By Dariga Atayeva, Year 12
No one believed me when I told them it was possible. They had said I was too delusional, afar from reality.
It began when I was 9 and I was on holiday. I was at home, bored and alone. My friends all wrote me letters describing how amazing their adventures were out in different countries. My parents were working full time, barely getting any days off. Those were the days I wished to be grown up the most. On one particular day, having finished two of my books, I decided to return them to the public library and borrow some more. At this point, the librarians knew my name.
As usual, I walked through each section of the library, trying to choose the books that most interested me. I’ll admit, I did get attracted to the books with the pretty covers first. One of them was so visually attractive, I could not help but stare at the cover. It was a big and heavy book, covered in dust. The cover depicted some abstract shape I’d never seen before. I was curious about what it could mean. Usually, the covers always represent a theme from the book. This one had no title, nor did it have an author.
Having sat at the corner of the library on a small pillow, I flipped through the pages. Interestingly enough, the first few pages were blank. This was really odd. I even thought about consulting with the librarians, perhaps they were mistaken in thinking that this volume was actually a novel. My questions were answered soon after, however, when I finally came across words in the middle. Unlike any official book I’ve ever seen before, this one seemed to be handwritten. To my disappointment, there were only two short sentences, if one can even call them that : “2013, Wharton’s. Do not miss out.” I had no idea what it meant. I closed the book, thinking little of it, and put it back on its shelf. As I always did, I went to the front desk to say goodbye to the librarians. To my surprise, it seemed like all of their shifts had already ended, since none of the librarians I knew were at the desk. Instead, there was an old lady I’d never seen before.
I went out, and the building that had been recently built in front of the library wasn’t there anymore. Things only got stranger from there. I panicked, and entered a supermarket to get myself something to eat. It was possible I was just hallucinating because I was hungry. I took a packet of chips, but when I looked to see its expiration date it was August 13th 2013. That wasn’t right – was it possible that this bag of chips has been here for over 10 years already?
I then came to the realisation that, as crazy as it may be, I have time travelled. I wanted to go back. That’s when I remembered what was written in the strange book from the library. “2013, Wharton’s. Do not miss out.”
If I wanted to go back to my time, I had to figure out what those words meant.