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Burglary almost certainly never ends in a doomed romance, but the universe has decided today that I am the rare exception.
How riveting.
I had been on my usual round of petty theft when I found myself in the basement of a seemingly abandoned mansion. The owner had supposedly passed long ago; I discovered the claim false when I stumbled upon an old man lying in a wooden bed, the rotting claws of Death creeping along his neck like the vines of a wisteria. Not entirely deceased yet, but I felt no remorse. I wondered how he managed to live so long. The wrinkles of his face seemed to imitate a raisin if you squinted hard enough. At least his body would be buried in luxury. I imagined an engraved coffin with kind words etched into the cold surface. Here lies the Old Man. Rich in life and heart.
Perhaps I might’ve felt the warm embrace of empathy if my own mother did not lay under a mere pile of wasted rubble.
I was here to survive, after all. This was any other day. Stealing was how I silenced the guttural noises of my stomach, the same sounds that once rumbled through our house from daylight to evening. Our house. Well, just my house now. My sort-of house. Rat infested walls and a panel of cracked glass hardly classifies much as a functional living abode.
Unlike my hardly functional living abode, this manor had stairs. Quite a lot of them, too. In fact, I had just crept down a set to reach an abysmal room otherwise known as the basement. Why were there so many candles in here? What kind of Satanic rituals would an aging man be performing? I suppose he might’ve attempted a spell or two for hair regrowth.
I scanned the room for anything worth taking. This place was littered with all sorts of strange objects. There appeared to be a glowing cicada ornament of some sort hanging on the wall. Next to that lay a collection of marbles engraved with eyes. I involuntarily shuddered. Maybe they were watching me, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
But at last, I’d found what I came here for. A golden stopwatch gleamed in the corner of my eye, practically beckoning me towards the thought of a full dinner. Surely, this would be enough for a healthy sizing of meat.
I picked up the watch, checking for any signs of indentations. None. That alone received a sigh of relief. The words tempus edax rerum had been carved into the bottom, almost as if a warning. Time, devourer of all things. I chuckled. The only devouring today would be of me tonight. A restaurant perhaps, if they would let me in.
I was getting ahead of myself. I needed to check if the watch remained operational first.
I should’ve never turned the knob.
Suddenly, I found myself in an open field of some sort. A dream, most certainly. There was no such thing as magic. I didn’t panic. I came to the conclusion that I must’ve passed out on the manor’s floor. Take a very educated guess at the reason. All the credit if you answered with hunger.
I wasn’t worried. I had scoured the entire mansion for valuables, and the only person I’d crossed was the Old Man. Given his deteriorating condition, I doubted he even knew I was in his house. At this point, a poisoned roach had more of a consciousness than him.
It would be a matter of time before I came to. This wasn’t the first time I’d passed out mid-theft, though I had to admit this had been the most realistic dream yet.
I figured I’d take the time to explore my dream. Looking down at my old boots, I noticed a copious amount of daisies embracing the worn leather.
As a matter of fact, the entire field was enveloped in daisies. There were daisies as far as the eye could see, shining against the vivid blue of the afternoon sky. I wasn’t sure how far this field extended, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Besides, I would wake up soon. It would be no matter in minutes.
“Woah, where did you come from?”
I stumbled back in shock, staring at the boy that had materialized in front of me.
Unfortunately, the first thing I noticed was his eyes.
It was funny. I’d thought the universe held an infinite amount of everything, yet the very concept of infinity seemed like nothing when I looked into his eyes. I found myself…gazing. Until this moment, I had never been particularly fond of the color brown. Now, I feared I would adore no other color. It was as if the color had washed over my soul, its waves crashing against my chest.
“Hello? Are you alive?” All of a sudden, his voice seeped like honey through the haze of my thoughts.
“Huh?” I hardly heard myself answer.
“Good, you are alive.” He tilted his head. “Who are you, and what the heck are you doing here?”
I was immediately shaken out of my stupor by the boy’s immature language. “Pardon?”
“Pardon?” He snickered. “What are you, a hundred years old?”
I scoffed, offended. “My age is of no concern to you.”
“Well, I’m going to be nice and tell you how old I am. I’m basically eighteen.”
Eighteen? How was it that we’d tread upon this world for an equivalent length, yet this boy acted like a child? “Your use of the word ‘basically’ implies that you are not eighteen.”
“My birthday’s in, like, three days. So I’m pretty much an adult already.”
“Does today look like three days later to you?” I asked, dumbfounded at the boy’s lack of intelligence. What an absolute idiot. A brain-consuming amoeba would starve in the Hollow cavity of his head.
“Ugh, you’re no fun. Whatever you say, buddy.” He paused, observing my stature. “Since you aren’t telling me your name, I guess I’ll call you Buddy.”
“Excellent.” But I noticed my tone had changed. My voice had shaken on the word. What was wrong with me? This child clearly was no threat.
“You still haven’t answered my other question. Why are you here?”
“I’m in a dream, moron.” Surely, this character my own dream had conjured up would understand.
“Uh, no you’re not.” The boy then proceeded to brush his hand against my face. “Pretty sure that’s real, right?”
I hadn’t even heard his words. The very world around me seemed to spin, my vision hazy with golden light. My face burned as if set on fire, the heat deliciously blazing through my skin. The sheer audacity of this child to…to…
“Dude, you good? You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I managed to choke out, stumbling against nothing. Seriously, what was wrong with me?
“You don’t look okay. Also, what’s in your hand?”
Right. The stopwatch. The one I’d stolen. The…same one that was still in my hand? Huh. It must’ve made its way into my dream.
No, no. This wasn’t a dream. This most certainly was not a dream. Not at all. I stared at the watch, its tiny jeweled hands ticking relentlessly against the pale wallpaper. Fifty minutes left. But what could that mean?
“You.” I pointed at the boy, not daring to look directly a second time. I felt as though he had a sort of enchantment surrounding his presence, and I was no fool to fall in his trap again.
“Me?”
This moron. “Is there anyone else in this vicinity I would be pointing at?”
“Not really, I guess.”
I sighed. Loudly. “You are insufferable. Tell me, what do you know of this place?”
The boy furrowed his brow, blowing on the wisps of blonde hair clinging against his forehead. “I have a name, y’know. It’s Chase.”
I rolled my eyes. “You would do well by chasing some common sense.”
“And you could chase some kindness, you jerk,” Chase huffed, crossing his arms. “Do you want me to tell you or not?”
“I suppose.”
Chase sat on the ground, patting the grass beside him. “Take a seat, it’s a long story.”
I hesitantly took my spot among the daisies, careful to keep some distance from him. I was almost now certain he was a mage of some sort. I had never been one to feel much curiosity, especially around a person with the decency of a diseased mouse. But in the moment, looking at him, I desperately wanted to know every detail of the person he was.
“Like a couple hundred years ago or something, there was this super rich dude who lived here and blah blah blah. There was a mansion here, I think.”
No. No. This had to be impossible. “Pardon, did you say a hundred years ago?”
“No, I said a couple hundred years ago, dum-dum. Ears up.”
“Huh.” No. That would mean…had I traveled through time? I blinked very nervously, fiddling with the stopwatch in my hands. This couldn’t be. This couldn’t be. I had to know more.
“Anyways, people kept vandalizing and robbing the place, ‘cause there were chandeliers and everything.” Chase paused to laugh. “Twenty years ago, some group of high school pranksters dumped fifteen cartons of eggs onto the roof, so the city tore everything down and donated all the intact valuables to the local museum. You wanna know the spooky part, though?”
“Continue,” I replied, now intrigued by the story. Could it be that I’d been sent to years far beyond my life?
“Jeez, lighten up.” Chase’s face contorted into a strange expression. “The pranksters went around telling people that they’d found some sort of magical stopwatch that sent them, like, a thousand years in the future for an hour. It was pretty crazy. Obviously, no one actually believed them.” He turned to face me. “Do you believe in magic?”
“Uh huh.” I had now come to the horrifying conclusion that I was the victim of this particular enchanted stopwatch, and the timer on the front indicated that I would be sent back within the hour. All things considered, I’d managed to keep the expression on my face relatively untelling.
“Dude, you good? You look kinda constipated.”
Maybe my expression wasn’t nearly as untelling as I hoped it was.
“Hello? Earth to Buddy?”
“I’m alright.” This was not good. This was not good at all. I felt sick. It was like a vat of acid had been launched into the pit of my stomach, its sharpness bubbling against my throat. But I realized it wasn’t the thought of being a visitor to the future that frightened me.
Why was I so terrified?
“Ugh, stop acting all mysterious, bro.” Chase flicked a pebble in my direction, causing me to flinch out of my thoughts. “If you say so.”
I had to change the subject, and change it fast. “Um…if…you wouldn’t mind telling me, why are you here?”
“Oh, I just…” Chase’s expression grew somber. “It’s nothing. Just like the view.”
“Are you sure that’s all?” I noticed that his posture slumped ever so slightly, and he’d angled his eyes away from me. Clearly, the subject matter upset him.
“Well, no. Not really.” He gazed into the distance, playing with his thumbs. “I really, really wish it was just that.”
It was only when he frowned did I notice how bright his smile truly was. Here I was, sitting next to a boy I’d known for a quarter of an hour, wishing I’d spent less of my life surviving and more of it learning to comfort. “I’m…the last person to judge. Besides, it’s not like there are ghosts waiting around for you to tell your story. It’s just me, Chase.”
He giggled, and a sense of relief fluttered through my heart. “Guess not. If there’s any ghosts nearby listening, I’m blaming this entirely on you.”
“Fine with me.” I’d be gone soon, anyways. It would be quite difficult for ghosts to haunt me back several centuries.
“Anyways, I used to come here a lot when I was younger. My parents both took me here, and we’d play stupid stuff, like princesses and villains. I’ve got good memories of this place. Plus…” Chase trailed off, his voice becoming noticeably quieter. “My…my dad’s gone now, and my mom’s sick. Real sick. It’s…not looking too great.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” I wasn’t sure how else to respond. Classic words of comfort were certain to do no good. He’d likely heard an endless stream of the same meaningless phrases by now.
“It’s good.”
“My…mother is deceased as well. I truly am sorry.” As a poorly thought out attempt of comfort, I’d meekly offered my own story. Perhaps it wasn’t the best way of help, but I hoped he found solace in Fate granting us both a dosage of childhood trauma.
“Oh, man. I’m sorry too.” Chase patted me on the back, and a comfortable silence fell between us. No words needed to be spoken. We both had been wounded by the unforgiving sword of loss, and the blood had yet to dry.
Instead, we looked towards the sky. We’d caught the sun just as it began its waltz with the moon, the ethereal glow of a crescent smile dancing among shimmering rays of orange light. And though the vivid blue sky still glowed with the remnants of afternoon light, the stars had been eager to begin their journey, sparkling like diamonds among the pale clouds.
“Wow. Isn't that something?” In that instant, Chase’s eyes seemed to gleam back to life, his posture immediately upright. “I like to think that’s my dad saying hi.”
“An appreciable sentiment,” I muttered back, gazing at the sunset. I had been thinking of my own mother. I wondered if she was somewhere above, striking up amiable conversation with Chase’s father.
“You know, they’re not really gone. Our family. I still see my dad everywhere. Like, I’ll pass by his favorite pasta sauce at the market all the time. Or I’ll hear a song he’d definitely jam out to on the radio. I’ll even get drinks at the cafe that remind me of the way he looked at my mom.” Chase paused for a moment, reflecting on his memories. “They used to dance together in this field and flip me around when I asked. Everything in the world reminds me of my dad somehow, and that's how I started finding the world so beautiful again.”
“Ah.”
Suddenly, the world around me seemed to reawaken from a deep sleep, and my mother’s presence flowed through the daisies, through the sky, through my very hands, wrapping me in a warm embrace. It didn’t matter that her physical body was gone. She was alive, and she was everywhere, and she was with me.
For the first time in a while, I didn’t feel alone.
“Like I said, just look for your mother in small ways. She raised a good kid.” Chase giggled, hiding his face in his hands. “Not to mention a pretty charming one.”
“Moron.” I pushed his arm ever so lightly. I wish. I wish I was as good of a person as you believe.
“Jerkface.” Chase stuck out his tongue at me, waggling it left and right. He was truly a person with the maturity of a starving infant. Yet, by the grace of the universe, he’d taught me how to find love in the world again.
It occurred abruptly to me that I was still here on a timer. I snapped upwards, frantically checking the stopwatch. Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes. How had time slipped by so rapidly? If only I could stay longer. God, I would do anything just to stay a moment longer.
Please. To whichever god is listening. Please. Let me stay.
But I understood there would be no future with the boy next to me, only a futile effort against the chain of the ticking clock bound to my neck. Fate was cruel, giving me the light of a thousand suns just to lock me back in the darkness.
I knew now why I had been so terrified earlier. For once, the world was alive to me, and I was scared to lose the one who’d brought it back to life. It was funny, I thought. The sun was right there, and still, the boy in front of me glowed brighter.
I supposed in this timeline, it would only be the daisies to know of my love. But the stars were immortal across centuries, after all, and my memories would be no different.