The Remote

The Reality Changer

James's alarm blared flashing 6:30 am. He pushed the snooze button and got out of bed. Yesterday was his high school graduation and James would be attending NYU in the fall he was excited but at the same time, he wasn't. You see James was a tbdl but he had never acted on it. James had never summed up the courage to go into a store to buy diapers or even order them online in fear of his secret being discovered. Out of the dark, a sudden pounding on his bedroom occurred. James looked and saw his best friend Milo at the window. James quickly unlocked the window and let Milo in. "What the hell are you doing here so early?", said James. "one word, weed," Milo said. "HELL NO, my parents are here," said James. "OHHH SHIT", said Milo as proceeded to climb out the window, get back in his car then drive off. James laughed and went downstairs. He and Milo had been friends since the 1st grade and surprisingly both got into New York colleges. Milo, Columbia and James, NYU. "I wish I could just skip adulthood and go back to innocence," thought James as he put his AirPods in and pushed play on "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" by "The Beatles". He was obsessed with 60s rock having posters of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, and Pink Floyd all over his room. As the music was playing he heard the doorbell ring. Not wanting to wake up his parents he crept to the door and opened it. There was a battered old box addressed to him. "That's weird, I never get mail," thought James. As he was bringing it up to his room he noticed the box did not have a return address nor did it even have James's just his name "To James Scott". He took a mental note of that, brought it to his room, and fetched his boxcutter from his drawer. When he opened it a whiff of dust splashed his face. It felt old. When he looked inside he saw what seemed to be a tv remote but straight out of the 1990s and only one button would work. There was a note placed alongside the remote. "It has come for me to give this up, I chose you, use it wisely. By holding down the enter button on it, it will grant any of your wishes. It could make all of your wildest fantasies come true." the note read. James felt light-headed and had to sit down. He thought of all the things he could do, solve hunger, achieve world peace. But he decided to start small. He pressed the button and wished "I have an iPhone 12". Immediately, a pristine condition. He couldn't believe it. James then wished to have enough money for the rest of his life, a new mansion, and tons of fancy cars. All of a sudden a chilling feeling came over him and he just knew where his mansion was. It was 2 miles away from him on the nicer side of town. He then wished for a nice chauffeur to drive him there. The same cold feeling went over him as he saw a 2019 Rolls Royce Phantom roll into his driveway. James immediately ran out of his house not bothering to close the front door behind him and hopping into the sedan. "Where would you like to go Sir?" said the chauffeur. "Home," said James. The Driver put the car into gear and began the short drive across town to his mansion. His mouth literally dropped when he saw it. His mansion was an insanely large townhome with a long driveway, a pool with a built-in hot tub, and a very large deck. The Deck was filled out with a top-of-the-line grill,  beautiful deck chairs, and a fireplace. James ran out of the rolls Royce and ran into the house (it automatically unlocked the door when it saw his face). When he got in the door, surprisingly, the house was smaller than he expected it to be. Still very large but smaller on the inside than the outside. He passed the kitchen and proceeded to go upstairs. There were multiple rooms. He came to the last and by far the biggest room at the end of the hallway which he assumed was his. The room had two large windows, a bathroom, a queen-sized bed, a plain black dresser. The room was plain, too plain.