Hey—It’s Toffer.
No one cares about this scene, but it won’t leave me alone.
I see him. Marty McFly. Or thousands of him. Running across rooftops, skating through alleys, arguing with Doc, all at once. Not just from three movies but from some impossible sequel my head decides to direct every morning.
I know he can’t really go back in time. I know there aren’t more than three movies. My mind doesn’t care about canon. It wants options. Timelines. More versions of me in puffy vests, second-guessing everything.
Oh right. I’m supposed to be talking about time. I keep saying I don’t have it. But that’s not it. I do have time.
What I don’t have is certainty.
Estimated read time: 3 minutes
Every option is a rope tied to a different future.
If I pull one, the others disappear.
So I freeze.
I scroll. Toggle. Snack. Start things I don’t finish.
What I’m really doing is bargaining with time, trying to live multiple lives in one morning.
That’s when he shows up.
He doesn’t knock. Doesn’t smile.
Just sits across from me like he never left.
He looks like someone who already knows how this ends.
I talk. I explain. I complain.
He says nothing.
Then, with the calm of someone who's seen the collapse before,
he points.
“That one.”
There’s no reason to trust him.
But I do.
And the moment I choose, something moves.
The day condenses.
The noise dulls.
The version of me who builds. The version who escapes. The version who hides behind research.
They all fade.
I become one man, doing one thing.
And time, once scattered, returns.
Here’s the truth I didn’t want to hear:
The problem was never time.
It was too many selves,
all begging to be chosen.
And if you don’t choose, the world will choose for you.
With its demands. Its updates. Its noise.
Freedom isn’t options.
It’s commitment.
He still shows up.
When I forget.
He points. I follow.
And slowly, I begin to remember.
His voice was never separate from mine.
He is the part of me that knows.
Your Friend in Time,
Toffer
P.S. “Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.” — E. Brown M.D.