Neal and Peter and Regrets

Recently it hit me that a couple of classic holiday stories are about regrets. In It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey wishes his life had been different. In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge has a chance to contemplate his life and wants to make changes.

As we head into the end of the year with New Year’s resolutions around the corner, many of us will look back on what we did or didn’t do in 2016. We may have regrets, but then we will turn our attention to the future.

For quite a while now, I’ve envisioned a scenario where Neal and Peter look back on what they’ve done and what might have been. At first I thought it would be a vignette to post in December, but it’s growing into a multi-chapter story that I’ll post over a series of weeks, instead.

My original inspiration was A Christmas Carol, and elements of that story remain in my outline. However, I’m also taking inspiration from Silbrith’s Arkham Files stories. She’s placed the Caffrey Conversation characters in the 1970s and introduced elements from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. In that alternate reality, Mozzie is a professor of astrophysics. Therefore instead of ghostly visitors, I’m envisioning wormholes and traveling between alternate universes.

Naturally, as Peter and Neal encounter alternate visions of their pasts and futures, there will be moments of regret. However, I think that like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, they should also see moments that affirm their choices and make them glad that they are who and when and where they are.

While I’m working on A Caffrey Christmas Carol, if you have a craving for holiday-themed stories, check out these entries in the series: Choirboy Caffrey, An Evening with Genji, and Caffrey Aloha. Also make sure you check out Silbrith’s latest Arkham Files story, which she begins posting on December 7!