The Girl and the Time Machine Part 2
By Sundayess
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The Girl and the Time Machine Part 2
by Moises Bautista
I began walking up the stairs to the third floor. Although not physically tired, I got the feeling like bricks being added to my kneecaps with each step up. I was spry but I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead. First floor done. On the second floor. That name on the billboard was mistake. The same thing happened when I temporarily moved schools for a week back in tenth grade. Even though I was out of the school’s system, I was still registered on the billboard for the first week. By next week, the name would be gone. There is no way that name was accurate. Second floor done. On the third floor. She told me she was leaving. She told me she was gone. I then looked down at the paper. The classroom was going to be down the left hallway. The hallway was empty and had received a paintjob of white lockers and orange walls. I scanned the corridor. Room 302. The door was wide open. This was the one. I could hear the commotion and the students talking going on inside. Suddenly, as I was 5 feet away from the door, no more than a few inches from my face, a backpack went flying out and fell in front of me. I stopped in my tracks. I picked it up and then walked inside.
“Ryan!” I heard a voice say.
I turned to look behind me. It couldn’t be. That smile and those glasses.
“What’s up?” she said.
In that very instant, thought it lasted perhaps no more than two seconds, A million thoughts came rushing into my mind. Why the hell are you here? You left! I am glad! I am angry! Come into my arms! I am blessed! I am cursed! Get away from me! Where the hell have you been? You aren’t supposed to be here! I spent the whole entire summer trying to forget you! I missed you. You left! I should hate you! I don’t hate you. Don’t leave me again.
But, in spite of all these thoughts, the only thing that came out of my lips was:
“Hi.”
I then walked to the other side of the classroom and returned the backpack to the boy who had his arms sticking out and then proceeded to sit at an empty desk next to some of my friends. I put on my jacket’s hood over my face.
“Wow, Ryan” a friend at the table said. “You look like you just saw a ghost or something”
September 28, 2016
I was sitting on the bed in my new my dorm room at my UC Riverside and I had just finished writing a memo on my phone. The final memo needed to complete the letter I had written for Les.
Senior year was one filled with both joy and sadness for me. I didn’t immediately start talking to Les again as I was still in shock in the first couple of weeks but as time drew on, I began going back to my old routine. I began talking with her more, surprised her with more elaborate gifts, worked on school projects together, dedicated a film, even asked her in front of the entire school to prom which she thoroughly enjoyed, going so far as to jumping into my arms. Eventually, it culminated with me asking her out officially during my final weeks of the school but, unfortunately, Les told me she didn’t feel the same way. I took the news well but I still felt that I had much to say that was left unsaid.
When I decided to write the letter, I decided that I wanted to write it physically, however I didn’t want to rush things and began to write it slowly on the virtual notepad of my cellphone. I did this with the intention of allowing to write and mend everything to perfection and intended to write it down afterwards. This was not the first time I had written a letter to Les as I had written her letters before. I did this because of the simple philosophy of digital versus physical. Like my mother had taught me in the past, anyone this day can write a letter on the computer but it takes an extra special someone to go that extra mile and write it by hand.
My mother has always told me that you whenever you say goodbye to someone, always treat it like it’s the last time you will see them because you never know what the future holds. You always want to leave people with a good impression of yourself and to make them feel loved and happy. I took my mother’s teachings to heart which is why I knew that I wanted to end this story with Les on a good note. I didn’t want to leave all these things that I wanted to tell her dormant inside me as well so I decided that perhaps I could write her a letter.
I don’t like saying goodbye to people. Especially those that I care about. I like to believe that my loved ones will always be around and that even if we don’t talk for huge gaps at a time, that in the end, we can still be there for each other. I knew I had to move on from Les though but it was hard. Still, it had to be done.
Later on that afternoon, I finally mustered the courage to call Les. It was the final incentive that I needed to finish the letter. Just set a meet up and get it out of the way. So, I did and ended up setting up a time to meet up with her at her house the upcoming Saturday. The call took no more than 5 minutes and I was on my way. However, something rather unexpected happened as soon as I hung up the phone. For you see, as cliché as it sounds, by just talking to her in those 5 minutes, those 5 minutes were enough to instantly remind me why I fell in love with her in the first place. Upon realizing what I had done, I began to regret because I realized I didn’t want to let go of Les. But now that I told her to meet me up and that I wanted to give her something, I couldn’t possibly go back on my word.
October 1, 2016
I checked the clock and it was 3:42.
I had just finished combing my hair in the restroom and began making my way towards the living room to get my shoes.
“Mom.” I said.
“What happened, Ryan?” my mother replied from the kitchen room.
“Do you know if aunt Carmen is still in the backyard? I wanted to ask her if she was ready to leave yet.”
I stepped into the kitchen which was engulfed by steam and the smell of chicken and meat. I then saw my mother who washing some red sauce from her light skinned hands in the sink. The steam then cleared up a bit as my mother opened up the kitchen window. My mother had her dark hair tied up in a bun. She was wearing blue jeans and a dark and white blouse with flower designs all around it. She was making dinner for my aunt who was visiting with my cousins.
“I think she is still in the back with your cousins” my mother said “Where are you off too?”
“I’m off to meet up with Les. Carmen agreed to drop me off at her house around 4” I said as I walked by her towards the living room.
“Oh, that’s the girl you went to prom with, right?” she asked. “How is she?”
“I imagine she is doing fine.” I said as I crouched down to tie my shoes.
I then noticed a shadow lean over me. It was my mother who was now standing above me. I knew she could tell something was up.
“Why do you look sad? I would figure that you’d be happy to see her again. You know what I told you about how people don’t like being around negativity”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just that, I still plan on giving her the letter I told you about.”
“Oh, I see.”
My mother then sat down in the couch that was facing me.
“I just don’t want to say goodbye you know.” I said as I broke the silence.
“No one is really forcing you to say goodbye, Ryan.”
“Yes, I know but I don’t want to risk falling in love again and wasting time. It’s happened before but I don’t want to do it again. I’d be stupid otherwise. I mean, you told me this yourself. To not waste time.”
“You should give her a second chance.”
“But she clearly doesn’t want anything to do with me. I mean, I texted her and all through the summer and she didn’t respond.”
“You should always try to give second chances to people, Ryan. Even if they did you wrong. That was in the past. They could have changed.”
“I don’t know. Is this what fate would really want me to do?”
“Just test the waters. See how it goes today and depending on what reactions you get, move forward from there. You never know what the future holds.”
My mother then got up from the couch and made her way back to the kitchen. I then went back to my room. I closed the door behind me and I went to my desk and opened one my desk drawers to pull out the letter I had written. I began to flip through its pages which were numbered and stapled.
“Am I really doing this?” I said to myself.
Just then, I heard a car engine rev up. It was coming from outside.
“Ryan, I’m ready. Let’s go!” I heard Carmen yell from outside my room window.
I looked at the letter I then put it away in a drawer under my desk, almost immediately running out my bedroom door soon after. I then hopped into my aunt’s car and we were off.
About 15 minutes later, I had arrived at Les’ place. I hadn’t been to her house since I picked her up for Prom all those months ago. Everything looked the same, the blue house, the familiar palm trees in her front yard, the black iron gate, except they now had a doghouse with a greyhound living in it in front. I called her and told her I was outside and seconds later the front door of the house swung open and I was greeted by that old familiar smile and those old familiar glasses and she welcomed me inside.
After chatting for a while, we then took an Uber to a restaurant and spent almost 3 hours there. At the restaurant, we had a reserved table booth and sat there catching up, laughing and talking about many interesting things that had gone on with us. We were having a great time so much so that Les asked me when I was going to be in town next so we could already begin planning our next meet up. I asked her if she had been laser tagging before and she told me that she ad and that I was one of her favorite things to do. I told her that I would be returning to L.A. in two weeks and we then came up with setting up an event for the Saturday two weeks ahead with all our friends at an amusement park. After a while, I then had Les dropped off at her house and she gave me a really tight hug and thanked me for the fun night. We stood there for a good while, hugging each other for a good minute. I personally enjoyed it and savored every moment of it. I enjoyed the warmness of the moment and having her in my arms. I didn’t want to let her go. I felt like this was my little slice of heaven.
Over the course of the following days, I ended up telling my friends about the event and what had happened with Les. They were all up to the event and were enthralled and happy for me upon hearing the news with Les. I was glad as well because the outcome of the night, I felt meant that I didn’t have to let Les go and was enthralled that I made her happy once again and she enjoyed my company. I thought to myself that perhaps this could be the start of something new. Maybe this was what all the suffering was for so it could be finally worth something in the end.
October 9 2016
I opened the door to my dorm ready to collapse on my bed having just finished my final class for the day. I went to my desk drawer in my dorm and I pulled out some tea bags to prepare tea for myself with the microwave I had in my room. I put a cup with water inside to inside the microwave to heat it up. I set it to one minute.
As the week went by and the meet up with Les was getting closer and closer, I thought to myself, on top of already going to this event, how could I possibly make this event more memorable. I then began to think about the past and how, due to my absence in the summer, I had not been able to do anything for Les’ birthday in July. Even though I didn’t have too, I felt bad because I did plan on doing something for it but never could. That and I wanted to make Les happy. For that was my main goal. I then that began pondered more and more and thought if it would be possible to celebrate Les’ birthday 3 months after the event. I was thinking of doing something among those lines and maybe reserving party arrangements over at our upcoming laser tag event. I felt I would need some help so I called my friend, Eliseo to see if he would be willing an also to get his thoughts on my plan and if truly was the worst idea in the world. Eliseo was one of my closet friends during high school and was also the one whom I often talked about Les with. He had dark hair, a muscular and slim build with a small goatee on his face. Eliseo was one of the most involved and intelligent students in our school, from getting interviews with prestigious schools, an event organizer, to being a musician for the school’s competitive band. We often made videos together and sat next to each other in a bunch of classes. Many people actually thought he was my brother because we were always hanging out and he had dark skin like me. He also most especially enjoyed teasing about Les any opportunity he could, mainly enjoying pulling out his portable speaker and playing the song “Careless Whispers” every time Les walked near us.
At the time I had called him, it was 9 in the evening and he had just been getting out of class at UC Irvine, heading home. I brought him up to speed and asked him if I should go through with it and if he would be willing to help me. Since he was driving, I did most of the talking but he did offer a few inputs every now and then. Eventually, when we were wrapping up the call, he then asked me how long it had been since Les’ birthday.
“It was actually about three months ago in July.” I said.
He then paused momentarily to consider what I had just told him.
“I see. If only you could time travel, Ryan.”
There was a sudden silence.
“Eliseo, you’re a genius.”
Shortly after I hung up the phone and I then began to brainstorm. By the end of the following week, I had established the blueprints for what was going to be a “time machine”. I came up with the idea of the time machine and how I could use it as my way of celebrating her birthday. My plan was that I would go out on a date with Les to the movies and possibly the arcade. Throughout the day, occasionally and subtly, I would bring up how I was sorry for missing out on her birthday a couple of months back and how I wished that there was something I could do to make up for it. In the evening, when I was supposed to be dropping her off at her house, I would instead take her back to my house, telling her that I wanted to show her something. As we parked in my drive way, on both sides, there would be lights illuminating a pathway towards my backyard. By this time, it would be the evening so everything would be pitch dark and the lights would be our only source of vision. I would then tell Les to follow me and we would then make our way up the trail which would end up leading us to the machine itself. The machine itself would be built in the style of a Victorian Steampunk telephone box. It would have steel bars sticking out of it with glass windows all decorated with lights. The roof was a giant umbrella which was connected to the floor inside the machine which would also be decorated by lights. We would find the doors to the time machine open and we would then walk inside and close the door behind us. Inside the machine, a screen would be hung on one of the walls and a voice would then start speaking to us. In a grand presentation the voice would then instruct us how to use the machine and I would hand Les my phone which allowed her to interact with the video monitor. It would then ask her to set the coordinates for her birthday. From there, a countdown would display on the screen and her and I would then have to walk to the center of the machine and begin spinning the giant umbrella connected to the roof. As we spun, the machine would make noises and then after about one minute, the voice on the speaker would tell us that we had arrived. Once that happened, I would then tell Les to step outside. Les would then open the door and right in front of the machine, she would step on a pressure plate connected to the roof of my house. Upon being stepped on, the plate would then drop a banner tied by a rope that read “Happy Birthday, Les”, with her and my friends then suddenly coming out from hiding behind my garden bushes, having with them gifts and cake for her.
End of Part 2
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