Synopsis:Whenever We Goby Aaron Caicedo

In a drab, decaying apartment complex in a city that could be New Jersey… or Detroit… or wherever, something extraordinary happens: a glowing, humming blue portal materializes atop a tenant’s door—then disappears just as suddenly, after spitting out (and promptly reabsorbing) a confused man in a sad suit and crooked fedora. No one witnesses it. No one, except maybe a rat. And even the rat quickly loses interest.

Thus beginsWhenever We Go, a sharply funny, time-warping sci-fi novel told through the intersecting stories of three neighbors teetering on the brink.

Mark, a lonely, neurotic man with nothing left to lose, prepares to end his life at exactly midnight—only to be interrupted by a mysterious noise that throws off his timing and thrusts him, awkwardly and unwillingly, back into the world.

Jeremy, a jittery burnout with mob ties and a pending call from a terrifying former associate, thinks the explosive sound outside his door is the beginning of his end. When the phone doesn't ring, he mistakes survival for opportunity—and heads into the hallway to chase down his hot neighbor.

Maila, a former cop and current single mother in a custody battle from hell, believes the sound could be an attack. Worn down by heartbreak, rage, and her ex’s delusions of grandeur (he signed divorce papers as “Dr. Jamison ‘Jimathy’ Lawson, Jr, Sr”), Maila is ready for a fight—until her door opens onto a screaming match between three deeply confused tenants.

As these three strangers stumble into each other’s lives in the seconds following the unexplained POP!, none realize they’ve already begun slipping out of sync with time. Their timelines are no longer entirely linear, their realities slightly unglued. And somewhere deeper in the building—beyond the wallpaper stained with decades of failure and mildew—a presence waits, humming.

Layered with biting wit, existential absurdity, and an omniscient narrator who seems to know everything except when it’s time to explain it,Whenever We Gois a genre-bending sci-fi comedy about missed connections, metaphysical mistakes, and the strange portals we open when we’re not paying attention.