Milk Carton Boys

Where is my mind?

Maria's house was only a street away now, the streets on this side of town were still alive. I swerved around the corner on my heels and saw the white wooden houses all perfectly lining the street, I spotted Maria's house and made a beeline, it hadn't really changed, the same white paint and blue windows, nothing much was different. I slowly made my way up the steps to the front door, closing my eyes in hope for an answer before knocking on the heavy door. It was silent for a while until I heard people speak inaudibly inside then light steps running towards the door, I held my breathe as the handle moved and the door creaked open, I looked down to see a tiny girl in brown piggy tails and big green eyes looking up at me, she must have been only seven years old, I knelt down to her height before asking.

"Do you know Maria?"

She shook her head before turning back into the house to ask for someone, soon followed by who I thought was her mother. She looked just like Maria, the jawline and nose were a bit different though, maybe a cousin?

"You're looking for Maria?"

I nodded.

"Maria's my mother, she's here at the moment. Why d'you wanna see her?"

I stared at her, everything slowed down to a halt. Her mother? I stood silently before she gestured bitterly for a response.

"I-I..um..could you ask if she knows Xavier Montero?"

"Montero?" She looked at me conspicuously before getting her daughter to fetch someone else. She opened the door a bit more and I stepped inside. All these people and their white walls, white furniture, white- "woah, is that a tv? it's so flat and huge, wait what are those lights on the wall? They're moving! It like a cinema projecter."

"Wait here, hm?"

The woman gestured to one of the couches in the living room, I nodded and silently sat still staring at the weird projecter and in aw of the giant tv.

"Mama! There's a boy here asking about the missing Montero kid!"

"Montero?" I could hear a rattled voice from the other room where the woman had gone. Before long I heard footsteps walking back to the living room, fuck I was scared, I didn't even want to look to see if it was Maria, a mother, a grandmother. What if she didn't remember me? I finally made the decision to stand up and turn around to see the two women, the younger woman who I'd seen before and an elder woman, her hair was silver and braided and tied into a bun wearing a modest black dress and crutched on a cane.

"Xavier?"

I was going to throw up, probably cry first then run and through up out a window. That was Maria. The girl who I loved, now an aging grandmother.

"M-maria, I-"

She took a step back, holding a hand to her heart "this can't be you, Xavier. No, no..sixty years it's been, sixty years.."

"Sixty years?!"

"You went missing, without a trace, we all thought you were dead. And now you're hear, it's like only a day has passed, you haven't aged, you haven't-"

The old woman choked back her tears, I could feel a lump in my throat, the world had past sixty years, and I had somehow disappeared and woke up like nothing had happened. I couldn't remember anything.

"Lucia, you go look after Adora. We need to talk in private."

The younger woman looked at her mother hesitantly, shooting a glare at me before leaving, Maria sat down on the sofa opposite me, her breathes paced, rattling, her eyes red and creases prominent all over her face.

"I guess you have questions."

"Of course I do, idgit. You show up out of no where just as you left. How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Xav, I'm seventy-six years old, the last time I saw you I was only two months younger than you."

I stared at her in shock, none of this made sense, since I woke up this morning I felt like I was going crazy, maybe it's all a nightmare. I fucking hope it's just a nightmare.

"D'you remember anything?"

I shook my head, "all I remember is the party and waking up this morning."

She squinted at me "what year is it, Xav?"

"1987."

She laughed "No doubt it's you, but it's 2047, and everyone thinks you're dead."

"Why? What happened when I went missing?"

She shrugged "I can't remember much, you just left like everyone else and no one knew you were missing until the morning after."

"It's been sixty years. You all moved on, and I've only just come back, out of no where."

"What happened when you woke up?"

I shrugged "I woke up in my bedroom, but my family's gone, the house is abandoned."

She frowned "They needed to move on, I suppose."

"Everyone's moved on. What about the others? Are they still here?"

"Hm?"

"Y'know, Jaimie, Jane, Kevin, Tyler, Mason."

She frowned again, bowing her head as she looked at her hands.

"What happened?"

"A lot happens in sixty years, Xav-"

"Please tell me, for me a lot has happened overnight."

The old woman let out a sigh, hesitating to speak before finally looking up.

"Jane moved to Maryland after she got married in...2003 I think it was. Mason passed from had a heart attack a few years ago, he married Sarah from school. Kevin married Harriet and they both live on the other side of town, Jaimie left the state after he got married, I think he went to Vermont."

Okay, so Jane may or may not be alive, Mason kicked the bucket, Kevin married Hari the Harlot and Jaimie's gone too. Wait, she missed one. "Maria..what about Tyler?"

"Tyler? He disappeared four months after you did, you two were so close, we thought he'd killed himself somewhere in the forest."

"He disappeared? Like me?"

"Like you. Gone one night without a trace."

Then came a knock on the door.