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chapter five
Zac
and I sat on a bench, not far from the jungle gym where Mackie was playing. I
licked my dripping ice cream cone and looked at Zac quizzically.
“So,”
I said, catching a drip from my strawberry ice cream, “every time I go to
sleep, it takes me forward three years?”
“Yep.”
“So
if I fell asleep right now, when I woke up, it would be my 21st
birthday?”
“Yeah.
Exactly.”
“Freaky.
What about, like, the people I leave behind? I mean, like, what about me from
where I first came from? What’s happening to him?”
“Well,
it’s complicated. See, when you get so far, you start going back. All your
different persons are rotating. Like, you are the 16 year old you. Always will
be, no matter what. And the 21 year old you is back visiting his old life from
when he was 16. Understand?”
“Not
really.”
“It’s
complicated. It is hard to understand. I have something else to tell you. The
next time you fall asleep, you’ll go to your 13th birthday. After
that, you’ll go backwards because you can only go so far. You were 16 when you
started and you don’t have to repeat anything. And then you’ll be 10, and
then 7 and so on until you’ve gone back as far as you can.”
“Wait.
As far as I can? Dude, that’s freakish. How far is as far as I can?”
“It’s
different for everybody.”
“Hold
on. You’ve done this before?”
“Not
me personally. But other people have.”
“Has
anyone else like, in the family, done it?”
“Me.”
“That
I’ve gotta see.”
“Sorry,
you can only travel through your own life. You can’t become someone else until
you die.”
“You’re
freaking me out. Let’s go get Mack.” He shrugged and we threw away our ice
cream away.
“Some
people do not have enough capacity in their minute brains to contain this
information, they are called thickheads.” I looked at him.
“You’re
lying.” He started laughing. “You made it up!”
“Yes,
and got you good!”
“Man,
I wanna see YOUR future!”
“It
was better then yours is turning out.” He pointed to a rock in the road. I
tripped and fell over it.
“Oh
you’re gonna get it Zac!” I pulled myself up. I could feel my face burning
with embarrassment. My face got really red when I was embarrassed. In other
words, I blushed a lot. I chased him all the way out of the park, Mack following
us, cackling hysterically.
˘˘˘
When
the three of us got home, we staggered into the kitchen, laughing
uncontrollably. Isaac had apparently decided to reappear, and was staring at us
like we were idiots. He had a very skinny blond next him, who bore remarkable
resemblance to a Barbie. I should know, I’ve seen plenty of them!
“Uh,”
he said, obviously embarrassed by us, “Cheryl, these are my brothers. Zac,
Taylor and Mackenzie.” She smiled and giggled.
“They’re
so cute!” This got Zac’s attention. He could not stand being called cute. He
cleared his throat.
“Excuse
me blondie, but I am in no form or fashion, ‘cute.’” The girl looked
surprised and Isaac looked horrified.
“Zac!”
he hissed.
“Well,
I’m not. Maybe you should talk to Mack,” Zac said, now directing his remarks
to the girl. “You probably have about the same IQ as him.”
“ZAC!!!”
I chuckled quietly. Isaac shot a death glare at me. I looked down and pretended
to be coughing while I laughed.
“We
have to go now,” Zac said, grabbing Mack’s hand and propelling him to the
door while making gestures to me to come too. I followed.
“Bye Ken,” I said as I left. “Bye Barbie.” Isaac glared at me again, probably with plans to kill me, but I didn’t care because now I was going to take a nap.