Repetition Of The Century

10...

Henry was not much into the spirit of the New Year's Eve celebration. He did not see any real point to the holiday.

9...

Sure, he knew how much of a big deal this New Year was; The end of a decade and the beginning of a new.

8...

But to Henry, the upcoming 2020 was just another year and that tomorrow, January 1, 2020, was just going to be another holiday.

7...

One last day before he inevitably has to go back to his day job as an algorithm coder at some tech firm.

6...

Henry pulls out his phone. It is 10:30 PM.

5...

Henry sets his phone at its charger, setting up an alarm to go off on 5:00 AM the next day.

4...

Quickly, Henry put on his pyjamas...

3...

...got under his blankets...

2...

...And quietly went to sleep.

1...

Henry woke up later than he preferred. Henry angrily checks his cell phone only to find that it isn't there. Neither is the charger, or exact plug in he used to charge his phone.

It is at this moment that Henry notices that he isn't wearing his usual pyjamas. Instead of his usual Black Sabbath themed pyjamas he bought at a vintage heavy metal store, he was wearing a corduroy onesie. He notices that the bedroom he woke up in does not match the one he fell asleep in just hours ago. There was 1920s wallpaper layered all around the walls and the bed is definitely more old fashioned than usual.

Henry decided to look out his window. The world outside of his apartment appeared to be an old version of New York City. The very apartment he was currently living in did not match the one he entered the previous day. Henry saw a little boy selling newspapers, an anachronism as far as he knew, and decided to ask him questions.

“Excuse me, little boy,” asked Henry, “what day is this?”

The boy stared puzzled, “It’s New Year’s Day!”

Henry was a little annoyed. “I meant the year! It looks like 1920s up in here!”

“That’s because it’s 1920 stupid! Are you on opium or something?”

That’s when the reality of Henry’s situation had finally hit him; in his sleep Henry had time travelled a hundred years in the past. Now, instead of 2020 like he was supposed to be, Henry was instead trapped in the year 1920.

Pacing back and forth in his own home, Henry tried to remember what he knew about the year 1920. Computers didn’t exist in 1920 and it’s probably safe to assume there isn’t any books at the library about a year which had just begun, Henry looked back to his basic knowledge about the decade and how it began.

The beginning of 1920 would’ve been little more than a year since the end of World War 1, Henry though to himself, meaning that the United States of America would be entering an economic boom unlike anything ever seen before or since. Warren G. Harding would be elected president later in the year and would be sworn in the following year, meaning that the current president would’ve been his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson.

That’s when it dawned on him, Henry is currently living under the administration of one Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

In 1920, Woodrow Wilson was serving his second term as United States President, entertaining the idea of running for a third, but ultimately not doing so due to his poor health. In the eyes of a modern man like Henry, Woodrow Wilson’s presidency is defined by his racial politics, which were quite poor even by the standards of his time. Wilson supported segregation in all its ilk and believed wholeheartedly that the South was owed something as a result of the war. A believer in “Lost Cause” revisionism, Wilson was school friends with Thomas Dixon and even screened a feature film adaptation of Dixon’s The Clansman, D. W. Griffith’s Birth Of A Nation, at the White House, the first time in which such a thing would happen.

With all this information in mind, Henry thought about his own time. When he fell asleep, Donald J. Trump was still in the presidency, though he had recently been impeached. Much like Wilson, Trump was a racist whose presidency brought about an extra emphasis on white supremacy and racism. Much like how Wilson’s presidency had emboldened southern racists in their beliefs, Trump’s presidency had resulted in a rise on white supremacy in both the United States itself and across the world. Trump was, in many ways, a successor to Wilson in terms of his political views and someone whose made the 2020s very similar to the 1920s.

Henry fell asleep in a world which would, hopefully, bring about the end of the Trump administration and awoke in a world which would soon bring an end to the Wilson administration. With this fact, Henry remembered the years and events that would come since this day, January 1, 1920. He thought about the rise of fascism in Europe, the Holocaust, the Japanese internment camps. He thought about the Ku Klux Klan and the murders of African-Americans, things that were going on during the 1920s. He thought about all the atrocities and hate crimes that happened both before and since the 1920s and came to an ultimate conclusion; nothing has changed.

Henry was saddened by this reality, that the 2020s was much closer to the 1920s than he thought. With nobody else to turn to and no reasonable means to return to his own timeline, Henry got dressed with what he could find in his closet, which consisted of clothes and pants typically worn by a man in the 1920s, and jumped out of his window to his death.

…

Henry was woken up by his phone’s alarm. It is 5:00 AM. He looks around his room to find that his room looks the way it should, that he is wearing his usual pyjamas. Henry looks out his window to see that the world looked similar to how it did when he fell asleep. It was January 1, 2020.

Knowing what he knew now, Henry knew what he must do. Henry makes it his lifelong goal to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, that he can bring bigotry and hate to an end and that peace and equality on Earth is not only a possibility, but a reality. For Henry knows unless someone decides to change the course of history, nothing can get better.