I’ve always been a spiritual person. Ever since I was a child I believed in bad luck and that everything happens for a reason, it’s like thinking that Santa’s real even though in the back of your mind you know it’s just a story. This side of me comes from my mother, I can just imagine her avoiding all ladders and black cats to protect me when I was just a foetus, funny kind of lady she is. Now don’t go thinking my mother and I are mad as a hatter and this is going to be another story of an annoying school girl, the information you’ve just received is vital for the tale I’m about to tell. There’s just one more thing I need you to remember- and that’s that I, Jem, am a big believer in fate.
Our story starts in a simple Illinois high school science room. Think plain white walls covered with science facts and information we are never going to use out of school, two long rows of boring brown desks with about twenty students in the class and our teacher; big round glasses, plaid shirt, a chubby old man with rosy cheeks and a never fading smile across his face, pacing back and forth as he discusses the use of technology being used for scientific reasons with such enthusiasm. Sitting next to me was my childhood best friend and neighbour Ashton. Concentrating on the teachers every word and movement he didn’t even see me trying not to laugh at how focussed the boy was for once in his life, not even letting his too-long fringe prevent his slantly green eyes from blinking.
“Jem repeat what I just said,” the whole class was looking at me at this point and it was Ashton’s turn to have a laugh at me.
“You said I’m your best student?” I replied sheepishly adding a glimmer of hope to my expression.
“As I was saying,” the old man continued. “Get yourselves into partners, you have exactly one week to create a small piece of machinery of your own that would be helpful to a scientist. It can just be a model or if you’re feeling really smart which I doubt any of you are you can make it work.”
Ashton looked at me and I looked at him and nodded, he was the smart one I’d fail without him.
It was Sunday night and our science project- that we hadn’t made, was due tomorrow. I saw Ashton running towards my door and met him outside where I was greeted by a screaming mess. He grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me towards his garage where he had laid out what I would say was every piece of scrap metal he could find.
“I told mum I wouldn’t fail anymore classes. Anyway I designed this,” he shoved a diagram of what appeared to be a time machine in my face as he got to work.
“You’re just making a model right? I don’t want to get stuck in ancient Egyptian times or something,” my tone was mocking but the question wasn’t all rhetorical.
“Hey I know I’m smart but I’m no genius!” We laughed about it as I helped decorate by writing “The dream chaser” across the front and painting it vibrant colours to give it that added coolness.
I knew something was wrong the minute I heard a humming noise come from machine. Ashton didn’t hear anything so I kept quiet about it at the time not to distract the other people from their presentations of model after model of their new inventions. Though that afternoon I simply couldn’t keep it to myself so after school when we were placing the machine back in the garage I described what I had heard earlier, not to my surprise he thought it was another one of my conspiracies and to prove this he opened the door he’d made and started pressing buttons to prove it was just a fake. That’s when it started making noises again, louder this time and its lights began flashing vigorously lighting up the room like a disco ball. He looked at me, shocked, even afraid and I didn’t look as stupid now.
Two weeks later Ash and I were back in the garage looking at The Dream Chaser that was situated in the exact same spot it was the day we made it. Still unsure on what to do with this peculiar object I walk around it running my hands delicately along the brightly painted letters. Ashton was doing his own thing on his laptop, more research I assume. It was silent but it wasn’t one of those awkward silences that you wait for someone to break with a stupid question or sarcastic remark, it was the type that one appreciated, like being alone with company. We continued this way for a little while until Ashton broke our silence.
