I looked into the middle of the valley and saw nothing. Except scattered farmlands. The thing I had worshipped had scraped away the buildings and reclaimed its turf.
We all jumped up, panicked and scattered about trying to look in around to confirm our fears. But in every direction there was nothing. Nothing but trees and veld as far as the eye could see where the roads should've been.
“We’re lost in the mountains! Ophelia, Oli, try and use your phone's mine’s dead.”
“Van. I left my phone in the cabin…”
“Oliver! You idiot! Ophelia do you have any signal?”
“No. Looks like we’re stuck here or we could try and look for a way down and get even more lost…”
“No, when you get lost stay put so that you’re easier to find.”
“Ugh! This is so frustrating, so scary. What are we gonna do?”
As the girls panicked and screamed back and forth in terror I froze. That was my natural response. If only it was fight. Or even flight would be better than being useless. But on the bright side, I’m calmer since this is already my normal level of anxiety anyways?
“Don’t you realise it yet?”
“No?”
“Ugh, I can’t believe we’re the same person. But i can’t just watch you suffer. Well since past me didn’t let you suffer, I can’t let you suffer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think. When was the last time you had a town disappear from right in front of you? Or should I say a city?”
“What? Wait. You were there for that?”
“I’m you remember? Well future you ? Well a version of future you. So I’m possibly you?”
"You know time-travel really is a huge headache?
"Yup. Anyways, bye."
(Good riddance. Wow me in a couple months is a headache.")
“Guys?”
“Yes?”
“I think, I know where we are.”
“Where ?”
“And how do we get home Oli?”
“You promise you trust me?”
“Yah we do idiot. This isn’t the time for trust. Tell us where we are.”
And so I explained to them about my pseudo-schizophrenia, who Alaska really was and the nature of our date.
“Bullshit!”
“Ophelia, would I lie to you?”
“No, but that’s impossible.”
“I’m telling you let’s go down the mountain and you’ll see. I think time travel is connected to my mind but it's more than just where I think about but where I feel that I need to go?”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
“Well the night I first time travelled I did it while i was sleeping and so was Alaska. So it has to be controlled subconsciously. And the only thing I care about in this town is that this is where my grandfather met my grandmother. Other than that it’s just another small town. A speck on the map.”
“Oli. I trust you with every fibre in my body and I know that’s a major stretch in this situation but I’m bored up here. I mean I took a ton of photos for instagram and planned the captions so let’s go.”
“Wait at a time like this you’re planning your instagram posts?”
“Uhm. My feed is my life? That quote you just said is probably my next caption. And besides after you explained the whole time travel thing I kinda just decided to just go with it and let you lead us to our doom.”
“Really?”
“Such is the nature of friendship.” said Vanessa with a stupid grin on her face.
“Wow. You two are idiots. But you’re even bigger idiots if you think I’m staying here on my own.”
And so we ventured down the mountain and into the valley. A hero’s journey that would determine my sanity, our friendship and our survival. (I guess it makes for a good filler story too?)
As we went down the mountain we had to flatten the grass and uproot bushes and effectively make the path we would decades later take up the mountain. One thing I loved though was the sky, the mountains and most of the farmlands were the same as if the valley didn’t age. It was like the valley’s walls shielded it from time itself. It took us double the time to go down the mountain as we had to create our own path. And as we were near the beginning of the inn’s grounds. (Surprisingly it was here since 1967. So now it looked new still.)
“So Oliver… If you’re right about our situation. What’s the plan and what are you gonna do? You’re pe- I mean as a person of colour anytime before the 90s would be a very difficult one for you?
“Well let’s just say I’m your farm hand.”
“Okay. Got it.”
“So we have our story. But Oli, what are we gonna do? You spoke about going where you need to. But why do you need to be here?”
“Uhm… The Colonel. I wanna meet the Colonel.”
“The Colonel?”
“My grandfather. I don’t remember his name. My mom’s family just called him the Colonel. He wasn’t around much so most of them never learnt his name. It was just a cool nickname that they used so much it replaced him real name. He also died after my mom’s younger sister was born so they don’t use his name out of respect. He died from lung cancer. They say on his deathbed he spoke of crazy things so much that he lost who he was. I guess the stories of him made me idealise the person he was.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was a white guy in love with a coloured girl back when doing so was illegal. He fought in WW2 when he was younger and he made so many sacrifices for his family and that made me respect him so much. To be honest I don’t know why I even care anymore but maybe we’re here to find out?”
“You know... sometimes those rhetorical questions trigger the life out of me…”
“Thanks Ophelia. I try.”
She glared at me with the intent to kill and I instantly retreated and hid behind Vanessa.
“Don’t drag me into this Oli. Just throw hands if you wanna challenge her like that.”
“Are you crazy? Van, I’m insanely weak.”
“Don’t worry Oliver. It wouldn’t be worth fighting you.”
“Ouch.” I said clenching my heart in pain.
“Ugh let’s just look around the town and find ‘the Colonel’ .”
“Where would we even find him?”
“Hmm. I think the best option would be to go to the coloured areas because that’s the only place he could visit her.”
And so we snuck through the town down the alleyways of the town, followed further into the abyss of the valley. The lower we got the poorer the areas got and the closer we got. Luckily my grandmother’s family wasn’t extremely poor so they still had parks. We arrived in her neighbourhood in the evening. Many people were in their homes in fear of the police. They patrolled often and committed acts of brutality openly and indiscriminately. Luckily low and behold in the park near her house in the glow of the streetlights. There he sat on the swings. The Colonel.
(Well I think it was he fit the description and the images I saw in pictures and stories from my mom.)
Dressed in a vintage (well I guess it’s only vintage to me) bomber jacket, aviators and sticking out like a sore thumb in this neighbourhood.
I told my friends to hang back as I wanted to try and experience my first and last time talking to my grandfather. So I approached the bench and sat down.
“Wonderful evening isn’t it?”
I looked over at him, “Yah. I guess?”
“Don’t worry Oliver. I’m not a racist so don’t be afraid. I’m your grandfather.”
“Whaaaaaat? How? Why?” and I nearly fainted on the spot.
“This old timer is a time-traveller just like you.”
“I thought you lost your mind?”
“Well I tried to tell your mom and grandmother. Since I was dying everyone cast it off as me becoming senile in my final days. I knew about my death for a while. So I made the best out of it and explored possible future timelines. But that’s the problem with travelling to the future. You only see possibilities. And since you travelled there you might destroy that time-line that’s why it’s forbidden. This old coot never cared for the rules though. In my final days I watched my daughters grow, outlive me and watch my grandchildren grow and saw my grandson inherit my powers.”
“You can travel to the future?”
“Wait. How do you not understand time travel?”
“I can’t really time-travel yet…”
“Time-slip?”
“Yup.”
“Then how did you know about it?”
“Well my girlfriend told me about it… But I guess you know about her.”
“Girlfriend? Guess you take after this old coot in being a ladies man?”
“I wish…”
We both laughed the question and it’s response off.
“Well where is she?”
“I don’t know. She’s camping somewhere with her family.”
“Ahh.”
“Gramps. Can I call you gramps? How do you time-travel?”
“ Call me Colonel and well, all you really have to do is focus on when you want to go to and think about it. You'll move yourself forward through the pages of time’s book. It may take you a while to visualise it but you’ll get it. You seem to have a strong connection to the essence of time.”
“Thanks Colonel. Will I ever see you again?”
“Well since you can visit me now. We will always be able to see each other as your still alive as we exist outside the normal rules of time.”
“But you’re here and I live in the city?”
“I was always away on business there so if you time slip there or you learn to travel you might just run into me.”
“Wait why do I have to be alive? You’re dead but we’re talking right now?”
“Well people are ‘bookmarked’ to their time periods but we lack that grounding. We can travel through the books pages both forwards and backwards but we lose that ability when we die. Then we become bookmarks just like the rest of ‘em.”
“Well, I gotta get home Colonel thanks.”
“Bye.”
And as i hugged my grandfather goodbye for the first time and the childhood memory I was deprived of finally existed. I thought about how I gained not only a grandfather but a mentor and a new friend. And rushed off to see my friends as he waited for my grandmother.
“Aww Oli.”
“You will never speak of this…”
“Who will we tell idiot? They’ll think we’re crazy.”
“True. Now let’s go home.”
“But it’s the 60’s don’t you wanna enjoy it a little more?”
“And deal with racism and sexism again? No thanks.”
“Ugh but that vintage aesthetic though?”
“Oliver I got this. Van remember they hate gay people right now.”
“Eww. You’re right. How dare they judge people for the way they are born. Let’s leave.”
And so we walked out of sight of the colonel and I thought of the present. I saw the pages of time turn. A white light tinted in the universe’s true colour spectrum. We were dragged through this pipeline which I just kind of assumed was the essence of time.
And we were suddenly atop the mountain and we checked our watches. We saw we were on the mountain two or three hours later than when left. (So it was about like 9 AM. So I doubt anyone knew we were missing). Maybe it was because I thought of the present. My brain rationalised to move us forward in time to make up for the time that we missed. I need to be careful about the concept of the present and remember that time is all relative to our experience.
“So that was time travel. What do you guys think?”
“I think I’m gonna be sick Oli…”
“Why? Doesn’t your stomach agree with time-travel?”
“No. I thought about people having their rights taken away and our romanization of such a nightmare…”
“Ugh…” replied Ophelia and I.
That afternoon we got down the mountain around 2 o’clockish. Exhausted from our mini adventure to the 60s. Well it was more my adventure but whatever they were there. We kinda just collapsed. Well Ophelia didn’t she’s a lot fitter than she looks. Or possibly time travel was just strenuous for our bodies. Like even when we were on our date in the mountains we fell asleep. Maybe it wasn’t the amount of time maybe it was just too much for our bodies to handle. Staying awake there too long and that’s why I subconsciously sent us back.
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