You wake up in a strange room with a teenager working at a computer “Look. I’m breaking every rule in the book but I have a school project on the early 21st century. Please help me, it’s due tomorrow.” They say.
You pull yourself up from the floor, stumbling as you try to get both feet under you. Damn pins and needles.
The teen doesn’t look so dissimilar from yourself, an average teen. An average teen who apparently has access to time travel technology. Fantastic. So it’s probably either incredibly common to time travel in the future - though they did say they were breaking the rules doing this- or this is some rich government workers brat. Double fantastic.
“What’d you want to know?”
Anybody else would think you’ve grown three heads with the look the kid sends you, “Just like that? No, like, proof? Nothing??”
Cracking a smile you hobble over to the table, “You know those days where you’re like ‘this might as well happen’?”
Nothing even vaguely close to recognition crosses the other teens face and you snort, it feels a little fun to have such a common western reference that’s now like a personal joke. Odd, but funny nonetheless.
“Um.. well anyway. We have to do the project on the early 21st century but I got stuck with culture and there’s just… the other three decided to do eastern culture so I’m stuck with western culture because I don’t want to just get lumped with them; but I can’t find anything concrete.”
A smirk threatens to cut your face in half and you finally sit down at the table next to the teen. Patting their shoulder you speak, “Honey, you’ve got a big storm coming.”
The teen pulls a notebook and a pencil out from a drawer, and opens a page in the back if the notebook. He clutches the pencil and gets ready to take down notes.
“No no, we won’t do that here,” I blurt out for some reason.
“Huh?” This time too, he doesn’t seem to recognize the reference.
“Nothing.”
The teen sighs. The look he gives clearly shows that he thinks he brought the wrong person through time. And maybe he did. I have no idea how to help him. As a boy of the East, I have nothing to tell him about the Western Culture. I could tell him about the Western influence on the Entertainment sector? Music, Movies, and more.
I look around his room to get some information on him. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the room was huge. It could easily fit three of my bedrooms in it. There’s a window next to the table that we’re sitting on. It’s night, I realise, just like how it was in my last memories before I came-was brought- here. We’re on the first floor. I catch a glimpse of a poster of a group of girls on the wall opposite to the window, next to the door. One of them is playing a guitar, and another is sitting on drums- thank God they still have ordinary music in the future centuries and not an All-Electronic Music Industry-, while the other two girls stand between them, mics in front of them, all smiling, looking at each other. I see the word “Personal” written on the poster: probably the cover of an album. So he loves music.
“So…do you wanna talk about music? We have some great songs back in the 21st century!”
“No, I already got that from the last guy.”
“What?”
“Oh, you’re not the only one I called.” He picks up a piece of paper that I hadn’t spotted before from the table and hands it to me. I see a list of names written down neatly on it, with some topics written next to them. I see my name, and the topics written next to it are: ‘Memes, Sports, and Books’. “I figured that one person couldn’t have information on every topic I could think of. So, I had to bring many people in.”
“Just because you’ve got the mental range of a teaspoon doesn’t mean we all do.”
The teen looks offended at this, and I realise that I had forgotten the fact that he had no idea of these universal pieces of glorious art. So I quickly say, “That’s actually a common pseudo-meme of the 21st century, and something pulled out from a book. Two birds with one arrow, eh? Anyway, I’m gonna tell you about it later.”
I hand him the piece of paper back, and he keeps it back neatly on the table, his anger fading. He pulls a binder out from a drawer next to him and jerks it open.
“So as I see here…-” He flips a page in the binder, surveying it whole-heartedly. “-you have a vast knowledge of Books…uh…Sports, and these…memes, that I see here. Am I correct?”
“Okay first of all, it’s pronounced ‘Me-mes’, not 'Meh-mehs’.” He notes it down in the binder. “And second, your research was right. Now,-” I rub my hands together, a grin spreading across my face, “-let’s make some magic.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -(After an all-nighter)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The fact that I was the last person on the list and the one with the most number of topics gave me the liberty to go on all night. All through the night though, I kept remembering a person, and it completely derailed my train of thought numerous times. Her very being was a topic that eclipsed all others in personal preference, and I needed some information. I’d waited the whole night for this, and now that we were finally done, I could ask about her.
Queen Elizabeth II.
“So how’s the Queen doing?” I ask him.
To my surprise, he doesn’t look confused this time around. Instead, he replies, “Still going strong at 578.”
“I KNEW SHE WAS IMMORTAL.”
Joshua, whom he introduced himself as, laughed. “Yeah. Apparently, humans figured it out right around the time she got to 130.”
We’d had a great night, and I hated the fact that I had to go back to the 21st century, I really did. It absolutely sucked. But I had to. Mum would be up in an hour back in my century, and I had to make breakfast before that and check if we were safe. I see a blue portal open in front of the bed, a little higher than it. “You’d like jumping through it and landing on your bed, right?” Joshua asks, to which I nod fervently. I hop on top of the bed, passing the portal on my way, and get ready to leave. I say my goodbyes, and before jumping through, I say, “If you ever need me, you know how to yeet me through time.”
“Yeet…like 'this b*tch’?”
“Attaboy!”
Joshua gives a triumphant look. I go through the portal, back to my monotonous life, with Joshua’s laugh ringing in my ears, fading gradually.
And then there’s nothing, and I’m back. I see my mask on my nightstand, and laugh, remembering that we never talked about the Coronavirus. I go to my bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. I am back. What a night.
But I am back now. Back into the sucky world. Back into my sucky life. I hear a thumping on the door, and a chorus of soft groans following it. I grab my gun from the cabinet next to the mirror.
Time to kill some zombies.
@givethispromptatry
Interesting!
There’s a lot going on in this! I love how the narrator just goes along with what is happening with no questions asked.
Nice work! :D
