Back to school, back to the future

This one starts off with me being a kid again. I’m playing with my cousin in his father’s garage, we’re aimlessly walking in circles around their caravan. My mother and father is inside the caravan, with a few more of my aunts and uncles.

I get into an argument with my cousin, over who knows what, and I end up getting angry and leaving. I run across a field behind their house. I suddenly get an urge to see my old school. I walk past the town hall, and I remember thinking «It’s still ugly and green». At this point the direction I’m walking changes; I’m suddenly walking past the town hall from the direction I was originally heading. Also, I’ve suddenly grown up, I’m me from this time, visiting by some mysterious time travel.

I’m on my way now to another friend of mine. As I arrive at his house, I find his mother outside. She’s emptying a bucket of water onto their lawn. She’s been cleaning. My friend’s father sits in a folding chair right in the middle of the lawn, looking away. I call to my friend, but he doesn’t answer. His mother walks over to me and hands me some money in paper notes. I’ve no idea what currency they’re in, they resemble fake notes from a Monopoly game. His mother tells me something that is totally incomprehensible, but it seems to have something to do with what I’m supposed to do with the money.

I am now walking up towards my old school. Nothing’s changed, although that’s perfectly logical. The schoolyard is empty. I feel sad, and all sorts of emotions wash over me, emotions from that particular time. I pass by the office windows, the principal’s window and the teachers’ “quarters”. I can hear sounds of youngsters knocking about; the classic high-pitched screams form teenage girls, brawling boys, whistling and running. But there’s no-one in sight anywhere.

I suddenly find myself “downtown”. There seems to be some sort of big market thing going on inside the car-wash at the local Shell gas station. I walk up there. Inside I spot a lot of people from the old days; they’re still young and noisy. I walk up to the counter and ask for a particular item, based, in part, on what I assumed my friend’s mother was telling me. The item is just a small plastic gizmo, some kind of necklace, it doesn’t seem to be of any value whatsoever. As I’m about to hand over the money, the girl behind the counter, whom I’ve never seen before, tells me secretly that I’m supposed to bargain for the item. I glance at my money and realise that it’s approximately 400 bucks. I start my dickering by suggesting 150. She instantly agrees. I’m delighted, she hands me the change. Then I suddenly seem to remember what my friends’ mother told me: I had to make sure that I spent the entire amount of money, nothing less, on the item. I was not allowed to bargain. I feel slightly embarrassed.

I decide to go home now, but on my way I seem to drop by the school again. I meet my brother, the one between me and the oldest. He could be around twelve or thirteen, and he has no idea who I am. I find the whole thing mildly amusing, but also a bit depressing. He’s with a few of his classmates, a few of which I never particularly liked, and I’m trying to use this opportunity to get back at them in some way. So I make up an interview with my brother. I ask him all sorts of questions, a few of which I answer before he does, as if to confuse him or make an obvious statement: that I am his brother, from the future. The odd thing is, when I ask him about me, he seems to think of me as a complete stranger. This makes me a bit angry, so I tell him who I really am. He goes silent, looks confused, and says he can’t believe that. The others are stunned, and I tell them that it’s vitally important that I do not run into myself at any point, because it can cause disaster. I really want to, though.

School is over, and I walk out of the schoolyard just so that I don’t end up in the middle of the masses leaving. I walk down onto a small path; the shortcut I always took when I went home from school. I know my brother follows directly behind me, so I turn around. He’s laughing and joking with some friends. I stop, and as he approaches, he hands me something. It’s an assignment of his, an essay he’s written. The essay itself is written on the inside of the wrapping for a toy, the writing is visible through the transparent plastic coating. The toy itself and it’s individual parts has been removed, and instead the essay is written on the bottom of the various ’sections’ of the plastic coating, where the toy and it’s accessoring parts would originally be enclosed.

It’s hard for me to make out any of the words, so my brother reads out loud. As he reads, I finally manage to follow the text, and it’s sort of humiliating: He writes about meeting me, who he describes a religious fanatic and scientist who claimed to be his brother from the future, and that he quickly realized I was just trying to sell him a life insurance and a magazine. He’s clearly very proud, and he brags about the fact that he got the highest grade possible and great remarks for the essay. I start explaining again and try to convince him I’m telling the truth, but then I wake up.