John Kennedy: Parrallel Earth

CHAPTER 1
Written by: Glory Akande

I pulled myself through the muddy streets of Brick City as my kicks struggled through the wet muds plastered all over the lonely road, the heavy rain made it worse and I had to wipe drops off my face and swipe my curly off my forehead almost every minute. I was close but still, I felt uneasy wondering what to tell his mum. She was too old for something like this, and this was even the last news an eighty-year-old Anglican Deaconess would be expecting to hear from his grandson's college. It would all have been better if Alec's parent were still together, at least they would understand better and come rushing over as soon as possible. We've been friends for a couple of years now, but he never for once mentioned anything about his parent and why they went apart. I only overheard him talking all these to the counselor.
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Alec was never for once a happy kid; he was a total lone kid, and unlucky at the same time even after we became friends. A three-time suicide survivalist, and a chronic asthmatic patient. "Do people like us have dreams, hope? is there a future for us?" He would ask me anytime we had a long silence after any talk about future and ambitions. He should rather be called 'the boy that never smiles'. I've always made it my major aim this semester to make him smile at least once, So I made my researches and discovered that he had a great love for Scooby Doo and football video game. I got all this ready from the few changes I got from Mrs. Florence, our afterschool part-time gardener. I waited patiently until the semester ran out and made it fast before he returned to Florida to the vicarage where his grandmother works. That's where he lives too. I made additional arrangements for fruit juices, pancakes, and popcorns just for two.

All thanks to God as everything was going as planned, he was losing himself slowly from the bond of loneliness and quietness I noticed with the way he began to talk; so much on how his last boring semester break went, and how much he had missed the video game he used to play in his father's house. "They don't have one in the vicarage.” He muttered sadly as he crushed the popcorns between his teeth. He began to open up about a few other things he had never mentioned, about his childhood, and those he grew up with. Still yet to smile tho, not even a bit. I had to force a proceed to the movie, hoping it would make him laugh anyway, but it all became a different thing and my scariest moment ever. I almost lost my life too.

The movie makers hadn’t finished showing off their logos on the first screen when Alec suddenly coughed, I didn't pay attention. I kept staring at the screen, waiting for a funny moment to come when we'll both laugh, instead it was a shocking moment that came. Not quite long after; I felt him squeezing sleeve as he gasped for air, rolling his bulgy blue eyeballs with his mouth ajar, shaking uncontrollably between the armchair, but didn't let go of me. It all became my scariest moment exactly when he managed to explain to me that he left his inhaler somewhere in his hostel almost twenty miles from here. I couldn't go for that. So I called for paramedics and luckily they came on time, but he had already lost his grip on me when they arrived. I was so mad at myself that I couldn't do anything but watched him struggle for air in pain, struggle for his life. What a sight!

Thank goodness I found one! I could hear my heart pounding so hard in my chest it almost popped, as I approached the phone boot, making my coins with my right, and the little piece paper he wrote his grandma's number on ready in my left hand. I've had it all along in my jacket pocket. It looked old, I almost doubt it at first, but then I inserted a coin and it rolled up. I knew it still got a little hope for, I couldn't see the numbers that were already fading off the wet paper, I managed to see some figures which I pressed on the phones dial pad. I started with the eight just like I saw in the paper, and I ended with something I couldn't remember because I actually guessed it. At first, I was scared of putting the phone in my ear to say or hear anything, but I had to do this no matter what. Alec was dying, and his grandma needed to know.

"Hello! sorry, is this Mrs. Rose?" I began. Then an uneasy sibilant voice came through, It sounded old too, but not for an eighty-two granny.
"Anyone over there…? If you can hear me, Amber Molly reporting from Dealey Plaza, President Kennedy has just been shot! I repeat John Kennedy has just been shot...Anyone over there should..."
I hung up immediately, guess I dialed the wrong number. I was about taking my time to check the digits well when I realized I had squeezed the wet paper after the first trial. I threw it away in anger and booted the glass wall, I heard it make some cracky sound, then became still.
What to do!
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CHAPTER 2
Written by: Johnbest C. Obialo (Desert Writer)

I was about giving up and starting to leave for home when I realized what just happened.
Amber Molly?
John Kennedy?
That name sounded like one old patriot we used to hear about in our classes back in secondary school. I remembered him; John Kennedy, the country's former president. It wasn't making any sense at the time, you reading this report now, probably won't get it. Allow me to amuse you.
I took my time to think about what had happened, but it was certainly weird for me to believe I actually called the phone of someone somewhere, the Countries ex-president who just got killed.
“Was this in my head?”
“Or was that true?”
“Oh no, Did I just called the past, the future? Ex-President Kennedy is very much alive.”
I tried hard not to believe the last, I've heard series, stories, folklore, and read legends about this street in particular.
John Kennedy!

The medics had already taken Alec through the front door where they had their Emergency van parked. It was the school's movie hall, where students would come watching movies, I was very much familiarized with the environ. I went out through the backdoor of the hall to inform his grandma he had an asthmatic episode. the door connected the closest street to Alec’s place, but what I saw at the other end of the door left me in awe. The door didn't lead me to a street, no, it led me to a new Earth, another world, vibrating in a different dimension from the Earth I came through, the door was a portal of some sort taking me there, the blue earth.

This place was unlike anything I've seen; everything was very much in blue, blue was the primary, the vegetation, cattle, people, vehicles, trains, all blue. There was no other color. Houses were floating, something caught my glimpses; the sky was beneath, the land above, I'll explain. People there walked on the sky, and it rained from the ground. Structures, bridges, railways, were built on the sky. It was all new to me, I had only read about alien planets and parallel earth in comics, but then again being in one, exploring one was like fiction and a dream.

I turned to try going back to my earth through the door, but the door wasn't there, it had vanished. I was disappointed.
“Hold it right there!” The voice came from my back, I turned over to see a bunch of blue humans pointing what seemed like a gun at me, maybe it was a gun but not like those used here, my earth. Behind this man, who I think were soldiers was a big round shaped balloon, I found out later could fly.
“What..? I'm not a criminal, I ain't done anything.” I said to them, finding the right words.
“You are a criminal, you are an intruder, all intruders are criminal.” One of the blue Men who stood in front and dressed differently from the others said, taking two quick steps toward me. I quickly fathomed he was their leader.
“And the President, John Kennedy has placed a law to arrest all intruders from Earth.” Another of the blue men said from the battalion.
“Earth…, John Kennedy. President? Where am I? John Kennedy is out of office, he's an Ex-president, ” I cried.
“Profanity! President Kennedy is still on sit, welcome to Earth 0001. You are a threat to the sit of the president. Arrest him!” The leader of the blue men commanded.
Earth 0001, President John Ken alive, everything was making sense, I remembered the call with Amber Molly, I had called the future of parallel earth, Earth 0001. That phone boot was an inter-dimension communicator.
“Wait…, take me to the President, I have an urgent message… he'll die soon!” This words popped out of my mouth as I tried resisting the blue men taking me to their big round shaped balloon.

“Did you say this man talked about my death?” A man with a deep-toned voice seemed to be asking a question, I sensed the curiosity in his voice mixed with fear.
“Yes, your Excellency.” Another voice replied in the background, I couldn't see them, I only heard their voices. Maybe I was knocked out by those men who had arrested me, I didn't know for sure. What I pretty much knew was the fact I was blindfolded on the ground, in a place my survivor's instinct deemed as a council.
“Lose him, I want to hear him speak.” The deep-toned voice spoke again, this time with intense and authority.
Instantly, I noticed my eyes freed from its shackles of blindfolding, I had my sight but everything was blurred.

“Young Man, I’m the president, my boys here reported you said a very…, well you gave a prophecy, about me, my death.”
“Sir, ” I said, standing up. “Kneel down!” One of the seven older men I had quickly counted as my eyes got free, shouted at me. “No, leave him be.” The president addressed. Back in my earth I had never met the ex-president Kennedy in person, only seen him a couple of times on television, and commercials. But this John Kennedy, President, who stood in front of me was the definition of political royalty, masculine and deep voice that I was sure caught the heart of the blue maiden ladies at his service.

“Well, Sir, I’m Roland from the earth.” I continued. “Hours ago I never knew another Earth 0001 existed until my best friend Alec got an asthmatic episode, I tried calling his grandma's phone line when a Lady picked the call. She identified herself as Amber Molly. She told me the President, John Kennedy had just died at that time. Well, it surprised me because, in my earth, John Kennedy was an ex-president and still alive.” There was an expression on all their faces, particularly when I mentioned amber molly, they all looked at the Lady in direction of the soldiers. Who quickly shouted in defense, “I didn't make no call, I don't know what he's talking about. Gosh!”
But then I countered, having realized she was the amber molly I had spoken with the earlier, same voice. “No, you haven't spoken with me on phone, at least not yet but you will. I think the you I called earlier was a future you. it will soon happen, the president will die.”

There was silence in the room for a few minutes, everyone was looking for the right word to start a sentence with, probably waiting for the President to speak first. Then the president spoke; “well I'm to die, I’ll very much prepare my household.” “ Don't tell the Democrats this!” He obliged his council. Only after he had said this, did I look up from where I was standing? Behind the president was the Movie halls door, widely opened.
“Well, Mr. President, Sir. I think my doorway is.. He. Her. Here…” A very forceful wind pulled me back in through the door. I opened my eyes laying on the floor in the movie hall.
What a dream!
I wished it were all real! I smiled.