The Portal | Teen Ink

The Portal

May 11, 2015
By c_o__19 BRONZE, Metairie, Louisiana
c_o__19 BRONZE, Metairie, Louisiana
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Last year I abstained, this year I devour, without guilt which is also an art."-Margaret Atwood


“Hey, watch where you’re going lady!”
“Sorry!”
Today was just not my day. I was late to work, and after some very passive aggressive comments from my manager, ultimately fired. Today also happened to be the day my boyfriend decided to break up with me on the subway going to a mutual friend’s birthday party. And to top it all off, after being fired and after leaving my now ex boyfriend at the subway, my wallet was stolen and I got drenched when a torrential downpour decided to open up. I dug through my pockets, praying to find some kind of money, and luckily fished out a five-dollar bill.  Hoping to duck out of the rain, I crossed the street to pick up some food from my neighborhood’s deli, and following the day’s pattern, almost got ran over by a taxi.
The deli, Spacey’s, closes at nine, and as I was walking in, the sandwich guy was just starting to clean up his station. Recognizing me, he kindly made me my regular order. When I walked back out into the blustery night, it was still raining, and with nowhere to go but under the deli’s awning in the blinking fluorescent lights, I waited. Suddenly, the rusty payphone booth outside the deli, grafittied over and standing like a relic to the 1990’s, began to ring. After the fifth guttural ring and sensing no one was coming to answer it, I began debating the possibility of answering the call myself, just to stop the ringing.
After glancing around with the suspicion I was being watched, with clammy hands I picked up the receiver. Suddenly, the wind picked up and the rain was coming down even harder around me to the point I could no longer see right in front of my face.  
Then everything stopped.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
“Great, the dial tone! Guess I’ll head home since the rain seemed to stop.”
Turning away from the phone, I ran smack into something big, solid, and breathing. Rather, I guess, someone. Whoever this person was, he took it upon himself to heave me up on to his shoulder.
“Hey! Let me go!”
“ Not gonna happen, princess. Take it up with da boss when we gets back to tha warehouse. I gots strict instructions to pick up whoever falls through that portal right there.”
Portal?
“If youse gonna fight me, doll, I gotta knock ya out.”
Then there was nothing.
When I woke up, it was on concrete. I was in a room with no windows, high ceilings, and one big, metal, locked door. As I was adjusting and reacting to my surroundings, the door opened and I quickly acted like I was still unconscious.
“ This one’s gonna be a fighter, boss.”
“ Never mind that, she was transported across the portal and we already have all of her belongings, so we can let her go soon.”
“ Boss, did ya ever think that maybe some of these things you’re tryna invent before they actually get invented, mighta already be in the process of being made? Or what if they don’t take off the way the would’ve if someone else made ‘em like they suppose to?”
“ Bruno, you are the brawn, I am the brains, do as I say and don’t question me! Now go back to the phone portal and wait for more future New Yorkers dumb enough to pick up a piece of obsolete technology. Also, dispose of this girl.”
“ Get up, princess. Time to release you in to the wild and dangerous New York of 1994.”
The hulking man once again threw me on to his shoulder and brought me to the subway.
“ Here ya go. Good luck in this mean city.”
“ You can’t do this! First of all, do you really expect me to believe all this? Second of all, where am I supposed to go? I don’t think I’ve even been born yet if it is when you say it is!”
“ That’s for ya to deal with. Bye, doll.”
“ No wait! Don’t you want to break away from that jerk of a boss? Aren’t those little quips driving you crazy?”
“ Whaddya mean, girl?”
“ Do the right thing. Destroy the phone booth. Make sure no one else gets stuck in the wrong time.”
“ If I destroy tha phonebooth, then I’m out of a job.”
“That horrible man is changing history! Don’t you understand that the future could be so much worse? You don’t know how this will change everything!”
With my last remark, Bruno was gone. I couldn’t keep up with him to see where he was going, so I decided to find my way back to the phone booth. When I got there, the phone booth was left in pieces. The only thing left to do was to find my way in the past.



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