That Time I Knew Better

Photo credit: Robsalot (that's me!)

There’s this one daydream I have where a genie shows up to grant me one wish, I don’t know why it’s only the one wish instead of the normal three, but that’s beside the point. So for my one wish I choose to go back in time, to the exact moment where I have decided I started messing up my life, because like many people I like to dwell on the things that I can’t change. Anyway, the thing is, I know all the rules of time travel, or at least all the ones that every sci-fi book and movie and TV show has ever taught me, so I am aware that by changing one thing, I will change everything. That’s why, in this favorite little daydream of mine, I’m always trying to plan how I can keep the things I do like about my life while fixing the things I don’t. I know, I spend too much time ruminating on this, or at least that’s what my partner always says (he is the main thing I wouldn’t want to change by the way, or at least most of the time I feel that way).

So one day I am riding my bike home from work when suddenly a ground squirrel darts out into the path in front of me, I swerve to miss it but must have hit something else because the next thing I know I am flat on my back on the asphalt. Then there is a shadow looming over me, I squint into the sun and see it is a strange man, and his lips are moving, and he is reaching a hand out to me. I can’t quite hear what he is saying but instinctually I reach out and grab his hand and he lifts me back to my feet.

“Thanks” I say while dusting myself off.

He chuckles, “I guess you didn’t hear me before”

“Oh no, sorry,” I start to explain, but he cuts me off.

“I said I’m here to grant you one wish”

“What?” I must have hit my head, I reach my hand up to check but my bike helmet seems to be intact.

“I said I’m here to grant you one wish, I am a genie, I was trapped in that vessel” he points to an empty Campbell’s Soup can that is laying on the ground.

That’s what I must have hit with my bike I thought, while simultaneously trying to edge away from the obviously unstable person who is claiming he is going to grant me a wish.

“No wait!” he exclaims while blocking my path to my bike, “I must grant you one wish, it is required.”

“Uh, okay,” I stammer, hoping to humor this guy so I can be on my way, “I wish to go back to June 18, 1999.”

There was a suddenly flash of light and the last thing I thought as I faded from the present was Crap, this isn’t a dream…