The Emoticon Generation (32 page)

“It has them saying ‘I do’. That’s very clear. You don’t want to see that, do you?”

“ ... Maybe later.” Tony thought for a minute, then straightened his back, bracing himself. “What’s in the other one?” Matt hesitated. “It can’t be worse than that. Show me the other one.”

Wordlessly, Matt turned around, and pressed a couple of keys. The hospital room reappeared on the screen in front of them.

A small girl entered the room.

“That’s Tony,” Tony narrated. “When she was six.”

“No, it isn’t.” Matt froze the picture. “Look at her. I don’t think that’s Tony.”

Tony bent closer and squinted. Presently he said, “You’re right. The nose is different, and the hair’s straighter than Tony’s at that age, and the color’s slightly different, too. But if you hadn’t told me – How’d you know?”

“Watch.”

Matt pressed a key, and the girl sprang into life again. From the other corner of the screen, Tony emerged. She was a few years older than today, nearing her forties. Tony’s heart felt like it just squirted poison into his system.

Tony was coming at the girl with a big smile and open arms. The girl ran towards Tony and leapt into her arms.

The girl called something out when she jumped. Both of them had seen that word enough times to read her lips without a doubt. She’d said ‘Mom’.

“That’s her daughter,” Tony whispered.

“Yes. Watch.”

Steve came into the hospital room from the same direction. The girl, held by Tony, reached for him, clearly mouthing, ‘Dad!’

Matt pressed a key that froze the frame, just as Steve reached for his girl.

“Oh, my god,” Tony whispered. “Oh, my god. She’s destined to be their kid.”

Matt shut off the screen and moved his chair in such a way that he was now facing Tony. “Tony,” he said. “Tony,” he touched his knee to reach him. Tony looked at him. “Tony, you
have
to know that this
can’t be
. This isn’t true.”

“Everything so far has been true.”

“It doesn’t matter. A man ejects millions of sperms into a woman, and each has different genetic material. There is no way – there is no
way
! – that anything inside the brain can even remotely come close to predicting what a child would look like. There are millions and millions of possibilities. There is no way that what we just saw with the kid is true. There is no way that their wedding is true. There is no way that the meeting at the hotel is true. There is no way that
any
of this is true. If only for the fact that she’s
dead
. This thing does not show facts. It does not show the truth. She’s dead, Tony. She is
dead
!”

“She was supposed to be with him and not with me.” Tony looked as grief-stricken as he had looked at the funeral. It was as if he’d just lost Tony all over again.

“No!”

“It was
meant
to happen.”

“No! You have to think of it like this: How can it be ‘meant to happen’ if it
didn’t
happen? If it
can’t
happen?”

Tony looked at him. He had no answer. But it clearly did not change the way he felt.

“And besides,” Matt said. “Even if she was alive, there’s no way all this could possibly happen. Even if, for the sake of argument, there were ten more coincidences a day, even if they met six more times a day each day until the wedding. Even if she was deadly attracted to him, even if he thought she was the love of his life. You don’t leave your upcoming marriage a few days before the wedding for a ‘maybe’. You don’t leave for a ‘hopefully’. You don’t even leave for ‘The One and Only’. Because you can’t really know if he
is
‘The One and Only’, you don’t really know if you can live with him, or if he isn’t still in love with his last girlfriend, or if he’s not crazy, or if the two of you won’t get on each other’s nerves after a month. You don’t know and you don’t leave. Marriage is a decision for life. You don’t go into it lightly, and you don’t back out of it lightly.”

Tony was slowly coming out of it. “Yes.”

“Tony wouldn’t leave you a few days before the wedding. Not with Steve and not with anyone.”

“That’s right. Not this close to the wedding.”

“That’s right.”

“Not this close to the wedding,” Tony said again. Maybe if it had happened a few months ago, then she wouldn’t have had a problem. But the two wouldn’t have met then – correction: they
hadn’t
met then. It was already a fact. For her to leave him so close to the wedding, she’d need a catalyst. And the catalyst would have to be him. He’d have to do something awful that would drive her into Steve’s ready arms. And what could he possibly do? Not only would he not do anything awful, he’d always intended on being on his best behavior. He had declared from the start that he would do anything Tony asked, that he would appear at whatever tailor or hairdresser or whatever-other-wedding-chore that Tony would decide he should go to, and that he would prove to her once and for all that he wouldn’t let the job widow her. And it
was
so close to the wedding. There were now six days left. And it would be impossible. And tomorrow it’d be five days, and it would be more impossible. And the day after, it would be harder still. And the day after that, and the day before the wedding, the day of the rehearsal wedding would be –

And suddenly it sank in. The general meeting! It wasn’t at all what he had thought.

In his mind, he ran through the last month as it would have been had Tony stayed alive, now that he had all the facts. On the evening before the accident, some of the shareholders produced a letter inviting all the shareholders of the company, including Tony and Matt, to the general meeting. On the next morning, if Tony hadn’t died, he would have gone on to the office as usual. He’d have seen the letter, and would certainly have noticed that it fell on the day before the wedding. He’d no doubt think that this was a mistake – they did, after all, know about his wedding.

But it wouldn’t have worried him. Why should it? Confident that it was a mistake, confident that he could move the meeting whenever he wanted, he would have left off delaying it to the last week before the wedding. In the meantime, he’d have felt pressure from the different venture capital funds, but he would have acted just as cockily as he had these last few weeks. He wouldn’t have noticed the stench of war in the air.

Three days before the meeting, he’d have given Sylvia the usual task of making sure a quorum was not met. But Sylvia wouldn’t have succeeded. The general meeting would not have been delayed. And Tony would then have realized how serious their intentions are, and he’d also have realized what he hadn’t realized when Sylvia had talked to him a few minutes ago – that the date itself was a snub against him, that they had intended to make it hard on him. And he wouldn’t have a choice but to go, or else he’d lose his job and, worse, lose control of his life’s work at Eternity Plus.

He would have had to go. Tony would have had to live with it.

The meeting would probably start late, just to spite him on this day. And even though he would no doubt win, it would take hours, and they would make sure to make the meeting as long and excruciating as possible. And all this time he would have been at his job and not at the rehearsal wedding.

By this time, Tony would have known Steve for five days. And after a million coincidences and after a thousand chance meetings, after ‘the speech’ had been drilled into her every day, Tony himself would have shown her that he
would
widow her during their marriage. And it would be too much. Steve was right: To be with someone she didn’t love as much as he loved her, added to the fact that he would never be there? She would go to Steve, and live with Steve, and marry Steve.

Tony noticed that Matt was talking to him.

“Tony?”

There are things that you know. There are things that are set. There are things that are
true
.

“You just went white.”

They should never have even met. It was a fluke. It was a billion-to-one shot. It should never have happened.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “None of this matters.” Tony stood up and left.

He’d never had a chance. Some futures are set in stone.

Publishing credits

‘Generation E: The Emoticon Generation’ was first published in English in the daily
Midnight East
, 21 September 2010

‘Hatchling’ was first published in English in
Aphelion
#51

‘The Assassination’ was first published in German in
Nova
#18

‘Freedom Is Only a Step Away’ was first published in Hebrew in the anthology
Once upon a Future
2011

‘All-of-Me™’ was first published in Hebrew in
Dreams in Aspamia
#3

‘Eternity Wasted’ was first published in English in
Aphelion
#46

‘Her Destiny’ was first published in English in
Dreams in Aspamia
#7