It was summer 2002 and the sessions were just beginning. Assignments from the spring semester lingered in notebooks laying on tables. Students logged onto the campus portal frequently anticipating their results. The air was filled with a lot of carefree uncertainty, but every student knew one thing for sure; they were going to enjoy their summer break to the fullest. Cupid tried to fit in with the carefree vibe that was going around, but truth be told, he was uneasy. His Southern African classmates at Crown College were graduating that summer and he wouldn’t be there. Their last exam was on Wednesday, 19th June 2002. It seemed like the way to go to forget about the whole program and move on, but it was not that simple. They had started a home business and family plan project as an assignment the semester before he left. Cupid’s project had been suspended till he returned and completed the course; so things were not as simple as they seemed.

It would be the the ninth Digital Technology exam missed since he left Southern Africa almost two years ago. It was hopeless getting in touch with his classmates since then. The mates he did reach were surprised and too busy with their lives to be concerned about what was going on all the way in California. The last exam for the part 5 was on Wednesday, 19th June. Graduates would be ushered on to the parts 6 and 7 where they would start on their official cooperatives as interns at big technology firms. Cupid was stuck 10’000 miles away from his desk and still pending on the part 2. It seemed simple to just forget about it and start on a new course; but to him, it was like asking him to forget that he had a kid and start working on getting a new kid. It just wasn’t going to work out like that.

His dreams had become more vivid than ever. He felt like he was leading two lives; one in the dream world. In there he had classes going on in his hometown in West Africa. It was almost like when the weekend came in the dream, that’s when he would wake up at the apartment in Los Angeles. Waking up to a reality where he’d missed a hundred Digital Technology classes. Both lives felt just as real as the other. The environment he would wake up in was the only way he knew what he had to do.

The Digital Technology institution headquarters was preparing its international examination system; as they normally did for every set of major exams. They checked on students who hadn’t enrolled or had missed previous examinations then updated their databases as required. When Cupid Elliot’s candidate number came up;

‘What is he still doing in Los Angeles, has he just abandoned the program?’

One of the directors of the course exclaimed to the technical staff as they updated their student database. Their systems were high tech and ran processes for several government agencies and bureaus. They had launched their own satellite into orbit to assist them to keep up with the fast paced industry. Once their systems were updated, many other systems would update their databases with that information. Their systems were dependable.

‘Initiate a full profile update for all the unregistered students. Process their locations last.’

Cupid was about to get processed. The first exam was in about a fort night and the updates would take them a few days to complete. The system gathered all the information it could about each student from every network it could connect to. Scanning their last completed assignment, browsing habits, bank account records, spending habits, call records, you name it. Finally processing location records, places visited, time spent at each location and lastly, the student’s current location. The whole process usually took about a week or two to process all the students but this time, there was going to be a slight delay processing one student account.

Most students who had deferred the course were locals. They had either started working or had moved to a common location. Common locations made it quicker and easier for the system to process similar profiles. Cupid wasn’t a local. Secondly, he hadn’t moved to a common location. He was ‘slightly’ out of range. His profile was going to take a little longer to process. Whilst all this went on Cupid was getting into the feel of the 2002 summer break. Trying to forget about his final exams ten thousand miles away with the graduating class. Then it happened.

Around 2am on Monday, 1st July 2002 the Digital Technology Institute in London completed its updates. A current location report on his GPS coordinates were requested from a satellite. It didn’t take long considering that he had his phone on charge and had just used the ATM the previous evening. A surge of energy generated around the satellite as the location scan completed. The energy shot down from the satellite into the living room where he was sleeping on the couch. It was like a lightning plasma UV ray that would burn through anything in its way. The energy lit up the room and got him hair raised, but he was still far asleep dreaming about what was happening. He woke up just in time to witness the last few seconds of the blue purple light that tuned orange before it faded out. Feeling vibrations throughout his body got him up and buzzing. Hair-raised his curiosity got him dressed up for a midnight strap, wondering what that was.

Getting outside there was a huge light not too far up in the sky; just below cloud level. It was as big as the moon. It slowly got smaller and seemed to go higher as it returned to its source. It was finally just as small as a star but it continued to move until it disappeared in its orbit.

‘How weird!’, he thought to himself.

After walking around the apartment blocks he headed back to the couch to go back to sleep. Still buzzing and feeling vibrations throughout his body.

The next morning the house mates talked about seeing a light during the night and made jokes about it. They concluded that it was probably a helicopter scouting the area. That was normal but what happened to the helicopter noise? Eventually they came to the comfortable conclusion that it was probably one of those new silent helicopters. Being the youngest in the residence and having the lowest GPA, his explanation on what it was and what he had seen seemed like a fabricated imagination.

The next night that it happened he had stayed up waiting for it. He fell asleep a few moments before it did, when the most awkward thing happened. He was coming back into the living room after walking outside for a bit. He couldn’t get into the apartment. The door was locked. He went round to the balcony and jumped over the wooden fence. He opened the sliding door and froze in a confusing disbelief. He saw himself sleeping on the couch. He was frozen trying to make some sense out of what he was seeing. Then he realized what was going on. He had fallen asleep and was experiencing a lucid dream. Just then the rays of light beamed into the room. They were brighter and more immense in the lucid dream. He found himself engulfed in the light. This time he could feel the heat. It wasn’t the burning kind of heat but it was hot. The type of heat someone can feel when they have an intense argument. He wasn’t getting burnt but it was very uncomfortable. At that moment he felt every type emotion possible; at once. He felt tickled. He felt like laughing, crying, anger, love, hate, patience, impatience and a load of other feelings all at once. As it intensified he woke up.

“Good riddance to bad rubbish.” He thought to himself as he realized he was just dreaming. Rustling palm leaves sounded quietly in the early morning darkness as they rubbed against each other. An unusually cool breeze pedaled a leaf across the graveled yard outside the bedroom window. The steel black gate of the halfway house drummed lightly as the wind pushed it backwards and forwards between the eroded concrete brick walls. A cock doodled in the distance, chocking on its saliva before it could finish. Night lights around the house kept the yard lit giving clear sight to passage around the house. A nearby street light beamed through an opening in the curtained window of Cupid’s room. As he woke into a snooze he vividly recalled the bright lights he had seen whilst he slept on the couch. The morning dawned on him and he knew he was at a halfway transit house in Accra. He hadn’t thought about how he got there or what he was doing there just yet, but he could hear housemates in a concerned discussion standing by the main gate. There was a ‘thudding’ sound on the bedroom door. The handle pulled down as a roommate opened it, holding two buckets of water from the well. The phone alarm began to ring. Cupid reached for it to check the time. It was 05:00am. He looked at the date but didn’t take much note of it. It was Tuesday, 2nd June. He rolled out of bed into slippers that were at the bedside and opened the devotional guide on his phone. He freshened up at the washroom then went to sit outside to meditate on the readings.

The morning was breaking with birds singing-in the day, awaiting the sunrise. He felt blessed to hear their sweet singing. The words from the devotional guide echoed through his mind indefinitely as he empathized with the context. Flashbacks struck through his mind, interrupting his meditation. He recalled the bright lights, the lucid dreaming, seeing himself sleeping on the couch and the odd feeling just before he woke up. Half an hour later he started on his cleaning mission, moving from his room to other areas in the house. The place seemed quite tidy already. The housemates who were awake had also started out on their chores. It was almost 6am when he put on his shoes, warmed up with stretches then left the house for a morning run. The unkempt gravel roads made an easy obstacle course. Dodging pot holes and hopping over gutters made by the runoff rain. He felt odd as he started off. He stood in one place and jumped up and down several times feeling his weight. He felt much heavier, and stronger. ‘oh well’. He ran down one route for about ten minutes then turned back for a run to the house. It was about 6.30am when he got there. One of the housemates commented on his efforts,

“Ei chale, Mr Cupid Elliot the runner man….”

Laughing and mocking him with name calling at the same time. Then it was straight to the washroom for a wash-down. Whilst dressing up he noticed his beard had grown unusually. He was confused as he recalled shaving a few days ago. Maha, the mocker was ready to head out for work, about a thirty minutes walk away. Cupid decided to escort him and get something for breakfast. ‘More exercise’ he thought to himself. Near the corner of their road a lady had setup a table selling porridge and cossè for bread. The oil was hot and ready for a fresh fry. Cupid’s appetite made up his mind to buy some for his breakfast. Maha sat on the bench and waited for his serving. It wasn’t long before they were on their way, taking snapshots and video clips of their journey.

“Are your parents back yet?” Maha asked him.

Cupid’s was thrown off his agenda for a second then asked,

“What do you mean? My parents live in South Africa.” As he thought about it he recalled, “Oh snap, my parents do have a house here.”

Looking at him in disbelief Maha broke into laughter,

“You foolish man!” He continued laughing at him.

Cupid was getting annoyed with his insulting comments as he recalled that his parent’s house was not too far from Maha’s workplace, about a ten minute drive away. He left Maha at work then set-off to his parent’s house. Around 0800am he got to the gate. The thick grey wall made it easier to recognize. He rang the bell and waited, curious about who would come to the gate and jumping against the wall to get a glance into the house. The side gate unlocked and the familiar face of the houseboy poked out. “Ah bra Elliot.” Stunned at the confrontation he replied almost without thinking. “Good morning. How is it going?” He couldn’t recall his name immediately but it was at the tip of his tongue. His body moved through the yard as though it knew it like the back of his hand. He picked his bedroom keys from the board of keys then unlocked his room. He stood by the door peering in as flashbacks recollected his memory. The curtains were closed but the sun beamed enough light through them to see everything in the room. The bed had been lifted against the window’s wall making more space in the room. There was a three seater couch against the adjacent window wall with two bedside tables on both sides, a laptop on one. An A3 brown envelope lay on the dressing table next to a black folder bag. He turned on the laptop hoping that it would have finished loading by the time he had opened the curtains and windows. He picked the brown envelope and pulled out the papers in it. A statement of account, clearance form and a Digital Technology Diploma graduation on Saturday, 27th July 2019. “2019?” He mumbled back to himself. The sheet of accounts also showed recent transaction from 2017, 2018 and 2019. The laptop had loaded Windows XP and was waiting for a login. He typed it in quite naturally as the device logged him in and loaded his profile. The date on his phone read Tuesday, 2nd July 2019.

“This is impossible.” he thought to himself.

The date on the laptop read the same thing. He dropped back into the couch and stared up at the ceiling. He began to grasp that what had happened to him the night before, was actually 17 years ago. The beam of light he had experienced in the living room must have teleported him into the future. He tried to make sense of the whole situation. The bright lights, lucid dreaming, problems he was having with the Digital Technology, the event began to seem inevitable to him. He rushed to check the contacts on his phone. As he flicked through the names only a few of them were familiar to him. Then he stopped at once. Realizing the technology he was using on the phone. “Okay, now this is another level of lucid dreaming.” He spoke back to himself. Now he believed that he was dreaming but everything felt too real to him. He decided to make a call, but to who? He started flicking through the contacts again then his finger slowed down as it dragged over the name ‘Toni Tales’. His girlfriend at the time in 2002. He pressed on call… “You have no call credit remaining! Please top up then try again.” “Really, really?” He remarked as he looked around the room for a clue to some money. There was a light brown wooden cupboard in front of him. The handles seemed like a delicate brazen bronze. It seemed to be calling to be opened. “Ooooopen me, ooooopen me….” He got up, walked towards the wardrobes and opened them. There were railings of clothes on hangars and clothes in drawers on one side of the wardrobe. Books, files and other miscellaneous items were arranged on shelves in the other.

To be continued….

Follow up in ‘Daily Devotions’ posted Thursday, 18th July 2019