Short Story
Tim Starman
Creative Writing
It was just another Monday morning on Oak St. Everyday started the same, hearing the blaring music every morning at 6:30am. I woke up slower than normal, letting the depression sink in. Here for another classic Monday, filled with constant stares at the clock and complaining.
Mom was getting frustrated because I was taking a long time to get ready. I fell asleep fully about three times in the steaming hot shower. I got out just after 7:00, way behind schedule.
“BLAKE!!!!” she cried.
“I’ll be there in two seconds mother dearest”, I replied sarcastically.
It took me a good ten minutes to throw my clothes together and hop in my Volkswagen Golf, my one true love. The drive to school takes around 6 minutes if all the stop signs are nice to you.
I arrived to class with a quarter of a second to spare. Being to class early is normality for me, but today was different. Chemistry was one of my favorite subjects. Mixing and doing experiments is what I live for.
“Good morning class!” said Mr. Smith
Nobody replied and everyone might as well of been zombies.
In today's class we were starting a new experiment. Every experiment generally consists of mixing two, three, or even four different chemicals together, and then to record the changes (if any). Today was no different.
Today we were working with a chemical called 4-nitroaniline. The experiment was to mix this chemical with various other chemicals to see the change, if any.
“One final rule. Under no circumstance can you mix 4-nitroaniline and sulfuric acid, this would cause a potentially dangerous reaction” Mr. Smith proclaimed with certainty.
All the boys in the room go very excited and started chatting amongst themselves, while the cute girls shivered and got nervous.
I was sitting in class bored as always and my wonderful mind started to think. I’m always so bored of class and not being important. I decided to have a little fun today. Blake is most definitely going to mix these two chemicals.
I shoot my hand up into the air; Mr. Smith called on me,
“What would happen if I accidentally mixed these two?” trying hard not to sound too suspicious.
“Well there’s a chance that these two chemicals could cause an extremely large explosion, filling this whole school with smoke, and not to mention an awful smell. I know one time a chemist mixed these two chemicals and something bizarre happened.”
The whole class got tense, and leaned in a little closer to hear every word out of Smith’s mouth.
“The smoke cloud was so large that it took a fire crew to relive it. After many hours the smoke desolated, but not only the smoke, but something else did. Does anyone have any thoughts on what else disappeared?”
John Clarke rose his hand gingerly, “Ummmm the school?!”
“No, not the school”
I rose my hand at once, “The chemist himself?”
“This is true, no one knows what happened to him. We don’t know if he ever reappeared or not, let alone where he went in the process.”
Not not only the girls were silent, but even the starting quarterback.
Everyone did their experiment as told. We all saw little to no change in all the different chemicals. Teachers never gave us cool reactions to do, this was the downside of "high school" chemistry. This was going to change today, I knew it.
I grabbed hold of the 4-nitroaniline, and snuck the sulfuric acid without anyone seeing it. We were working with heated water while we mixed the chemicals. I poured in the nitrolliane and slowly added the sulfuric acid.
Out of nowhere, as Mr. Smith had said, there was a loud bang. The room was engulfed with a poignant awful smell of gas.
Everyone was in a state of panic, but I had gone somewhere else....
It was sometime in the way past, I would guess the mid '60s. The classroom was very similar to our classroom, I’m guessing it’s the exact same room. Wandering around the classroom, I was curious if the other students could see or hear me.
“Hello, my name is Blake” I said rather shyly.
I was shooken up to realize the teacher started talking to me. I ended up staying in the class for the remainder of the day. I could get used to this way of life, everything seemed simpler and easier, unlike real life.
………..
The class was as dark as midnight. Mr. Smith had no idea what had happened.
Smith ran towards the source of the explosion, and all of a sudden he vanished, like Blake. Instead of the past, he was launched into the distant future, nothing was the same. He was thrown in front of a class full of what looked like students. Instead of a classroom he was on a spaceship, teaching future pilots.
Not having any idea what just happened he panicked and ran away, the kids just sat there and laughed at him. To them everything was totally normal, but for Smith he was bewildered and confused out of his mind. Eventually, he got a hang of what he was doing, it took him many years to understand piloting himself, let alone teaching it.
The transition from present life to the future was a lot easier than he thought. Technology was way beyond what he thought was possible, everything was simpler. Everyone was smarter and wiser. Every aspect of life was totally different, from the food you eat, to the houses you live in, even the core school subjects were totally different.
It was very hard for Mr. Smith to understand why he had to be stuck in the future. Don’t get him wrong he loved this time period, being a science teacher and all, but he had a family and a life back home. He hated that one of his students changed his life forever.
The cloud finally settled, and the class finally settled down. The first think the whole class saw was the disappearance of two people. They saw that Blake had randomly vanished into thin air, but Mr. Smith was also away.
“MRS. SMITHHHH” A preppy white girl screamed.
No response was heard.
“What the hell is going on in here?!” the superintendent and this team rushed into the classroom.
President Frandel ordered the vice president to evacuate the whole school, this was one of the biggest school crises they’ve ever witnessed.
The intercom came on over the whole school,
“Attention students and teachers. There has been an accident in Mr. Smith’s chem class. Mr. Smith and fellow student Blake Peters has gone missing. I cannot give you anymore information than that, because we know about as much as you do at the moment. Class is dismissed, you all get home safe now, have a good day, and remember to be safe”
The whole school was absolutely silent. A teacher and a friend had gone missing. Everyone walked out of the school somberly. Girls and close friends of Blake’s were crying, while the rest were holding them back.
……….
This accident made the front of the paper as well as statewide news. It’s been two weeks after my disappearance.
The students and faculty of my high school still remember that day, they call it “Smoke Day”. They commemorate the disappearance of Mr. Smith and I.
We were never able to return to our present life, but we had a wild one. Neither one of us met back up, but I was able to experience the 60’s. Eventually, life felt normal, this era felt like me. I slowly forgot what life was like in 2015, it’s like a distant memory I had when I was little.
