It didn't take us very long at all to reach the apartment where Mattie 3.0 was staying in Old Orleans.
I looked around his space, decorated sparsely in monochromatic tones. While taking it all in, I finally figured out what was missing the most. There were little to no personal effects -- and especially no pictures.
He must have caught me processing, because he interrupted my thoughts with a question.
"Are you okay? Something wrong?"
I shook my head and replied. "No, no ... just still shocked at the circumstances."
"Let me guess -- it's not the way you would have written it?" he continued.
Mattie was literally a character that I created and added into multiple short stories back in the late 2010's. To have him appear in person now that I was in 2084 was still hard to comprehend. He had explained that the IntransiGents had perfected the process of defictionalization that had created him ... but still.
"Just noticing that there are no pictures ... no family," I finally offered.
He shrugged his shoulders. "It's a solitary life. No one else from my stories got defictionalized with me. Although you know my Mom and Dad ... so we probably dodged a bullet there."
I couldn't help but chuckle. I did indeed know his parents, as I had created them -- and I would not have wanted to run into them during this trip into the future on which I unexpectedly found myself.
"So what's next?" I queried.
"I have to update my 'Gent and confirm that our original plans will change since you got your invite from that stranger on the corner. And I need to do it quickly because the clock is ticking for you. As soon as you set foot in town, you started showing up on the PCB's facial recognition exception reports."
Ah yes. The Population Control Board kept on coming up in conversations.
"I stayed in back alleys when I went out to wander waiting for your shift to finish. Do you think they saw me?"
It was Mattie's turn to chuckle.
"Of course they did. We are all always being watched. There is no such thing as privacy -- although I would have thought YOU would have known that, since it was your generation that killed it dead." He motioned to the gray couch. "But don't worry ... we have connections everywhere, so we've bought some time. Take a seat and I'll get Brother Bain up and running ..."
And that seems like a perfect spot to stop this part of my tale, especially seeing as how the loophole I'm using to contact you when the Vitalnet updates at the end of every month is a short one. As always, I remain Ilion (the name I took when I time traveled to 2084) using Troy-in-2019's social media to keep you informed of what's happening nearly seventy years in the future. Until the last day of the month next, I wish you health and happiness and I hope you enjoy the last vestiges of privacy that you and your loved ones will ever know.
