Upgrade

by Voima Oy

The woman at the phone store handed Henry back his phone. "I'm sorry," she said. "That model is obsolete. You need an upgrade."

"But I don't want an upgrade," he said. "I want Stella back. Our messages are gone! It's like I lost her again."

"Of course," she smiled in sympathy. "But the new Time Machine option can give you your wife back, and more. Just set the time and place. You can go there whenever you like."

He was thirty again, eating an avocado outside on a breezy summer day. A girl sat beside him. "I'm Stella," she said.



Author bio: Voima Oy lives on the western rim of Chicago, near the expressway and the Blue Line trains. Her writing can be found online at VERStype, Paragraph Planet, Molotov Cocktail--Flash Worlds, The Cabinet of Heed, Burning House Press, and 101 Fiction. 

Follow her on Twitter, too---@voimaoy and #vss365.

Upgrade is part of 101 Fiction issue 25.