Taken into the Unknown (Complete)

Confessions

I was older now, though. I was more mature and not quite as awkward looking as during my adolescence. I wasn’t hot or sexy like Jayden, but I wasn’t ugly either. I had a fair chance, right?

“Ohh”, I groaned. But why on earth would he have any reason to like me back? Beginning to feel sick to my stomach, I got up from the sofa and walked around the room a little. My eyes aimlessly darted from object to object and landed on the cabinet full of videos and video games. As I shuffled through them, from the corner of my eye, I saw some VHS tapes. Immediately feeling nostalgic, I looked through them to see what was still here on VHS.

Babe, Pokemon, Barney, Starship, Toy Story, Bambi, The Lion King, E.T., and several other old movies were shelved there. I felt so old now seeing the movies of my childhood. I was about to choose one to put on when there were some tapes with handwritten labels.

Damon’s 1st birthday, Wedding videos, ’99 Picnic, etc was written on the label. They were family movies. I was suddenly curious to know more about the heartless Damon and his childhood. I wonder how he acted as a kid? Was he always that mean demanding child that bullied all the kids on the playground, or was he that whiny child? Perhaps he was an introvert, shy and reserved.  I pulled one out that read “Damon Compilation”, plugged it in and hit rewind. Even waiting forever for the tape to rewind as the screen was black with the small lettering in the corner reading REW made me wistful.

Finally surpassing my point of patience, I stopped rewinding and hit play.

The video was exactly as described in the description, little tidbits and scenes of Damon’s childhood. I had to admit, though, that Damon was an adorable child, so innocent and full of life. There were scenes of his beautiful mother holding him lovingly in her arms, his first steps, playing with endless collections of Legos and Hot Wheels, riding a bike for the first time, playing outside with his father, and other cheerful scenes that actually made him seem somewhat…human. Midway through one of the scenes, Damon’s face at the age of about seven popped up.

“Is this thing on? hi future me,” he said, ecstatically, waving his hand around so furiously I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my lips. He began to babble on about his day until he turned it off.  Over years, there were more videos of him documenting himself as if it were his diary. Sometimes he would just talk; other times he marvelously played the guitar, reminding me of his passion to become a musician and the studio room.

 There was a large gap between his earlier years and adolescence. By the time he reached his teenage years, there was a visible change in him. He was no longer an exuberant, bright child. In his eyes it seemed as if all the life was sucked out of him. It seemed as if the only time he documented anything about his life was when he felt absolutely miserable about something going on in his life. He talked about how he wished his mom was still with him, how his dad wasn’t the same man he loved when he was younger, how he hated his dad. He complained about the company his dad owned how it had destroyed his father and how it was slowly destroying his life too.

There was this one video after all the gloom where Damon seemed to be particularly happy. “I met this girl today, this really cute, petite brunette. I can’t get her out of my mind. She annoyed me at first. She was just TOO happy and optimistic and a the-world-is-all-rainbows-and-unicorns-and-a-wonderful-place type of girl, but…I kind of like her.” He smiled gleefully and turned off the video. Then it all went blank.