A Year of Stories (Collection Two)

Temporal Crisis Hotline

"Welcome to the Temporal Crisis Hotline, this is Chris, how may I assist you?"

"Huh, it really worked..."

"'It?'"

"Nothing, I just didn't think you would pick up."

"Sir, you'll find that we 'pick up,' pretty much all the time."

"Oh, I guess you would... In that case, I have a little problem."

"Most people who call us do."

"But it's kind of dumb, and really it's all my fault..."

"Go on."

"You see, the company I work for does these Quarterly Evaluation things – it's just a lot of math questions, some programming stuff. They aren't hard, if you study, but I've been so busy planning this wedding – the cake, the flowers, the venue, the videographer... Did you know that you need to hire two cameramen?"

"Do you now?"

"Yea, apparently it makes it easier when you have a big venue."

"I would imagine."

"Anyway, the Evaluation is tomorrow and I don't think I'm going to do so well, and if I fail it, I'm not going to get my bonus this year..."

"Which might make all those new cameramen a little difficult to pay for."

"Exactly! Is there...is there anything you can do to help?"

"I think so. How many days do you think you would need to study?"

"I don't know...five? Could you do five? Is that too much?"

"We can do five."

"Seriously? You can give me five free days to study?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We can't give you 'free' time, there is no such thing. Even we can't just invent new days. What we can do is give you another opportunity to make better use of the time you already had."

"Huh. Will I remember everything that I know now?"

"Of course you will, it would sort of pointless otherwise."

"In that case, I'm in! So, what do I need to do next?"

"Quite a lot as you might imagine, but first I have to send you over to Billing, they'll take care of you from here."

"Wait...is this going to be expensive?"