• Our Secret
    “Get in bed now!” My mother screamed at me. She had had a long day, and even though I was a college graduate and visiting, she still treated me like a child. I knew she wasn’t mad at me, but a tear rolled down my cheek anyway. I lay there staring at the ceiling and the walls and bed began to shake. Startled, I practically ran out of my bedroom and down the stairs. I searched for my mother high and low, but she was nowhere to be found. I thought about going out to the front lawn to see if she was there because she likes to spend time in the nights fresh and crisp air. I open the door and there is no floor where the steps used to be. Turning around I caught movement in the dark house. I walked backwards as one of the shadows run at me from the wall, and I fell into the dark abyss below. “I did not scream for fear took over me then. I felt a strong pain in my head, but was not strong enough to fight against it. Those were the last things I remember. My eyes shot open and see a foggy sky above, only to close again. I wake in a motel, confused.
    I went down to the lobby to pay for the night's stay. When I go down, I realize that I have no money with me. The desk clerk just asked me for my index finger. He scanned it and my bank account came up with an old picture of me. The information showed that I had more money that I could ever hope of making. The man asked me to confirm my birthday, and I said July 3, 1987; The clerk just stared at me like I was a new undiscovered specimen. When I left the motel, I looked at the date on the receipt and it said 2108. I thought this was just a mistake since I went to a grocery store in my home town and it said 2105 three years ago. I just ignored it. I walked the streets and noticed there was not much garbage in the road. I went into a different store and said I was not from this country. He asked me how I got there when no one can enter the USA anymore because of all the wars. I told him 'forget it' I lied and had no idea where I was. He offered to look up my info like the other guy when he did, he said that there must be a glitch in the computer, but there hasn’t been one in over a hundred years. So he stared at me and said that the computer showed that I was 121 years of age. I ran out of the store screaming.
    I ran across the streets and decided to settle by a big oak in a nearby park looked around and noticed that the billboards were floating about ten feet above each skyscraper and building. I wondered if I was propelled by air with high pressure. The speed would have lifted, but it would have only been about three inches off the ground. Well, at least in my time. In my town they had hover scooters that weren’t really available to the public, but I didn’t think much about that. I was interrupted by a man who introduced himself as Emmett Hillson. He said he was the one who had found me on the street when I fell. He also I knew I wouldn’t be going home soon, so I thought I would get a job.
    I went to a dig sight nearby and inquired if there were any open spaces. They told me the direction to an office, and the next day I went to it. The manager’s name was Cally and she was glad to offer me a job since they were shorthanded and I had a Harvard degree. I had always love archaeologists, not the kind that collects bones but the ones that were searching for old cities and things people had left behind. I loved studying colonial peoples and history had always been my favorite subject. In the next few days I was headed to my dig sight. Cally had given me papers that told the supposed history of the sight they had just discovered. It said that a daughter of the owner had mysteriously disappeared one night without a trace. The mother had spent every last penny trying to find her. Many people believed that she had murdered her daughter and dumped her in the nearby ocean - when tides catch right the body can never be found. She was put on trial but no verdict was ever reached. When we got to the site they put me in a far east section which, ironically, Emmett was working at as well. I dug about a meter deep before hitting something hard and metal. I uncovered it and it was a safe. I had no trouble opening it because the lock was rusted, I only had to use a shovel to break in. When I opened it, there were many sets of jewelry, some had diamonds and sapphires. There was a beautiful diamond wedding set with an elegant flower design. I remember my mother’s ring; it had a similar design to it. Then there was a compartment under the velvet of the drawer. In there was a badly chipped photo frame. In it was a picture of three people, so I fished it out through the dirty and sharp glass badly cutting myself along the way. When I got it out and looked at it was my mother, father and myself. I stood there shocked. Emmett saw me standing there immobile. Once he had seen the photo he too understood. He gasped when he saw a drop of blood slide across the page, then he looked at my hands. He immediately took me to the ER where I had to get thirty stitches, I had to stay with Cally in her apartment for several days before I could continue my job. When I went back I would tell no one of what had happened, and only Emmett would know. I ran to my area and there was an unstable piece of flooring I had not seen. As I was falling, I felt the same pain in my head and lost the battle. When I opened my eyes, I was in my own bed in my own room screaming. The dream was the most frightening thing I had ever had. My mother slammed the door open to see if anything had happened. I told her I had just had a bad dream. Then she froze. I asked her what she was staring at, and she asked me, “what happened to your hands?!” I told her calmly that I had fallen on a glass bottle on campus earlier. When she went away I looked at my hands. I was quiet as I realized it wasn’t a dream. Emmett and I were the only ones who would know my secret