An Amethyst in Actuality
By Lela S.
Five AM. My fist slammed into the blaring alarm clock. Regular ten-year-old boys don’t wake up at five during vacation, especially on your birthday. That’s life, though, with Grandma Minx.
Eagerly, I skipped down the stairs to the dining room. However, I smelled something wrong: the room was bleak, cold, and pitch-black.
“Grandma?” I whispered. No response.
Suddenly hyper-aware of the eerie silence penetrating the room, I dashed back up the stairs and yanked Grandma’s door open to find her peacefully sleeping… a little too peacefully.
“Grandma?” I gasped, horror-struck, as I drew closer. Her unmoving, silent chest stopped me in my tracks. Oh my… She was a parent to me, replacing my workaholic mom and dad.
And then there was my sister, who, apparently, had died before my birth, but Grandma had refused to divulge the rest of Nihachu’s story.
Then something occurred to me. I grabbed Grandma’s old iPhone to call someone; the first name that popped up was Aunt Alyssa.
“Mom?”
“It’s me, Gogy,” I clarified. “I kind of, uh, don’t know how to explain this, but…”
“I already know. Don’t worry, I’m coming-”
She hung up. Five seconds later, the doorbell rang. Already? I thought, but didn’t question it and opened the door. Silently, Aunt Alyssa stalked into the dining room, sat down, and gestured for me to do the same.
Slowly and calmly, she narrated a story you usually hear in science-fiction movies. Supposedly, all the women in my family are time travellers who don’t travel for fun; instead, for the greater good. Sometimes, though, things go wrong. My sister was still alive; in fact, she had gotten stuck in time. The family’s females had each attempted to retrieve her, but Grandma’s attempt didn’t exactly work out.
“And that’s why we’ve recruited you.”
My mouth opened, then closed, then opened again as I processed the information. “I, uh-” I swallowed. “I’m not sure. I mean, I’m not a girl.”
Brusquely, she replied, “You sure do act like one. Plus, you’re our last resort.”
Mentally propelling my consciousness into a new era was impossible until I tried Aunt Alyssa’s amethyst. I instantaneously felt something pull me - not in space, but in time. A violent calamity of colour exploded before my eyes. A searing pain shot up my arm like fire and exploded in my head in a blinding whiteness; each atom of my body was being tortured. I tried to scream, but no sound came out. At last, after what seemed like five hours, but which was probably five seconds, my suffering subsided.
Then, 2010. 2000. 1990. Each attempt exhausted me more than the last, but I kept pushing, even though I wanted to give up. Soon, I reached 1970, one year before my desired reality.
Before my departure to 1969, Aunt Alyssa presented a photo. Immediately, I knew this was my sister. She was old - around seventeen, with wavy auburn hair, almond eyes, and milk-chocolate skin like mine, with a pink undertone as if she’d just ran a mile.
“She’s passionate about astronomy; she’s possibly at the 1969 moon launch site, or-” Aunt Alyssa facepalmed, then spoke. “Knowing her, she’d board Apollo 11. Try to stop her. Bring the amethyst, too: it will prove itself very useful. Gogy, are you ready?”
“I think - I mean, I am ready, Aunt Alyssa.”
1:00. July 16, 1969. Merrit Island, Florida. I held my crystal tight. Immediately, the violent calamity of colour returned. Waves of pain crashed over me, but I just watched them. The sensation was like a spicy dish that you’d eaten ten billion times and had gotten used to. The pain slowly receded.
When I reopened my eyes, I sprinted all the way to the launch site. I scanned the crowd. No sign of Nihachu. I searched left and right, but in vain. So, I tried something else:
“Do you know-”
“No.”
After getting the same response ten times, I tried politeness.
“Excuse me, do you know Nihachu Simons?” I asked.
“Of course,” someone replied. “She’s going to the Moon today.”
“WHAT?” I shrieked. Aunt Alyssa had warned me, but I hadn’t taken her seriously.
Unknowingly, I squeezed the crystal and felt my surroundings change. I felt no pain: this was a shorter shift… to where, though? Soon, a metal cylinder formed around me. Realizing where I was, I spun around, alarmed. Just there was a black-clothed silhouette. Recognition lit itself up in our eyes.
“Gogy?” she whispered.
“NIHACHU!!!”
Suddenly, I heard a loud beep and a roar of an engine, followed by a mechanical voice. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“T-minus three. T-minus two. T-minus one…”
And then someone shook me awake. “Wakey wakey!”
I opened my eyes in despair and stared at the person at the foot of my bed. The realization that the events of the past week were all a dream dismayed me. Grandma was back, at least.
I fingered the scintillating amethyst crystal in my palm as I glanced up at my sister, Nihachu.
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