Remembering the Impossible

Seventeen year old Annie just wanted to go to the mall to get her mother a birthday present. She did not expect to meet a time traveling man that expected her to help him stop an attack.

     

Now she sits alone and remembers. She remembers everything she thought she had lost. Everything that causes her hands to quiver and her heart to pound. Everything that’s impossible to be real, but everything that she knows can’t be a lie.

     

She hasn’t said a word about it to her nurses or doctors yet, not even her family. She remembers everything that happened, but she knows she can’t tell a soul

.      

She hears a knock on the door and Miss Matilda enters with heavy footsteps. “Hi, Annie,” Miss Matilda says as she closes the door with her backside. “I’ve brought you another disgusting hospital dinner. Sorry about that. But, you know that all the food is bad. Well, except for Tuesday’s dinner, of course. So, how are you feeling? Get anything new in your head?” She set the tray on Annie’s lap.

    

 Miss Matilda is Annie’s nurse. She’s a heavy-set woman with a huge heart. However, her talking is nonstop. She’s the opposite of Annie, who hardly says anything anymore. She used to be different. That’s what everyone has told her and what she now knows to be true. But, how can she talk after everything that’s happened?

Annie shakes her head. Lying. Something she knows she’ll be doing for the rest of her life. She closes her eyes and thinks about what happened.

    

 Annie had run to the mall to pick up a gift for her mother’s birthday. Inside the mall, she walked past a young man who seemed very distressed, as if he were looking for someone and couldn’t find them. She didn’t think anything of him until she heard him say, “Alright, I give up. ANNIE HOPKINS! Where are you?”

     

She turned quickly hearing her name. “Uh, yes?”

     

The man pivoted on the balls of his feet and got right up in her face with a quizzical look across his own, “Is that you?” He picked up a few strands of her hair and let it fall. “Your hair’s a different color. It’s all brown and normal looking. I’m not sure that I like it.”

   

  Annie didn’t know what was happening. You know, it’s not every day that strange people come looking for you. Who was this man? How did he know who she was? And the most important question: “What do you mean my hair is a different color? What color was it?”

     

“Red,” he answered hurriedly. “Now come on! We have to go.” He grabbed her hand and pulled.

   

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not going anywhere. My hair has never been red. And who are you?” Annie asked. She wasn’t exactly frightened but, she definitely wasn’t completely calm. Annie had a curious outlook on life. She would never run away from a situation from which she could learn more.

    

 “My name’s Mason. And of course your hair has never been red. But, it will be. You know, you said you’d be more trusting.”

    

 Annie was so confused. She said forcefully, “But, I’ve never met you!”

     

Mason shook his head. “Well, this you hasn’t. But, the future you has. I really don’t have time to explain, NOW COME ON!”

    

 Annie didn’t know what to do, so she went with him. Because that’s the rational thing to do, right? He pulled her to the darkly lit hallway with the bathrooms.

     

Mason faced her. “Now hold my hands and don’t protest.”

    

 “I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Annie said hesitantly.

    

 Mason closed his eyes and took a deep breath and the proceeded to say softly, “I need your help. No one else can help me with this. Well, actually there is someone else but, that would just create a paradox and no one wants that now do we?”

     

“Fine, but can I ask one question first?”

     

Mason nodded.

   

  “Why is my hair red and what shade of red is it?”

    

 He thought about it for a moment. “Rose red. And I’m not sure why. You may have mentioned that it was my fault, though.” Annie’s eyes opened wide, wondering what she had just gotten herself into. Mason grabbed her hands and Annie closed her eyes, not knowing what was going to happen. She felt a pull in her stomach and when Annie’s eyes opened she was in a completely different place.

     

Annie observed her surroundings. It looked like she was in the hallway of an old building, but there were no windows in sight. It felt like they were underground. “Where are we?” She asked, with her heart pounding. “And how did we get here?”

     

“We are in a base set up by some… friends of mine. It contains some of the best technology that has yet to be invented,” Mason answered. He pointed to a silver band around his wrist that had a glowing blue button on it. “Like this.” He tapped it with his pointer finger. “Special futuristic technology.”

  

   “Wait. Are we in the future?” Annie asked.

     

“No. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. We just teleported.” Mason started walking away and gestured for Annie to follow him.

   

  Annie didn’t understand how they could have teleported. She felt the same, besides the slight upset in her stomach. She followed and said under her breath, “Oh, right. Just teleported.”

    

 The gray, concrete hallway they walked down smelled musty, which Annie found odd considering it looked brand new. Florescent light quietly buzzed with energy above their heads. They reached a metal door at the end. Mason placed his hand on a scanner that identified him as MASON KINSEY. The door clicked opened and he stepped inside. Annie hesitantly followed. The small room was lit up with the screens of many computers lining one wall and buttons that didn’t look like anything she could understand.

   

  “What is all of this?” She asked.

    

 “This,” Mason said with an opening gesture of his arms, “is what I need you for.” He pulled out a chair and told Annie to take a seat. She did as she was instructed.

     

“What am I supposed to do?” She asked.

    

 “Just look at everything in front of you. Really look at it and I promise you’ll know what to do.”

    

 “But, why? Why me? I don’t understand.”

     

“Well, partially because you told me yourself but, mostly because you’re unique. You can use exactly five percent more of your brain than the average person. Have you noticed that you ask too many questions?”

    

 Annie took the information in. She wasn’t sure if she believed it. She figured she try, though. She took a look at all of the controls. Suddenly, she understood them, just like Mason said she would. Everything made sense. But, why did it make sense? Mason was right about the technology being from the future. There wasn’t anything that looked like it had come out of her century.

   

  “Alright. I understand the controls, but what exactly am I trying to do?”

    

 Mason placed his hand on Annie’s shoulder. “You are here to help me stop an attack. There are these people. Bad people, from my time. They want to keep time travel from ever being found to be possible. They chose this time because it is right before that human race figured it out. This, of course, is creating a paradox. And that is what we need to stop.”

    

 “Okay. Just as long as I’m not aiding terrorists.”

   

  Mason let out a suppressed laugh as he sat down in the chair next to Annie. “Ready?” He asked. She nodded.

  

   Annie’s hands moved like an expert. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she sure knew how to do it. With her fingers still moving rapidly she asked, “Mason? You said you’ve met me before. The future me. And you said that thing about those people from your time. Does that mean you’re from the future?”

    

 “Yes.”

   

  “But, how far? I mean, if time travel is possible and everything from when you’re from.”

    

 “Time travel is possible now. You just don’t know about it. But, when I met you "future you" it was about ten years from now? I think that’s right. That sounds right, but I never can be sure.” Annie was about to ask another question when he shouted, “Three! Two! One!”

    

 Annie pressed the final button and knew that whatever they were trying to do, had been accomplished.

     

Mason whirled his chair to face her and said, “Now, we run.” Mason grabbed Annie’s hand and pulled her out of the chair. Together, they sprinted down the hall.

     

“Aren’t you going to tell me who we just stopped from attacking?” she asked with heavy breath.

     

“Next time I see you, okay? Now, though, I really have to go.” He programed something on his wrist band and was gone in a flash of light.

     

“Wait!” Annie shouted. She sighed but, she knew she had to start running again. She found a flight of stairs that led up to a door and quickly opened it. And that’s when the explosion happened. It blew her out of the door and onto the concrete ground behind it. Next thing she knew she was in the hospital.

    

 Annie’s mind was back in present time. Miss Matilda had left the room. A few minutes pass and a man walks in, his face covered by a bouquet of flowers. “Delivery for Annie Hopkins.”

     

Annie looks to the opposite side and doesn’t say anything. The man sets the flowers down on her side table. She feels him staring at her. She turns her head and sees that the man’s face is a face that she remembers all too well.

     

He leans down, kisses her on the forehead and winks. “It’s next time.”

Reviews

[jb]

I agree with Rocky. Awesome style!

[Katherine P. Haley]

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

[jb]

Your very welcome:)

[Rm]

The words and everything are the material that people buy. Not flooded with big words. Simple. Great job!

[Katherine P. Haley]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

[Rm]

Your welcome:)