Rivers have meanders, human life has phases

Chapter 5

Breakfast was a quiet affair the rest of that morning.

Rather than the previous awkward silence, this was a tranquility born from two people's understanding of each other.

At the end of it, Linh began gathering dishes to wash them. Miguel stood up to join her.

Linh glanced at Miguel in surprise. "You're helping me wash the dishes?" She thought that, Miguel being from 2099, his future probably had robots, or other technology, to do household chores.

Miguel raised an eyebrow at her. "Did you think I wouldn't?"

She blushed as she stumbled out a reply. "W - well, you're from the future, right? Don't you have ways to clean your dishes without doing it yourself?"

This time, Miguel raised both of his eyebrows. "What's the point of that? I may be a busy person, but I can do something like wash my own dishes..."

"Oh... I guess I just assumed... since you're from the future..." Linh trailed off, not knowing how to finish her thought.

Miguel and Linh brought the dirty dishes to the sink. She put on her dishwashing gloves, turning towards Miguel uncertainly. "Since I don't have gloves for your hand size, I'll wash, and you can dry the dishes?"

"That's fine with me." Miguel nodded.

As they began washing the dishes, Miguel asked a question. "You keep saying I'm from the future. What year is your world currently in?"

"Oh, it's 2024." Linh answered quickly.

Miguel paused, before going back to drying. "2024... no wonder you were using a smartphone. Is that why you thought my home would be decked out with technology?"

Linh felt her face heat up again. "It's a reasonable assumption to make! Your world is almost a century ahead of mine. Aren't you the Spiderman who figured out how to travel the multiverse?"

Miguel chuckled. "That's exactly why I keep the technology in my home to a minimum. Too many opportunities for someone to hack my home, and use my position at Alchemax or Spiderman against me."

"So does that mean you kept your day job at Alchemax, while you were busy being Spiderman?" Linh was curious, since she always wondered how Miguel could pay for everything at the Spider Society.

"That's right. The benefits of being CEO of my own company."

Linh nearly dropped the dish she was washing. Thankfully, that didn't happen, but she was still in shock. "You own a company?! But I thought you worked at Alchemax?!"

Miguel smiled, amused by her reaction. "I do. What's left of it, anyway. After I brought it down, I bought what was left and reformed it into my own business." He smirked. "Turns out, no one questions why the CEO isn't always around, if you are the CEO."

Linh and Miguel continued their conversation, on the differences between their respective Earths, until they finished washing the dishes.

Ash came trailing into the kitchen, meowing for his food. He stopped when he saw Miguel, then ran back down the hallway to Linh's room.

"... Your cat still doesn't like me, it seems." Miguel smiled regretfully, not knowing what else to say.

"To be fair, you were showing me your claws and fangs..." Seeing the rueful expression on Miguel's face, Linh frantically assured him she was fine. "... not that it's your fault! I mean, how else were you going to convince me you were Miguel O'Hara?"

"... Call me Miguel."

Linh blinked, not understanding his intention.

"It's Miguel, just Miguel. I don't need you to start calling me Spiderman, or worse, Mr. O'Hara, every time you want to address me."

"Oh, alright. In that case, you can just call me Linh." She smiled softly at Miguel. "You should head to the living room, while I go get Ash his food. When I'm done, we can discuss more about getting you settled in."

"Sounds like a plan."

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Linh had told him during their breakfast that she was a nurse.

It was no longer a surprise to Miguel then, her actions up until that point. She had treated him, given Miguel a place to rest, and even food to eat. All signs of a person who spent their life caring for others.

Miguel would wager though, even among those of her profession, Linh wasn't ordinary.

Who else could suddenly reveal their entire history, towards a stranger they just met? It was absurd... but it worked.

Miguel found himself beginning to trust this odd woman.

Perhaps it was inevitable. In the face of her kindness and determination, no walls could stand. She had already done what someone in her position could... and yet, even still, she promised him more. To get him back home.

So, after their meal, Miguel helped her wash the dishes. It was the least he could do.

Linh was amusing, in her assumptions of Miguel's Earth. She had been right about flying cars and virtual reality, but a floating city in the sky? Or what about - Atlantis? No, Miguel's world had none of that.

Her universe surprised him too. It wasn't just that he was a fictional character (a fact that still made him uneasy)... none of the Spider-people were real.

Linh's world had no superheroes. In the same vein, it had no supervillains either. It was... a normal world. Where "heroes" and "villains" were regular people.

Miguel was glad that Alchemax didn't exist here. He wanted nothing to threaten Linh's universe.

But what about him? Was Miguel a threat? If he was, surely he wouldn't have woken up here?

In all the recent chaos and confusion, Miguel had overlooked something important: he didn't glitch. No matter what universe someone traveled to, if they didn't belong in that dimension, they would start glitching.

Without a gizmo like Miguel's, there was no way to survive. Was he still alive because of his watch? Or something else?

There were too many questions. Questions that would determine Miguel's fate, and whether or not he could go home.

For now, he had to answer one: what would he do next?