The Switch
By: Matthew K Chikono
You are clad in a protective silver jumpsuit and the orange helmet is in your left hand. You walk slowly to the middle of the workshop where the tin is waiting for you. You trip upon some metals and tools, curse, and lie to yourself that one day you will clean the shop and give its sanity and business back to glory. The workshop is a huge hall with some dimmed lights far up on the ceiling.
Your brother walks behind you with some papers. He is older and slower, but he is still the smartest being alive, he built the tin after all. He is just six years older than you, but age has taken a huge visible toil on his frail body. It is understandable, he has never slept for the past fifty years or so building the tin.
Of course, there's the tin. You run your fingers on the white box, it is metallic cold. You wonder why they don't call it the toilet, everything about it reminds you of the stalls in the public toilets. You walk around it, impressed by its tiny size and functionality. It is small enough to allow only one individual to sit comfortably in and it is technologically advanced enough to send that individual to one specific day in the past, May the tenth 2025.
Your brother shoves you into the tin, forces the orange helmet over your head roughly and clip it shut. You willingly comply as he straps you on the seat. It's for your safety and the ride won't be a smooth one. Your brother reminds you of the mission, you do not listen though you have heard it a million times before. He tells you to pull the switch only when he gives the signal. He closes the glass hatch and runs to the other side of the workshop where the rest of the controls and the tech guys are.
You wait patiently for the signal. Sweat start oozing from your forehead. Either it's getting hot in the tin, or you are just nervous. There isn't any air-conditioning in the tin to prove the former and unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it anyway; your fate has already been sealed. There is only one small switch on this entire machine, nothing else. You start gentle caressing it, taking great pains not to flip it since your entire family's life depend upon it. You know you are supposed not to flip the switch; you are not going to flip the switch but then your hand flips the switch somehow.
You are confused. You look up from the hatch and see your brother smiling. He raises his hand and waves at you. You try to wave or shout back but you cannot move. You scream in silence to abort. Every single cell in your body is screaming in pain. This is not supposed to be happening. Then an orange light devours you in a flash.
You are sitting on the banks of Zambezi river alone and you feel weird wearing a helmet and a protective suit. You can move your body again, thank God, and the pain is gone. You stand up and look around; the river is wide and there is garbage dumped along it. You remember the scene from when you were still a child. The tin must have done its magic, you shout in amazement. Downstream you notice three little children swimming. The oldest is a boy, probably ten. There is also a girl almost of the same age or she might be younger, you are not sure. You don't bother with the toddler of four, it looks harmless. The oldest one, the boy, croaks with joy, jumping and dancing in the shallow water. He splashes water on himself and let the sun glitter on the droplets stuck on his dark skin. You are embarrassed to look at the naked girl to see if she is enjoying herself also. Since the air is clean and there is nothing else to do you decide to watch the children to pass the time. The toddler then decides to go and relieve itself behind the bushes, the oldest one, the boy, runs after it ordering it back with hasty.
The girl is left alone sitting at edge of the river. Damn it! You remember the mission now; save the girl from drowning! You start to run along the river like a lunatic, gasping for air in your helmet like a dying horse. You almost reach the little brown skinned girl, twenty meters away maybe, then she sees you tumbling downstream. She is startled by you; she backtracks and falls with a thud into the water. She can't swim, no one has ever taught her to. You reach where she was a second earlier and you believe there is nothing you can do. The current is too strong, and you are terrified to jump after her. Before you kneel to cry, a silver light sucks you whole from the above.
You look up from the hatch and see your brother smiling. You are confused. This is not supposed to happen, you know it. He raises his hand and waves at you. You try to wave or shout, but your body is paralyzed. Nothing comes out when you try to shout to him to stop, your body cannot take this kind of pain, it's like you are dipped in acid. Then the orange light devours you again.
There is a river in front of you, you recognize it, it's the Zambezi river. You know what is to be done so you search for the three children. They are upstream. You see the younger version of yourself running to defecate behind the bushes. Your older brother, the smartest being alive, barks after you to come back. He is in charge after all. He follows you to where you are squatting but you are four and can only leave when you think you are done.
Your sister continues bathing in the cool waters of the great river. She lets the water run from hair short black hair, through her skin to her tiny feet. Once or twice, she dips her legs into the water. She can't swim, you remember that now, so she wouldn't do anything riskier than that.
Whatever you are seeing you know it will only end with your sister drowning. She has already drowned once but you are there to stop it. You are smart, you tell yourself, so you won't run upstream to grab her before the calamity, she might get startled and end up falling in the river. You don't know how you come up with that but it a sound logical in your head. So, you wait and hope for a miracle.
Nothing out of ordinary happens. The sister calls to the old brother to hurry. She looks in their direction before she jumps. You try not to believe it, but your eyes have already seen it. This is how it happened when you were still kids? Everyone blamed your brother and he vowed not to sleep until he made it right.
The current so strong that your sister reaches downstream where you are few seconds later. You loved her, you do love her and it's only natural that you jump into the river to save her. You grab her leg and pull the both of out of the river. You were never the one afraid of water. Both of you are still coughing and vomiting gallons of water when silver light hits your eyes and suck you through voids of the unknown.
The pain is excruciating when you open your eyes. Your brother is smiling whilst looking down the hatch. You scream to abort, but it's all in your head. Your body is paralyzed so you cannot wave or do anything but that doesn't stop your brother from raising his hand and wave at you. Then the orange lights blind you for the millionth time. You are confused but you know well that this isn't supposed to be happening.
-