Chapter 9: Basic Training and A real Date
March 24, 2007
It has been exactly a month since my last entry. Perhaps twenty-four is my luck number, who knows. I wrote that last piece in a real hurry because of all the mess that was going around back home. Now I am a little bit calmer, writing from the bunk bed the Army gave me. Yeah, something that I never thought was actually going to happen, happened…I joined the Army of the United States. I didn’t really join because I wanted to though; simply because I had to.
With the new born baby sister and with my mother gone, my father couldn’t really afford a lot of stuff in the house, much less pay my tuition. Instead, since I am already eighteen, he decided I should leave to the Army. Thankfully though, although I am doing basic training, I will probably be working with computers and stuff instead of the actual field; at least that is what I hope.
I have only taken two weeks of training and it is already draining me out. I can’t believe what it must be like when you are out there on the field for thirty days straight, with nothing really good to eat, and with almost no sleep at all since all you can really think about is the fact that on the next corner there will be an enemy waiting for you. This is really tense and now, more than ever, I wish my mother was still around.
Anyway, enough with the depressing bullshit, I am writing because I had a dream last night and it was a very awesome dream. For the first time though, I didn’t dream anything related to something that had happened to me on that current day. All I did during my “actual reality” was train for almost five hours and the dream had nothing to do with that. I found this pretty interesting and I still don’t understand why that happened. I am hoping I will be able to figure it out in the near future though.
In the dream I was already on the middle of a video-call with Lisa. Which took me by surprise but then again, I went with the flow of the conversation as if I had been there from the very beginning.
“I know, but then again, we can still make it to all of them. We can just go to the movies now, which will give us enough time to go to the game and after that we will keep rolling with Mike for his birthday party.” Lisa said and I am glad I caught that part of the conversation. Thanks to that, I knew that it was Mike’s birthday and if my calculations were right, he should be turning eighteen as well.
“That sounds good. Should I pick you up or should we meet there?” I asked her not sure if it was the right thing to do.
“Well they just installed the instant-teleport at the movies, so I think we should use that.” Lisa suggested even though I wasn’t sure what the instant-teleport was. Although I was guessing it was pretty much that, a teleporter that got you there…instantly.
“Is there an instant…whatever at the baseball stadium though?” I said. I am not sure how I knew it was a baseball stadium either, I simply assumed.
“No, we can simply teleport back to your house from the movies, and take the car there to the stadium.” Lisa said and I felt stupid for not thinking about that. Then again, I am not used to the whole instant-teloportation thing.
“Right! Kind of stupid on my part. Alright well I will see ya there in…” I said and she continued my phrase with “five minutes will do.” And then I added “Alright, see ya then.”
“Bye.” She added and gestured a kiss. I think I turned red or something when she did that, because she laughed before hanging up.
As I hung up, a call from Mike was coming in. I answered it and all I could see was his ear. “Robert? Are you there? I am freaking out. Man? You there?” Mike quickly said before I could say anything first.
“First of all get your ear away from the phone.” I said and he just got the phone a little bit away from his ear. “Stare at the phone Mike. It is a video call.” I added not knowing why he was acting like this.
Mike turned the phone towards him and when he did, he looked a little bit shocked and said “Woah! This is pretty awesome”
“Yeah. You have been using it all your life…” I said, kind of lost with Mike’s attitude still.
“What are you talking about dude? We had always dreamt about this and now here we have it!” Mike said pretty excited. I thought he was just joking around.
“Anyway, why are you freaking out?” I asked.
“Why am I…dude everything is freaking different; so futuristic, so awesome. This phone for example, I am freaking seeing you as I talk to you. You look pretty darn ugly, but this is just madness.” Mike said.
“Are you mocking me?” I asked wondering if he was just trying to make fun of the way I was weeks or months before. I really don’t know how much time had passed in the dream world.
“Eh no. I am serious dude. Aren’t you seeing everything that is around you?” Mike said.
“Yeah I am and it is amazing, but I thought you were already used to it.” I added.
“I am used to my Razr phone and a crappy car. What I am not used to, though, is a phone that looks like Apple from twenty-fifty invented and a car that just seems like a rocket ship.” Mike explained and here I noticed that although he was a good imitator, he was definitely not that good of an actor. He was definitely as shock as I was at first when I started discovering everything from this world. I decided to test it out.
“How much do you think that phone costs?” I asked. If he knew about money he would answer this in a heartbeat, and he did.
“More than a million dollars, for sure. This is probably the kind of phone Bill Gates uses man or maybe Derek Jeter.” Mike said. Here is where I was certain that he was going through the exact same phase as I was. Something I later noticed was that I started having this experiences on my eighteenth birthday as well. Something weird was going on, and I am not sure what it was.
Knowing that Mike was going through the same situation as I was, I decided to help him out a little bit but at the same time play as if I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about or why he was acting that way. That is what people did with me anyway and it worked, so it should work with him as well.
“Anyway man, are you ready for tonight?” I asked.
“Tonight? What happens tonight?” Mike asked a little bit lost, which I expected.
“Your big game of course!” I added not being sure what else to say if he asked something else after that, but I just had to go with the flow.
“What big game? What the heck you talking about Robert?” Mike asked.
“Your Major League game with the Yanks bro! The game starts at seven PM so I am guessing you should be on your way already, for practice and whatever.” I said and when I did, Mike stared at something in front of him. He was in shock.
“What is it Mike?” I added. He then turned the camera and showed me the Yankee Stadium. It looked pretty amazing; Yankee Stadium was written in blue (obviously) in a holographic way.
“I guess that is why I am here then.” Mike said as he kept pointing his camera towards the Yankee Stadium.
“You go in there. I will meet you there later. I have to go now.” I said but didn’t hear anything back from Mike. “Mike?” I added.
“Yeah?” Mike asked as he turned the phone around.
“I have to go so I will see you later tonight alright?” I said as if I was talking to a four year old.
“Yeah alright.” Mike added and I hung up.
Now a big problem presented itself. I wasn’t really sure how to use the instant-teleporter. I decided to play it through and let my instincts guide me. I walked towards the garage and there was a big cylinder on the far right hand corner. There, as I approached the cylinder, it opened up and said “Where to?” I decided to step inside and I said “Movies please”. Before I could actually blink, I was at the movies. There she was, Lisa waiting for me to go inside.
“Took you long enough.” She said smiling.
“Yeah, there was a lot of traffic sorry.” I added and she laughed. “Guess I can’t use that one can I?”
“Nope.” She said as she
grabbed me by the arm and we walked in.
I was hoping the dream wouldn’t jump this part as it did last time and boy am I glad it didn’t. When we walked into the movie theater there seemed to be hundreds if not thousands of seats there. I guess this is why the doorman laughed when Mike asked if it was full a few days ago. I couldn’t quite understand how all this people could actually have a good sit to watch the movie but I decided to ignore that fact and just sit down. I don’t remember exactly how we chose our sits because before I knew it we were already sitting.
For some reason my chair looked different from Lisa’s. Her chair actually looked like a couch almost, but mine just looked plain and a little bit uncomfortable. She then asked “aren’t you going to change your seat?”
I didn’t want to look like a fool, once again, so I added “Of course I am.” I tried to look around to see how I could do it. Yet I didn’t find any kind of buttons or anything to deal with this thing. I looked at her and she was there eating her popcorn now.
“How the…where did you get that from?” I asked.
“What you mean?” She said.
“The popcorn.” I stated. “Where did it come from?”
“Where it always comes from…the kitchen I guess?” Lisa said not knowing why I was asking.
I decided to concentrate on how to change the chair again and decided to forget about the popcorn for a minute. Then I thought damn it, I just wish this looked like Lisa’s chair. And as I was finishing the sentence my chair suddenly changed to the exact same as Lisa’s. Apparently it was thought-driven or something. I don’t know how it worked, but to say it was really awesome is just an understatement. I decided to play around with it a little bit until it was comfortable enough for me.
Since the popcorn came out of nowhere as well, I decided to use the thought process again. Hm, I am craving some chocolate. And bam! A bar of chocolate appeared to my right. How about some coke? And there it was as well, a pretty big glass of coke; jaw dropping indeed. How it worked? I have no idea. Then again, I don’t know how my TV works either. I just know it does and that is all I care about.
Soon after that, the movie started. I won’t write about the whole movie here though, because it would be like writing a book which I really don’t want to do. The movie was pretty amazing though. I was impressed with it and I really couldn’t get my eyes off of it even though I had Lisa on my left. The movie was simply so interesting and suspenseful, it was different to the usual crap and I loved it for it. Some scenes seemed a little bit familiar though and I didn’t know why. That is…until the credits rolled. That is when I understood why the movie seemed a little bit familiar to me. The first words to appear after the movie finished were “Directed and Written by Robert” and my Last Name which, like I said, I won’t mention here.
Apparently I had written and directed the damn thing and it was amazing! I couldn’t believe it. Not only did I love it, but everyone else on the theater applauded after it was over. So I am guessing they loved it too. They loved something I had created and it just felt amazing.
After the movie was over we went to the Yankee Stadium to watch Mike play. There he was, playing second base for one of my favorite teams of all time. We were actually on a very neat spot, near first base; we could practically touch the grass if we wanted to. Mike looked pretty excited in there as well. The Stadium looked better than ever too, I had always loved the Yankee Stadium but this was just something else; something beyond my wild dreams.
The game was pretty awesome, Mike managed to hit a double and made a few good plays, but it was obvious he was pretty nervous. People then congratulated him after the game for playing so well on his first game. It was a really cool thing to presence. He even got a standing ovation from the stadium. Now that is something! What a birthday huh? And I guess the party hadn’t started yet.
Shortly after the game, where the Yankees won 4-2 against the Red Sox by the way, we went to Mike’s birthday party. Of this I have no recollection at all expect for one little detail. Mike, Lisa and I were talking when Mike just had to leave for a second. Then Lisa and I got to talk and I got pushed against her by someone that bumped with me. I was standing face to face with her, our noses barely touching. I looked at her straight at the eyes and I knew she was thinking the same thing as me. I leaned in and kissed her, softly and gently. I then pulled apart and I leaned my forehead against hers. I saw that she was smiling, with her eyes closed, and we kept kissing. Now that, to me, was the best part of the dream.