Teacher and Student

Two people sit in front of a mirror. Each of them is alone in their own quarters. All of a sudden, the mirror seems to show slightly out of focus, distorted versions of their respective reflections. They look fairly similar, even though the wrinkles on one of the figures can easily tell them apart.

• Well… Hi there
• (…) honestly, what the fuck…?! (sarcasm)
• Yep man, this is the reaction I expected. Sit tight, we need to chat.
• What is this about and… are you…?
• You guessed it bud. I’m you… in the future…
• Well then, fuck my life. I’ll look like shit.
• Thank you.
• Honestly though, what the fuck? Gym, diet, running, anything?
• Nope.
• So should I…?
• Yep. Accept it.

The student looks confused, while the teacher looks serene.

• So… this is why you… I look like this?
• Like what?
• This… your face is not… right… it’s not mine.
• Not sure if I follow…
• Nevermind…

They both look down, look around, then face one another again.

• So, what’s happening here?
• Not sure either… maybe like the marvel universe or Dark?
• What?
• Oh, right… you haven’t… well — it’s either something that it’s two different timelines, yours and mine, which means I’ve never seen my future self like you’re seeing now, or…
• Yees?!
• Or we are in an intertwined sequence of two, maybe three timelines and, as soon as whoever is responsible for this fixes the present, we will cease to exist.
• Oh… I see… sounds great — the young one put both of his thumbs up.
• Yeah, I don’t know which is better, maybe the first one…?
• The Marvel scenario?
• That ‘s the one.
• Ok what about the other one?
• The fabricated timelines from Dark?
• I guess …
• Well, in this case, we could cease to exist at any given moment… or we’ll live the same thing over and over again without having any power over it.
• How do we get power over it?
• We can’t.
• Why?
• Because we are not the main character — scoffs.
• What…?
• It’s nothing.
• Great… also, who is in the present, you or me?
• Neither — smiles — but, maybe both.
• What do you mean?!
• Well, see… if we are talking right now, it could mean it already happened. So it’s either before me or before both of us. Well, wait… actually, no. It could be after us as well, even though I’d think it’s less likely. If I were to take a guess, I’d say it’s between us — so I’m the future and you, the past.
• For fuck sake man, I’m already depressed…
• Yep, I remember that… good times — closes his eyes and opens up a smile.
• You seem happy… Happy?! Are you retarded?
• Oh yeah, we still say this capacitist shit by the way, even though nowadays we understand it’s wrong and we shouldn’t say it. Maybe we spent too many years saying it.
• What, retarded?
• Yep.
• Well are you?
• Aren’t we both?
• Yeah, great…

Again they both look around. Maybe it’s a prank. Maybe they have both finally gone insane. It’s difficult to put a finger on it, so they just keep going. The student, being younger and less patient, takes the lead.

• Why do our rooms look the same?
• Nostalgia, perhaps.
• Are you poor like our parents … are or were…(?)
• That’s rude. Also… yeah… I remember thinking like that.
• Like what?
• Like what you just sounded like… a little immature.
• That’s nice, offend me.
• Well, it’s true. We took a while to grow up, most of our friends did it quicker. This is just something you’ll see differently in a few years.
• Fine. At least we, you still have friends… anyone from today?
• Yep, some.
• Can’t you tell me who?
• Not sure… how old are you?
• Seventeen.
• Well, see, the problem is that, if this is like the butterfly effect movie and I tell you something you shouldn’t know, then we could be in trouble.
• Oh I just saw that with… you know who.
• Yep.
• Do we still…?
• hahahahaha…. hehe… heh… of course not.
• What happened?
• Give it a month.
• A month?! But we… we are in…
• Nope.
• How can you know?
• I mean… maybe I’m the only one who knows, but I’d guess I’m not, right?
• I don’t follow.
• Never mind. You will.
• You sound very arrogant sometimes, you know that?
• Yes, we know that. We improve, but it’s still annoying. It certainly annoys a shit ton of people. Some will like it though. You’ll even land a few gigs partially because of it.
• How so?
• You’ll see.
• You say “will” a lot.
• Can you blame me? We still don’t know what time lapse this scenario is…Maybe if we ever meet again, we’ll know.
• Maybe
• So, then, you should watch out for…
• Hey… I’m losing you…
• When he says jump, you….
• Hello?!
• Don’t swallow it too quickly…
• What the f…
• Keep pumping until it… pops…
• Dude…
• *rubbish*
• *muffled sounds*

They both vanish and yet remain intact. However, now, when they look at the mirror, they see themselves again. No stranger. No tinnitus noise. Just plain, boring reality.

A few months have passed and now they’ve almost forgotten it happened. Not completely, but it’s almost as if it had been a dream. Until…

• Wait…. oh, no… fuck
• Oh Hi there! How’s it going?
• Fine, no… shit, why… why are you here again… I could’ve been naked or worse…
• Well, first of all, I mean… — points at his own body — and second, we are not impressive dude… don’t flatter yourself.
• What do you mean?
• Honestly, who would care?
• Oh… I see, so we are still like this.
• Yep, time hasn’t changed it.
• Ok, so… now what?
• I guess we are supposed to solve something here.
• What do you mean?
• Have you seen the movie “Groundhog Day” already?
• Hmm not really… Who’s in it?
• Well, Bill Murray, of course!
• The Ghost Buster’s guy?

The old guy scoffs.

• Guy… yeah, the ghostbuster’s “guy”… c’mon, show some respect.
• Right… ok. So, what about it?
• Well, in the movie he’d relieve the same day over and over again. Every time he went to bed, he’d wake up to the same newscast on the radio, the same weather, the same people’s interactions… the same day. Even if he were to kill himself, he’d go back in time to the point where he was waking up the first time.
• Sounds depressing…
• Well, it is, actually… kinda depressing… yeah. Some people think it’s a romcom.
• How so?
• I don’t know.
• Maybe you don’t think that and that’s why you gave it such a horrible review? With the depressiveness and all that?
• It could be it, yes…
• Great, so… what about it?
• Well, in the movie he could only move on after he did “the right thing”… which basically meant to become a god amongst humans: with medical training, music prowess, poetry writing and quoting, caring for others, paternal knowledge that’d take about three lifetimes. With that he was able to hook up with a girl from work who thought he was arrogant and full of herself. Apparently the idea is that she’s the love of his life.
• So he only had a real chance with her after about three lifetimes? The movie just got sadder.
• I know, well… that’s not the point.
• What is the point then?!
• He had to do something in order to set himself free. Maybe…. maybe we are here for a reason…?
• Ok, I hear you… what could that be?
• I’m not sure… It could be a number of things.
• How can we find it out?
• I guess it won’t hurt if we just keep talking to each other.
• Ok then, so what should we blab about? Not sure where to go from here.
• Is there anything in your life that has been bothering you lately?
• Truth be told, everything. I’m not sure if you remember, but we’ve never been part of the optimistic bunch.
• Sure that. Well, then it’s unclear what we should be doing.
• Let me ask some questions. Maybe that could help?
• Well, try them out.
• Ok. Firstly, what type of person are you? I mean, God knows how many diagnoses we’ve been given over the years, I know I’ve had my share, so I can’t imagine how many there will be by the time I’m you.
• I’m not sure how to answer that question. But I’ll try. I’m the type of person who questions others as much as I question myself. I usually doubt everything, but at the same time I feel naive on most days. I’m either feeling satisfied or unsatisfied, not in any particular order or reason. There’s a lot of randomness in my thoughts, which can be perceived as crazyness or stupidity by others. That can be very frustrating. To make it short, I’m an indecisive, but functional and independent adult. Will that do?
• That seemed… generic. Are you sure you know yourself?
• Generic, yes. What did you expect? A generic, mediocre person to have an over the top, brilliant and original description of himself?
• Hum. Now that you put it this way, I guess it makes sense.
• It’s not supposed to make sense, kid. It’s just supposed to be.
• You sound too confident about something you just admitted knowing nothing about.
• You need to know enough to know you don’t actually know much of it.
• How so?
• Imagine you’ve never taken an IQ test in your life, which is the basic intelligent’s test a person can take. Now, regardless of your thoughts on it, if you’ve never taken the test, you can’t know the result, right?
• Yeah, sure.
• So, did you know that most people who didn’t take the test consider themselves to be higher than they actually are? About one thousand participants took the test as part of a study done in Canada about twenty years ago. Out of these participants, about 70% of them thought they’d be over the top intelligent. Venture to guess how many of them were actually above average? Not geniuses, mind you. Simply above average.
• No idea. Also, I get that this question is rhetorical.
• Good for you! Now, only 50% of them were above average. Out of this number, only 20% allegedly said they’d be in that statistic.
• Well, alright. Actually, no. What the fuck are we talking about here.
• We are simply stating how much people actually know themselves. Or in this case, don’t. Nonetheless, how much is necessary for a person to know that they don’t know themselves. Even further, how rare it can be for someone to see themselves as something generic whilst being fully self-aware and honest about it. Like Denis Diderot used to say, live your life as a hypocrite.
• So… that’s your advice? That’s what fifteen years have given me? How to be a douche, pretencious fuck?
• It’s hard to argue with that, yeah.
• Great. Looking forward to our next encounter.
• It might not happen, kid. This is how far it goes. I don’t think I have much else to teach you.
• Again, brilliant.
• Yep.
• So… this is it…. then…
• Well… here we… go… again…
• *muffled sounds*
• See… *muffled sounds* hell…
• *rubbish* you…

Both figures vanish into their own realities once again. No one can say if something was truly learned here. At the very least, they’re able to see how much time changes and doesn’t change in a person. Is that useful?