The Time Capsule

Valerie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her school was going to bury a time capsule. They were allowing seniors to put anything they wanted into the time capsule. It would be opened at their ten year high school reunion. This was perfect! She could solve all of her problems with the use of the time capsule.

         They were planning on burying the time capsule during senior prom. They were going to announce the king and queen. Then they would go out to the pre-dug hole and, beginning with the king and queen, they would all put in the things that they wanted to place. When that was done, the king and queen would throw on the first two shovels full of dirt. Each student would throw one on, and the principal would finish it off.

         Valerie couldn’t wait. She knew she was going to be prom queen, and she already knew what she wanted to place inside the time capsule. Boy, would the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan at that reunion. 

         Prom was two months away. Valerie plotted and planned to make certain that she had everything she needed to properly preserve what she was placing into the time capsule. She wanted everything to be picture perfect.

         No one knew Valerie’s deepest, darkest secret. Not her parents, not her siblings, not her best friend, not even her boyfriend. Even the person that the secret was about was obliviously unaware.

         A week before the prom, Valerie took all of the money she had saved up and bought a vial that would preserve frozen products indefinitely. It cost her well over two hundred dollars, but it was totally and completely worth it to her. She snuck it into the house while her parents were at work. She had already concocted her plan. She would be leaving to go to college (her parents and everyone else thought) the day after graduation. In reality, she was going to a youth center that focused on young girls away from home and ‘in trouble’.

         When the night of the prom arrived, Valerie looked radiant. Her mother, unknowingly, even said that she had a glow. They thought it was the excitement of the night, and honestly some of it was. It really was. 

         Valerie and her boyfriend arrived at the prom. They were greeted with squeals of delight and high fives. Tonight was the night they all planned to go all the way. This wasn’t a problem for Valerie. She had gone that route several times prior to tonight. 

         She and her boyfriend danced every dance. They drank lots of punch (none spiked, not for Valerie). Her excuse was that she wanted to keep her wits about her and remember every moment of this extremely special night. Her boyfriend was cool with that, but he drank the spiked punch, mainly because he was nervous as hell.

         They all voted, knowing that Valerie and her boyfriend would win, but they did it anyway. Then away went the principal and his committee to count up the ballots. Now Valerie was beginning to feel nervous and queasy. Too much spinning around the dance floor, it seemed. She decided to take a seat, and her boyfriend went off to dance with someone else. She didn’t feel jealous. Deep down, she knew that she had absolutely no right to. 

         Finally, the principal and his committee returned with the results. To no one’s surprise, Valerie and her boyfriend won. Valerie grabbed her large bag that she had brought with her to the prom, and got ready to head outside to the time capsule.

         Just as the moment arrived, her boyfriend decided that their group was ready to leave. He and his friends saw no point in the time capsule. They thought it was stupid. Valerie immediately balked at the idea of leaving. She had to be there to put her items in the time capsule, she just had to be. 

         Her boyfriend told her that he and his friends would be in the parking lot. That was fine with her. She didn’t care as long as she got to that damn time capsule.

         He went his way to drink with his friends. She went her way to place her items in the time capsule. When it was time, she placed the preservative canister and a large manilla envelope into the time capsule. She waited while everyone else that wanted to placed their items inside. She threw the first shovel full of dirt, and then she and her friends left to meet the guys in the parking lot.

         Her boyfriend and his friends had been drinking the entire hour that it took to bury the time capsule. They were way too far gone to drive, but they wouldn’t admit it and the girls didn’t want to ruin the evening, so they didn’t push the issue. 

         Valerie’s girlfriends took a few drinks, also, and began to feel much better about the boys driving. Valerie, who was remaining sober, offered to drive, but the boys wouldn’t hear of it. Her mind and soul told her not to ride with them, but her heart told her to go. Unfortunately, she listened to her heart.

         On Monday, there was a huge memorial set up in front of the school to honor the six seniors that had been killed in the automobile accident after the prom. Lots of cards and flowers were placed there. The school year ended and life went on.

         Ten years later, at the high school reunion, there was again a memorial set up for the seniors that had died. It was to have been Valerie and her boyfriend that dug up the first two shovels of dirt to begin the unburying of the time capsule. Since they were unable to be there, it went in alphabetical order.

         Once the time capsule was exposed, the principal (and he was still the principal) plucked it from the ground and brushed off the dirt. He brought it inside, where everyone gathered around to see what had been placed inside. 

         No one was as shocked as the principal when they opened the container and envelope that Valerie had left inside. The preservative container held a sperm sample. The envelope held much more. It held the ultrasound showing that she was pregnant, and the DNA test results that showed it belonged to the same person that the sperm sample belonged to – the principal.