Compared to the distances that Alexander traveled to get from the west coast of Canada back to Ontario, going from his apartment in downtown Kingston to his cousin’s half way up town was nothing. The distance could have been crossed in mere moments, but instead he decided to savor the journey. It also gave him a chance to check out the messages on his phone since he retrieved it when he grabbed some clothes after forgetting it during the commotion of the previous night.

Setting an auto-pilot point on the map by touching near the apartment complex his cousin lived in and setting a speed, the ship sprang to life and began to move along at a little under one hundred kilometers an hour. Looking at his cell phone, a piece of technology outdated by everything that surrounded him, including what was now installed in his brain, he almost felt sad for the small device, despite how quickly the cellular phone world had changed over the last dozen years. Pushing the button on the side, the screen lit up, and Alexander could see that he had four unread text messages and one missed phone call that left a voice-mail.

Starting with the voice-mail, he typed in the code to retrieve it, and was surprised to hear his mother’s voice. “Are you okay? I heard there was an accident or something near your apartment. Call me! I love you.”

Slightly embarrassed, Alexander deleted the message. He knew he would have to deal with it at some point, but there were more important things happening than consoling an emotional parent. Looking through his text messages, he found he had three from Sarah, and one from Rachel.

The first one from Sarah read, “So, I guess you aren’t coming out tonight?” The time stamp on the second one was thirty minutes later, “We are having fun, and you are missing out.” Finally the third one, a few hours later read, “I was hoping we would get to hang out. Text me back when you have time.”

Unfortunately, because of the limitations of texting, Alexander couldn’t tell what the tone of any of the messages were. He knew Sarah was fairly playful, and flirty, but she could also get disappointed when her friends weren’t able to make time, thus, in her mind, showing that she wasn’t important to them.

The message from Rachel read, “I met a great guy today. He designs buildings.”

Alexander’s heart sank a little. He knew he didn’t really have a shot with any of the women in his life, but he assumed he would have time to ask Rachel out on a date before she moved from one relationship to another. It seemed silly to worry about relationships when he was standing on the bridge of a space ship from the future, but even having the Resurrection, Alexander didn’t want to spend the rest of his life without having a special lady in it. His nerdiness had made it difficult for him to start relationships, and sometimes even more so in maintaining them. He felt separate from most people. It wasn’t due to intelligence, Alexander knew he wasn’t the smartest person in the world, but he definitely saw the world differently than those around him, and in doing so, he had trouble relating to others.

Technology always seemed like his forte as he learned at a young age to naturally interact with machines. The divide between Alexander and his peers only widened as the personal computer movement picked up steam. His parents bought a computer for the family when Alexander was quite young, and beyond just playing games on it, he searched the Internet, tried to write programs, and as he spent more and more time on the computer, he had less time and patience for people his own age. Thankfully, his career path ended up being in computers, so it wasn’t a total waste of time, but looking back, he really wished he had made more human connections and friendships.

As the ship approached Matthew’s apartment, he manipulated the controls. The ship rose and positioned itself right outside a seventh floor balcony. Concentrating on the balcony, Alexander felt himself tense as he was teleported from the ship to the balcony.

“Matthew, are you home?”