Angie and her fascination with Time Capsules

Submitted into Contest #62 in response to: Write about a character putting something into a time capsule.... view prompt

4 comments

Speculative Creative Nonfiction Fantasy

Life has been like a momentary relapse, phasing in and phasing out, Angie had been in her dreams relocating to places, making memories in dozens, and replaying them in her mind in a loop. This is the story of a girl with a barely-there existence, not because she was not admired by her fellow compatriots, but she secluded herself to the truest of extent.

A girl who somehow cushioned her apathies through learning bit by bit, then some more and even more, what fascinated her was time warps and how it's existence seemed all starry to her. She in her mind cocooned the possibilities and managed to establish in her head, there was this miracle, a gift laid down by civilization since time immemorial in the form of time capsules and what was bereft was the sensibilities that made people not recognize the importance of it all and hence they lacked obeisance.

Angie was desperate enough to find a way to live and relive again, she always in her head had this notion of life that life is all but slow decadence and degeneration and the major flaw acted as a guard for one to be able to live life no matter whatever the aftermath. She wanted to transcend barriers and register her life so that it can be as prolonged as she wanted it to be. The fascination of it all to relate past with that of the future never allowed her to live in the present. But she was not the one to have succumbed to the pressures of it.

Angie has always dreamt of creating seven different time capsules stocking each one up at each of the seven wonders of the world. She wanted her name to be there amongst the centuries to come by and worshipped as the one true observer of everything that relates the past, present, and the future all wrapped into one through time orientations.

She began her preparation with much adherence to the nitty-gritty, from carefully penning down her thoughts of how she felt like when she was writing each of these seven notes, to her favorite tune, to the places she has ever been to and that she wants to, scribbling one after the other note but failing each time.

She wanted the notes to be heart wrenching but she was not the one who could relate how people from the future would react to her approach, will her dream of time warp bundled in time capsules get lost in translation?

A lot of thoughts kept crowding her mind and she was unable to find answers for every thought of hers. She thought to herself of keeping it quirky and mind-bending for every thought of hers was going to be locked up to travel the seven seas aboard the seven capsules and landing after seven millennia or so maybe?

Angie smirked when writing her first note and contemplated a while, before finally putting her earnest efforts in a paper, she asked, if there was supposed to be a doppelganger for every person in the world, do the doppelgangers tend to ever meet in a lifetime?

Her next could not even be considered a question, she had a weird request for the one opening her second note would have to exactly locate her place on the map and travel all the way and a reward would be awaiting the person who reaches first. She was bundling up mysteries one after another.

Her third note, she was getting a little emotional while going through the process thinking she would not be there in person to witness even if her capsules found the light of the day and that made her upset. She took a break and after a while, her eyes glistened, she seemed to be leaning back to normalcy and was ready to pen down her third note.

She started concocting a story full of delusions and that stemmed from the fact that Angie was never really living in reality and her mind kept shuttling between the past and future barely allowing her to deal with her present.

Angie always had a desire of being heard and she poured her thoughts into a song and mentioning how all her life she wanted to write a song that exuded metanoia of how her living is straight out of the book of the current world but still somehow seems to find credence in whatever equivalent it is of the earth that will be the remnant of it all.

Angie's fourth note reveals her brush with spirituality and how her newfound status from being an atheist to a believer and that one should never lose hope even if one is on the brink of death.

Angie's fifth note was quite eccentric in terms of her keeping it all but blank but including a few strands of her hair, where she wanted her explorer to be able to get the whiff of her even if the smell faints over time or just fritters away.

The sixth note to top it all she didn't make it at all. She left pieces of pieces of evidence in every other note of hers, that there were seven notes in total, where there were just six. The sixth note was all hers like it was frozen in time and she just knew its whereabouts, letting it all up to the almighty if it was ever to be found.

The last note Angie was very particular about was the one that was pictographic and from the look of it all, it didn't give out much and it was strange to ascertain that whether anybody would be even interested in going so far ahead in discovering what it meant in reality.

A loud thud and Angie fell from her bed, she almost freaked!

Was she the one dreaming all of it? The time capsules to the seven wonders of the world? Life had been cruel to her and Angie ever so often felt her mind to be a pure escapist, showing her the life that could be but in flashes! Alas!

Angie tended to like her little explorations and wondered what those time capsules had in store if she was the one unearthing a possible one, rather than being a creator herself???

A wry laugh and Angie was onto another of her procrastinations to give herself a day off!

October 05, 2020 12:12

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

4 comments

Dalyane Deblois
16:20 Oct 19, 2020

Great and original story! I loved the whole concept and your writing is excellent! I look forward to read more of your work! Keep writing!:)

Reply

Tithi Banerjee
18:05 Oct 19, 2020

I am glad that you loved the concept & thank you so much!

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
Han Han Ling
15:07 Oct 11, 2020

Wow! Some really great descriptions in there - so poignant! Love the twist at the end as well - it was really well done. A great piece of writing overall.

Reply

Tithi Banerjee
18:20 Oct 11, 2020

I'm glad you liked this ❤️

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in the Reedsy Book Editor. 100% free.