The Ring of Time
Your vision becomes clearer and more distinct as you focus to find yourself in bed in your room... in your parents' old house. Your mouth agape, you stare about the room - your old oak desk is there, the old computer, your wooden nightstand and fat, white ceramic lamp with the burlap canvas-like shade. Even the dark brown, worn carpet looks foreign yet vaguely familiar, like an old dream that you half remember.
With the wonder accompanying such a marvel, you look down at your new Ring of Time, still doubting that this could actually be real. It is then that you notice your lack of muscle tone and the intense youthful look of your skin.
"So just because you're going to public school now, don't think you have to act all crazy and wicked, you hear?" The voice of your Mom startles you, as you hadn't even noticed her at the foot of your bed. Apparently, you bent time into the middle of a lecture. Collecting your wits as quickly as possible, you manage to mutter a "Yes, Ma'am." in response. Your Mom looks younger, too, even though it's hard to tell much progression in age on overweight folks. She pats the foot of your bed, smiles, and says, "All right, son, well hurry and get up and I'll have breakfast waiting for you and your brother at the table." You watch, like your favorite movie, as she leaves the room - an odd feeling of contentment washing over you.
"Criminy!" you think to yourself. "I'm MARRIED!" A horrific thought crosses your mind. You begin to speculate what might happen if you never get BACK to your wife and girls. You quickly think of bending time again to return to them, but recall how you were almost killed in the future. Perhaps you can still get back to them, but now it will take more than nine YEARS. You grab the writing tablet and pen you remember are in the drawer of your nightstand and turn halfway through it and quickly scrawl at the top of the page, "I will marry Bethany June Klein on December 16, 1999 at King James Bible Baptist Church, with Pastor Jonathan Doss marrying us. I will meet her at the Subway in Charleston, SC off of Redbank Road the evening of November 10th after she gets out of church and will ask her to marry me outside of her work at the NEX the evening of December 10th. I will be driving a red '94 Camaro with the license plate UWA2SLO." You figure these few facts will come in handy if you hope to secure some semblance of your remembered future nine years from now. Placing the notebook back in your nightstand, you close the drawer almost reverently.
You pull back the covers from your bed and stand to look yourself over in the mirror on top of your dresser. Just how you remember yourself - scrawny and pale with far more hair than you can last recall, which kind of turns your stomach.
You now must decide what you will do. Will you...
With the wonder accompanying such a marvel, you look down at your new Ring of Time, still doubting that this could actually be real. It is then that you notice your lack of muscle tone and the intense youthful look of your skin.
"So just because you're going to public school now, don't think you have to act all crazy and wicked, you hear?" The voice of your Mom startles you, as you hadn't even noticed her at the foot of your bed. Apparently, you bent time into the middle of a lecture. Collecting your wits as quickly as possible, you manage to mutter a "Yes, Ma'am." in response. Your Mom looks younger, too, even though it's hard to tell much progression in age on overweight folks. She pats the foot of your bed, smiles, and says, "All right, son, well hurry and get up and I'll have breakfast waiting for you and your brother at the table." You watch, like your favorite movie, as she leaves the room - an odd feeling of contentment washing over you.
"Criminy!" you think to yourself. "I'm MARRIED!" A horrific thought crosses your mind. You begin to speculate what might happen if you never get BACK to your wife and girls. You quickly think of bending time again to return to them, but recall how you were almost killed in the future. Perhaps you can still get back to them, but now it will take more than nine YEARS. You grab the writing tablet and pen you remember are in the drawer of your nightstand and turn halfway through it and quickly scrawl at the top of the page, "I will marry Bethany June Klein on December 16, 1999 at King James Bible Baptist Church, with Pastor Jonathan Doss marrying us. I will meet her at the Subway in Charleston, SC off of Redbank Road the evening of November 10th after she gets out of church and will ask her to marry me outside of her work at the NEX the evening of December 10th. I will be driving a red '94 Camaro with the license plate UWA2SLO." You figure these few facts will come in handy if you hope to secure some semblance of your remembered future nine years from now. Placing the notebook back in your nightstand, you close the drawer almost reverently.
You pull back the covers from your bed and stand to look yourself over in the mirror on top of your dresser. Just how you remember yourself - scrawny and pale with far more hair than you can last recall, which kind of turns your stomach.
You now must decide what you will do. Will you...