3TS: The Chances of Starting Again

The Restart

Feb. 15 When a game says it's over, you can always press the "restart" button. You can always try again.

I stepped to the edge of the curb and took a deep breath. The wet air around me promised heavy rains. And the darkening clouds above me promised a thunderstorm. But fortunately, it hadn't started raining yet. It probably was a moment's pause before the next wave of rain would wash over my small subdivision. Because last night's rain was loud enough for me to only have a four-hour sleep.

Leaning at that edge of the curb, I felt torn between decisions. As if I was deciding to jump off a cliff or to just step back into safety. I mean, it was crazy enough to know you can travel through time, it's just...crazy? Dangerous? Maybe even...fun? Yes, the cliff-jumping decision looked pretty good to me right about now.

I looked down both roads. No one was in sight. I took out the silver card that I had found out of my pocket. Staring at the words, I felt like laughing. What type of contact number was this? I looked around, but no strangers were walking down the street.

Good. At least no one would see me do this:

Do the rain dance backwards.

I jumped backwards and started to do the rain dance backwards. It felt awkward. But as I closed my eyes from all the spinning it reminded me of the time when I was younger, when I would do the rain dance with my friends just for fun in the rain. We would try to push each other, laughing as one of us would do the rain dance to see who will fall first.

The foot I was holding up slipped from my jeans, tripping my other jumping foot. My hands held me up from falling face first into a puddle.

Ugh, this was embarrassing.

I got up, wiping my hands on my jeans. This was probably not a good idea. You would probably hear the roar of an engine right about now if she really got my contact number. I started to sneak towards my house so no one could see that I had fell.

But, unfortunately, someone had seen me.

"Hey, gorgeous."

My eyes widened. I turned to see Ria. "It worked." I whispered to myself.

She chomped on a bubble gum loudly as she placed her sunglasses to rest on top of her head and raised her other hand up at me. "Wait. I have a few things to say." She counted them off on her fingers, "One, I can't go into the future. My tricy isn't strong enough for two people. So don't go telling anyone about this. That's number two, you have to keep this a secret. This is a private service. Three, I can't bring you to times that you didn't look like a teenager, because the paths of time can be permanently be damaged if you go back too far. Four, when you go back in time, things can change."

"What kind of things?" I hoped her answer wouldn't be 'drastic changes', but she didn't answer me.

"And five, I already told you this, you only have four times to go back into the past. You already went back once." She gestured to the card in my hand with her eyes.

I stared at my card. In the upper left corner, there was that small hole.

"See a small hole in the corner of the card? That's your sign of how many times you have used up. Another small hole will appear in each corner with each time you go back into the past."

"Four times?" I whined. "But the first time didn't count. I didn't know."

She laughed and placed her sunglasses over her eyes again. "Every passenger I get reacts like that. So, you really only have three times to go into the past." Her voice was cheery, as if this was just a normal sunny day.

I heaved out a sigh and nodded. "Okay, so I can't go into the future. I have to keep this a secret. I can't go back to when I was like a baby. And I have three times left to go back in time." I guess rules were rules. You couldn't abuse your time in the past. Besides, something might go wrong if you went too many times back.

"So what is your services good for?" I blurted, "I mean, I can't visit my parents when they were younger, or go see my future self."

She blew a bubble from her gum, and then popped it, smiling as she said, "So you can correct certain...mistakes. If you want." Her voice strained at the word mistakes.

Did she know what my purpose was? Did she want me to correct it? Was she this future-telling genie or something? Journal, I didn't know what to think of her at this moment. Good. Bad. Or mysterious. Something in between?

"Come on. Hop in." The wind was blowing hard enough for Ria's long brownish wavy hair to blow as if she was in a photo shoot for biker jeans, a rough jacket and a black modest shirt for women. But her fun and smiley attitude didn't fit her rad clothing. I guess she had to wear a uniform for the job.

I stood there for only a moment before jumping in. My knee bounced excitedly, but I still had my doubts. Would this work?

Ria turned the tricy and started down the road.

I glanced at her, "where are we going?" I hadn't even told her where I wanted to go.

She smiled slyly, "Don't worry. I know where you want to go. Or the place you had been but want to restart over again." It's was as if she was this hawk in the sky, piercing it's large eyes over all the paths of time and seeing my path. Or the path I wanted to take.

I rubbed my forehead, "Huh?"

She tapped her shades, "Just be patient. You'll see."

As the wind started to pick up, with my hair blowing in every which way, I thought I heard Ria whisper eerily, "You will see what you want to see..."

I covered my face with my jacket sleeves as the rain whipped into my face. The rain was drumming so hard, I thought there were a thousand of them around me.

I could barely hear Ria as she finished, "But you will see what you won't want to see either..."

I turned to face her, and it was as if I could see her eyes through her dark shades. They looked sad as she almost whispered...

"Things will be different."