Joseph D Newcomer

Diminishing Return Joseph D Newcomer

"We are all recycled people." Time has stopped and people are no longer living in the Present Pause. Disenchanted with Nostalgia Incorporated's Time Travel Experience and the memory loss it causes, a former musician turned sanitation worker spends his time sorting through a lonesome world of trash left behind by humanity while he composes a letter to his younger self. The desire for the most insignificant of changes may be his last desperate connection to existence. When he meets a dead girl, the subject matter of his letter changes. Her apparent suicide has been halted by the Pause, leaving a bullet spinning, locked in time next to her head. Their interactions bleed into his letter and he begins to understand that her wisdom reaches far beyond his comprehension. As his letter and his compassion for the dead girl grow, he questions his desire for time to continue. The only thing more important than remembering the past is making sure you're not living in it.