Chapter 82 — LAPD
The Curve of Time, Chapter 82 —— LAPD, in which Saskia is visited by the police.
Followed by musings on events that our minds connect.
Listen to full episode :
— 82 —
LAPD
As Saskia slotted her key into the lock on her front door, she heard someone call her name from behind. She turned to the voice and, once again, saw two police officers closing the doors on an unmarked car and cross the road towards her.
“Ms. Pollack.”
Saskia glanced at Mica, and then back to the officers, who now stepped onto her front lawn.
Apparently the police in Carmel-by-the-Sea had identified the hit and run victim. At least a machine learning image search algorithm had made a high probability identification from California DMV records. “Do you have an identical twin?” the female detective asked.
A smirk flickered across Mica’s lips.
The detective registered Mica’s reaction but returned her attention to Saskia when Saskia protested: “No twin.”
“Triplets?”
“No siblings.”
“Can you explain, then, why the Carmel PD thought it was you?”
Saskia shook her head. “I mean, obviously it wasn’t me.”
“I’m not so sure it wasn’t you.”
Saskia didn’t understand, but the policewoman continued: “Maybe not the body, but when a death has been faked, the ‘dead’ person is almost always involved in the scam.”
Saskia gave the policewoman some jazz hands.
The officer didn’t look amused by the way Saskia was trivializing the situation. “And it’s usually the ‘deceased’ that ends up in jail.”
“Why would I fake my death?”
“Life insurance.”
“Wrong again.” Saskia shook her head. “Don’t have, and never have had life insurance. I’d need a beneficiary.”
The policewoman glanced at Mica and raised one eyebrow.
“Don’t you have a database of life insurance policies?” Saskia asked.
“No. It would make my life easier, wouldn’t it. But people usually know if someone has taken a life insurance policy out on them. For one thing, most policies require a physical exam.”
A flurry of thoughts raced through Saskia’s mind. They focussed around life insurance as it would pertain to a woman in her circumstances. It was early in their relationship, but Mica was the first time Saskia could imagine naming a beneficiary. And it would be easy to go back and generate a copy of herself. The bathroom at Cleo’s proved that, though how, and why, that had generated a copy of herself, while other trips back hadn’t——unless, of course, they had, and she just hadn’t stumbled across her doppelgangers. How many of her were wandering about?
But, if she created a body double, could she use said double in a life insurance scam? It was obviously illegal, wasn’t it? Unethical, that was for sure. But was it any less ethical than her lottery win?
Whatever the case, it would require an uncomfortable negotiation. The her she had encountered had clearly felt herself just as real as Saskia had. Moreover, her doppelganger had more or less insisted the same was true of the other hers that she’d encountered in the restroom at Cleo’s. Besides, Saskia doubted that she would ever sacrifice her own life for her other selves.
Mica squeezed Saskia’s hand and Saskia followed Mica’s eyes back to the policewoman who was watching her expectantly.
“I don’t have life insurance.”
“How about credit card fraud?” the second officer asked. His hair was closely cropped. “Ever dabbled in that?”
Saskia cocked her head and buzzcut reminded her of the credit card fraud investigation she’d initiated after being in a coma.
“And you won the lottery too.” The policewoman chimed in, as if that too were relevant.
Buzzcut maintained a steely stare. “We don’t like coincidences.”
“Is that everything?” Mica interjected.
“Actually, no.” Apparently, the Seattle PD had also contacted them. “For a dead person you get around.”
“Still not dead.” Saskia forced a smile.
“They wanted to know who you chased into the undergrowth in front of Mr. Holcomb’s house. You were captured on the doorbell camera.”
Saskia blinked. “A bird alighted. I went to see what——I think it was a deer.”
“They found tracks. The shoe imprint matched Mr. Holcomb’s, but the time-stamp on the front door footage confirmed he was dead at the time. So, I ask again: Who were you chasing?”
There was an uncomfortable pause, as Saskia gauged the situation, before holding to her account. “Maybe Gary’s footprints were from another day.” She wasn’t sure her bluff would work, but the police relented; they’d made their point; they knew where she lived and starting life afresh was a pain.
“We can find you here tomorrow?”
Saskia gave a mechanical smile.
“Just don’t leave town.”
A day was all the time in the world for her gambit to work; time enough to go back and change the world; to prevent Gary creating his chaos in the first place.
∞
Inside her kitchen, Saskia rustled through her pantry for Tomato’s dinner treat. “It’s the unexpected byproducts that worry me.”
“How do you mean?” Mica asked.
“Well, super strength is great. Doppelgangers, less so.”
Mica bobbed her head, side-to-side as if mulling the pros and cons of Saskia’s observation.
With the colorful sachet of cat food in hand Saskia riffled through a drawer for scissors. LLM’s were the same: that next word predictors gave us chatbots was great; that those chatbots has biases, less so. But unlike biases, which could be overcome with fine tuning from humans, Saskia felt much less certain that downsides from tinkering with the past would ever be as easy to overcome. Her focus extricating the diced tuna and juice was all the excuse she needed to avoid Mica’s eyes. “If I go back and do change things, this reality goes away.”
“I’m not so sure,” Mica disagreed. “We haven’t disappeared before, and it seems as if there are any number of you coming and going from our timeline.” She approached Saskia from behind and wrapped her arms around Saskia’s waist. “Go back and change the past. I’ll wait here for you.”
Saskia didn’t buy Mica’s analysis, but, given the pickle Sienna had created, her permission was hard to turn down. And, if she went back to stop Sienna, the problems with the police would dissolve away. Was she leaving Mica in the lurch? Or did this make a future with Mica more attainable?
Humans have a wonderful way of failing to see themselves as the issue, and Saskia’s dilemma was a classic instance. It seemed perfectly evident to her that stopping her double from proliferating the ability to slip in time was important enough to merit risking any potential side effects.
“Besides,” Mica continued, “I’m not the one the police are all hot and bothered about.” She stroked Saskia’s upper arm, almost as if Saskia were Fish.
Saskia turned her head to Mica and leaned back into her. “Maybe, if I don’t interfere with myself,” she tried rationalizing, “I won’t actually switch timelines.” In spite of everything, she still felt as though she was living one life, no matter how many copies of herself bifurcated around her. “Maybe the world changes, but I’ll still be me.”
Mica gave Saskia a brave smile.
“I’ll come back to you. I promise.” Even as she said the words, though, Saskia knew they were a promise she had no control over.
That was chapter 82, Friends, I hope you enjoyed it!
Reading it again, I’m reminded how certain events are inextricably linked in our memories. For Saskia, doppelgangers and the restaurant Cleo’s. For you readers, hopefully super strength and the oil spill.
In my own life, I was struck a few weeks back by how strongly in my mind the Tour de France is connected with a visit my father paid me a couple of years ago. The connection felt odd at first blush, especially as my wife and I have enjoyed the Tour for many years now; it’s a nice way to wake up, with the timing kind of perfect for West Coast US viewers. I’ll enjoy my chai, Pae will enjoy her coffee and we’ll watch it variously on the big screen, lazing on the couch in the warm summer mornings, or out by the pool, watching the cats create chaos out in our peripheral vision.
How, then, is the Tour so connected in my mind to my father’s visit?
It’s weird and delightful the way our memories work.
Of course, there is the possibility of that my father’s visit being only two years ago, is the root cause; the freshness of the event being significant. But I can’t help feeling it’s more than that, that I will connect the two events this way for some time to come.
Why do I suspect such? Well, the circumstances of my father’s visit made it a singular episode: he visited only shortly after we were all vaccinated and Covid was receding. Still, he was in his mid seventies, and when my eldest daughter tested positive shortly after his arrival the rest of us adjourned to Ojai. Unfortunately, my youngest tested positive the next morning and she and my wife abandoned my father and I, with our fingers all firmly crossed that we’d somehow avoided infection. Happily, it turned out we had, and the fortuitous predicament actually led to an amazing week. We chipped a giant oak tree that had fallen during a storm about half a year earlier (as required by the fire department), and relaid the irrigation in our orchard. Every afternoon we’d take a dip in the creek that runs through our property, the temperature having hovered around triple digits all week (near 40 degrees to the rest of the world). And most evenings we’d treat ourselves to a well-earned meal in downtown Ojai. But, as significantly as all the rest, we’d watch the Tour as we sipped our morning brews each day, psyching ourselves up for our own imminent endurance event. It was a seminal week and one I shall always treasure.
I’d love to hear if anyone else has such a touchstone moment that they carry with them.
Until next week, be kind to someone and keep an eye out for the ripples of joy you’ve seeded.
Cheerio
Rufus
PS. If you think of someone who might enjoy joining us on this experiment, please forward them this email. And if you are one of those someone’s and you’d like to read more
