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The spring after Kurt Hummel and his family moved into their new house Carole, his new step-mother, had decided to plant a flower garden in the backyard. Kurt had agreed to help her design the new landscape. He went with her to the Garden Center to help her choose the plants and flowers that she wanted to plant, and purchase the tools they would need to get the job done. When they got home, they mapped out where everything was going to go and started digging.
Kurt was digging at a particular spot around the fence line when his shovel hit something hard. It didn’t sound or feel like a rock. He started digging around it so that he could free it from the ground, so it wouldn’t hinder his gardening process. The object was larger than he expected it to be. When he finally cleared enough dirt to see what was buried, he called Carole over to him.
“Carole, come take a look at this,” he said.
Carole looked over at him from her spot on the adjacent fence line to see what Kurt was looking at. “What is it?” she asked, before getting up and walking over to him.
“Someone buried a plastic storage bin,” Kurt replied.
“Oh! Be careful with that! It could be holding someone’s former pet,” she told him.
Kurt paused for a moment, taking a closer look at the box before he shook his head in disagreement. “No, I don’t think so… It’s labeled ‘Time Capsule’. I wonder how long it’s been here?” he said. He continued digging around the shoebox sized container until he finally freed it from where it was buried.
The two of them decided to take the box inside to get a better look at its contents. Once they opened it, they found a VHS tape, a newspaper from April 2, 2001, a few photographs, a small horse plushie, some drawings that were obviously done by a child, and a letter.
The letter read:
Dear Future Person,
Hello! My name is Blaine Anderson and I am 7 years old. Today is April 3, 2001. Tomorrow me, my momma, daddy, and big brother Cooper are moving into a new house in Westerville. I learned about time capsules in school and wanted to leave a memory behind in my old house. Momma helped me put this together.
When my teacher told us about time capsules she said that we should include a newspaper so that the people in the future would know what was happening at the time it was buried. Daddy said he still needed today’s paper so I put yesterday’s paper in here instead.
I drew you some pictures of me, and my family, and my kitty Arancia so you knew who put this together. The photos are of this house, and yard, and neighborhood so you can compare how different everything looks. Some of the pictures are kinda old, but I got momma to help me take a bunch of new ones too. The new ones might look a little weird because we’ve been packing, so some rooms are empty or have lots of stuff missing. (You can see me and my family in some of the pictures too!)
I also had daddy help me make a video of me singing and playing the piano. And Cooper joined in the fun too! He likes to help me put on shows for people. We sing and dance together a lot. He says I need to work on my dancing because it’s a little sloppy but I can’t really help it. I like my silly dancing. But I’ll try harder because I wanna be famous someday.
Momma said I should add something important to the time capsule too to make it special. My horsie Argo is very important and very special so she seemed like the best choice. She is the bestest and bravest horse in the whole wide world and the future would be a sad place without her.
Well, that’s all from me. Enjoy these memories from the past!
Blaine Devon Anderson
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Later that night, after watching the video tape on his father’s old VCR, Kurt decided to look this Blaine kid up on Facebook. It actually didn’t take him very long to find him. He was the only 17 year old Blaine Anderson in Westerville, Ohio. The majority of Blaine’s page was only accessible to friends, but he could tell it was the same person from his profile picture.
Luckily, Blaine accepted messages from everyone, not just friends. So Kurt sent him a little note. Hi! Sorry to bother you, but my name is Kurt Hummel. My family recently moved into your old house in Lima, and my step-mother and I discovered the time capsule you buried while we were making room for a flower garden. I thought I’d track you down and see if maybe you wanted to go through it? To reminisce, or maybe claim/keep some of the items you placed inside? Let me know and I can probably meet up with you somewhere or something.
It only took about 15 minutes before he got a reply. Oh wow! I had totally forgotten about that thing! I’d love to look through it again. Your profile says you go to high school at McKinley? The Lima Bean isn’t too far from there. I could meet you there after school tomorrow? Say around 3:30? Does that work for you?
Kurt replied immediately. Sounds great. I’ll see you then. (My profile pic is fairly new so just use that to find me once you’re there)
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The next afternoon Kurt dragged his friend Mercedes to the Lima Bean after school let out. He knew that this Blaine guy was the same age as him, and had seen pictures of him, but he still felt safer having someone go with him. He and Mercedes had just sat down with their drinks when he noticed Blaine walk into the café with a friend of his. Blaine found Kurt and signaled to him that he was getting a drink first before joining them.
“Hi, you must be Kurt. I’m Blaine and this is my friend Wes,” Blaine said as he and his friend approached the table.
“I am. It’s nice to meet you both. This is my friend Mercedes,” Kurt answered.
“Looks like we both had the same idea of not showing up alone,” Blaine joked. “Is this the time capsule? Mind if I open it?” he asked, pointing to the container on the table.
Kurt smiled at him. “Not at all. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”
Blaine opened the box and started going through the contents, blushing in embarrassment over the drawings he had made. Suddenly Blaine gasped loudly, “Argo!” he exclaimed. Looking up at three pairs of eyes staring at him he explained, “This was my favorite stuffed animal when I was little. I used to love the TV show Xena and she reminded me of Xena’s horse. I remember the first night after we moved that it rained, I was so scared that she was going to drown because she was outside in the bad weather. I cried myself to sleep that night. But look at her. She hasn’t been damaged by the elements at all. Nothing in here has.”
“The multiple layers of plastic wrap you put around the box probably had something to do with that,” Kurt added.
“I wonder what’s on the VHS tape though. I don’t remember what I filmed,” Blaine said, curiously.
“Oh, it’s a cute little video that starts out with you introducing yourself and your brother. You were playing ‘(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time On You’ by ‘N Sync on the piano while the two of you sang. After that the two of you danced choreographed routines and sang along with a bunch of eighties songs that were playing from a small stereo. It was really, really adorable,” Kurt told him.
“Oh god. You watched it?” Blaine said, mortified.
“Of course I watched it. I was curious,” Kurt scoffed. “Your brother, Cooper, looks really familiar for some reason. Like, I recognize him from somewhere, but I just can’t figure out where I’ve seen him before,” he wondered.
Blaine sighed and groaned in annoyance. “Yeah. I know. You’ve seen those really cheesy Free Credit Rating Today commercials? That’s Cooper,” Blaine explained.
Kurt squealed, “No way! I love those commercials! That’s your brother?”
“Of course you do. Everyone loves Cooper,” he replied a little bitterly. Blaine picked up a pile of photographs and started quickly looking through them, making little comments about people or things that were in them. “Oh it’s baby Arancia! She was so little in this picture. Nothing like the monster she is now,” he said, fondly.
As he switched to the next photo Blaine froze. “Oh. I didn’t realize that this photo was in here,” he said in a very monotone voice.
Wes looked over Blaine’s shoulder at the photo he was holding. “That’s obviously you in the bowtie. But who is that holding you?” he asked.
“It’s my grandmother,” Blaine replied, sourly.
“And from that tone I’m guessing it’s your dad’s mom,” Wes said, understandingly.
Blaine nodded, still staring at the photograph. Mercedes’s curiosity got the best of her and she spoke up, “Do you not get along with her or something?” she asked, carefully.
“She disowned me a few years ago. Likes to pretend I don’t exist, and that my brother is an only child. I’m no longer allowed to go to her house for family gatherings anymore either,” Blaine explained.
“Oh my god! That’s terrible! Why would she do that?” Mercedes exclaimed.
“Because I’m gay,” he answered, solemnly.
“I’m so sorry,” Kurt replied, voice quivering. “Sorry that she disowned you. Not sorry that you’re gay. Because there’s nothing wrong with being gay. It would be really hypocritical of me if I thought there was. Since I’m gay too. But that’s no reason to disown a person,” he rambled, speaking rapidly; stopping only when Mercedes placed her hand on his arm and shook her head at him.
Blaine smiled and blushed a little. “I assumed that’s what you had meant. But thank you,” he said.
The four students continued talking and going through the time capsule contents for some time, until Mercedes announced she needed to head home. Since Kurt was her ride he needed to leave as well. Kurt told Blaine he should just keep the entire capsule and its contents.
---
When Kurt got home after dropping Mercedes off, he logged onto his Facebook account. Blaine had sent him a friend request and another message. There was something I meant to ask you before you left. Call me? 614-555-0259
Kurt quickly accepted the friend request and dialed the number he had been given.
B: Hello?
K: Hi. Blaine? It’s Kurt. You wanted me to call?
B: Um, yeah. So I was wondering… about this VHS tape that was in the time capsule…uh, since you seem to have one of the few working VCRs left in existence, do you think I could maybe come over to your house sometime and watch it? Maybe you could give me a tour of my old house while I’m there?
K: Sure. That actually sounds like fun. How about Saturday?
B: Great! It’s a date! Or, um… not a date… unless you want it to be a date? Because if you don’t want it to be one then it doesn’t have to be.
K: It’s a date.