a secret. He was certain that he has not told anyone about this since this was supposed to be confidential. Him being named as the CEO is certainly a rumor, if at all.
The page opened and it was a news article on BBC website. He read it though. It had details about his life that he has not told anyone, for example his pancreatic ulcer which was been called as pancreatic cancer in the article. Amazed with the news he looked at the article again and then to his watch. He checked the date on the article and it said April 7th. He has just realized that the news article was 3 months into the future. He then glanced at the bottom of the page where he found a detailed date. he was wrong all along. he has been looking at an article from one year and 3 months in the future.
A bead of sweat tickled down his temple. 'How the heck is this possible?' worried he pressed the back button of the browser. The Google's result page opened again. The link was still there. Hidden at sixth or seventh position was a link to his facebook profile. He clicked it. The page has nothing out of ordinary except that the work experience said
VP, Coultier Enterprises
2004- 2009
CEO, Coultier Enterprises
2009 - Present
"2009 to present? But its only 2004!" he told to himself. He clicked on the photos tab, And then on the list of album. He saw the only album on the albums list named "Personal". He has created this album to share pictures of his daughters with his parents back in Canada from where he had migrated to USA in
1994. But due to his work commitments and that his parents have passed away in a car crash, he never updated the album. he expected to find those three photos that he had uploaded. He clicked on the album and a bunch of photos appeared as tiles on the screen.
He clicked on the first it was the photo of his daughter Sara when she was born. The second one was of Sara when she was 3 years old and when Claire was born. The third was a family photograph with Claire, Sara, himself and his wife Maya. He paused for a while at the picture then moved on to the next one. The next picture was him being facilitated in some sort of award function. Amongst the people seated at the back he could see the current CEO of Coultier, and Matt, his half cousin who is currently with Coultier and has recommended him for the post. He looked at the picture in amusement for a while and then moved on. There were more pictures of the award ceremony, and then some more of him and
his wife and kids at the award ceremony. He hurried past all of them briefly pausing for his eyes to catch a glimpse of each picture. He was not interested. Next came a bunch of picture where he saw himself on a vacation with his family. he recalled the last time he went on vacation. He could vaguely recall his honeymoon to Venice. He looked at the pictures. It looked like his hometown in Ontario Canada. He has never thought of visiting the place. He saw his family playing with snow with his ancestral house in the background. 'They seem happy' he thought. A few pictures later he saw Sara
with a small dog held in her lap. The next picture was Sara and Claire with the dog. This was the first time he noticed that Claire looks like Maya in a lot of ways. He moved on to the next picture. It was a beautiful house in the suburbs. The next picture had Sara, Claire and the Dog with the house in the
background. He realised that he was grinning. He was about to hit the next button when something catches his eyes. It was caption of the picture which says.
Maya would have been so proud.
He frantically looked for more pictures of Maya but in vein. There were picture of him with Sara and Claire, their first day to school, the school event where Sara did her first Belle, the School function where Claire played a role of a small shrub standing in a corner, But none of them had Maya In them. It is this where it hit him. He went back to the Google and typed in
"Timothy Walter's wife Maya"
The first entry was a link to another BBC article with title
"Timothy Walter's , wife Maya died of paralytic stroke in Pasedena, California"
He clicked on the link and read the article. it read
May 22 2008 Pasedina Cal.
Maya Walters, Wife of the Vice President Coultier industries Mr. Timothy Walters died at their residence in the Suburbs of Pasedena California due to a paralytic attack. Mr Walters rushed her to the hospital where she was declared dead.
He couldn't read more. He shutdown his laptop and leaned backwards on his office chair. He could not believe what he has just seen. It was tragic to its end. How much he wanted to know what lies in the future. How much he wished to be the VP of Coultier. How much he has dreamt of having his own house in California.
His mobile beeps and then starts to vibrate. It was a call from Coultier. He looked at the flashing number and unsure.
