New Story Contest: Time Travel - Laura C. - 12/16/20

Contest: Winners

New Story Contest: Time Travel

Submitted by: Laura C., age 12, Damascus, MD

I don’t know why and I don’t know how, but I am able to peer into the past and see into the future. Well, theoretically I can see into the future. I’ve never tried. Honestly, I’m afraid of what I’d see.  I’ve always been the weird girl who can’t speak, shunned by everyone because of it. I don’t want to see my sad, lonely future.

I close my eyes and picture a river. Wading in, I see all different memories from my past as I look behind me. I’m too scared to look ahead. Letting the current drift me back, I stare at my memories. Kids laughing and teasing me on the playground. Mom crying because she knows she’ll never fully understand me, her only child.
    
No.
    
My way forward may be difficult, but it’s not better behind me. I don’t want to be alone my whole life and I want to see if I will be so I can prepare myself to prove that future wrong.
    
I fight my way up the river, my muscles aching from pushing against the phantom current. Years’ worth of sweat and tears run off me and into the rushing water. I pass the present time and pause. I could go back now. I could go back and pretend this never happened.
    
No.
    
With renewed strength, I push the water behind me and shoot forward, kicking my legs and choking on river water.
    
Stop!
    
I look around me and I see something that makes my heart fall out of my chest. It’s me. I’m with a man and two children and I’m laughing. And talking.
    
Numb with shock, I let the current drift me back. When I see the break between the past and the future, I dive underwater. The river disappears, and I’m back in my own home.
    
I can do this. I know I can.
    
“H-hope,” I croak in a voice hoarse from lack of usage. “Hope.”
    
I want to see my future again. I want to see my future family again. But when I try to picture the river, it’s gone.


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