THE BOY WHO REMEMBERED TOMORROW
756 Words
TWENTY YEARS BACK
Episode 2: The Boy Who Remembered Tomorrow
Ethan barely slept.
The image of the mysterious child standing outside his window haunted him until sunrise. Every time he closed his eyes, he heard the same voice echoing through his mind.
"You came back too."
When morning finally arrived, the storm had disappeared, leaving the small neighborhood washed clean. Sunlight streamed through the broken curtains, and the smell of fried eggs drifted into the room.
"Ethan!" his mother called. "Breakfast is ready!"
He sat up slowly.
For a moment, he almost forgot.
Then he looked at his tiny hands.
The memories returned all at once.
The accident.
The darkness.
His death.
His rebirth.
He was truly six years old again.
Downstairs, his parents smiled as if nothing unusual had happened.
His father adjusted his old work boots before leaving for the factory.
His mother placed a plate of bread and eggs in front of him.
"Eat quickly," she said. "You'll be late for school."
School.
Ethan almost laughed.
He had graduated from university once already.
Now he had to return to primary school.
He followed the children through dusty streets, surrounded by voices that belonged to another era. There were no smartphones in their hands, no wireless earbuds, no endless scrolling. The world moved slower.
A group of boys kicked a worn football across the road.
A girl struggled with multiplication tables outside a classroom.
Everything felt ordinary.
Yet Ethan carried twenty years of impossible knowledge inside his head.
His teacher entered the classroom and wrote a mathematics problem on the chalkboard.
The older students had failed to solve it.
"Does anyone know the answer?"
Silence.
Then Ethan raised his hand.
Within seconds he solved the equation.
The classroom became quiet.
His teacher stared at him.
"Who taught you this?"
Ethan froze.
He had answered without thinking.
The class erupted into whispers.
"Genius."
"Show-off."
"Impossible."
From the back of the room, one student never looked away.
A pale boy wearing a black sweater.
His expression never changed.
At lunchtime Ethan searched for him.
He checked the playground.
The library.
The schoolyard.
The boy had vanished.
When Ethan asked his classmates, they looked confused.
"What boy?"
"The one wearing black."
"There isn't anyone like that here."
A cold feeling crept through his chest.
He knew what he had seen.
So why did nobody else remember?
That evening, Ethan followed his father home from work.
He watched every step carefully.
A memory surfaced.
In his previous life, his father had once told him about an accident at the factory.
Several workers had nearly died when an old machine exploded.
The date...
Ethan stopped walking.
The accident would happen tomorrow.
He remembered it clearly.
Three workers would be trapped.
One would lose his arm.
His father would survive by mere seconds.
His pulse quickened.
He had a chance to stop it.
But another memory followed.
Every time he changed something...
Something else changed in return.
Could he risk it?
At dinner he finally spoke.
"Dad..."
His father looked up.
"What is it?"
"Please don't go to work tomorrow."
His parents exchanged amused glances.
"Why?"
Ethan searched for an excuse.
"I had a bad dream."
His father smiled and rubbed his hair.
"If I stayed home every time I had a bad dream, we'd have nothing to eat."
His answer ended the conversation.
That night Ethan couldn't sleep.
Just after midnight, he heard footsteps outside again.
He ran to the window.
The mysterious boy stood beneath the moonlight.
This time he spoke aloud.
"You want to save him."
Ethan's heart raced.
"Who are you?"
The stranger tilted his head.
"In another life, you asked me the same question."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll understand soon."
Ethan opened the door and rushed outside.
The cool night air hit his face.
But the street was empty.
Only a single black feather lay on the ground.
He picked it up.
The feather dissolved into dust.
Behind him, a voice whispered from the darkness.
"History is watching."
The next morning, Ethan ignored his parents and ran toward the factory.
Smoke already filled the sky.
Workers screamed.
Sirens echoed through the streets.
His nightmare had begun.
As he reached the gates, a deafening explosion shook the ground.
Flames burst through shattered windows.
People fled in panic.
Somewhere inside...
His father was trapped.
And standing calmly across the street, watching the fire with emotionless eyes, was the mysterious boy in black.
He smiled.
As if this was exactly what he had expected.
To be continued...
- Writer
