Friday Romance: Dating In The Teleportation Age (Romance/Sci-Fi) (Part 1 of 5)
After slipping on his socks that were draped over the couch, and pushing his feet into his shoes by the door, he disappeared.
James was running late for work. His dog followed his every step, from one side of his studio apartment to the other, as he got dressed. After slipping on his socks that were draped over the couch, and pushing his feet into his shoes by the door, he disappeared.
James was sitting in his office chair by the time his manager did the morning rounds.
“Good morning, Mr. Carver,” said his manager, a tall middle-aged man who often dressed in suits that were two sizes too big.
“Morning, Sir,” replied James, the sweat still cooling on his brow.
“You forgot your tie.”
“Sorry, Sir. I’ll be right back.”
James appeared in his apartment and searched for the tie he’d worn the day before. He heard a whimper and looked down to see his dog at his feet, with the tie on the floor covered in slobber.
“Thanks, pal,” said James, rubbing his dog’s head. He put on the tie and then reappeared in his office chair.
“Much better,” said his manager.
As the day droned on James scrolled through his phone, went home several times for bathroom breaks, and visited his favorite coffee shop whenever he found his cup empty. He was aware of the surveillance around his workstation, and kept within the allotted ten teleports per business day.
With the final hour taking its time on the clock, he clicked through various job offers in the area. Since the teleportation chip had become mandatory, being implanted into the neck at birth, most jobs of old had gone to the wayside. James enjoyed visiting his grandparents and hearing stories of their lives, back when people drove cars through the countryside and soared above the clouds in planes. With everything being instantaneous, things were more convenient, but James felt those conveniences came at the cost of relishing all the beauty the world had to offer. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy his current job, since replying to emails and relaying the information to the delivery team wasn’t all too difficult, or helping customers with returns over the phone, but he wondered what the world was like outside of his bubble. He wanted a job like the ones he heard about in his grandparent’s stories.
His grandfather had been a truck driver and spent his working hours on the open road, and his grandmother one of the founding members of Tidy Delivery, the company James worked for which eventually was changed to Tele-Delivery, where she regularly attended meetings that required her to take a plane to the other side of the country. Through their stories, he heard about every facet of the world before teleportation was discovered. All the jobs he clicked through were multi-layered, something he managed to avoid with his position. Many companies liked using teleportation to put someone in charge of various tasks, something he heard about in great detail every time his parents would come home during his childhood.
His mother had been a teacher in charge of four different classes, each in their own rooms, and each at the same time. His father, forced to retire early after accidentally teleporting outside of his new office and falling three stories, an accident which resulted in the ‘Familiarity Act’ which required people to be familiar with where they were going, either by visuals or physical presence before teleporting for the first time to said location, had worked at Tele-Delivery all his life, climbing the ladder from delivery tech to manager in his forty year career.
“Jimmy!” James closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh as the nickname lingered in his ear. The only person in the office who insisted on calling him that was Dave, or ‘Davey’ as he preferred to be called.
“Hey, Dave,” said James.
“We’re going for drinks. You want to come?”
“I’d better not. Last time it got a little out of hand.”
“You’ll be fine.”
James rolled his eyes. “Where to?”
Seconds later James found himself in Las Vegas, which was on the other side of the country from where he lived. He followed along with Dave and a few others from the office as they teleported from one casino to the next. Places such as casinos, banks, and stores would still use doors. The buildings were also outfitted with force fields, which served to prevent people from teleporting in an out at will, thus requiring people to use the doors at the main entrances and be ID’ed on their way in by security guards. Homes and businesses required your individual chip being granted access to the location, something the home or business owner was then able to update at their own discretion to allow family members or new employees.
By the time they left the fourth casino, James was feeling more than ready to leave, but teleporting after a few drinks wasn’t an easy task.
“We should get a room for the night,” said Dave. “Who else is in?”
“I need to let my dog out,” said James.
James tried teleporting but when he looked up, he found he had only made it a few feet away from his co-workers.
“Guess I can ask my parents to let him out,” said James, pulling out his phone.
How are you liking the story so far? Do you think you’d like being able to teleport? Where would you go?
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I’ve always thought it would be so cool to be able to teleport.