Starting the car, he backed down the house’s small driveway toward the road. He reversed onto the road and drove along the street, away from the ocean and toward the main road and the train station. The trip to the train station was uneventful, except for the persistent symbol still in his vision. Blinking, moving his head and some more exclamations of “What the heck!” did nothing to help.
After traveling over the bridge over the main road and following the local roads around the houses and past the school to the train station, he parked in the provided car park. As Ahava started his work commute early, he was able to take a parking space near the ticket machine, close to the station entrance. While he was getting out of the car, still, the symbol was still in the corner of his vision. Ahava walked toward the entrance of the station, barely paying attention to his surroundings, deep in thought about what was causing this weird effect in his eye. He was so preoccupied, Ahava forgot to swipe his pass for the car parking fee at the ticket machine. He walked over the pedestrian bridge and swiped his train pass at the turnstiles. The information board in the station flashed, indicating that the next train to Perth City Center would arrive in five minutes. After finding an area to wait on the platform, he stood silently in thought until the train arrived. Ahava entered the carriage and found an empty seat for the ride into Perth City. Still perplexed, he reached and pulled out his phone to check it. On the display were the words:
Initializing the History System, 40% complete.
Again, the only difference Ahava could see was the percentage completion. The hourglass symbol continued to circle. Ahava decided to give up on his phone and reached into his laptop bag to get his tablet. As he switched on the screen, expecting to see his normal home page, instead the same message that was on his phone screen appeared, this time on the tablet screen. Ahava gasped out loud in surprise. This got a raised eyebrow from the person sitting next to him. “Sorry,” Ahava mumbled to the man. This was more or less an inbuilt reaction, as he was English and found saying ‘sorry’ for anything, even if the other person was at fault, was part of his nature. Now, checking both his phone and the tablet at the same time, the percentage shown on the blue screen had reached 50. The train traveled along the rails, stopping at each station on the way to Perth city center, as if nothing odd was happening. All during the journey however, Ahava kept looking at the phone and tablet as the percentage slowly increased, like downloading a game from the Internet.
By the time the train was traveling through tunnels to the Perth underground city center station, the percentage completion was up to ninety-eight. The train stopped at the platform, the doors opening with an imperceptible hiss, and most of the people on the train moving toward the exit. As with every commute on the train, Ahava automatically moved with all the people toward the exit. Just as he was stepping over the exit of the carriage, the icon moved from the corner of his vision to the center, changing to the words:
History System Initialized
.
..
…
History System Operating
Suddenly, Ahava’s world went black, like a game loading screen or a movie title screen with the words hanging in the black void of nothingness. He felt no sensation from the rest of his body, almost like he was in a sensory deprivation tank.
The words slowly faded to black and were replaced by a three-dimensional moving logo getting bigger in the black void in front of Ahava’s perceived view. The logo read:
The History System
By
???
To be revealed at a later date
The logo was announced by a score of music, reminiscent of a full orchestra playing a soundtrack for an action-packed movie. After a few bars of music, the logo was replaced by writing. Ahava mentally strained his vision to focus on the writing to be able to read it. It displayed a series of options:
‘History System’ personality type:
1) Happy, Happy - Always positive and looks for the good in everything;
2) Angry and self-righteous – never will let a chance to over-dramatize an event pass them by; and
3) The Comedian - will help you see the fun in every situation.
Please Choose.
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