A Journey Through Time with Mr. Flint

He stood there, with a look of anger painted on his face.

"Please, Mr. Flint, sir," I begged. "Please don't tell my parents. I promise I'll do better. I can't fail, I have to pass this class. I just *need* this class."

"You're right, Canaan. You *need* this class. And you *will* pass this class. If you really need it this bad, then I'll help you. We'll start tonight, after your chores are done. If you're going to pass, then everyone in your family is going to be doing your chores from now on. That way, you'll have no distractions. You'll have no time to read or daydream. You'll have to focus only on doing what you've got to do. Now run along and get some sleep. We'll start tomorrow."

My teacher turned around and walked back towards his desk. I was about to leave when I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps behind me.

I turned around and saw my friend, Diah. He had a mischievous grin on his face.

"I knew you could do it," he said. "That's why I stayed after to make sure he didn't catch you."

"Well, thanks for waiting. But don't you have things to do?"

"Nah, I finished up early. I wanted to see if you were alright."

"I'm fine. I mean, I'm not fine. I'm not fine at all, but I'll be fine again someday. Where are you going?"

"After you, dummy. I'm not letting you face him alone. Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?"

Diah looked around the room and replied, "Anywhere, really. Anywhere that's not here."

"But these aren't our houses. Are we allowed to be here? Shouldn't we be getting home?"

"Shhh. Don't worry, little buddy. I can fix this. We can go anywhere and anytime we want, once I get started."

Diah closed his eyes and started making various gestures with his hands. Some seemed to be in one place and others moved as he twirled his wrist. The air around us started to shimmer and a warm yellow light began to fill the room. Then, in an instant, everything went dark.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was a long line of people and they were singing. The line stretched out past the horizon and I could see hundreds of people; all of them singing together. The sun was directly overhead, so I stood there for a moment and watched. It was beautiful.

There was a loud clap of thunder and the singing stopped.

"Shit, I'm fucking too high. Gotta chill out."

I had never heard anyone say that before.

"Oh, yeah. I'm like *so* high. Holy shit!"

"Whoa, dude. I'm like *way* too high. Fuck, I'm so high right now. I'm so high that I'm like touching the clouds and shit."

I realized that I recognized the voices, but I didn't know where I had heard them before. I looked around and saw that the line had disappeared. The singing had stopped and the clouds were low to the ground. They looked closer than they had before.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"I don't know, but I'm so fucking high right now. I'm so high that I think I might float away."

Diah struggled a little bit, but he managed to stay on the ground.

"Do you want to try?" he asked.

"Try what?"

"Flying. I bet we could fly."

"I don't think we can fly. I don't think we have wings."

"Don't need wings, man. I've got this. Just watch."

Diah held his arms out in front of him and started making an odd humming noise.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm flying, man. See? I'm flying!"

"You're just standing there."

"Yeah, but I'm really high. I'm like touching the clouds. I'm so high right now."

"You're standing on the ground."

"That's right. I'm standing on the ground. Do you wanna try?"

"If you're going to fly then I might as well fly, too."

"Yeah, man. Let's fly. We can fly! We're gonna fly, dude! We're gonna fly!"

I started to feel dizzy.

"Whoa, man. I feel dizzy. I can't feel my legs. Are my legs moving? I can't feel my legs. I can't feel anything."

"Yeah, I feel dizzy too. I don't know if we're flying, but we're definitely like touching the clouds. I can't even see my feet. Hey, dude, where are we? I can't see anything."

"I don't know. I can't see anything either. I can't see anything and I can't feel anything. My head is spinning. I think I'm going to throw up."

"Yeah, man. I think I'm gonna throw up, too."

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and everything went dark again.