"Hey, Skipper," my dad said with a grin, sitting on Morgan's bed. He had a striped gray shirt on and looked a bit like a sailor because of it. Looking at him made me think of the Cracker Jack mascot for some reason. I remember when the popcorn gave out actual prizes instead of a stupid QR code for some baseball game... I love baseball, don't get me wrong, it's just that I'd rather experience it in real life. I once even caught a foul ball hit by Mitch Haniger; it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
I'm still upset with you, you know...
"Oh, Dad, please get me out of here. Please, I'll give you anything," I nearly pleaded.
"You miss home, kiddo?" he asked, brushing my hair out of my eyes. He was entirely different from the person I talked to on the phone. I had no idea why it was, but I was thankful for it.
"Yeah, you know what I miss doing?" I asked, burying my face in his shirt. I swear for a second; I felt as if I was ten again.
"What?" he asked, lazily stretching.
"When we used to watch movies all the time together. Do you remember that? And when I was little, you would always play The Rolling Stones; I memorized the lyrics to Paint It Black because of you," I said with a pained feeling in my chest. Remembering all of this hurt indescribably, it was almost a bittersweet sort of pain.
"Nostalgia really is something, isn't it? Sometimes we even miss things we haven't experienced; you ever look at an old photo and feel nostalgic for it? I've looked at photographs decades older than me and felt a sense of nostalgia for them," he said in awe.
You have no idea.
"There's this genre of music I used to really like when I was younger that would always make me nostalgic; you might not like it, though..."
"What's the genre? I want to feel some nostaaaalgia," he sang, making me burst out laughing. He wasn't a terrible singer or anything, but it was just so unexpected that I couldn't contain my laughter.
"It's called vaporwave, and I can't really explain it. See, it's like it's a meme and a music genre simultaneously, and trying to describe it is impossible for me. It is feeling nostalgic for something that hasn't even happened yet."
"Let me listen to one of these ah... vaporwave songs you kids are into. Do you know any?" he asked, getting out his phone.
"Look up Prism Lite's song With You; it's so good!" I said excitedly, remembering the times I used to play it constantly. I swear, I've heard that song over a hundred times.
"One moment," he said as he typed up the name. I honestly felt jealous as hell that he could have his phone here. Their reasons for banning cell phones were honestly laughable. Who the hell would record other patients anyway? You know what I would do if I had my phone? I'd put on the album Play by Moby and fall asleep to it. I once had a lucid dream where I saw my entire life fly past me like birds. What does that have to do with Moby? Well, as part of the lucid dream, I chose for the song Porcelain to play in the background. It was an oddly spiritual dream for me; I mean, it made me think about how quickly time passed by. The dream ended with me getting old and eventually dying. It was funny in a way; I didn't feel scared when I died. Truth be told, I find death exciting; I'm drawn into the uncertainty of what will happen after we die. Do we go to heaven, or is it all just black at the end?
Anyways, back to my dad...
When the song started playing, I laid back in my bed and stared at the ceiling, grinning like an idiot. It had been so long since I'd listened to Vaporwave, and hearing it again made all the nostalgia of being thirteen years old flood my body.
"Not bad, I actually quite like it; it's got this very 80s vibe," he said, nodding his head along to the song.
"Well, one thing they do is they sample 80s songs and basically remix them. The most famous vaporwave song remixed It's Your Move by Diana Ross if I remember correctly," I said as the song started playing in my head all over again. I would type out its name, but I honestly have no idea what it's called since it's a bunch of Japanese letters. Just look up Macintosh Plus, and you'll find it.
"So like plunderphonics?" he asked curiously.
"Huh?" I asked, confused.
"It's where you sample existing songs and make a new song out of them. The Beastie Boys did this in 1989 with Paul's Boutique. The album is genius; I reckon you'd like it," he said, hugging me tightly.
I wish I could live in this moment forever.
"Listen, I gotta go soon," he said, looking at his watch.
"Aw... why so soon?" I asked with a frown.
"I gotta make dinner; it doesn't cook itself, you know," he said, winking and patting me on the back.
"Hey, Dad?" I asked right before he left.
"Yeah?" he asked.
Don't let Maynard screw you over in the future.
"I love you."
"I love you too, son."