Water splashed up against the surface of the rocking boat. It swayed left and right, still continuing straightforward nonstop. The sun beat down onto Diego's face. He stared out at the open sea before him, his eyes watering. Christina walked up beside him, her sandals clacking on the wooden floor. She looked down at the young boy.
"Oh, Diego. In only tree dais, you will be at America. Hard to wait, no?" She said, in her blatant Spanish accent.
"Yes, Mama. It iss very exciting, very." He sat down on the wooden bench. He looked around at the crowd of the boat, people walking all over. Another Spanish woman walked up the steps from the living quarters. He stood, not saying a word, and walked down to the living quarters. Another wave smacked the side of the boat, tipping it over a bit. He took a moment to balance himself before laying down. He started to think about what America would be like, as his eyes became heavier and heavier... and he fell to sleep.

Calamity. Havoc. Chaos. When Diego woke, all of the lights were out. A strong mist filled the room. He heard screams coming from outside. The boat rocked insanely, knocking Diego around on his sleeping bed. Another twin bed across the room fell flat on the floor as the boat swiveled over to the left. It swished back, and the bed slowly began to slide toward him. as it gained speed, Diego jumped from his bed, climbing onto the higher deck of his bed as an ear-splitting crash shook his figure. The top bed fell, and fell... before it finally hit the ground.
Diego was puzzled. He thought, How? What was causing this havoc?
And then he realized something else: the bed had hit the floor. When he noticed, he looked behind him, seeing the gaping hole in the wooden wall. He saw the bed, smashed apart by the dark waters. A wave sloshed in the gap, filling the dark room with water. He gasped for breath as he swam for his life towards the door. Just as he opened the door, seeing his mother running across the deck when another wave came up and grabbed him, pulling him out of the doorway. He screamed loudly as water filled up his nose, thrashing his body and throwing him outside. He looked up and saw the flaming boat, sloshing around on its sides, as his body finally relaxed from the tension, slowly watching with his heavy eyes as the boat finally fell over, and then he realized how tired he still was, his sleep unfinished. He closed his eyes tight, not having a care, as the whole world began to blacken and sink away...


Richard Rasar sighed as more papers poured onto his desk. They never seemed to stop. He was overworked for only twenty one dollars an hour. It may sound a lot, especially for the average cublicle junkie - but exactly eleven hours a day, six days a week.. It was hard to handle. He hardly ever had time to really enjoy the gifts he bought for his family, and himself. He was the executive assistant for Florida Scientific Research Center, or FSRC. The FSRC barely ever really did scientific research - it was all supernatural, time-warping bullshit to Richard anyway. There was no way in the seventh circle of hell to be able to change the very rules of physics, and even nature, no matter how extreme - follows physics with some exception. You couldn't ever go forward or even backward in time, or ever alter gravity to your liking. Earth is Earth, not a toy.
Rasar really had no problem with striving for finding some "new" scientific thing - after all, that was the only way to make money.. or at least enough money for those greedy bastards. All they ever cared about was money, and all they ever wanted to accomplish was to become a multi-billionare by the time they finished college. And worst yet, he worked for one of them. Keith Wingai was a no-good, troublemaking asshole who only cared about money, and nothing but money. As he always said to Rasar, "If it's not green, it's not worth the fucking time. If it's green, but not money, it's a poser that's not worth the fucking time." Wingai was always wasted, and never wanted to do a damned thing. He would sit in his office and bitch, and bitch about how noone would ever do anything around the place, or yell at the accountant for putting too much creamer in his coffee. To Rasar, he was an ass that he would never work for, but he had seemed like a nice guy at first.
Rasar was a college grad who was on his way to getting a worthwhile job when he stumbled upon the FSRC, and Wingai. Wingai welcomed him in and told his side of the story - the money, the office, the mood of the work area, all the nice things. Wingai invited Rasar to coffee and breakfast so the could discuss his future business. Wingai seemed reliable, so he took up the job. Turns out, the positive mood of the office is for the higher-ups, as well as the office. He was paid only eleven dollars an hour at first, working as a mail sorter. Rasar was fucked over, in other words. He still thought positively about FSRC, but his attitude towards the comapny slowly degraded over time. It got worse as he started to read some of the letters, wondering what amazing scientific breakthroughs were being made. He finally got fed up when he read his last letter:

5/07/02
RON RICHITA
FW: TIME SHIFTS

We just recorded a major time shift - a whole 4.1 decibels! Someone may have warped again, but we're not quite sure. The break in time seems to be about 35 years, more or less a year or so. We're closer and closer to finding our final product!

Rasar hated the place, but the money was good, so he put up with Wingai's shit. He started hearing less and less about the whole time shift thing.. It was eventually erased from Rasar's mind. He took no thought of it; he was only focused on his work, which he still thought negatively of. Never really wondered what a Time Shift might be...