Time Clerks

Why do humans have such trouble letting go of their Past? Seriously, that just makes my job up here all the more difficult.

I work as a Time Clerk up here in...well, I guess for the lack of a better term, you can call my workplace Heaven. But I really don't like that word. It totally gives the wrong idea.

What do I do, you ask? I'm more or less an average office worker, really. Nothing too exciting. But I don't get nine-to-five like a lot of you wussies down there. Nope. I'm on call 24/7. Something could happen at the office any time.

At the office, this is how things are set up:

There are three unique file cabinets set up for each individual human: Past, Present, and Future. The sets of cabinets are physically placed in a matrix the formation of which is calculated by an algorithm dictated by the various relationships humans have with each other. Naturally, those of us in the office are not very happy when those relationships change. When that happens, the affected TCs (Time Clerks) have to stop all their work, notify HR, and have the service department come in to re-arrange the cabinets. Luckily, that doesn't occur too often, but still more frequently than most of us would like.

Only the Present and Future cabinets are on the main floor. They are linked. The Present cabinets typically see the most action whereas the Future cabinets, although built to be bigger than both the Past and Present cabinets, are designed to remain empty. Of course, like many things, our Future cabinets don't always have the luxury of doing solely what they were designed for.

The Past cabinets are in the back room. Every file folder is supposed to be labeled Complete. However, many of them are not.

In some cases, we even have to go into the musty back room, search for the specific individual's Past cabinet, dig out that one file folder, and peel off the golden sticker etched with the word "Complete" because something catastrophic (according to human logic) happened down on Earth. Honestly, can you imagine how much work it takes to remove a sticker that's made of gold? And how much administrative effort is put into keeping track of all the file folders that have yet to be labeled Complete?

Can't you humans just figure out how your lives are supposed to work?

Let me explain. Every file that goes in the Past cabinet is supposed to be done with once it is slipped into a folder. The Future cabinet is big and empty to leave room for many, many possibilities. The Present cabinet and Future cabinet are linked because the Present is directed by what's in the Future.

Way too often, we find files from the Past cabinet misplaced in either of the other two cabinets. No wonder humans have a hard time letting go.

But, hey, don't blame us. We TCs, as our title implies, just keep up with all the files.

Let's take an example. I love to use the example of Lucy, Derek, and Danny because humans just love to be in love yet have no idea how it works. We're going to talk about Lucy's three cabinets.

They were three ordinary people. Just your everyday average human beings. Educated, with the luxury of food and shelter, which many Earthlings do not have.

Lucy and Danny had been dating for two years. For those two years, Danny's file never left Lucy's Present cabinet. They had a massive group of mutual friends who supported them every way they could through their sometimes tumultuous relationship.

Finally, after two long years of ups and downs, good times and bad, fights and make-ups, they broke up. Their friends were devastated, but they were confident Lucy would move on.

She didn't have an easy time doing it, though.

We put Danny's file in Lucy's Past cabinet, in the back room. I should point out here that most files in the Past cabinet are small and usually come in fragments, and one individual can have multiple files. We are in there for at least a few hours a day everyday updating such measly files.

We were unable to put the Complete sticker on Danny's file. This particular file charted the relationship Lucy had with Danny.

Why they had broken up was irrelevant to us TCs. What's in the Past is in the Past. Ideally, we would only be concerned with her Present cabinet. But like most humans, she caused us to worry about her Past and Future cabinets.

A few months later, Danny started seeing someone else. Lucy would still call him on his birthday and holidays. There's absolutely nothing wrong with calling your ex on special occasions, but Lucy wasn't living in reality when she made those phone calls. And she didn't even know it.

A year later, she met Derek.

You know how the story goes. You are human, right?

Lucy was happy with Derek. They were comfortable around each other. They could laugh together. They could say anything to one another.

But there was no way their relationship could move forward. Lucy was not only not living in the Present, but she was also living into her Past as though it were her Future. It's like a vicious cycle that never ends.

At around the same time, we found that Danny's file had gone from Lucy's Past cabinet to her Future cabinet. That was a whole lot of fun for us TCs. Of course, it wasn't fun for Lucy either. But we were the ones doing the work trying to figure out how to put Danny's file back where it belonged. It's not as simple as it sounds. Lucy was suffering for sure, but she wasn't doing any work.

To this day, I still don't know what happened with Lucy and Derek. I don't know whether Danny's file got Complete or even if it ever went back into Lucy's Past cabinet. Lucy's files went to another department.

I still wonder about what happened, though.

My job is never easy, but it's getting easier with each human that learns to let go of their past.