~June 18th, 1982~

~Cycle 1~

An array of vehicles was set bumper to bumper on an elevated highway. A cacophony of impatient horns and angry shouts rang out between the cars. The vehicles would inch forward ever so slightly, to everyone's frustration. In this portion of the city, there were plenty of high-rise buildings. From smokestacks, thick black fog billowed out, occupying parts of the sky.

The sun had barely risen, yet the morning rush to work had still managed to deadlock a man in his car. He wore a professional looking blue button-up shirt and khakis. Bags were under his eyes from the long hours he often worked. The twenty-seven-year-old gripped a cup of coffee to remedy that. His name was Patrice Allard.

Patrice had brown hair he kept presentable for his job, and a bit of a weak chin. With all the time he had spent at the office, he started to develop a bigger gut. He would say he didn't have time for fitness.

He had one hand on the wheel, and with the other he took a sip of his coffee, waiting for traffic to crawl forward. He eyed the car in front of him and identified the white frizzy hair of an older woman. Her slow pace had been getting on his nerves all morning.

He groaned, "Come on lady."

Patrice honked his horn, but the woman was slow to react. As soon as he had the opportunity, he pulled out from behind her into another lane.

He eyed his clock, 6:58 am. He'd still get to work early, but that didn't change the annoyance that was traffic in La Ville Sans Fin.

He took another sip of his coffee and noticed a faint blue glow on the horizon. A bright blue shimmering mass glided across the skyline. A comet. Patrice had heard the comet would be flying over their city today. A once in a lifetime event. Near the coast there would be a festival for it. But Patrice would be busy with work. No time for that. He was sure Henri would join in.

Patrice weaved between other cars to reach an exit off the highway. The city streets weren't much better traffic wise. The drive worsened his growing headache. He passed by a construction site that had been mid-build for a few years.

Among the other skyscrapers was an office building shared by several companies. Patrice pulled into the parking area behind the building. This early in the morning, it was mostly vacant.

He entered the minimalist lobby, took the elevator up to the floor, and stepped into the office of Arc-CNC Consulting. First to arrive, he turned on the lights to the office and took a seat in his cubicle.

His desk was organized. Folders organized by project and customer. A clean open workspace ahead of him. An office phone to the corner. There was a divider to his left with names on each of the partitions. Luis. Jean. Theo. Jeremiah. The members of the team which Patrice led. In each of the dividers were documents turned into him for review. But Jeremiah's divider was empty. It had been for a while.

Patrice set out a bill of materials for a machine a customer wanted for review. When he saw a lead time that exceeded four weeks, he crossed it out, leaving a note that they needed to find a faster vendor.

His strive for excellence that earned him his last promotion. If he finished the next few projects ahead of him quickly, he was sure he'd earn another.

His phone rang. Far earlier than he'd expect a customer to call, but he didn't want to miss it. He picked it up hastily.

"Hello, this is Patrice!" He greeted in an upbeat manner, as if a headache hadn't been bothering him all morning.

"Hey..." A familiar voice came through, "You're not at your apartment."

Patrice discarded his formal tone and leaned back in his chair, "No, I'm at work, Henri. Where are you?"

"Payphone." Henri replied sleepily.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Only a little," Henri mumbled. "Hey uh, could I stay at your apartment for a while?"

Patrice took a deep breath, "What happened?"

"...Evicted."

Patrice felt his headache getting worse. He palmed his face and replied, "Do you remember where my parking space is?"

"Yeah."

"If you look behind the parking stop there's a spare key. You can get into the apartment with that."

"Th-thanks man. You're a lifesaver." Henri replied.

"We'll figure things out when I get home. For now, you can sleep on the couch."

"Alright. Thanks Pat."

The office door opened. A tan man with black hair and a thin physique around Patrice's age walked in. Luis, a member of his team.

Patrice spoke into the phone, "No worries. I'll talk to you later."

Patrice ended the call and glanced at the office clock as Luis passed by him. It was 7:58. Patrice stood and asked, "Did you have trouble with traffic?"

Luis turned around with a tired look and shrugged, "Uh, a little bit."

Patrice smiled and replied in a chipper tone, "Same here. That's why I got up earlier. But it's no problem, Luis. I'm sure you'll get in earlier tomorrow."

Luis eyes darted between Patrice and his desk before he said, "R-right."

More of the staff filed in as they day went. Patrice checked in with each member of his team to make sure they were all on top of their tasks. All except for Jeremiah, as he didn't show up. Ever since his daughter ended up in the hospital, he'd been missing work more frequently.

At 10 am, Patrice gathered his team into the conference room for a call with a customer from out of the city. As usual, he guided the conversation on both sides, ready with talking points to keep the project going. He made sure that the customer knew that they had contracted a builder for their new machine, costs and designs were near completion. Everything was being lined up as intended. Whenever the conversation would deviate from what Patrice had in mind, he made sure to get it back on track.

As the meeting went on, the door to the conference room creaked opened. Patrice winced and saw it was Jeremiah who interrupted. A man whose hair had grayed despite being in his early 40's. He had a scraggly beard and looked tired. He wore a baggy jacket and had one hand firmly planted in one of its pockets.

Jeremiah mouthed "sorry" as he sat down with everyone.

From the conference phone the customer said, "Our big concern is the mechanical details. I don't think we should move forward until we have that finished."

Patrice energetically replied, "Not an issue! We can have that finished today and fax it over to you tomorrow morning."

Luis's eyes widened. It would be his job to finish it by then. Patrice could tell he wanted to speak up, but he made sure to fill the conversation, not giving him a chance to do so.

"That'd be great!" The customer replied.

"Hey, we aim to please!" Patrice said, "We can do a quick meeting tomorrow at the same time after you've gotten them."

"Sounds great!"

Luis was quiet for the remainder of the meeting. As soon as it finished, Luis turned to him and said, "Hey, I don't think I can finish that tonight."

"I know you can. I believe in you. You have the whole day to work on it!" Patrice optimistically replied. Before Luis could respond, Patrice turned to Jeremiah, "Jeremiah. Can you stay in the conference room for a moment?"

Jeremiah meekly nodded, "Sure."

Patrice gave an exuberant smile, "Great!"

Patrice and the rest of his team filed out of the conference room, and left Jeremiah on his own in there. Patrice quickly crossed the office to the HR, rapped on the door and said, "Jeremiah's in the conference room."

He watched as a few of the HR personnel walked to the conference room, closed the door behind them, and sat down with Jeremiah. Patrice had given HR notice that he needed Jeremiah fired.

Jeremiah reacted calmly as his employment was terminated. There was no argument or complaining from him. They escorted him to his cubicle, he calmly collected his things and stepped out of the office.

"Wh-what happened?" Luis asked as Jeremiah left.

Patrice quietly said, "Jeremiah quit."

"Really?"

"He said he wanted to focus on his daughter... it's a shame to see him go." Patrice lied. It painted things in a better light.

As the day carried on, workers filed out in the evening. All except Luis and Patrice.

At 5:30pm, Patrice circled around to his cubicle. He found Luis toiling away at a series of mechanical drawings, barely noticing him as he came up.

"Hey, thanks for agreeing to stay after to work on this. I can stay after with you as long as you need." Patrice said. He knew that Luis never agreed to that, but he would never challenge him on it.

Luis ran his hands through his hair and looked up from his work, "Right... you don't have to hang around."

Patrice raised an eyebrow, "Really? I'm happy to stay until you're done!"

Luis stifled a sigh, "I'm sure."

"Okay, well thanks for staying late. I'll look forward to seeing those drawings when you're done. Set them on my desk so I can look over them in the morning."

"...Okay."

Patrice smiled, "Great! Love the work ethic buddy! Keep it up!"

It was evening by the time Patrice left the office. Luis was still hard at work.

On the drive home, the city was illuminated a bright blue from the comet that was now perfectly above their city. Near the coast Patrice could hear fireworks going off. There were a great number of tourists to their city to see the comet, which made traffic even worse. The headache Patrice had in the morning had persisted throughout the entire day.

He headed into into his modest apartment. It was a minimalist space to fit Patrice's frugal lifestyle. There was a small table for eating or work if he needed to bring it home with him. No T.V. A cheap bed in the back. And a couch that his oldest friend, Henri, was splayed out on.

Henri had dark red hair, was tall, and had a strong physique to him despite all the drinking he did. Patrice had no problem considering him handsome. Too bad he was so irresponsible all the time.

Patrice considered waking his friend, but he wanted rest. He set his car keys on a table near the front door. He shut the shades so the bright blue light of the comet couldn't shine through. He laid down on his bed, hearing the internal springs of it creak as his weight came down on it. He laid there until sleep found him.

~June 18th, 1982~

~Cycle 2~

The sun had barely risen. Vehicles were set bumper to bumper on the highway, with a cacophony of impatient horns ringing out between the cars. Patrice took a sip of his coffee as he impatiently waited for the car ahead of him to move. The traffic was giving him a headache. He glanced at the clock and saw it was 6:59 AM.

Then it occurred to him... Patrice didn't remember getting up this morning. He figured he would've stopped to talk to Henri on his way out. Patrice glanced at his clothing... he put on the same blue button up as he did yesterday! Hopefully no one would notice.

Then a bright blue flash appeared on the horizon. Patrice saw the comet rising into view. Patrice tapped the steering wheel. The comet should've passed over already...

Patrice continued through traffic until he arrived at work. First to arrive as usual. He passed over to his desk and expected to see Luis's mechanical details, but they weren't there. At first Patrice let out a sigh, figuring that Luis had failed to finish last night. But then he noticed some other documents on his desk. He slid out a bill of materials that Theo had turned into him. All his notes that Patrice had worked on was gone.

Patrice rifled through his desk and looked over everything he had worked on yesterday. All of it had been undone. He walked over to Jeremiah's desk. Though it had been emptied out before, now everything was back.

Patrice was pacing through the office picking out oddities like these when Luis entered the office.

Luis saw his team lead and asked, "Did you see the drawings yet?"

Patrice was half expecting Luis to be clueless about the drawings, but he seemed to remember yesterday. He replied, "No, I didn't find them."

"What're you talking about? I left them right on your desk!" Luis promptly hurried to Patrice's cubicle, only to be shocked when his designs were absent. He began frantically looking around, even checking his own desk. He pulled out partially finished designs. "I finished these! I swear! I had them set onto your desk last night!"

Patrice didn't say anything at first. Something odd was going on. He asked, "Hey, do you remember Jeremiah being fired yesterday?"

"I thought you said he quit?" Luis pointedly replied.

"Y-Yes. That's what I meant." Patrice muttered. "Things seem out of place today."

"What do you mean?"

"I-I'm not sure yet." Patrice answered. He didn't want to come across too pensive. He quickly composed himself, "Can you get as much done on the drawings before the meeting at 10? Hopefully they'll understand that we don't have it done."

Luis sputtered out a response, "But I DID have it done. I spent the whole night working on this!"

"Then it'll be easier to do a second time. Just do what you can."

Patrice went through the motions of everything he had already done the day before. He even re-wrote the same meeting outline of notes that he had used. Patrice anticipated a call from Henri early in the morning just like he did yesterday, but none came.

Co-workers filed into the office one by one, and Patrice watched as they each came to the realization that something was amiss. Everything that the office had collectively done the day before was undone.

Patrice could see people more concerned with what happened then actually working, so he stepped up from his cubicle and spoke to the office. "Hey everyone! I'm betting you're all noticing that a lot of what we did yesterday seems to be... gone."

Someone from the other end of the office haggardly said, "Yeah! I spent all day loading files onto the computer, and they're all gone!"

Patrice, always one to control a situation, quickly replied, "I get that. My team lost a lot of progress yesterday too. But we're trying to catch up as fast as we can. I don't know what happened, but we'll find out eventually. Best thing we can do is roll with it."

Patrice smiled to punctuate his address to the office. He was met with a lot of nods and shrugs as they went back to work. He needed to keep everyone on track. This was just a minor setback. He didn't want to give anyone the excuse to be lazy.

At 10am, Patrice's team filed into the conference room.

Patrice opened the call with a "Good morning, everyone! How are we all doing?"

"Good. Good." From the customer side a few voices shared the same response. "How about yourselves?"

Patrice gave an airy laugh, "Ha, it's been an interesting morning. Hey, I know we were planning to fax you the mechanical details by now, but there's been a bit of a hiccup on our side. I know it's not ideal, but we'll try to get it to you within the next few hours for your review."

Luis rolled his eyes and slid back in his chair. But the customer was silent for a moment. Until they replied, "Which mechanical details are you referring to?"

The team all gave dejected glances at each other. Patrice replied, "Umm, for the end of arm tool. And the overall outline."

There was a murmur from the customer before one of them finally said, "I mean, we were going to bring that up in this meeting, but it would be fantastic if you could get that to us today... I felt like you read our minds there!"

The team was quiet again. Patrice deliberated for a moment before asking, "Hey, what day of the week is it?"

"Umm... Thursday." The customer replied.

Yesterday was Thursday. Or it was supposed to be... Patrice thought that if they didn't remember their meeting from yesterday, they might as well play it out.

Patrice chipperly replied, "Just checking! Alright let's get moving with this."

Patrice proceeded to go over the exact same points as he had yesterday. The customer gave him nearly identical responses to questions he had already asked before. When Patrice's team was asked something, they uncomfortably parroted what they had already said before. It got to the point where Patrice could anticipate where their customer would take the conversation.

The rest of his team was in deep thought at the repetition of it all. He hoped that by staying calm and collected, they'd behave the same way. The meeting ended earlier.

Patrice stepped out of the conference room and immediately asked everyone in the office, "Everyone remembers it being Thursday yesterday, right?"

People rose from their cubicles, all nodding. One of them said, "I had a call yesterday with a vendor, but they called me again at the exact same time. They didn't seem to remember we already spoke."

"I had a call scheduled for today, but they didn't seem to expect me." Another added.

Patrice scrunched up his face and looked around. He asked, "Can anyone call your family at home? See if they remember or not."

A few people stooped down in their cubicles to use their office phones. Patrice listened as they called their families. When one of them ended their call they stood and said, "They think it's Friday, but they're noticing a lot of things out of place too."

"Same here." another seconded.

Luis circled around to his cubicle and said, "I'm going to call my dad."

As Luis did so, Patrice decided to call his own house phone. Henri should've been there. It took a moment, but someone did answer.

"Ello." Henri answered lazily.

"Henri! What day is it?" Patrice pointedly asked, forgoing the formality he often showed at work.

"Umm... Friday?" Henri answered.

"Do you remember coming to my apartment yesterday?"

"Yeah. You know this weird thing happened in the morning. I swore I fell asleep on your couch, but I woke up sleeping outside under a bridge. In the same place I woke up yesterday!"

Patrice fidgeted for a second, "Okay... I'm figuring something out. I'll see you when I get home."

"Uh, sure. Thanks for letting me stay at your place again."

"Don't worry about it." Patrice said, setting down the phone.

Luis was speaking in another language before setting his phone down.

"Does your dad remember?"

Luis shook his head, "No. For him everything is normal."

Patrice leaned against the cubicles and pondered their situation. Everyone in the office remembers. So does Henri. But not their customers or Luis's dad...

Maybe...

"Does your dad live in the city?" Patrice asked.

Luis squinted at him, "No... He doesn't."

It's only people within the city, Patrice thought.

Everyone in the office was discussing what was going on and what they should do. He could see a few of them gathering their things to leave work. Patrice quickly said, "We should go about our day as usual. Whatever is going on, this could be a one-time thing. Everything could be back to normal by tomorrow."

~June 18th, 1982~

~Cycle 15~

Patrice was wrong. He still wound up in a traffic jam as the comet rose into the air the next day. Or rather, the next cycle of the same day. Though the people of the city remembered what happened on previous cycles, those outside of the city did not. Nevertheless, he headed into work each cycle, motivating his co-workers to join him.

He was sure he needed to keep things on track. He couldn't afford to have all the momentum and progress he'd made with his company and their ongoing projects go to waste.

On the 4th cycle, there a were several no-shows at the office. They thought that if their work was being undone each day, what was the point in doing it? But Patrice insisted his team stay in case the next cycle would be back to normal. He carried out the same meeting, did the same work. He was getting faster at it too.

Traffic grew worse. People were impatient and tried to change course and head back to their homes. Patrice was stuck on the highway for an extra hour after someone parked their car at an exit and walked away.

By the 10th cycle, most of the office was empty. Most of those that did come in left early. But not Patrice. Any day now everything would go back to normal, and he wanted to make sure everything was in order when it did. He was able to talk his team into showing up for work, even if just about everyone else was lazy and absent.

But by the 15th cycle, Patrice entered the office alone. He took meetings alone. He carried out his day alone. And he left alone. After that, he didn't go back.