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Echoes

Jack Herbert

    I have seen the future and it sucks. Not the future itself, although I guess that’s a matter of personal taste. What sucks is being able to see it all the time.
    Since I was ten, I’ve been able to see two seconds into the future. The first day it happened, I thought I was going crazy, barely able to walk straight as the echoes overwhelmed me. Now, seven years later, I’m still dealing with this stupid problem.
    This has to be the worst superpower ever. Teachers always come down on me because I seem to be distracted all the time, and I want to tell them to try watching TV, talking on the phone, and reading all at the same time. At least one of the three is going to suffer.
    What sucks even more is that I can’t do anything about what I see. I mean, how cool would that have been, right? I could have, like, killed at blackjack or something. You know that old movie “The Terminator”? “There’s no fate but what we make?” I hate to tell you this, but that’s bullcrap. I get a two- second preview of what’s about to happen and can’t do a freakin’ thing to change it. I don’t pretend to understand any of this, but I think it says a lot about how we are victims of fate, born to follow a particular path that nothing in the universe can change. Kind of a buzzkill, right? Goodbye, hope. Welcome to my world.
    There are so many times when I could really do without a sneak preview,too . Like yesterday. Jimmy Collins decides to sucker punch me in gym class and I see it coming. Then, of course, I have to wait for it to actually happen. One? Mississippi, two-Mississippi, kapow. I couldn’t duck, dodge,or run away. All I could do was keep smiling like an idiot until that fist hit me in the face.
    Or that time in math class. Mr. Eckhart had me working out a problemat the board and I’m just copying what I see in the echoes, knowing in two seconds I’m going to make a dumb mistake and the teacher is going to humiliate me in front of everybody.
    See what I mean? Sucks, right? Of course, there is the occasional upside, like the time I made it to second base with Melissa Wilson. That was something I really didn’t mind seeing more than once. I n fact, I wished I had the ability to tack on an instant replay.
    Still, I really hate my life sometimes. I can either be here in the now trying to ignore the echoes, or I can focus on what’s about to happen and tune out the now. Either way, I’m devoting way too much brain power just coping with seeing a preview of my life instead of being able to actually live it.
    The worst, though, was when I saw my own death. I was probably distracted as always as I stepped off the curb right in front of the bus, the driver’s face a mixture of horror and surprise as she realized she had no room to swerve or brake . All she could do was watch as I smacked into the grille. Then, it was over.
    That’s when the echoes stopped. I couldn’t believe it, my head clear for the first time in years . I knew I only had a couple of seconds to enjoy it before it would all be over and tried to savor every millisecond of the peace.
    I was so happy because of the lack of echoes, I didn’t even notice myself step off the curb, but I did make eye contact with the panicked driver and gave her a big smile. She would never know what an amazing gift she gave me, never know how happy my last moments were.
    So, like I said, my future didn’t exactly suck. For someone stuck riding the rails of destiny, it could have been worse. I mean, most people don’t get a parting gift.

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