Sawyer Backman

Ms. Gardner
English 10 Period 0
30 August 2014
Time is Power
I am walking to the jazz band room, after school to get some extra practice in, before my
solo in the winter concert. When I arrive there is no one inside, so I head to the practice room,
with my instrument. The practice room has a six inch thick door with five hinges, it swings open
easily and quietly. It is small room with striped with colored foam to enhance the acoustics. I
sit down and pick up my shiny trombone, it is like a carnival mirror, it distorts my face and
elongates it. As I close my eyes, a beautiful swing melody that almost matches my solo perfectly
comes suddenly comes to mind. I begin to play, and I feel the power and the magic which made
me begin to play in the first place.
When I open my eyes there is a familiar old woman sitting next to me she is a person that
you would picture as a grandmother. She looks like she should be baking cookies, rather than
playing the melody I just played on a beautiful bass trombone. She sets the instrument down and
says, Hello! What is your name? Im Sawyer!
UmmHello Sawyer. My name is also Sawyer. Can I help you find any thing? The
concert is that way. I point in the direction of the concert.
No, I am actually here to meet you. I am you at seventy years old.
At this point I am thinking that I need to get this woman back to the psychiatric wing of
the hospital, but I have read that it is better to play along with the persons fantasy, until I can get

her there. As I whip out my phone to text my dad, she grabs my arm and rips my phone out of
my hand.
I havent seen one of these in ages, she says, The world turns against technology in
the year 2043, that was 27 years ago.
Excuse me maam, but the year is only 2014, I say, I am now utterly confused.
Here I will prove to you that I am you. You are a terrible speller, yet you love english.
You hate messy rooms yet youre room is a mess, except your bed. Your bed has a bad mattress
that you stole from your sister when she went to college, it has a foam topper that makes your
bed the most comfortable place in the world.
Now the fact that she knows all of this scares me, but I say, Any of my best friends
would know this, you could have talked with one of them.
She gives me a small pitying smile and hands me my dad leather notebook, When you graduate
from music school and then you will decide to go and learn to be a music teacher. Dad will give
you his notebook. It seems like something he would do, then I open the notebook and my own
large loopy handwriting has filled the pages.
I do not want to believe her, but it makes since. So, will I remember this?
No, but I will, she replies. I did not remember this experience when I was your age, I
just thought it was a strange dream, but now I remember. We are stuck in a never ending circle of
the universe.
So, I can ask you anything? And I wont remember any of this? And it wont affect the
time-space continuum?

She lets out a long hardy laugh, Time-space continuum? No, it won't affect anything. And yes
ask anything!
Okay, well then, what do I do with my life?
You become a teacher and students teach music in high school. You will marry a man
who you have not met yet. You will see and experience quite a few wonders. Until The Crash
when all technology is confiscated in the year 2043. All technology disappears and is treated like
it was thrown in to the deep dark pit of Tartarus. It is never spoken about.
That sounds terrible. What else happens in my, I mean our lifetime?
A massive amounts of technological advances, before the crash. You will stay friends
with Satvika, Shannon, Caitlin, Brittany, Gabby, along with the rest of the crew. You will go to a
amazing collage and Im going to leave without telling you which one. So it is a surprise!
How do I know that I will I've the same life as you, and not end up working in a cubical some
where in the Mid-West, I say.
Just trust me. And the concert you are soloing in starts in fifteen minutes you better get
going! I check my phone and she is right I need to go, but how do I leave without knowing
everything. She starts to play the slow swing melody that we were both playing and when I look
back in her direction she is gone, only leaving the haunting melody of the solo.
I stand with my legs shaking and walk to the concert. All through the concert band
portion, I was trying to remember the strange dream that I had earlier, when I fell asleep in the
practice room. When it comes time for jazz band I stand and play the melody I had dreamed of. I
get a weird sensation of dj vu, it is gone once my solo is over.

Over the next few weeks I feel slightly out of place. I figured it was break and Christmas.
After a month has passed I have forgot about the dream. It sometimes still haunts me
when I sleep and it will come to me as a distant memory that I cant quite grasp, like it is
shrouded in fog.