The October Amaryllis: Everything Has a Cost

Chapter 15 - February 28th, 2015 3:02 P.M.

Kerry Park looked just as beautiful as ever, with the Space Needle sticking out above the other buildings like a raised fist. It wasn’t the first time I had ever seen it, of course, but it certainly didn’t lose its charm. For one thing, the building was an architectural marvel and was far ahead of its time when it was completed in late 1961. For example, it can apparently withstand earthquakes of up to nine magnitudes. They also found a mammoth’s tooth while building it. My only real complaint against the Needle is the prices of their restaurants; SkyCity, for example, is ridiculously priced, with some meals costing forty dollars! Everything is cheap when you’re rich…

“It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?” my mother asked emotionally.

“Yes, it’s almost like it’s from a dream,” I said in awe.

“Indeed, I once watched a movie in the 90s, and they had this park at the beginning of it. I don’t remember the name of it, but it had Heath Ledger in it for sure,” my dad said, scratching his head.

“10 Things I Hate About You,” I replied with a sly smile.

“That’s the one! I loved that movie so much; I had just graduated from college. One day I should show it to you,” he said, patting my shoulder cheerfully.

Trust me, dad, I’ve already seen it about a thousand times. You know how? You were the one who showed it to me.

“Is that Rainier?” I asked curiously. I could hardly see anything because of the fog covering the object; all I could tell was that it was extremely tall.

“Yes, I’ve climbed up there before when I was younger. Did you know that it’s a volcano, son?” my dad asked for the 8000th time. I guess he thought I had some sort of severe memory loss where I forgot everything every couple of days. It drove me insane. Still, I tried to be nice about it.

“I did actually; my school told me that it last erupted in 1894. I hope that it never erupts again, though,” I said, with my stomach dropping a little. They told me that if the mountain erupted, there would have been severe damage caused to the city. The last time it happened, 23,000 people died, and 5,000 homes were destroyed.

“If it does, it’s going to be actual hell on earth…” my mother whispered in fear.

“Don’t worry so much; at least you won’t have to cook your food anymore,” my father snickered.

“I heard that,” she replied, trying her best not to burst out laughing.

Perhaps it was my extreme impulsiveness, or maybe it was my insatiable curiosity, but I had decided at that moment that I was going to time travel to 1931 in the nearest bathroom stall I could find. There were more than a few problems with that idea, such as not screaming in agony while my body felt like it was being torn apart and, you know… not getting caught. Whatever compelled me to do it, I had decided at that moment that there was no going back. Retrospectively, I can admit that this was one of the worst choices of my entire life.

“Mom, I’m going to the bathroom,” I said, trying to keep my heartbeat steady. My heart was bouncing around everywhere like a ping-pong ball, and trying to relax did not work in the least.

“Okay,” she said, putting an arm around my dad and laying her head on his shoulder.

Ew.

I practically took off running to the west and, in about a minute, had found the bathrooms and went inside. My heartbeat was getting even crazier now. It was as if my heart was a wild animal that strained to be free from its cage.

“Calm down, you’ll be fine,” I whispered in a shaky voice. What would happen if someone caught me time traveling? There are plenty of bad things that can happen with time travel, but being seen hopping time was definitely one of the worst.

I went inside the first stall I saw and briefly got distracted by all the writing and art on it. It was a mix of random phone numbers and strange alien creatures drawn everywhere. The aliens looked like black scorpions, but they certainly weren’t the xenomorphs from the Alien series. The first two movies gave me nightmares as a kid. I still remember being about seven when I saw that infamous dinner scene in the first movie; I developed nightmares where the alien tried to burst out of my ribcage. I was so scared, in fact, that I slept with the lights on for about a month. Come to think of it; I still fear the dark to an extent; every shadow looks so menacing at night.

After about five seconds, I got myself to focus again and realized at that moment that I still did not have an exact date to travel to. Just saying 1931 probably wouldn’t have done me any good, so I decided to make up a random one instead.

Travel to March 13th, 1931.

The process began as it usually did, but this time something seriously felt off in my heart; I felt this strange feeling, like my heart had electrocuted me, and before I realized it, I was lying on the floor trying not to scream and convulse. I did not know what had happened to me, but when I tried to feel my heart, it beat so fast that I couldn’t even measure how long a single heartbeat was. It was as if it beat two hundred times per second. I honestly thought that I would die at that moment from how much my heart hurt.

Oh, please make it stop…

I sat up in a fetal position once I realized that I couldn’t fix my heart and saw and heard countless scenes and sounds whizzing right past me like bullets; I witnessed what looked like scenes of the American Civil War. The strangest scene that I saw was some dystopian future that I had never seen before. It seemed as if it was taking place during 2220, but that would have been impossible as I had been there not that long ago. How could so much have changed in so little time?

Perhaps it doesn’t even exist…

Right before I screamed from the agony, I heard a loud whooshing sound and found myself sitting in a grungy stall in the year 1931.

Well, this must be the Great Depression…