How I Met My Mother

The year was 2021. To be exact, it was December 31. It was almost midnight. 11:57 pm. The start of a new year. We were in Uniontown, Pennsylvania with a lot of my family members. I am from New York where I live with my mother, father, paternal grandmother, and younger sister. We drive once every year to visit the rest of my family members. It is normally in August for family reunions but this year we went for Christmas and New Year. This was because my mother is in the military and was away in August. I was currently in the living room of my maternal great-grandmother’s house with a few of my family members that decided to travel down also. We all surrounded the television waiting for the new decade. 11:58 pm. We sat and chatted about what goals we had for the upcoming year. It was getting closer and closer to midnight and my mother remembered the sparkling cider she picked up on the way here. She told me to get it quickly along with some cups for everyone. I swiftly ran to the kitchen to get the cider. I ran past the stairs, which appeared to be slightly blurred to me due to how fast I was running and it being in my peripheral vision. I stopped abruptly. Slowly stepped backward, careful of my steps. Something had caught my attention. A blurry light. It was in the basement. As I walked down the stairs, the light appeared to be flashing and getting brighter. It seemed to pull me closer. I was attracted to it. I couldn’t look away. My family was calling out to me but their shouting was obscure to me. All I could focus on was this light drawing me to it. 11:59 pm. My family shouted louder and louder but it still didn’t break my trans. Once I reached it, I had no control over what I did. My arm started to reach out to touch the light. My mom came to the stairs to get me. She saw me in this deep trans and tried to redirect my attention. But it was too late. I had reached the light. I heard the counting down from 10 in the living and the yelling of my mother, but I ignored it. I reached my hand out to touch the light. 5…4…I felt the warmth of the light on my hand…3…2…the light slowly expanded and started to fill the room…1…a sudden harsh wind shoved me and put me to sleep.  

I woke up with a horrific headache and with pain yelling at me all over my body. I didn’t open my eyes until I was fully standing, which took a while, but once I did I noticed that something was off. I was no longer at my great-grandmother’s house. At least, I thought I wasn’t. I quickly glanced all over the room searching for something I remembered. After frantically searching, I still couldn’t recall any of it. I was starting to feel sweat trickle down my face. My hands started shaking. Thoughts and questions raced around in my mind. My heart felt as if it were about to beat out of my chest but it all stopped once I heard a loud thud above me. I hurt my neck due to how fast I looked up. I heard some muffled talking but couldn’t make out what was said. I came to my senses and started to think of an escape plan. The room was slightly dark so I decided the first step would be to find a source of light without making any noise. I crawled around trying to use my other senses to see. After a little while, I found a small flashlight. It was broken and flicked on and off but it got the job done. I used the flashlight to search for an exit and realized that I was in a basement. This worried me because I thought the only way I could get out was upstairs but, in my peripheral vision, I saw a source of light that caught my eye and was in, what appeared to be, a tiny room. It had a small, wooden, white door that was slightly cracked open. After entering the small room, I saw a window. It was small but big enough for me to fit. I slid through the window, getting dirt all over my clothes, but feeling relieved after the sunlight caressed my skin once again. I was so overjoyed about escaping that I didn’t notice the girl right in front of me. After my whole body was out, I looked up and saw the girl about my age standing there. Her hair was short, black, and in cornrows. She wore glasses and baggy clothes. Her skin was a little darker than mine and her eyes were the same brown as mine. She looked familiar and I felt like I knew her but I was too startled to speak. Her eyes just stared at me as I sat there on the cold and dirty grass. She seemed kind and a bit worried about me but kept looking while her head tilted to the side. I stood up and asked her if she could help me. I told her I was lost and didn’t know where I was. She looked longingly at me and said that she wasn’t allowed to talk to strangers. We then stood staring at each other until an old lady inside the house called her for lunch. I felt a sense of safety after hearing a familiar voice. That warm feeling lasted very briefly and I started to shiver due to the winter weather. The girl in front of me reached out her hand and told me that she needed to ask her grandmother. I grabbed her hand and went inside the warm toasty house with her but I stood by the door because I didn’t want to bring the dirt into the house. 

After a few minutes, the girl came back with a change of clothes, a blanket, and a plate of food. She told me that her grandmother had fallen asleep and that she would help me get home. After eating and changing, we sat in her room, neither of us having anything to say still. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, she asked me my name. I told her it was Angel to which she responded that her name was Tausha. I smiled and told her that was my mother's name. She didn’t seem to care but she tried to reassure me with a half-smile. She told me she liked my name and that if she had a child she would name them Angel. She followed that by saying that she didn’t want any. I laughed and said I didn’t want any either. She was shy and it took a little while but we eventually started talking. We started with not having children and drifted to her wanting to be a doctor and anywhere else the conversation took us. It lasted quite a while but our conversation stopped when she said the date. December 31, 1995. I didn’t know how but apparently, I accidentally time traveled. Not only did I time travel, but I met my mother as a child! I could not believe this. I started to connect the dots. When I touched the light I must have somehow traveled back in time. Questions and thoughts soared across my mind and I began sweating again. Tausha and I were so alike, I remembered her grandmother's voice, and I continued to make a bunch of other connections from the memories my mother shared with me. The one thing I couldn’t figure out was why. Why then? Why me? Why would someone or something do this? I didn’t understand if it was a gift or a punishment. While all of this flooded my brain, Tausha was calling my name and asking if I was ok releasing myself from my trans. I’m still not sure how but I suddenly had this feeling about me going back home and I knew how to do it. I knew I needed to wait until almost midnight to go back into the basement and find the light I touched. I knew I needed to be alone and uninterrupted. And I knew that if I went into the basement too late I would be stuck in the timeline I wasn’t supposed to be in. I didn’t tell Tausha any of this. She might have thought I was crazy or sent me out of her house. I also knew she would have asked questions that I don’t have the answer to. 

The time had come, quite slowly I might add. It was 11:57 pm. Tausha and her grandmother had been in the living room huddled around the small tv waiting for the countdown to start. I had been sitting with them constantly peering at the clock but I got up, hugged Tausha and my great grandmother, thanked them for everything, and said I needed to use the bathroom. I headed downstairs into the basement and prepared for my return back home. I sat and waited for what had felt like forever and finally felt the presence of the light once again. I heard Tausha and my great-grandmother calling out to me while counting down from 10. I went into the light, same as before, and I returned to my grandmother's house in 2021 stunned by my restoration. I was back in the basement where I saw the light in the first place. I could hear my family counting down from 10 seconds. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could…9…8…I saw my family in the living room just as they were before I left…7…6…my mom looked at me then down at my empty hands confused and asked “where’s the cider?”...5…4… I ran over to her and hugged her as tightly as I could…3..2… I could hear the muffled counting down from the rest of my family along with the heartbeat of my mother…1…” Happy New Year!”