Time Traveling

The alarm beeped incessantly, the diminishing space between each noise triggering my anxiety. I frantically turned off the alarm and switched my light on, cringing at the thought of another Monday. There was a knock on my door, and my dad poked his head in. “Hey, I got a call for you.”
“A call…from who? Why so early?” I moaned groggily, my voice always hoarse and deep before I socialize in the mornings.
“That’s what I thought too. Apparently they’ve been calling you since yesterday, but your phone is always on silent, and you don’t pick up anyways so they called me. ‘They’ being the Canadian Research Institute,” he said this last part in a snobby voice. “Anyways, some scientist doctor guy…Dr. Henry Wu I believe, wanted to hire you for a rare internship opportunity. He saw your application essay for the Prehistoric Anthropology summer program at that one Netherlands university.”
“Leiden University, Dad, Leiden University. How did he see my essay if he’s at the Canadian Research Institute?” I was intrigued but also skeptical. Scammers have been known to be creative on rare occasions.
“He’s not a scam if that’s what you’re wondering. He is definitely legit, and so is this opportunity. I think you should take it. Here, he left a voicemail for you with all the details and wanted me to make sure you got it.”
I was finally awake. If my dad wanted me to take an opportunity regarding anthropology or the liberal arts, then it must be really special. He didn’t usually support things that weren’t financially smart. I walked slowly into the kitchen to grab my phone and hear the message. I stood there in my oversized t-shirt, holding the phone up to my ear; my family crowded around and listened with me.
“Hi Lily. This is Dr. Henry Wu from the Canadian Research Institute. One of my colleagues at Leiden University read your essay on Prehistoric Anthropology and thought it would interest me. It turns out that I have a very special opportunity, and I believe you are a prime candidate for the job. My team found a prehistoric human in a glacier last year, and with the help of advanced technology and medical equipment, we have been able to thaw her out. Our linguistics experts have been able to give her a grasp of English. Her name is Ke-Te-Way-Ne-Ya, and her DNA shows her to be seventeen years old though she has been frozen for over 12,000 years. In light of this astounding opportunity to learn about prehistoric cultures and how the human mind works and adapts, our team has decided that the best course of action would be to immerse Ke-Te-Way-Ne-Ya in the culture of modern teenagers. We would need a responsible teenager for this to work and preferably has previous knowledge of prehistoric peoples and discernment regarding their own culture. After reading your essay, I believe that you would be perfect in this situation. We would reimburse you for your time and any inconvenience this causes. Please call me back today to further discuss this and any details I might have missed. We are willing to make this happen as soon as Wednesday, giving you two days to be briefed. Thank you and have a nice day. Bye.” I stood there in shocked silence and my brothers looked at each other in disbelief.
“Um, wow. I didn’t realize that my essay would get so far. I get to meet someone from 12,000 years ago? I mean that’s like time traveling! Oh my gosh.” My brain was moving faster than my mouth could.
“What are you waiting for? Call him back!” my mom said, “but also get ready for school, ehh might as well just call him on the way.”
I snapped out of shock and quickly got ready. Being a hybrid student, I have different classes on different days at different schools. I really just take the best of everything. It works out great. I got ready, and when I was in my car, I finally dialed the number back and pulled out of the driveway as it rang. It rang a few times before someone picked up.
“Hello, this is Henry,” a friendly voice said in a slight Canadian accent.
I swallowed nervously then responded, “Hi, Dr. Wu. This is Lily. I heard your message this morning, and I’m honestly blown away. I never expected my application essay to really lead to anything other than hopefully the summer program. Anyways um, I would love to discuss any further details.”
“Ah hi! So I’m taking it you will take this opportunity? Lovely, lovely. No, your application essay was brilliantly discerning and showed that you would be perfect for this. If Wednesday works for you, then I can call you later today and give you all the small details. But as far as logistics, what times would be good for Wednesday, and will there be any resources you will need?”
“Wow, thank you. So Wednesday…my day usually starts around 7:45 or 8:00 and then as far as classes I’m usually done at 4, but she is welcome to stay longer as I sometimes hang out with friends.”
“Ok, perfect. We will be there at 7:45 on Wednesday, and I’ll give you a call back later this afternoon to discuss it further and answer any other questions. Thank you, Lily!”
“Thanks, Dr. Wu. I’ll talk to you later. Bye!” I hung up and could not stop smiling, anyone that drove past me must have thought I looked strange, driving alone and smiling like I won the lottery. I guess I did, in a way.
I told one of my friends in class about the call and Dr. Wu.
“Dr. Wu? Like Dr. Henry Wu?” he joked.
“Yes? Why? How do you know his name?” I asked, shocked that my Lego obsessed friend knew the name of a Canadian scientist.
“Oh my gosh! His name is actually Henry Wu. That’s insane. Dr. Henry Wu is the geneticist in Jurassic Park. He creates a ton of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. That can’t be a coincidence.” He was giddy, high on conspiracy theories.
I rolled my eyes, too preoccupied to go into one of our typical conspiracy debates. I’ll have to fix this one later.
I floated through my day, barely registering what I did. When I got home from classes in the afternoon, I called Dr. Wu back. He gave me all the background of how they found Ket, which is what they call her, and the process of communication. He briefed me on her familiarity with modern culture at this point, and what they have been able to teach her so far. We both agreed that there is only so much you can teach someone. There is a point where certain things can only be learned through experience. After chatting for almost an hour, we felt satisfied and ready for Wednesday.
Tuesday was a nervous blur; there were a few moments when my anxiety started acting up, but I just tried to ignore the fact that the next day I would be guiding a prehistoric teenager through my life. I mean, that’s totally normal, right?
Wednesday finally came. I woke up early, showered, cleaned my room…twice, and went over my mental list of important things to do and say. Through my window, I saw an inconspicuous car pull up and a tall man came out, followed by a short teenage girl. I greeted them at the front door and introduced myself, shaking Dr. Wu’s hand before I turned to Ket.
She was short and had thick dark hair. There was something about her smile and eyes that was roguish and playful. She extended her hand as she introduced herself, “Hello, I’m Ket, and you are Lily? Nice to meet you,” she then looked questioningly at Dr. Wu, checking to see if she got it all right. He smiled and nodded. Her voice was low and soft and had a strange cadence, probably the mixture of her native language, English, and a bit of the Canadian accent thrown in.
I smiled and shook her hand, “Nice to meet you Ket.” She had a terrifyingly strong grip. Dr. Wu made sure that we were all good and was visibly keeping his excitement in check as he left.
Ket smiled after him. “He is like my father, the doctor, always so excited about the new thing,” she paused and looked at me. “So, how am I doing?”
“Actually really well. Although we will have to work on your greeting, you generally only shake adults’ hands, so we need to work on teen-to-teen greetings.”
“Ok, show…Sorry. Can you show me?” she said, haltingly and smooth at the same time.
“Yeah, so if someone is far away you can nod, or throw the peace sign,” I demonstrated.
“Throw the peace sign?” Ket repeated, confused. “Like you throw peace at someone?”
I laughed, “Yeah I guess so, it’s like an acknowledgment. Um you can also dab someone up. It’s like a handshake but more casual and smooth.” I grabbed her hands to show her, and she tried until I had given my approval. “And if you know someone really well, you can hug them…”
“Oh, this is a hug, right?” she said as she full on bear-hugged me and almost sent me to the ER for a broken rib.
“Yep you got that down for sure,” I wheezed.
“Ok, I know how to greet people. What is next?” she asked eagerly.
“Well, my first class today isn’t until 10, so I thought we could go get breakfast, and then drive around. Does that sound ok?”
“Yeah, especially breakfast.”
“Ok great! I’m driving, because I’m assuming you can’t haha,” I said lightly, and then grabbed her hand and pulled her out to my car. “Do you have any music you like to listen to?” I asked as I turned the car on and connected my phone to it.
“Dr. Wu made me listen to Mongolian throat singing to see if it sounded familiar to my people’s music, it sort of did, but then I just ended up liking it. I also like music with harps or flutes, they sound like the wind over glaciers.”
“Um, ok. Well I can say that I don’t generally listen to any of those. We’re gonna listen to the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack because that’s just a classic. I also made a list of music and artists for you to listen to because they are just a part of my generation’s language and culture.” I handed her a good sized list that included all the cringey classics, the Disney hits, Taylor Swift, One Direction, and many, many more. I had also added a few just good ones that I think everyone should listen to for their basic education in life and music.
“I put movies and shows on the backside for you to watch whenever you want,” I added, and she turned the paper over to see the equally long list on the other side.
“You were really prepared, how long did you have to get ready?” Ket asked incredulously.
“Two whole days,” I said with a nervous laugh, “being a professional procrastinator has made me very gifted in getting a lot done in a short amount of time. I also made you a Google Doc with hyperlinks to memes and vines and explanations, as well as just random terms and slang we use.”
We pulled up to the breakfast place, Kerbey Lane Cafe; I had decided to splurge in the event of hosting a prehistoric teenager. We both ordered a short stack and Ket’s eyes widened as she dug in. Even though she had been taught how to eat with a fork and knife from her year at the Research Institute, something about those pancakes made her eat a little more barbaric. It was understandable: they were basically dessert.
After we had both cleaned our plates, Ket grinned mischievously at me and said, “Show me how you are supposed to…ah what is the word…tease, court?”
“You mean flirt?” I laughed, “Oh I don’t flirt, I just awkwardly bumble around for a couple of years and be friends, basically siblings, and hope they end up liking me too.”
“That sounds unsuccessful,” Ket said.
“Tell me about it. But I can definitely fake flirting; I just don’t do it with anyone I actually like.”
“Ok then flirt with him. Just show me how one would maybe do it. It is an annoyingly large part of being a young person, and I should know how to do it here.” Ket pointed at our waiter, and I spent a couple minutes thinking of a good pick-up line. When he came for the bill, Ket winked at me. For context, he had taken my number so that the kitchen could text me when it was ready.
“Hey, I just think it’s an injustice,” I said to him as he was taking my bill.
“I’m sorry?” He was kind of flustered; he probably thought I was gonna give him a hard time about the bill.
“It’s an injustice that you have my number and I don’t have yours,” I said, quite smooth and natural for a faker, and smiled at him.
He chuckled and declared my pick-up line to be the best he’s heard at that job, then wrote his number on the back of my receipt. I winked at Ket.
When we got back into the car, Ket remarked that it seemed as though if one wanted to flirt, or really begin any type of relationship, numbers and phones were needed. I was caught off guard by her observation. I hadn’t realized she was so discerning, and it was strange hearing the perspective of someone from a completely different time about things that I take for granted.
“Yeah life really revolves around our phones and technology. It’s kind of sad how much relationship building goes on over text messages.”
“Where I’m from, I would get to know people by hunting with them, eating with them, and just living with them. Everything feels more isolated here, it’s strange.”
We drove around for a little bit. I pointed out stores and restaurants and explained them. Ket asked me about every bumper sticker we passed, so then we ended up talking politics, in which I gave her the rundown of our government and political system. We also talked about religion and beliefs and science and objective versus subjective truth. It was possibly the most interesting conversation I have ever had and probably ever will.
Then it was time for class, I had one co-op class in the morning and one community college class in the afternoon. We walked in and sat in the back after I introduced Ket to my teacher and a few friends. The class was Medieval Humanities, and today we were talking about male and female roles in King Arthur’s court. Ket listened, intrigued the whole time, as I doodled and drew on myself. After class we grabbed some lunch and headed over to the community college.
“What are male and female roles now?” Ket asked me on the way.
“Well, there’s a lot about the male initiating interactions and looking out for women, as they are more vulnerable, but there’s also still a lot of stereotypes regarding men and women and their interactions. Feminism has broken some of the gaps down, and now male and female is a range.”
“A range? What does this mean?” Ket asked, clearly confused.
“So basically you are born with your biological gender depending on your chromosomes and genitals, but your essence is no longer defined by your body. Someone could look like a girl but have he/him pronouns. Someone could be nonbinary; there are really so many possibilities at this point, which honestly is not helping the identity crisis that all teenagers experience because now we have to question a whole other layer of our being. Oh and sexual attraction. It’s too much for me to follow sometimes, so I guess it’s something to learn, you and I both,” I said.
Ket was closing her eyes, clearly concentrating to comprehend and absorb everything I just said.
“It’s so confusing,” she whispered softly.
I smiled sadly and nodded, trying to pull my overwhelming depression and anxiety together as we pulled into the parking lot of the community college. We walked inside to the elevators, and Ket looked at the closed door in confusion.
“Why are we waiting in front of a wall?” she asked.
“Just wait for it…” I pointed at the button right as it lit up and dinged and the elevator doors slid open.
Ket gaped as she looked in, “A room is hiding in the wall, and you control the door by pointing at it?”
I laughed and told her to hold on. The elevator shot up, and Ket stumbled backwards in shock and off balance. I caught her and held her steady until we reached the third floor and the doors opened again. I had to push her out because the elevator had thrown off her legs’ coordination.
“That is magic, or some witchcraft. You point at a wall, and it opens into a room that flies, and then the wall opens again and you are somewhere else. Our world is strange, so very strange,” Ket gasped.
We walked into class, and I quietly filled the teacher in before we sat in the back, again. This was an English class, but most of our in class activities were discussing and debating current events and issues. Some kids were already going off about Marxism and Socialism in the front of the room. There was one girl that you could always rely on to bring up global warming, and all the emo kids usually talked about depression and suicide. That honestly sums up teenagers.
I pointed out each group and person to Ket and described what they were talking about and why it mattered to them and to the public in general. The Marxism concepts were a little hard for her to understand. She had a special place in her attention for global warming because without it she would still be a female Captain America, frozen in ice. Ket was also interested in the emo kids; she wanted to know what depression was.
“Ha, can I tell you about depression! I am what some might call an expert in this field. Basically, being a teenager nowadays kind of sucks; life is too slow and fast, our world is caught up in division and is falling apart, we are increasingly isolated thanks to our phones, and it’s all so exhausting. We’re all gonna die anyway so might as well have an aesthetic social media. Kids get tired, and sad, and stuck, and then they decide they want to stop living. All the kids are depressed because there’s too many monsters in our heads.”
“I don’t know what to say, that is so sad. If Dr. Wu had taught me how to curse I would, but I only ever heard him scream ‘duck’ when he got mad.”
I laughed, “How about you stick with ‘holy crap’ for now, I can’t be that bad of an influence on you.”
Ket smiled. Then her countenance became serious and she grabbed my hand and looked me in the eyes. “I am sorry, that life is heavy. Things become heavy when you carry them alone, but when others share the weight, it is not as bad, no? You are strong, your generation has a strange courage and mindset about life, but you all have guts. You will be ok.”
“Frick, I did not expect to be getting life advice from a prehistoric teen,” I laughed, like someone who is about to fall apart.
She looked down at our hands, “How long is this class?”
I laughed nervously, “Um, an hour and a half, why?”
“Actually that was a dumb question, I still don’t understand your measuring of time,” she grinned, and the rest of class went by in a blur. I think I was a part of some debate and I vaguely remember Ket starting a drumroll to hype me up, which then just turned into some strange drum beat. The rest of the day sped by. We had some weird conversations and the amount of time I second-guessed my culture and everything I knew was more than I care to say. I bought us ice cream, and I let Ket drive my car in a parking lot for a little bit…we almost died.
Anyways, it was fun, and I was more sad than I thought I would be when I said goodbye and watched Ket and Dr. Wu drive away. Time traveling always makes you sad, because you end up missing something you can never have.
Fuck.