Blue Gender DVD Boxset Winner - When I opened my eyes
When I opened my eyes, I thought my brain would explode. The searing pain on my left temple continued as my eyes tried to get used to seeing again. Everything was blurry, but I could distinguish shadows of people who seem to surround me. I could hear the murmurs of human voices getting louder.
“Stabilizing... heartbeat... brainwaves irregular... ,” said the guy to my left.
I try to focus on what I hear, but the pain I feel to my brain just gets worse. Where am I? The light is too bright. Who are these people?
“His eyes seem to be responsive... ,” said by a lady whose voice seemed panicked, yet at the same time tender.
“C'mon, tough guy... you're gonna make it, aren't you? We can do this. Twenty-two years of preparation... we are not going to fail! He will be revived!,” mentioned a guy with a husky voice. For some reason I seem to recall that voice. I just don't want to think too hard. I feel like my body just wants to rest. It's like my brain is telling me that I should try not to rush myself, and that everything will be fine. Maybe I could just rest for a while...
My head feels light. I hear voices again. Looking around, it seems like I am in a hospital room, yet it seems to look much nicer that any hospital I've been. I see two people talking. That old guy seems familiar. The lady who is talking seems to be the one whose voice I heard earlier.
“... six months of rehabilitation and he's still doesn't have his memory back. Do you still think he'll still regain his memories?”
The old guy, who seems to be in his mid-fifties, sits down on a chair next to my bed. He has a long bushy beard, and something about his manner reminds me for someone I'm supposed to know.
“We have to be patient, Meg. We have to know if the precautions we made when we started this project will be fruitful. One of the difficulty we faced was trying to figure out how the subject, I mean patient, would recover his memories after being cryogenically frozen. We just have to trust on our research and hope for the best.”
“And how long will we wait? Some of our sponsors have been highly impatient. And it just seems... ,” said Meg as her voice sounded uncertain as to whether to continue her thought.
The old guy sighs, “Are you suddenly having doubts? You do realize that there is no point to feel guilty about this. When we started this project, we knew that it would be for the improvement of science. Granted it seems the last few years, we have been pressured by the sponsors to hurry up on the experiments. Our original timetable of finishing twenty-five years after the start of the experiment has been shortened to twenty-two. Still, we knew the risks involved when we started this project. You shouldn't suddenly feel guilty now that we're near the end.”
I look at the Meg. For some reason I feel as if she doesn't want to look at me. I wonder if I should interrupt their conversation and ask them about why I Am Here!.
“Er, hello... ,” I said, surprised that my voice sounded so weak.
Suddenly the atmosphere of the room changed. It felt like the two doctors were surprised to hear my voice. Suddenly the old guy gets excited.
“Hello. How are you feeling today? Do you remember who you are?” said the guy whose voice suddenly seemed to crack.
“Why am I here? What is this place?” I said, as my voice suddenly got a bit clearer. Both doctors seemed very interested to what I had to say.
“Well, you're at a private medical facility. You are here because you were previously cryogenically frozen. Do you remember your name.?” said the doctor, with much more emphasis on his question.
After realizing that he seemed insistent to see if I remember my name I replied,”Eric. My name is Eric. Why am I here anyway?”
But my question won't be answered till later because as soon as I said my name, Meg broke down in tears and was seemingly celebrating with the doctor. I guess they're happy that my memory has come back.
If my voice wasn't weak, maybe I'll let them know that I also remember a bunch of four-letter words, and try to convince them to answer my question as to why I Am Here!.
“I'm Dr. Williams,” introduced the old guy. “And this is Dr. Alan,” he said referring to the lady beside him. “I'm sorry that we got noisy and was celebrating a bit there. I've calmed down now and I am willing to answer you questions. You must be wondering why you are here. Well, to make a long story short, you volunteered to be part of our experiment. You were to be cryogenically frozen for twenty-five years. It is now twenty-two years later. You're alive. And you have some of you're memory back. I guess what we have to know is how much of your memory has returned. We'll be asking you a lot of questions later on, so if you have any questions for me, you can ask now.”
Something at the back of my mind recognized the name Dr. Williams. And his voice does seem familiar. As I look closer, I feel some sense of familiarity.
He seems to have noticed this, and he reaches into his pocket and takes out his wallet.
“Here,” he said as he took out a picture from his wallet and gave it to me. “This is was I looked like when we met. I was a whole lot thinner then, plus I didn't have this thick beard. I kept that picture so I can show it to you when we revived you.”
The picture had a man in his thirties, holding a sign saying: I HOPE YOU REMEMBER. I suddenly get hit by a dose of déjà vu. I remember looking at this picture before. I remember speaking with the guy in the picture. Fragmented memories come rushing back, but not enough to make me remember everything.
“I guess I remember you a bit,” I said, giving him back the picture. “I remember us talking; I think it was in your office... ”
“Yes!” the doctor exclaimed. “We had multiple meetings in my office prior to this experiment. I'm glad you remember it.”
“I got one more question, doc”
“What is it?”
“What am I supposed to do now? When can I leave?”
“That's two questions, you know. I'm teasing. Well, we plan to examine you further the next few days, until we see that you are fit to go out. So far, what we have learned is that your body works fine. We have to see if your memory is okay, and if there are no negative psychological problems that we'll encounter. We plan on informing our sponsors and releasing a press statement afterwards. Then I guess people would want to interview you and you'll be quite busy.”
“Is there any chance that I can look around before you inform the press? I just want to see how the world changed in twenty-two years,” I asked curiously.
Dr. Williams smiled. “I guess that can be arranged.”
“Pete!”
Now there's a somewhat familiar face. Pete has been by best bud since we were kids. In twenty-two years, he has gained a few pounds, changed the way he combed his hair, and generally looks older (and actually a bit mature!) but aside from that, he seems like the same old Pete.
“Oh my god, I can't believe this blockhead is still alive. And you freaking haven't changed a bit,” Pete said, looking utterly amazed. He moved closed and suddenly hugged me and whispered, “I can't believe you made it pal. Damn, amazing.”
“We let him know you were okay,” said Dr Williams. “I guess he's the best person to show you around town. Now you come back here, okay?”
It's a nice a sunny day. Dr. Meg Alan told me earlier today that they've decided that I'm fit to be able go out. She mentioned they had a surprise for me. I didn't realize Pete was coming here. I guess for him, it's been twenty-two years that I've been gone. It feels like we were just hanging out yesterday, but when I look at him, I see how much time has actually passed.
We drove out of the establishment, and I look at the private owned building and vaguely recall going there in what should be twenty-two years, yet feels like just a couple of months.
“So where are the flying cars?” I ask Pete.
“There're parked in my garage. I just didn't want to use them because you might freak out. Just kidding! Did you really expect flying cars in twenty-two years?” Pete jests.
“Ah, I want to see the exciting parts of the future. What's new?”
“Not much. Heck, there are people anxiously awaiting the 50th anniversary of Star Wars. Just like them when we were young.”
“You're kidding me? They're re-releasing Star Wars? Is there anything new?”
“No, I'm not fasing you. What I'm..”
“What did you just say?” I asked, because I thought he said “fasing”.
“What do you mean?” asked Pete, looking at me oddly.
“I thought you said ‘fasing’ ,“ I replied.
“Yeah, and so? Oh, wait, I guess you don't know what that means. It's slang for “Fucking And Shitting you” So when I say I'm not fasing you, I mean, well, you get it.”
“Fasing you, huh?”
“There's also the variation fasing me, where we replace the “you” with “me” and usually used in the sentence, “You're fasing me, right?” This slang is actually dated now, it was about 5 years ago when people started using it,“ explained Pete.
I haven't thought about that. There have been changes not only in technology, but language too. I wonder what else has changed.
Suddenly we reached the city. It still looks the same; I guess a new building here and there. I suddenly find myself looking outside the mirror checking for anything new.
“Hey, is that the McDonald's that we hung out in when we were in high school? It looks like they've renovated.”
“Wanna drop by and check it out?” asked Pete.
As Pete turned the car and parked, I noticed that the styles of the cars in the parking lot were different from what I remember. Most of them were had a rounder quality to the body, with the front part seemed more compact, yet inside seemingly more spacious.
As we exited the car and headed towards McDonald's I asked Pete, “I notice that more cars seem compact. And while we were in your car, it seemed like there were a lot more computer components in it. How's the mileage?”
“Hah, most vehicles today have extremely great mileage if you compare it 20 years ago. I guess since I've lived through the changes, it doesn't seem much, but now that I think about it, I guess I can't imagine getting far as I can with the cars from the past. Plus with the improvements in technology over the last two decades, most of the stuff now use computers. Here, I'll show you something.”
As we entered McDonald's I noticed that it seemed as if the registers faced the wrong way. Pete approached one of the registers and suddenly turned to me and asked, “So what do you want to get? See, here the customer gets to enter what they want to order. Sure there are still cashiers open for people who don't want to use the computers, but now it's mostly self-serve. We enter what we want, see here, it shows you the menu, you just pick what you want, say 2 Big Macs, 2 fries a Coke and a Mango Coke... ”
“Mango Coke?”
“Yeah, they introduced that about 10 years ago. It seemed like they were trying different flavors of Coke, and this one seemed to click. Anyway, here I press total, and it shows you how much you can pay, with cash or credit. Let's try cash, here's where I put the bills in, and change comes out here.” Pete took out a twenty and entered it in the slot beside the machine. Out came two dollars twenty-eight cent in change.
“Wow! That was pretty expensive for a Big Mac meal. I guess I need lots of money to survive here... ”
Pete looked at me and smiled. “Did you forget? You sold off all your stuff and bought yourself some Treasury notes. I sold them when it reached ten years, and by that time the government started offering Treasury bonds again, so I reinvested you money again. You have racked up a pretty fair amount, so you shouldn't worry much for now about money. You should be happy that you have a trustworthy friend like me. If it were anybody else, they might have used the money already, ha-ha.”
“Hey, thanks. You're a good bud that I can always trust. I got a question I've been meaning to ask when I saw you.”
Pete looked up from the burger he was about to take a bite on. “What do you want to know? You suddenly became serious.”
“My parents, you see them lately? You know how they are doing?” I asked.
I remembered that I never told my parents about the experiment. I merely left them a note telling them not to worry about me and that I would be going somewhere and that I didn't know when I'd come back.
“Not recently,” said Pete. “I guess last I saw them was around five years ago. They looked okay, but they still asked me where you went. They thought you were in trouble and asked me whether you were running away from the law or from the mafia. I almost burst out laughing when they said that, but I couldn't... not while seeing how concerned they were about you.”
“Man, I really let them down, huh? I always seem to be hurting them... ”
“Don't say that. We'll go visit your parents next time. They will be shocked that you haven't aged a bit.” Pete said, trying his best to console me.
Thinking I'd better not dwell on this much, I tried to think of something else to talk about.
“So, how's Rachael?” I asked Pete.
“Heh, the wife's doing fine. Here, I'll show you a picture... ”
Pete took out a cellphone, which looked a bit larger than what I remembered. He flipped it open and noticed that there were a lot more buttons than usual. He then pressed a couple of buttons, and a picture appeared on the small screen of the phone.
“Wow, that's a pretty high quality display screen!” I remarked.
“Yeah, these cellaux are great. Pretty much a cellphone, TV, gaming machine, music player and camera combined all in this small unit. Plus it can store lots of pictures. Here, there's the picture of the family... ” Pete said as he handed me the cellaux.
I look at the picture and see Pete, along with his wife Rachael. I remember when they got married, and when they had their first child. I remember Pete's huge smile, and how I was somewhat jealous of his happiness. I notice three young women who were in their twenties of late teens.
“Are these your daughters?” I asked.
“Yeah, that one is Veronica, that's Megan and there's Jessica,” Pete said while pointing to the picture.
“Whoa! That's Veronica! Last I remember she was a small baby. Man, did she grow up hot! She's filled out in the right places!” I exclaimed.
“Hey! That's my daughter you're talking about there,” Pete said disapprovingly.
“But what can I do? She hot! Plus she's about my age... ”
“No, you're about my age. Just because you look young doesn't mean you can hit on my daughter.”
“So you're an overprotective father now, Pete,” I said jokingly.
“Not really, I just don't want you trying anything. That's because I KNOW you,” Pete said while grinning.
Pete looks happy. In twenty-two years he was able to have a happy family. For some reason, I feel a little left behind...
“So,” Pete asked “Where do you want to go next?”
“I dunno. What's new anyway?” I asked.
“Let me think. Well, I can't really think of any place interesting which you might want to see. Maybe we'll drop by an electronics store so you can familiarize yourself with new technology. What's different now from twenty years ago? I guess all TVs are now flat panel, because it eventually became cheaper and everyone got one. What else? Well they tried to change video formats, but people preferred having DVDs so that didn't click. Good thing that it didn't click, because I didn't want to replace my video collection again in another format.”
“By the way, how's the anime scene?” I asked. “I remember collecting a whole bunch of titles back then... ”
“Well the animation became much better than back then. There were more experiments in cel shading techniques, and as computers became more powerful, the amount of control the anime director had on the finished product was great. Imagine having control of every leaf on a tree in the background with the wind blowing and the amount of detail on the background setting. And even though they could have made it three dimensional instead, they chose to keep the animation have a two dimensional feel. It's difficult to explain, but I guess you have to watch to understand what I am saying. You'll see, watch HBO Animation.”
“HBO Animation?” I asked.
“Well, as the amount of anime increased, and considering the popularity of anime in other channels, HBO decided to add an animation channel to their premium services so they can show anime, unedited of course. Granted, it started out with just Japanese animation, but eventually different kind of animation was shown.”
“That's cool. I gotta check that out... ”
“Anyway, I guess we should get going for now. I'll show you around town, and just tell me if you want to check anything out,” Pete said as he was getting up from hi seat.
On our way back to the car I noticed a small booth just outside of McDonald's. It looked somewhat like a telephone booth, but a bit larger.
I asked Pete, “Hey, what's that over there?”
Pete looked over to where I was pointing. “Oh that's an internet booth. Pretty much like a phone booth, except for internet usage. It has a maximum of ten minutes of usage for three dollars. Considering that the internet is now everyone's favorite pastimes, no wait, let me rephrase that. I mean to say that bitching on the internet is still everyone's favorite pastime. Yes, some things never change... ”
I laughed at Pete's statement while getting into his car. I can't help but think about other new stuff I'll see while driving around. What will also be interesting for me is to see what hasn't changed in the twenty-two years I was gone.
It was close to midnight when we returned to the medical facility. Dr. Williams was waiting for us in the lobby. I can't say I blame him. I would be worried too if I were him.
“So you enjoy looking around? I hope you had a good time, because I'm guessing we'll be busy for quite awhile,” said Dr. Williams.
“Yeah, Pete showed me around town. There were a lot of new technology, but on some level, there were also a lot that stayed the same. Somewhat different from what I was imagining.”
Dr. Williams smiled. “I guess we can send people on Mars but we still can't find a cure for the common cold.”
“We sent people on Mars?” I asked.
“You should have known that we would eventually have someone there,” winked Dr. Williams.
I saw Pete start to leave. “I must go now. Just give me a call whenever you are ready to start you life again, okay?”
“Thanks Pete, I will.”
I heard Pete drive off. I turned to Dr. Williams. “So tomorrow's the big day?”
Dr. Williams smiled. “Get some rest. Tomorrow the world will know about the success of our experiment.”
And with that I went to my room to sleep. Little did I know what lied ahead.
Here I am all alone in this room. And I don't know when I will get to leave.
Yesterday was the big press announcement. It created a big ruckus in the media. Some called it at hoax. Unfortunately after the press announcement, government officials came to take me and Dr. Williams away.
Once again I have been bombarded with questions. Government scientists examined me, but when I asked them when they would release me, they wouldn't say. The only answer I got was from one guy who smirked and said that they had no plans on releasing me in the near future. He said that since I was a very unique individual, they had to keep me under observation for however long they see fit. They are not comfortable with the results that Dr. Williams provided, and they wanted to see if there were side-effects to my cryogenic sleep.
Now I'm stuck in this room, this... prison. I am uncertain about my future. I've seen a glimpse of life outside, and I want to go back living. When that will happen seems to be far from now.
All I can do is look at the wall of my room and think that that wall is the only thing separating me from twenty-two years in the future. And I weep.
“Stabilizing... heartbeat... brainwaves irregular... ,” said the guy to my left.
I try to focus on what I hear, but the pain I feel to my brain just gets worse. Where am I? The light is too bright. Who are these people?
“His eyes seem to be responsive... ,” said by a lady whose voice seemed panicked, yet at the same time tender.
“C'mon, tough guy... you're gonna make it, aren't you? We can do this. Twenty-two years of preparation... we are not going to fail! He will be revived!,” mentioned a guy with a husky voice. For some reason I seem to recall that voice. I just don't want to think too hard. I feel like my body just wants to rest. It's like my brain is telling me that I should try not to rush myself, and that everything will be fine. Maybe I could just rest for a while...
-----------------------
My head feels light. I hear voices again. Looking around, it seems like I am in a hospital room, yet it seems to look much nicer that any hospital I've been. I see two people talking. That old guy seems familiar. The lady who is talking seems to be the one whose voice I heard earlier.
“... six months of rehabilitation and he's still doesn't have his memory back. Do you still think he'll still regain his memories?”
The old guy, who seems to be in his mid-fifties, sits down on a chair next to my bed. He has a long bushy beard, and something about his manner reminds me for someone I'm supposed to know.
“We have to be patient, Meg. We have to know if the precautions we made when we started this project will be fruitful. One of the difficulty we faced was trying to figure out how the subject, I mean patient, would recover his memories after being cryogenically frozen. We just have to trust on our research and hope for the best.”
“And how long will we wait? Some of our sponsors have been highly impatient. And it just seems... ,” said Meg as her voice sounded uncertain as to whether to continue her thought.
The old guy sighs, “Are you suddenly having doubts? You do realize that there is no point to feel guilty about this. When we started this project, we knew that it would be for the improvement of science. Granted it seems the last few years, we have been pressured by the sponsors to hurry up on the experiments. Our original timetable of finishing twenty-five years after the start of the experiment has been shortened to twenty-two. Still, we knew the risks involved when we started this project. You shouldn't suddenly feel guilty now that we're near the end.”
I look at the Meg. For some reason I feel as if she doesn't want to look at me. I wonder if I should interrupt their conversation and ask them about why I Am Here!.
“Er, hello... ,” I said, surprised that my voice sounded so weak.
Suddenly the atmosphere of the room changed. It felt like the two doctors were surprised to hear my voice. Suddenly the old guy gets excited.
“Hello. How are you feeling today? Do you remember who you are?” said the guy whose voice suddenly seemed to crack.
“Why am I here? What is this place?” I said, as my voice suddenly got a bit clearer. Both doctors seemed very interested to what I had to say.
“Well, you're at a private medical facility. You are here because you were previously cryogenically frozen. Do you remember your name.?” said the doctor, with much more emphasis on his question.
After realizing that he seemed insistent to see if I remember my name I replied,”Eric. My name is Eric. Why am I here anyway?”
But my question won't be answered till later because as soon as I said my name, Meg broke down in tears and was seemingly celebrating with the doctor. I guess they're happy that my memory has come back.
If my voice wasn't weak, maybe I'll let them know that I also remember a bunch of four-letter words, and try to convince them to answer my question as to why I Am Here!.
-----------------------
“I'm Dr. Williams,” introduced the old guy. “And this is Dr. Alan,” he said referring to the lady beside him. “I'm sorry that we got noisy and was celebrating a bit there. I've calmed down now and I am willing to answer you questions. You must be wondering why you are here. Well, to make a long story short, you volunteered to be part of our experiment. You were to be cryogenically frozen for twenty-five years. It is now twenty-two years later. You're alive. And you have some of you're memory back. I guess what we have to know is how much of your memory has returned. We'll be asking you a lot of questions later on, so if you have any questions for me, you can ask now.”
Something at the back of my mind recognized the name Dr. Williams. And his voice does seem familiar. As I look closer, I feel some sense of familiarity.
He seems to have noticed this, and he reaches into his pocket and takes out his wallet.
“Here,” he said as he took out a picture from his wallet and gave it to me. “This is was I looked like when we met. I was a whole lot thinner then, plus I didn't have this thick beard. I kept that picture so I can show it to you when we revived you.”
The picture had a man in his thirties, holding a sign saying: I HOPE YOU REMEMBER. I suddenly get hit by a dose of déjà vu. I remember looking at this picture before. I remember speaking with the guy in the picture. Fragmented memories come rushing back, but not enough to make me remember everything.
“I guess I remember you a bit,” I said, giving him back the picture. “I remember us talking; I think it was in your office... ”
“Yes!” the doctor exclaimed. “We had multiple meetings in my office prior to this experiment. I'm glad you remember it.”
“I got one more question, doc”
“What is it?”
“What am I supposed to do now? When can I leave?”
“That's two questions, you know. I'm teasing. Well, we plan to examine you further the next few days, until we see that you are fit to go out. So far, what we have learned is that your body works fine. We have to see if your memory is okay, and if there are no negative psychological problems that we'll encounter. We plan on informing our sponsors and releasing a press statement afterwards. Then I guess people would want to interview you and you'll be quite busy.”
“Is there any chance that I can look around before you inform the press? I just want to see how the world changed in twenty-two years,” I asked curiously.
Dr. Williams smiled. “I guess that can be arranged.”
-----------------------
“Pete!”
Now there's a somewhat familiar face. Pete has been by best bud since we were kids. In twenty-two years, he has gained a few pounds, changed the way he combed his hair, and generally looks older (and actually a bit mature!) but aside from that, he seems like the same old Pete.
“Oh my god, I can't believe this blockhead is still alive. And you freaking haven't changed a bit,” Pete said, looking utterly amazed. He moved closed and suddenly hugged me and whispered, “I can't believe you made it pal. Damn, amazing.”
“We let him know you were okay,” said Dr Williams. “I guess he's the best person to show you around town. Now you come back here, okay?”
It's a nice a sunny day. Dr. Meg Alan told me earlier today that they've decided that I'm fit to be able go out. She mentioned they had a surprise for me. I didn't realize Pete was coming here. I guess for him, it's been twenty-two years that I've been gone. It feels like we were just hanging out yesterday, but when I look at him, I see how much time has actually passed.
We drove out of the establishment, and I look at the private owned building and vaguely recall going there in what should be twenty-two years, yet feels like just a couple of months.
“So where are the flying cars?” I ask Pete.
“There're parked in my garage. I just didn't want to use them because you might freak out. Just kidding! Did you really expect flying cars in twenty-two years?” Pete jests.
“Ah, I want to see the exciting parts of the future. What's new?”
“Not much. Heck, there are people anxiously awaiting the 50th anniversary of Star Wars. Just like them when we were young.”
“You're kidding me? They're re-releasing Star Wars? Is there anything new?”
“No, I'm not fasing you. What I'm..”
“What did you just say?” I asked, because I thought he said “fasing”.
“What do you mean?” asked Pete, looking at me oddly.
“I thought you said ‘fasing’ ,“ I replied.
“Yeah, and so? Oh, wait, I guess you don't know what that means. It's slang for “Fucking And Shitting you” So when I say I'm not fasing you, I mean, well, you get it.”
“Fasing you, huh?”
“There's also the variation fasing me, where we replace the “you” with “me” and usually used in the sentence, “You're fasing me, right?” This slang is actually dated now, it was about 5 years ago when people started using it,“ explained Pete.
I haven't thought about that. There have been changes not only in technology, but language too. I wonder what else has changed.
Suddenly we reached the city. It still looks the same; I guess a new building here and there. I suddenly find myself looking outside the mirror checking for anything new.
“Hey, is that the McDonald's that we hung out in when we were in high school? It looks like they've renovated.”
“Wanna drop by and check it out?” asked Pete.
As Pete turned the car and parked, I noticed that the styles of the cars in the parking lot were different from what I remember. Most of them were had a rounder quality to the body, with the front part seemed more compact, yet inside seemingly more spacious.
As we exited the car and headed towards McDonald's I asked Pete, “I notice that more cars seem compact. And while we were in your car, it seemed like there were a lot more computer components in it. How's the mileage?”
“Hah, most vehicles today have extremely great mileage if you compare it 20 years ago. I guess since I've lived through the changes, it doesn't seem much, but now that I think about it, I guess I can't imagine getting far as I can with the cars from the past. Plus with the improvements in technology over the last two decades, most of the stuff now use computers. Here, I'll show you something.”
As we entered McDonald's I noticed that it seemed as if the registers faced the wrong way. Pete approached one of the registers and suddenly turned to me and asked, “So what do you want to get? See, here the customer gets to enter what they want to order. Sure there are still cashiers open for people who don't want to use the computers, but now it's mostly self-serve. We enter what we want, see here, it shows you the menu, you just pick what you want, say 2 Big Macs, 2 fries a Coke and a Mango Coke... ”
“Mango Coke?”
“Yeah, they introduced that about 10 years ago. It seemed like they were trying different flavors of Coke, and this one seemed to click. Anyway, here I press total, and it shows you how much you can pay, with cash or credit. Let's try cash, here's where I put the bills in, and change comes out here.” Pete took out a twenty and entered it in the slot beside the machine. Out came two dollars twenty-eight cent in change.
“Wow! That was pretty expensive for a Big Mac meal. I guess I need lots of money to survive here... ”
Pete looked at me and smiled. “Did you forget? You sold off all your stuff and bought yourself some Treasury notes. I sold them when it reached ten years, and by that time the government started offering Treasury bonds again, so I reinvested you money again. You have racked up a pretty fair amount, so you shouldn't worry much for now about money. You should be happy that you have a trustworthy friend like me. If it were anybody else, they might have used the money already, ha-ha.”
“Hey, thanks. You're a good bud that I can always trust. I got a question I've been meaning to ask when I saw you.”
Pete looked up from the burger he was about to take a bite on. “What do you want to know? You suddenly became serious.”
“My parents, you see them lately? You know how they are doing?” I asked.
I remembered that I never told my parents about the experiment. I merely left them a note telling them not to worry about me and that I would be going somewhere and that I didn't know when I'd come back.
“Not recently,” said Pete. “I guess last I saw them was around five years ago. They looked okay, but they still asked me where you went. They thought you were in trouble and asked me whether you were running away from the law or from the mafia. I almost burst out laughing when they said that, but I couldn't... not while seeing how concerned they were about you.”
“Man, I really let them down, huh? I always seem to be hurting them... ”
“Don't say that. We'll go visit your parents next time. They will be shocked that you haven't aged a bit.” Pete said, trying his best to console me.
Thinking I'd better not dwell on this much, I tried to think of something else to talk about.
“So, how's Rachael?” I asked Pete.
“Heh, the wife's doing fine. Here, I'll show you a picture... ”
Pete took out a cellphone, which looked a bit larger than what I remembered. He flipped it open and noticed that there were a lot more buttons than usual. He then pressed a couple of buttons, and a picture appeared on the small screen of the phone.
“Wow, that's a pretty high quality display screen!” I remarked.
“Yeah, these cellaux are great. Pretty much a cellphone, TV, gaming machine, music player and camera combined all in this small unit. Plus it can store lots of pictures. Here, there's the picture of the family... ” Pete said as he handed me the cellaux.
I look at the picture and see Pete, along with his wife Rachael. I remember when they got married, and when they had their first child. I remember Pete's huge smile, and how I was somewhat jealous of his happiness. I notice three young women who were in their twenties of late teens.
“Are these your daughters?” I asked.
“Yeah, that one is Veronica, that's Megan and there's Jessica,” Pete said while pointing to the picture.
“Whoa! That's Veronica! Last I remember she was a small baby. Man, did she grow up hot! She's filled out in the right places!” I exclaimed.
“Hey! That's my daughter you're talking about there,” Pete said disapprovingly.
“But what can I do? She hot! Plus she's about my age... ”
“No, you're about my age. Just because you look young doesn't mean you can hit on my daughter.”
“So you're an overprotective father now, Pete,” I said jokingly.
“Not really, I just don't want you trying anything. That's because I KNOW you,” Pete said while grinning.
Pete looks happy. In twenty-two years he was able to have a happy family. For some reason, I feel a little left behind...
“So,” Pete asked “Where do you want to go next?”
“I dunno. What's new anyway?” I asked.
“Let me think. Well, I can't really think of any place interesting which you might want to see. Maybe we'll drop by an electronics store so you can familiarize yourself with new technology. What's different now from twenty years ago? I guess all TVs are now flat panel, because it eventually became cheaper and everyone got one. What else? Well they tried to change video formats, but people preferred having DVDs so that didn't click. Good thing that it didn't click, because I didn't want to replace my video collection again in another format.”
“By the way, how's the anime scene?” I asked. “I remember collecting a whole bunch of titles back then... ”
“Well the animation became much better than back then. There were more experiments in cel shading techniques, and as computers became more powerful, the amount of control the anime director had on the finished product was great. Imagine having control of every leaf on a tree in the background with the wind blowing and the amount of detail on the background setting. And even though they could have made it three dimensional instead, they chose to keep the animation have a two dimensional feel. It's difficult to explain, but I guess you have to watch to understand what I am saying. You'll see, watch HBO Animation.”
“HBO Animation?” I asked.
“Well, as the amount of anime increased, and considering the popularity of anime in other channels, HBO decided to add an animation channel to their premium services so they can show anime, unedited of course. Granted, it started out with just Japanese animation, but eventually different kind of animation was shown.”
“That's cool. I gotta check that out... ”
“Anyway, I guess we should get going for now. I'll show you around town, and just tell me if you want to check anything out,” Pete said as he was getting up from hi seat.
On our way back to the car I noticed a small booth just outside of McDonald's. It looked somewhat like a telephone booth, but a bit larger.
I asked Pete, “Hey, what's that over there?”
Pete looked over to where I was pointing. “Oh that's an internet booth. Pretty much like a phone booth, except for internet usage. It has a maximum of ten minutes of usage for three dollars. Considering that the internet is now everyone's favorite pastimes, no wait, let me rephrase that. I mean to say that bitching on the internet is still everyone's favorite pastime. Yes, some things never change... ”
I laughed at Pete's statement while getting into his car. I can't help but think about other new stuff I'll see while driving around. What will also be interesting for me is to see what hasn't changed in the twenty-two years I was gone.
-----------------------
It was close to midnight when we returned to the medical facility. Dr. Williams was waiting for us in the lobby. I can't say I blame him. I would be worried too if I were him.
“So you enjoy looking around? I hope you had a good time, because I'm guessing we'll be busy for quite awhile,” said Dr. Williams.
“Yeah, Pete showed me around town. There were a lot of new technology, but on some level, there were also a lot that stayed the same. Somewhat different from what I was imagining.”
Dr. Williams smiled. “I guess we can send people on Mars but we still can't find a cure for the common cold.”
“We sent people on Mars?” I asked.
“You should have known that we would eventually have someone there,” winked Dr. Williams.
I saw Pete start to leave. “I must go now. Just give me a call whenever you are ready to start you life again, okay?”
“Thanks Pete, I will.”
I heard Pete drive off. I turned to Dr. Williams. “So tomorrow's the big day?”
Dr. Williams smiled. “Get some rest. Tomorrow the world will know about the success of our experiment.”
And with that I went to my room to sleep. Little did I know what lied ahead.
-----------------------
Here I am all alone in this room. And I don't know when I will get to leave.
Yesterday was the big press announcement. It created a big ruckus in the media. Some called it at hoax. Unfortunately after the press announcement, government officials came to take me and Dr. Williams away.
Once again I have been bombarded with questions. Government scientists examined me, but when I asked them when they would release me, they wouldn't say. The only answer I got was from one guy who smirked and said that they had no plans on releasing me in the near future. He said that since I was a very unique individual, they had to keep me under observation for however long they see fit. They are not comfortable with the results that Dr. Williams provided, and they wanted to see if there were side-effects to my cryogenic sleep.
Now I'm stuck in this room, this... prison. I am uncertain about my future. I've seen a glimpse of life outside, and I want to go back living. When that will happen seems to be far from now.
All I can do is look at the wall of my room and think that that wall is the only thing separating me from twenty-two years in the future. And I weep.
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