Where Is He?

“Why was Aaron such a young man who had to witness such a horrible fate?” said Mrs. Jacobs. Right now I’m at his funeral after he, Aaron, was killed. Many people including myself are tearing up because they are either friends or family of him. Oh yeah, I should probably introduce myself. I am Brett and I’m in Nebraska, the Farming Sector of the USA. The year is 2101 and it was just my 14th birthday. Now on to Aaron and Johnny. Both Aaron and Johnny are also 14, but I am the young one in our group; Johnny is 14 and three-quarters while Aaron was fourteen and a half.

The only problem with our friendship, between the three of us is that Aaron is dead. He was struck over the head by a shovel. Ironically, he loved to garden and his favorite part was shoveling dirt from the garden to get new soil every year.
Johnny and I had this idea where we could grab our new time machine (it’s safe) and try to save him. We both decided to go back a few days ago, and have been trying to set up a date for a while.
You’ll get to know the rest later and quite frankly, I have to listen to Ms. Jacobs who is speaking at the funeral. “And that’s why Aaron, oh what a lad, deserved to have enough time to just say goodbye,” said the weary elderly lady. She goes on to talk for 20 minutes on how she loved seeing Aaron garden. I look around and see the number of tissues strewn on the ground from the hour that we’ve been here. The green grass has now turned into a faintly clear layer of makeup and tears on tissues. My mother goes up to speak about Aaron next, so I decide to listen intently.
“Who doesn’t love the young man that gave back to the community with an abundance of smiles. I cannot forget the time when I first met the lad and I was just awestruck with the generosity of him. If somebody else needed the food that he grew in his garden, he would give to them. No matter the cost, he would always help someone in need,” she stops for a brief moment to get her bawling under control. I am trying to keep my composure as well, but, like my mother, I am not succeeding.

A few more people go after my mother, but I really don’t know them and they don’t really know Aaron, so I decide to look around. Many people who are walking on nearby streets seem to steal glances at us, which made me feel relatively embarrassed to be seen tearing up in public.
Something catches my eye as I look around; there is a man dressed in a tuxedo who lingered around our funeral and he looks familiar. I may have just seen him at the grocery store or somewhere else, but I think I know him. He dawdles for a second as if to think about what he shall do next. He then proceeds to shout something which I cannot hear. If he could just repeat what he’s trying to say, that would be great, but that never happens until the funeral is almost over.
“Can’t you remember! Aaron is still alive. This funeral shouldn’t be happening. Please, listen!” says the man. Nobody really pays attention to him because we assume that he is drunk and wandered over here by the signs that Aaron’s and my family made to help other relatives find their way to the his funeral.
Later that night I start thinking about what he said and wondered if it could be true. When he was hit, he just collapsed on the ground and when we flagged someone who can help, they said that he was dead by blunt force. Both Johnny and I were in shock and immediately went back to my time machine with his body.
The next morning I decide to call Johnny about what I thought about last night (saving him and the man in the tuxedo) so it may be possible that we could save him. He agrees with the thought and I ask him when he’s available to come over. He says whenever, so I choose tomorrow at four P.M.
Today is the day. We will attempt to save Aaron’s life by distracting him or his killer. All I do is try to relax because I know that the day will be very stressful. Johnny arrived a few minutes early and I go to the door to welcome him.
“Hey Johnny, how’s it going?” I ask.
“Fine, you ready to save him, ‘cause I really want him back.” Johnny says wearily.
“Yep, I just think that we should brainstorm some ideas first on how we could possibly save him,” I reply.
“Ok, great. Do you have any water? I’m pretty thirsty,” He mentioned.
“Sure, sure. Right over here,” I reply.
We get him his drink and start thinking about some ideas that we could possibly use to save Aaron. I thought that we could possibly take Aaron to somewhere else, perhaps a grocery store to let him live. We decided that that would be quite tough to do because we cannot be spotted by anyone who we do not know about. It would be pretty obvious if someone came back from the future and had to save someone.
We also came up with an idea that would slightly change the course of history, but not that much. We could close down the station where he was killed at (a subway station, newly installed with air grips for the wheels, first in Nebraska) which would lead to Aaron going somewhere else so he won’t die, hopefully. We also had this idea where we could persuade Aaron to trust us and stay somewhere else.

I just noticed how dirty my garage is (where the time machine is located) and hope Johnny doesn’t really care about the dirtiness. I decide to take the tarp off of the time machine so we can power it up and jump in. For those of you who don’t know, a time machine is four by six wide, eight feet high, and a pearlescent blue which sparkles in the sunlight. It was one of the few inventions that really changed the way that history is.
We pull it out of the garage and move it to the driveway of our house, where we will power it up and get going. It is five o’clock and it takes about half an hour to get it running, so in the meantime, we go to eat dinner. Since Johnny is still here, we have some homemade macaroni and cheese. My mom is probably one of the best cooks that I know, and she is just so great about making whatever I suggest. For packing, we usually stock up on enough food for the maximum days that we will be gone. We even have some Handbakes which are my favorite kind of cookie, so I eat three. Our family has a surprising amount of protein bars and other trail mixes, so for the trip, we decide that it would be best to stock up on snacks that will let us blend in to what people used to do. I have to dig out some of my clothes to wear so that I can look as inconspicuous as possible. It feels really weird to match some of the pictures that I have from about two years ago.

Now, the time machine is as ready as ever, and so are we. Johnny and I go in together, knowing that we can fulfill our dream which is saving our best friend.

“You ready?” I ask.

“As ever,” responds Johnny.

We step into the time machine and prepare ourselves for what will happen next. This is my first time time traveling so I am quite frightened about what could possibly happen. I know that there are some basic rules, but most of the rules are pretty hard to break. All they really are are rules about if you do something that makes you stand out and be remembered, you should try to make them forget.

We go back and I am just amazed. Wow. This is not what I expected. I knew that the time machine drops you in a 1/2 mile radius of where you traveled from, but I really didn’t expect to be in the forest right in front of the town hall. It’s pretty amazing that people are voting right now, and Johnny and I just watch them flood in.

“Pretty cool,”says Johnny.

“Really cool,”I reply. We walk out to the gas station right above the subway station and loiter for a little bit. We did travel seven days before Aaron dies, so we have some time to save him. We start a diary to help us focus on what we did and how we can improve the next day.
Day One

This is nothing like I expected it to be. All of the people are so much younger than they are now. A year makes so much of a difference. All Johnny and I did today was get adjusted to blending in and try our best to find Aaron. I think that he was gardening at his house again, because it is spring-time. He may be at school, which is something that I did not consider. Even though he did die on a Sunday, he was confirmed dead on Monday night. This is really something that could have saved us some time and not have to waste five days. At least we can have some fun in the meantime. We decide to go down to our local coffee shop after a few minutes of arguing to get something to drink. I get a glass of water (for free) and Johnny gets some milk. Good thing we each brought some money to spend, or else this whole time would be spent homeless and starving. We both split the cost to buy a tent and bug spray, and it’s time for bed. We each go shower in a public shower and do the same for the bathroom. I have a watch on that keeps the time of the future, so I realize that I have to wake up every night at midnight to start my watch, so we can read the time in what the military uses. I do have to find out the time (eight forty-seven) now, but that’s pretty easy since almost everywhere there is a clock which is accurate. I think we both agree to go to bed as soon as we possibly can so that we have energy for the next few days.

Days 2-3

Johnny and I did not do much other than roam the streets for the next few days because we couldn’t do anything while he was in school. We had to catch him alone so that we could persuade him to stay at his house. Johnny and I bought some clothes which we wear every day and we don’t do much else other than plan. We thought that we could call him from our cell phones which we had back then to meet us somewhere.

Day 4

Johnny and I both take turns calling him saying to meet us at our camp in the campsite outside of town. He does eventually pick up so that he knows. At 4:00 is when he comes. The conversation goes like this.
“Aaron, you need to stay at home on Sunday evening or else bad, very bad, things will happen.” I say.
“Why?” he questions.
“For your safety.” I reply.
“Okay,” he says.

After that we get a good night sleep and decide to head back the time machine the next day.

Day 5
Johnny and I jump back into the time machine at 9:00 am and are so relieved that this is over with. When we do get back to where we came from, everyone was so ecstatic that we were back with Aaron safe. I never would have imagined that I would do anything as fantastic as that. Saving someone’s life is not something that a fourteen year old boy does! I was told that we will have a parade in honor of us, and local TV and radio stations interviewed us all day. This was the best day of my life.