Fix It

Chapter 7 - Task #2

As soon as Alex turned the hourglass over, everything slowed until his soul felt as if it was being ripped out of his body, that nostalgic feeling that had his skin crawling. Sophie was with him this time, hands holding onto each other as they floated above the tiled floors. Gravity was completely out of the equation as they spun around in circles in their flotation.

Suddenly, they completely dissolved from the timeline. Like ashes spreading across the water, sinking to start a new journey. The time sped up faster than light but instead of going backward, the time was zooming forwards. Night and day, repeatedly until they stood in the middle of the museum that was now fully built. The rain was drowning the plants and the small critters that tried to take shelter. The light in the museum was just turned off, as one could still see the faint glow that it had to offer and feel the heat that it brought.

Alex looked over to Sophie in confusion. Raising his eyebrows in a silent question she decided to ease his mind. "We are at the second destination. Freshman year of high school and the day that you temporarily blinded Lily Macbeth." Alex's confusion grew, not recalling ever having anything to do with Lily's accident. If only he knew that he was the source of the problem. "Wasn't she blinded because she stared directly at the construction worker's tool?"

"No, she was blinded by the homemade pepper spray that you sprayed into her eyes! Ugh, you are such an insolent brat you know? I don't understand what was so funny about that 'prank'." He felt horrible, 'how could I have done such a thing?' He accepted Sophie's harsh words because he knew that he deserved them. "That poor girl has been blind for two months. I can't even close my eyes for ten seconds. W-what should I do?"

"We need to strategize this. It can't be like the last time, that was called waay too close for my liking. We need to make this plan an effective one." They slowly made their way out of the museum, leisurely walking down the wet road under the horrible rain. It is spring now. The trees in full blossom and allergies waiting to act up, the rain made sure to wash away the prior season. They were soaked but satisfied with it. Perfectly calm, strategizing their plan. "Maybe we could switch out the substance in the bottle? To eye drops or water or something?"

"Nah, that wouldn't work, I'd always smell pepper spray to see how effective it was. How about replacing the cap with a faulty one?" Sophie smacked him upside the head for his apparently horrible idea. "Don't you think that you'd tear the spray before you strike?"

They finally reached the house, which was now painted a light grey with white window panes. The two-story building looked brand new and almost renovated as the front door changed to a lovely double-pivot glass door. Tinted for the world not to see the beauty inside, there wasn't any welcome mat that held a key, instead, it was a false stone in a large flower pot. Opening the door, the two snuck into the abandoned room, resting on the bed out of exhaustion. "I'm going to take a shower, you keep thinking ok?" Sophie declared heading off.

Alex sat on the bed, but instead of thinking about solving his problems, he was thinking about the future….well the future for his present time. He wondered what he would've been doing at such time, pulling another one of his painful pranks? Telling his mother about his foolish endeavors? Maybe he was having lunch with his friends from school, friends that only surrounded themselves with him out of fear. He was held account multiple times for vandalism., a well known face for the police, but he wondered if it was because his mother worked with the law why he wasn't in Juvie. Blinding someone with an illegal spray must have brought some form of attention to him, so why wasn't he held accountably?

He wondered if he had taken his mother’s love for granted as he visualized her head banging against the tiled floors. He remembered the blood that coated his slim fingers, and his shirt. Remembered her screams that tore from her aged mouth as she looked at him in disappointment. That soul-crushing feeling he had when her eyes slowly fluttered shut and her breathing stopped...at least he thought it did when in actuality it only slowed. He rubbed his hands together, bringing them into his hair, pulling at the stands out of fear. “I killed my mother,” he whispered in shock. He wondered how such a ‘harmless’ prank turned into something so deadly?

The rain remained constant. Crying along with him as a sign that he wasn't there alone. The foggy glass window hardly brought in light. The scene seemed nostalgic until he realized that it was. He remembered when he was fourteen, it was a bad day at school. Failing two of his most important tests and the football team, he looked out the foggy window at the violent rain that drenched the thirsty trees stopping their dehydration. The rain sounded like bullets each time the droplets hit the ground. He was angry at everyone and everything but the sweet aroma of his favourite dish had his tongue automatically wetting his dry lips.

Pain always came with relief one way or another and that's how he realized that he had to create relief, for all the people that he'd hurt. All the good people...and the bad. After all, he had no right blinding a young girl for a laugh. A mixture of Carolina Reaper, jalapeno peppers, and bell peppers poured into a spray bottle which caused torment for not only Lily but himself. How could he have thought that her blindness was an accident even when he sprayed her in the eyes days before? He needed to think of a way to fix this and quickly, he couldn't bear to witness his mistake over and over again...

He began to wrack his brain but just as the wheels began their rusty turns, Sophie pranced out of the shower fully clothed, screaming at him that she had the perfect plan.

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