The Voice in the Static

Sarah nearly dropped her coffee as the voice crackled through her car radio. She'd been flipping through stations during her morning commute when she'd hit static—and then *that*.

She fumbled for the dial, but the voice continued, urgent and strangely familiar.

*"Don't change the station. Don't turn me off. My name is Sarah Chen, and I'm you—but from tomorrow."*

The coffee cup slipped from her numb fingers, spreading dark liquid across her lap.

*"I know you think you're going crazy. Trust me, I thought the same thing yesterday when I heard my voice coming through my radio, warning me about today. But here's the thing, Sarah—we can change this."*

Sarah pulled over, her hands shaking as she gripped the steering wheel. This had to be some kind of prank. But the voice... it really did sound exactly like her own.

*"In four minutes, you're going to get a text from Marcus asking if you want to grab lunch at that new place on Fifth Street. You're going to say yes because you've had a crush on him for months. Don't. Do. It."*

Her phone buzzed.

A text from Marcus: "Hey! Want to try that new bistro on Fifth for lunch? My treat! 😊"

Sarah stared at the screen, her heart hammering.

*"You're reading it right now, aren't you? The text about lunch? Sarah, listen to me very carefully. In tomorrow's timeline—the one I'm broadcasting from—you said yes. We went to lunch. The building collapsed during the earthquake at 12:47 PM. Forty-three people died, including us."*

The world seemed to tilt. Sarah had heard the seismologists' warnings about the increased earthquake activity, but she'd never thought...

*"But here's what I figured out after I died and somehow woke up in this... in-between place where time works differently. Every time someone hears this broadcast and changes their timeline, it creates a ripple. The earthquake still happens, but fewer people are in that building. We can save them, Sarah. We can save everyone."*

Sarah's finger hovered over her phone keyboard. She started typing: "Sorry, Marcus, can't make—"

*"Wait! Don't just say no. If you do, he'll ask Jennifer instead, and she'll suggest the same place. We need to be smarter. Tell him you heard on the news about a gas leak on Fifth Street. Tell him the whole block is closed. Make him choose somewhere else."*

Sarah deleted her message and typed frantically: "Just saw on the news—gas leak shut down the whole Fifth Street block! Maybe somewhere else?"

*"Good. But we're not done. In two minutes, your sister is going to call asking if she can meet her boyfriend at that bistro for their anniversary lunch. She won't listen to the gas leak excuse—she'll think you're just being overprotective again. You need to tell her about the weird dream you had. Tell her you dreamed about their anniversary being ruined by an earthquake. She'll laugh, but she'll also be superstitious enough to change the location. She always was."*

Sarah's phone rang. "Lisa" flashed on the screen.

"Hey, Sarah! Quick question—do you know anything about that new place on Fifth Street? Tom wants to take me there for our anniversary lunch, but—"

"Lisa!" Sarah interrupted, surprised by the desperation in her own voice. "I had the weirdest dream about you two last night. You were at some restaurant, celebrating your anniversary, and then there was this earthquake, and—"

"Sarah, you're freaking me out."

"Please. Just... pick somewhere else? Anywhere else? I know it sounds crazy, but—"

A long pause. Then: "Okay, okay. We'll go to that Italian place we like instead. But you're buying me a drink later and telling me what's really going on."

*"Perfect. Now here's the hard part, Sarah. You need to call the radio station. Tell them you're getting interference on this frequency from some kind of emergency broadcast. Tell them it's warning about structural damage to buildings on Fifth Street due to seismic activity. They'll think you're a crank, but they'll have to investigate. And when they do..."*

The voice began to fade, dissolving back into static.

*"When they do, they'll evacuate the building just in time. You'll save forty-three lives today, Sarah. But more importantly... you'll save tomorrow's Sarah from having to make this same broadcast to yesterday's you."*

The static cleared completely, leaving only the gentle hum of a commercial about car insurance.

Sarah sat in her pulled-over car, staring at her phone, at the text from Marcus, at the hands that were no longer shaking. She thought about alternate timelines, about voices from tomorrow, about the weight of forty-three lives resting in the simple act of making a phone call.

She dialed the radio station.

"Hello? Yes, I'm getting some kind of emergency broadcast interference on your frequency. Something about Fifth Street and earthquake damage..."

As she spoke, Sarah couldn't help but wonder: somewhere in tomorrow's timeline, was another version of herself listening to this moment, hoping she'd make the right choice?

She supposed she'd never know.

But forty-three people would go home to their families tonight, and that was enough.