H is for History

It wasn’t until I met Wisp that I understood the everdreams. I was floating along, having a look at the people still roaming around the circle when all of a sudden I felt … wrong. It was like I was blue and red had suddenly been introduced. It wasn’t like a toxin had come into me, just something foreign and, really, that was scary enough. It passed in an instant, although I shivered for a long time afterwards. Straight after the sensation had gone I felt a voice. It wasn’t hearing; I could hear the world like you would as a living person. It was feeling the words; as though they were raised and I was touching them even though I knew I wasn’t touching them.
‘Hi, I’m Wisp. Sorry about running you over like that.’
‘That's okay. I’m Josie, I guess.’
‘That’s a human name. Did you get to keep yours?’
‘I guess so. No one has spoken to me before so I don’t know if I’ve broken any rules.’
‘There aren’t rules that I know of, it’s just that when I got here I couldn’t remember my name so I gave myself one that seemed to fit what I was.’
‘Are you dead too?’
‘I think so. No one’s told me that either but I know I’m not like those people down there.’ Wisp flashed images of living people through me to illustrate her point. It was wonderful to fully see a someone’s point of view, I was entranced with how Wisp’s colours were different from mine. They saw the world through a light pink filter. I thought I saw the world unfiltered but now I wasn’t so sure.
‘Hey, that trick you just did. I had that happen to me before. But it was all images about my family.’
‘You must have hit an everdream.’
‘It showed me my grandparents as kids and then it showed me some kids I didn’t know.’
‘The everdream shows you the past, present and future. You probably saw kids which were connected to you but haven’t been born yet.’
‘Are they common, these everdreams?’
‘They come and go. I once saw three in one day. Then none for a week.’
‘Were they about you?’
‘No. At least I don’t think so. I don’t remember who I was. I’ve seen a lot of different things, though, and I’ve seen them in a lot of different places. It’s unlikely they were all about me.’
‘What did you see?’
‘I saw a woman crying as people stormed the Berlin Wall. I saw a device hidden in a cave, it spoke to me in words I didn’t know. It spoke like we’re speaking now. I also saw a man washing his car light blue car in the sun.’
‘Past, present and future.’
‘Exactly. The man washing his car was the first clue I got to who I was. I didn’t know the man, but I knew that his car was a Mazda MX5 coupe with alloys and a six cylinder engine. I guess I liked cars.’
‘So, we can find the past.’
‘Yes, and that’s what I’m looking for; my past.’
‘Can I come with you?’
‘Of course. I don’t know how many more of us there are but I could use some help. Sometimes the past is a tangle.’