Matter of Perspective

I looked through some of the other holes in the 'tin can' thing again. The other scenes looked the same as they did before, they were blurry and I could barely make out anything. This new scene, the one I lived out in my dream, was clear. I could see Nia and

Bobby talking by Nia's locker. I could see the shocked look on Lidia's face. The shopkeeper said it was all in my mind and I'm beginning to think that it was. I wasn't really seeing the scene in the 'tin can' my mind was projecting it there itself. That has to be it. I had this elaborate dream. I mean it couldn't actually be real. If it was so far in the future, there would be technology but there wasn't because I'm not smart enough to imagine it.

I put the 'tin can' thing down on my nightstand and I lay on my bed. Why would I dream myself as a girl? That didn't make sense. Maybe I think girls have it better than boys. Maybe I wanted to feel the power I think girls have. I was starting to get a headache

from thinking too much but there had to be some reason. I hear a knock on my door and without waiting for a response my friend Mark barges in on me.

"Hey dude, what's going on?" He asks. He looks around the room and notices how messy it is.

"Your mom lets you keep your room like this? If I kept my room like this my mom would freak out." As he's talking he's moving around the room and notices my 'tin can'.

"Dude, what's this." He holds it up to his face and peeks into some of the holes. "It's all dark inside." He continues looking through various holes. "Hey, who's the hot chick?"

"You can see that?" I ask

"Yeah, in this one hole I can see what looks like this dude hitting on this chick in front of her locker and this other chick is freaking out about it." Mark explains.

"So I'm not crazy after all." I say with relief. "You're sure you see that?"

"Yeah. Dude. I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out at the comic book store with me." Mark explained as the reason for his visit.

"Mark, only old people go and hang out at the comic book store." I try to tell him but he brushes me off.

"Well, I like hanging out at the comic book store. We can check out old Avenger's comic books and walk down by the old railroad tracks." Mark offered. Mark wasn't all that with it but a friend is a friend.

"Okay, let me get dressed and we'll go." Mark saw himself out and I grabbed clothes that happened to by lying on the floor. Before we leave my mom asks me when I'll be home and I make some remark like I'm not five anymore but when she presses me I say I'll be home for dinner.

Mark and I head for the comic book store downtown. We walk for quite a while in silence and then I decide to speak up.

"Hey Mark, You know that weird thing with all the holes in it?" I asked.

"Yeah" Mark replied.

"I found it that this creepy flea market way outside of town that my mom took me to yesterday". I explained.

"Yeah" Mark replied again.

"Yesterday when I looked through all the holes, I just saw blurry images but today when I looked through the holes I saw blurry images except for the one clear image that you saw." I tried explaining hoping Mark would get the gist of it.

"Yeah" Mark replied a third time.

"Mark, that scene you saw through one of the holes wasn't there yesterday!" I said in a dramatic fashion to get my point across.

"Dude, you need to chill out. I heard this guy say once that the mind plays tricks on you. That's all it is. Let's just go to the comic book store and have a good time. You'll be fine." He reassured.

We walk the rest of the way in silence. Joe's comic book shop has been in the same downtown location for at least as long as I've been alive and probably longer. When we get inside there are a bunch of old people hanging out and when I mean old people, I'm

not talking 70 or 80 year old, I'm talking old like my mom. Their thumbing through books and arguing about who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk.

Mark finds some old avenger's comic books and starts thumbing through them. I just pick something at random and find myself thumbing through some old Justice League comic books. I'm kind of confused though because Superman, Green Lantern, and

Wonder Woman are not anywhere to be found in these books. They have characters that I've never heard of but when I start reading them I find that the plots and dialogue are hilarious. I had no idea comic books could actually be funny.

I end up enjoying myself more than I thought I would and after we are done thumbing through old comic books, we walk back towards home by way of the old railroad tracks. I heard that a train actually used these tracks once and I guess that must have been the case because there's no reason the build railroad tracks if you don't plan on having a train run on them. That was so long ago that hardly anybody remembers it. I decide to speak up again.

"Hey Mark" I said.

"Yeah" He replied.

"There was something I didn't tell you about that thing with all the holes" I continued.

"Yeah" He said again.

"I had a dream last night. The dream seemed as real as you and I are now. I dreamed I was the girl in the scene that the guy was hitting on. He had asked her to this dance and he wanted to know what her answer was." I explained.

"You dreamed you were a girl?" Mark said. Moments later he started laughing. "Dude that is so messed up."

"Mark, this is serious. I fell asleep and woke up as this girl. I spent an entire day living her life. When I went to bed I woke up as myself again. I'm afraid when I go to bed tonight I'll wake up as her again."

"Relax, it was just a dream. You dreamed you were living this girl's life. It didn't really happen. You can do anything you want in a dream. If you dream it again, try and enjoy it."

Mark was starting to get irritated which took a lot for him because he was a pretty laid back guy. Mark went home and when I got back home I went to my room and looked through all the little holes again. They were all blurry except for the one from my dream. I went to bed that night wondering if I was going to wake up again as Nia. It took a long time for me to go to sleep.

I woke up early. I was Nia again. I wasn't as startled this time when I looked around the room that wasn't mine. I had no idea where this day was in relation to the last day I was here. Her little sister was sleeping in a nearby bed and she looked about the same age as she was when I was here before. I had no idea what time it was but nobody else was up. I took a sniff and decided I didn't smell so good and went to take a shower. I thought as a girl I should probably pay more attention to that kind of thing.