Sean Robertson
A young man, eager to go home, was packing his school bag. He swung the bag over his shoulder and let out a sigh. With final exams next week, he decided it would be best to review his classwork until he passed out that night. Before he could walk out the door, a young woman approached him with a skip in her step and a smile on her face. He held back a sigh at the sight and faintly returned the smile.
“Jack! Have you decided if you want to go to the concert tonight?” She had been talking about the concert for weeks now, calling it a ‘once in a lifetime event,’ which was probably true enough. Their favorite band was in town holding a pricey concert.
“Sorry, Autumn, but I think I’ll be studying tonight,” Jack responded. He kept smiling, but a frown quickly formed on Autumn’s face.
“Don’t you have straight A’s? Can’t you spend a night away from schoolwork?” she questioned. Jack’s brain, filled with a haze from the insurmountable amount of information he had already studied, had no intention of creating a well-thought response. He knew Autumn wouldn’t allow that.
“I’m not in the mood to be surrounded by flashing lights, loud music, and sweaty people,” he said after a few seconds. “Plus, it costs money.” Autumn’s frown remained; the answers obviously did not satisfy her. It took Jack quite a bit of energy to hold back a sigh this time.
“You’re not going to go because it costs a bit-”
“Thank you, Autumn, seriously,” Jack interrupted. Autumn stood with her mouth open as if she were to finish her thought whether or not Jack halted her. She did not continue and simply straightened her lips. “But I’m just not really in the mood tonight. Let me know how it goes, though.”
And with that, he left the classroom, Autumn staying behind for a second. She unzipped her backpack and looked at the sweater she’d bought for him, one with the band’s name plastered on the front. “It’ll have to wait for his birthday, I guess,” she mumbled.
Jack walked down the hallway of his school, expecting to hear footsteps running up behind him followed by a tempting voice. When he didn’t, he turned around and saw nothing; Autumn had gone in a different direction. He felt a small pang in his chest; Autumn hadn’t been as stubborn as usual. “As if I would have said yes, anyway,” he reassured himself.
Jack arrived home and went straight to his room. He plopped down onto his bed, burying his face in its soft cushions. He closed his eyes and allowed his mind to wander. He simply lay there, relaxing, his body sinking into the bed…
Something moved. Jack’s eyes popped open and immediately started darting throughout the room. He saw nothing. He focused on a poster on his wall. It was a poster of his favorite band. He could’ve sworn the noise came from it. He shrugged it off and shut his eyes again. It was probably just his imagination.
“Not going to the concert tonight,” a mysterious voice questioned. Jack popped up in his bed and began looking around. The voice came from nowhere, but Jack swore he heard it before. He finally looked at the poster of his favorite band, and saw that the lead singer, named Yannis, had shifted on the poster and was now staring directly at Jack.
Jack gasped at the sight. “You…” he began, but laughter interrupted him, and he flinched.
“You should see your face right now,” Yannis teased. “You’ve seriously never seen a moving, talking picture?” Jack sat with his mouth agape, while Yannis smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
“Come on, you’ve never seen Harry Potter?”
“I’ve…” Jack could hardly speak. He had to push every word through the fear and surprise that clogged his throat. “Yo….you’re….Yannis?” He had no idea what else to say.
“Lead singer of your favorite band! Though I can’t remember if I look good in this poster you have of me.” He rubbed his black, curly hair a bit and stroked his beard. “I look good?”
Jack turned towards the poster and a smile grew onto his face. “Sure!” He got up from his bed and approached Yannis, only then remembering that he had just been resting his eyes. He pinched himself and waited; nothing happened. Yannis, without saying another word, stuck his hand out from the poster. It took on a 3D form that severely contradicted his poster’s 2D self. “Come on, Jack,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
Jack, now knowing he wasn’t dreaming, hesitated. “What do you-”
Yannis leaped almost completely out of the poster and grabbed Jack’s arm. “You’ll want to see it,” he reassured as he yanked Jack into the poster with him.
Being stuck inside of a poster wasn’t as strange as Jack would have thought; it was as if he was standing in a police interrogation room looking through a one-way window. He viewed a room from the same perspective as Yannis and his band members. It was an elaborately decorated bedroom with multiple colorful paintings that surprisingly complemented each other. It had a bed that could fit a family of four, multiple mirrors, a large room-like closet, and many more trinkets and decorations. Whoever owned this house was obviously very wealthy.
“What are you showing me?” Jack said in awe. The room was truly beautiful and… ideal. He saw a few expensive art pieces he liked and felt that if he had all the money in the world, this is the exact bedroom he would want.
“This,” Yannis began, “is your future.” Just then, a man walked into the room. Sure enough, he looked like Jack but in his late 30’s. He was wearing an expensive-looking suit and walked with a leather briefcase. Jack’s face lit up, a smile spreading from ear to ear, as the older Jack dropped the briefcase and plopped face down onto his bed. A grey cat came prancing in behind him and jumped up onto the bed, making itself comfortable next to older Jack’s relaxed body.
“This is my future?” Jack asked, still smiling. The sun, angled through a skylight, left the room in a rich, golden glow that seemed to add vibrance to the colors in the paintings and enhance the glow of the silver and golden trinkets. Jack didn’t want to look away, but he wondered why his older self completely ignored the wonderful sight; he had been lying face down for a while.
“If you keep as you are, then yes,” Yannis responded. He was frowning. “You haven’t even noticed?”
Jack looked at Yannis and scrunched his eyebrows after seeing his frown, his smile slowly receding. Jack looked at himself lying on the bed and, again, wondered why he wouldn’t get up. “What, that I’m suddenly a cat person? I don’t really-”
“Did you see your face when you walked in?” Yannis interrupted. Jack, mouth agape as if he were to finish his thought, looked back at his older, limp self on the bed.
“Do I have…”
“No wife,” Yannis interrupted once more, reading Jack’s thoughts. He was spaced out. “No kids. No friends. Just you and your cat. Thimble is her name.”
Jack stared at his older self and felt a growing nausea. “That wasn’t part of my plan.” The plan, he thought, was to have a family with two children and…well, he didn’t really know after that. Looking at his helpless older self on the bed reminded him that he had never really put any effort into a relationship. It made him think of Autumn, who stuck by his side no matter how many times he brushed her off.
“Your younger self was so caught up in saving money and working that you became…well, a robot, essentially,” Yannis stated. Jack looked at him and started to retort, but stopped when he saw Yannis’ grit teeth and watery eyes. “No different from the way you are now, I guess. I knew I should have intervened back then.” He had mumbled that last part, so Jack only picked up a bit of it.
He picked up more than enough.
Older Jack, then, lifted his head up and pulled out his phone. The poster was perfectly positioned so that Jack could see what he was doing. Older Jack scrolled through social media, it seemed, and focused on a picture of someone Jack had hoped not to see; Autumn.
Older Jack stared at the picture, expressionless, for a while. It was a picture of Autumn and her family, a husband and two children, preparing to celebrate Christmas. Nothing in older Jack’s room showed it was near Christmas time.
“Yannis,” Jack began, “I don’t want to see this-”
“Do you know,” Yannis interrupted again, “what your biggest regret is at this time?” Jack didn’t feel like being irritated at the constant interruptions. He was sure he knew the answer to the question.
“Nope, not that you didn’t get Autumn.” Jack looked at him and wondered if his favorite vocalist was also a psychic. Yannis let out a sigh. “For years and years, the wind chimes orchestrated a tune that fell upon deaf ears.”
Jack shot him a look, his face contorted. Yannis couldn’t hold back a smile. “I’m a singer, not a songwriter.”
Jack looked back at his older self, whose face was again pressed against the bed. The phone was ringing, the person calling him titled “Boss.” Thimble the cat stirred on the bed, stood up, and rubbed her head against older Jack’s hand. He picked his head up and shooed the cat, then got up and accepted the call. The cat stared directly into Jack’s eyes, and he felt the overwhelming urge to leap out the poster and pet her. She flopped onto the bed and let out a sigh.
He looked at Yannis, his eyes pleading for him to end the vision and send him back. “I want one more thing from you before I send you back,” Yannis said, reading his expression perfectly. “Tell me what plans you have tonight.”
Jack looked back at his older self, who was pacing the room and arguing about something, and then he looked at the cat, who was frowning as well as a cat could. He looked at Yannis, who had probably just saved his life, and felt it would be unimportant to question how this wasn’t a dream.
“I’m going to a concert around 7 PM,” Jack stated. “With a girl I like.”
Yannis smiled and stuck out his hand, Jack shaking it. With a hint of sarcasm, Yannis asked, “Are you sure you’ll still keep your prestigiously high grades-?”
“Shut up,” Jack interrupted. He smiled wide. “Take me back so I can get changed.”
A woman walked down a sidewalk in a suburban area, taking in the fresh air and listening to the sounds of spring. She heard a distinct call from a nearby tree, which provoked a glance towards her husband, who walked alongside her. He had his eyes closed as if he were meditating, and she admired how well he could walk without seeing anything.
“Is that a grackle, Jack?” she asked, closing her eyes and trying to mimic his walk. She nearly tripped when Jack responded.
“That, Patty, is a European starling,” he responded, opening his eyes as if she had interrupted his meditation. He looked around for where the noise had come from and spotted the culprit a hundred feet away. He cursed it, catching Patricia off guard. “They’re invasive. Some guys brought them over a while ago because of some Shakespeare story.”
Patricia nodded but didn’t want to curse the poor thing. “It’s not like the bird wants to be here,” she thought. The bird then took off from the tree, flew over their heads, and dropped a deuce a few feet in front of Jack. Jack cursed again while Patricia laughed. “You might want to keep your mouth shut; it may come back,” she teased.
She looked back at Jack, who was then staring straight ahead with his mouth agape. She scrunched her eyebrows and followed his eyes, spotting a grey cat with vibrant blue eyes. “Oh!” she gasped, taking a step forward. Jack stopped her and continued staring, and she thought she heard him mumble “thimble.”
Jack walked forward slowly, squatted down to the cat, and limply held his hand out so it could sniff him. The cat meowed and rubbed its head against his hand, then his legs and feet, and then lay down so that he couldn’t move without disturbing it. Patricia caught up with them and noticed Jack’s watery eyes and smile. It was like he’d found his missing pet.
“We could use a pet in the house, now that we’re settled down,” Jack asked as much as said. Patricia looked at the cat, who was staring directly back into her with those piercing eyes, as if expecting an answer. Patricia couldn’t resist.
“Am I not enough company for you?” she questioned. Jack had scooped up the cat before she finished her sentence. Patricia scoffed, but smiled. “You can introduce… it, to Autumn and her family when they come over later.”
“Her,” he concluded without checking. “And her name will be Caerula.” He petted the cat’s head, and it relaxed in his hold. “Autumn will most definitely love her.” “Why Caer… Caeru..? That’s hard to say,” Patricia stated. She tried fruitlessly to pronounce whatever had just come from his mouth.
“Have my lessons in Latin taught you nothing? It’s a play on the word ‘blue,’” Jack responded. Patricia again noted the deep blue eyes of the cat and didn’t question further.
“Anyway, you have a bit of time to buy stuff for… ‘blue,’ here,” Patricia said.
Jack nodded. “I could get a few beers for the game as well.” Patricia gave him a look. “The guys are coming after dinner,” he reasoned. Patricia held the look. “Yes, they’re bringing their wives,” and with that, Patricia lightly slugged him on the shoulder. They both laughed and headed back, Jack setting down Caerula so that she could walk beside them.