Memory of the Future

Ed is looking down the cliff, watching the waves crashing on the beach, same place he was when his baby brother went missing. 

His parents never spoke of it, like he never had a sibling. 

It is a hot summer night, goes inside for dinner. No one says a word, same as usual. Ed does the dishes, his dad buries himself on the couch in front of the tv and mom goes to her room. Another boring evening at the Wallaces…

Maybe all the answers to all of our questions are out there, in the dark forest. Ed pushes aside a twig from a tree with his left hand to look ahead, it is so dark, he knows he is naked, why would he, he wonders, it is freezing. 

Now he is elsewhere, in front of a shed, on the other side he simply knows there are three beings which could past off as triplets, all looking the same, except the one in the middle seems to be a female. They are facing the wall that takes to the woods, their oval heads are almost a triangle, with a pointy chin, the nipples of the both males have a pyramidal shape, the females’ are round. The three of them appear to be wearing a silvery overall, orange latex gloves up to their elbows, some work boots, only those aren’t brown or black but in the same silvery tone, or are they, their actual feet? They got only two toes, the eyes completely white, no pupils or lids, and pointy ears, like they were elves from a fairy tale.

They seem to albinos, the skin so white.

They are staring at Ed like the shed was gone, he can also see them clearly, the walls appear invisible. 

Ed doesn’t know what to do, no matter though, because he suddenly realizes even if he wanted to move or scream or run, he couldn’t, they wouldn’t let him.

Ed is back in bed, was it a dream? Whatever it was, he can tell inside that shed there was a time machine, a young boy went there every night to build it, so he could get back the girl that ditched him, he was too, a lone one.

Ed goes to school like it’s any other day. Does not pay attention in classes, he looks out the window and sees the boy that built the time machine, he is a mysterious one, skipping stones at some lake. 

Back home, Ed is sitting on the grass, next to the cliff, still with those three beings on his mind. 

He wonders who they were, and where, where did they come from and why, what could they possibly want with him? 

Ed takes a shower, same as every afternoon after he is done with his homework and before they have dinner, he is finished cleaning up and water is running down his body, he goes to open the curtain to get out but he opens some kind of vortex; he can see a galaxy light years away, in the middle a throne with a nordic woman with her child in her arms.

As soon as he looks into the woman’s eyes he’s back in his bathroom. 

All silent at the table, barely looks at his plate during dinner, let alone touching his food, his parents eat and leave as usual. His thoughts still on that woman and the throne, and those three beings he saw the other night. 

Once on his bed, pulls the sheets up to cover his body and something gets his attention: there is a huge man on the corner, both hands hugging his knees, showing some concern on his face, wearing a robe and sandals, must be at least thirteen feet tall, turns around and looks into Ed’s eyes. 

Ed wonders what troubles the giant, the boy that built the time machine pops into both their heads, or into the man’s but Ed can see it clearly as if he himself was seeing the boy, carrying a box with tools, walking to the shed every night. He must have really loved that girl.

Ed is certain he wasn’t dreaming when he saw the giant, and neither is he now. 

The boy has been going to the cemetery in the middle of the night for several weeks, desecrating more than a few graves; now he’s put together a body from parts of some of the corpses he’s dug up and next to the body he’s put a photo of the girl who left him, in the hopes that some part of her essence will enter the empty vessel.

As some modern Frankenstein, he intends to give life to the body by means of electricity, Ed sees himself pulling the lever.

But before he can find out if it worked, if the body is alive, he appears to jump through time.

Now Ed is in 1978, June 6th, almost the 7th, as he looks at his watch and it’s 11:50 pm. 

The date he sees in a page of a journal flying by, carried out by the wind, he is in a city destroyed by a nuclear war, which never happened, not in this reality anyway. Ed sees the boy jumping through time and space once again.

What was once a bouquet of flowers rests next to a long forgotten grave, that is all we can expect in life, when we go, our loved ones will mourn us and cry for some time, recalling memories with us but not too long, they learn to move on and leave us behind, to forget.

Ed just knows the boy was never born, not in this reality, the boy just wanted peace and kept himself from being born. 

There is no grave, no tomb, no resting place for the boy. He is now at peace, wherever he may be.

From out of nowhere a girl appears, as white as snow her skin is, dark as ebony her long hair, there is no exit for her. She’s on the edge of the precipice, a man getting closer, no options left. To live or to be free, that’s the end of the road for the girl. She jumps to her own demise, feeling like she cab fly for a few seconds and then, the sea.

She turns into seafoam. She appears to be floating on the ocean, feeling but peace and quiet.

Another man comes into the scene, he was on the beach and comes to the girl, he looks into her blue eyes, suddenly, it is Ed looking into those eyes and then it’s the firmament and the cold space.

It starts raining and Ed can see the drops falling to floor and the tombs, the cemetery again.

The abandoned and long forgotten grave’s tombstone reads “Carola Duval”.

Was it all a dream? is Ed wondering when he starts an astral travel, feels himself leaving his body, only it’s not him, but a boy he’s seen before, somewhere, in dreams, perhaps. 

Ed sees the boy getting back in his body as three tall beings with elephant-like skin stand next to him, those beings have rat gray skin, huge black eyes, no iris or retina, just pupil, no nose, no mouth, oval heads.

The boy covers his head with the sheets, hoping they will leave soon.

Now Ed finds himself in his own room, his head covered, those beings next to him, through the sheets he can see blue lights and begins floating above his bed and now he is the one hoping they leave.

Ed wakes up a little dizzy and having no idea what that all was. When did they leave? Did they do something to him? 

He takes a shower, gets downstairs and grabs a glass with orange juice and goes to school.

Again, he pays no attention to his class or classmates, during lunch, sitting with his friends, they are all laughing and talking and he’s just gone. 

He remembers when the last pandemic happened, he dreamed of a guy meeting three shadowy figures. Never gave it much thought, but now he wonders if that was a dream at all, and is it somehow related to what he’s been seeing in dreams?

-Are you here?- asks his mom when, once again he hasn’t touched his food, he’s playing with his fork and some peas. 

He found himself staring at a girl in some greek ruins.

Ed goes to bed early, he is staring at the ceiling, not thinking of anything. 

He doesn’t even notice when he falls asleep, or is he?

Through the corner of his right eye he sees three green-skinned beings, four feet tall tops. 

They were there a second before, now, they’re gone. 

It is 3:15 am. And he falls asleep once more. 

He is just a child, four, five years old, playing in the park, his mom holding his baby brother’s hand. 

Now his mom goes to the ice cream truck while he watches his brother. 

It is now late and dark. 

All three of them walking home, his dad is there, waiting for them. 

And those three eye beings in front of them, his baby brother, they take with them. 

And his parents never talked about him again, like he never existed. 

-He didn’t exist, not in this reality, anyway- the female being speaks, or rather, prints it on Ed’s mind. They do not move their mouths. 

-Your brother has a bigger fate- “speaks” the being on the left.

-How can you…?- asks Ed inside his head.

-We can “see” your thoughts- “says” the being on the right.

-And you can “see” ours- adds the one on the left.

-You had no sibling in this life, that’s a memory of another reality- said the female. 

And now he’s here again, looking down the cliff, watching the waves crashing on the beach. Same place he was when his baby brother went missing, or at least, that’s what Ed would remember.