Frank had just cleaned up the common area of the mall when he saw it was a complete mess again. A group of people saw him with his cleaning supplies and threw their trash on the floor laughing and staring at him as they did it. He could of yelled and screamed at them but it would of gotten him fired. As lowly a job as it was, there was always someone who could be found to do the job for a few days. Maybe an illegal immigrant.
Frank saw a nice looking gentleman sitting at the table wearing a red suit and silk red tie. He took his trash to the can and smiled as he put it inside. "Some people are just mean." Frank agreed with the man and continued his job of cleaning the place. The mall closed at nine and Frank was off work at midnight. Then he was at the mall the next day at three to start the same boring routine all over again.
Frank arrived at his small trailer at the park and could smell the mildew again. He had called up the landlord to rent out the carpet cleaner and do the job again. He rented the place for $400 a month and thought that was too high for what he got. He was promised a bigger trailer but that never materialized. Frank also checked the water and saw the heater was not fixed either. He then fell on his bed and wondered how it got to be like this.
Frank was not married and had no children. He had a girlfriend a long time ago but nothing panned out. He had barely finished high school and worked the low jobs of the totem pole ever since. At 45 years of age, Frank felt like a complete failure in life. He had no property or money to his name. What he brought home was quickly spent and some times he would go without when he was short. His electric bill would be sky high in the summer months and that ate up any savings he would try and build up.
Frank then turned on the TV to find out the cable was out as well. Of course, he would not get a discount on the days it was out which was frequent. He heard a knock on the door and it was the man in a red suit. "My name is of no consequence, Frank. I offer you something to ponder: A chance to change your life forever." Frank was puzzled as to how the man knew his name. He then realized his supervisor would call him over the PA system to clean up someone's mess. The man continued before Frank could say something.
"I have been watching you and I see a life that is wasted. I see someone who feels like a complete failure. That can all change by one chance act in your past. I have the ability to change such event that will leave ripples in your life. I am not a weirdo if that is what you are thinking right now." The man then listed events in Frank's life that only Frank knew about. "All you have to do is tell me about your childhood." That was easy as Frank had a drunk for a father who beat him frequently. Frank had forgiven the man of that long ago but still had resentments of his treatment. He was cowardly after that and would pick the easy way out of life. No challenges meant being safe. Now he was nothing more than a clean up man for sloppy people and living in a varmint infested trailer park.
"I see what I can do to change your life now. Here is the deal. When you wake up tomorrow morning, you will be in your different life. You will have memories of your original life and vague ones of what the new one is. I will return to you at midnight and ask if you want your new life. But be warned: Once you say yes, you can never go back. You will completely forget about this life as it will of never happened." Frank accepted the deal still thinking the man was a goofball.
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The man in the red suit had traveled back in time to when Frank's father was first born. He went to where the grandfather worked and saw he was a drunk as well. The man worked at a train depot center dealing in packages. He worked the night shift when the least loading and unloading was done. The man had been sleeping when the man in red showed up. "Can I help you?" The man in red then waved his hand causing the grandfather to have a massive heart attack.
"No, you can help me."
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Frank woke up in a very nice bedroom and heard noises coming out of the bathroom. He was not familiar with the house nor what he was hearing as he walked down the hallway. He saw three teenaged boys in boxer shorts having a pillow fight. "Sorry Dad. We will start getting ready for the family get together." The boys quickly scrambled around the area as Frank remembered he had adopted them as babies. Frank had always wanted children and now had them. He went back to his room and opened up his closet to see a general's uniform. Frank had always had dreams as a youngster of going to a military academy. Whatever that man in red did made that dream a reality.
Frank took his boys to the family get together. He wondered how he knew where it was, but somehow he automatically drove to the location. It was a large farmhouse with chickens and other animals in the back area. Frank saw his mother was the same and gave her a hug. He then heard a man's voice call out his name. The man had white hair and Frank sensed this man was now his father. He then met his sister and wondered where his older and younger brothers were. His mother had joined the army like before but met this man instead of his father in his other life. His sister was also married but did not have children. It was to a completely different man as well.
Frank enjoyed himself and asked to hear the family history just for kicks. His mother married his father and waited to have children for a few years. That was why his older brother was not there as he was never born. They only wanted two children and that is why he had no younger brother. They had gone on to get married and have children as well, but since they weren't born that never happened. Since his father stayed in the army for thirty years, his sister met someone else and married him. He did not want any children and his sister seemed sad about it.
Frank left for home and was wondering if he should stay in this life. It would mean his sister being unhappy and an unknown status for his other siblings. He saw his sons playing outside and that made him happy as well. The man in red appeared at his door to ask what his decision was. "How did this all come to be? What exactly did you do?"
"I went back to a time in your life cycle which would change the outcome to how you were raised. Your mother joined the army and met your alcoholic father during that hitch. Since he was not there, she met the other man a few months later. It was all fate and I changed it by going far back and having your grandfather die of a heart attack when your father was a baby. That meant she would not move with him to the house but back to her home town. Your father was a wild teenager and was killed in an auto accident.
"I look for people who need a change in their lives and look for that one thing to change it. It has good and bad results but most people like their new lives. I do not have answers about your family members. I have my reasons why I do what I do. Your time is up: Do you want this life or go back to the old one?" Frank checked his sons' bedroom and told the man in red he was staying in his new life. The man then waved his hand wiping out the memories and lives lived before causing Frank to now become part of his new time line. Frank then shook his head and went to bed.
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The man in red walked up to the trailer park to see who his new tenant was after the timeline was changed. It was a single woman in her forties recovering from a drug problem. The man smiled as he knew she would be easy to sway as well. He was hungry and needed to feed off the lives of those whose lives he cut short or stopped altogether. And the people who he had live in his trailer never said no at the end.
Subject: Time by Karl Kramer 
Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:07 pm
