December 17, 1999

Who am I? I’m just a boy from Bacon County, Missouri. Well, I know I said I’m “just a boy,” but that’s not entirely true. My name is Patrick James Robinson. I’m fifteen years old, and I would say I have a pretty good life. I’m at the top of my class, I have great friends, but I’ve never been popular in the slightest. My life story so far is kind of boring, so I'll just give you the basics.

I go to Bacon County High School and my favorite subject is science. My teacher in that class, Ms. Monica, is incredibly nice and especially pretty. To give you an idea of how young she is, my parents have been married longer than she’s been alive. But we’re very close and, to be honest, I’m pretty sure she would marry me if I was over nineteen.

I’d taken up a hobby in programming and building computers back in fifth grade, and it’s sort of become my thing. While my peers spend their weekends playing and hanging out, I stay in my room and build homemade personal computers. However, I still save some time for fun with my two friends: my older sister Emily and my friend Freddie. The three of us are all really close and we do almost everything together. We’re like the ultimate power trio that can’t be stopped.

Freddie’s my best friend and unofficial wingman. He was like the brother I never had (not counting my biological brother who’s half my age). He’s an incredible athlete, but he has never had any interest in being on any school sports teams. He can jump higher than anyone in my class, run faster than anyone I’ve ever known without getting tired, and has phenomenal reflexes. But he never paid attention to what was going on around him at school, thus nobody paid attention to him. For some reason Freddie would occasionally disappear for a few days, but whenever he came back, he always brought something cool and bizarre for me. He claimed that it was because of his dad’s job, but no one had ever met either of his parents and he never talked about them to anybody. No one even knew his last name, for that matter. He also had weird habits, like always wearing sweatpants, gloves, and pullovers, even in the summertime.

Emily’s my older sister by fifteen months. Despite the fact that we’re brother and sister, we’re more friends than anything else. When we were little, we were practically inseparable. She’s typically really laid back and fun, but occasionally she asserts herself as the older sibling. Usually she’ll opt to bend the rules when given the chance, and I’m always willing to go along with my sister. She shares my interest in computers and makes a pretty good assistant.

Our lives were relatively normal, until one fateful day Freddie started acting unusually strange. It all started on December 17, 1999. It was the last day of school before Christmas break, and all the other students were saying goodbye to one another. Freddie had vanished the day before, so I sat alone in the corner of the room thinking about the PC I was working on. While the rest of the class chatted amongst themselves, Ms. Monica walked over to me.

“Hi, Patrick,” she smiled.

“Hey, Ms. Monica,” I replied, making eye contact with her.

“What are you doing over here?” she asked.

“Not much,” I answered. “Just thinking about one of my projects.”

“Patrick,” she said, “I hope you have a good Christmas and that your project works out. Stay smart over the break, okay?”

“You got it,” I promised. “I’ve got no doubt this will be the best Christmas ever. What about you?”

“Oh, my boyfriend and I are going to visit his parents back in Tennessee. I’m excited to finally meet them.”

“I hope that goes well,” I said.

“Me too,” she agreed. “Well, I think I’ll leave you to your work. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” I said as Ms. Monica walked away.

I couldn't wait until 12:00 p.m. when the bell rang to release us. My family and I had a long, relaxing break ahead of us. I was packing up when Freddie sprinted into the classroom and came over to me. I was surprised to see him back so soon, especially this late in the school day.

“Freddie,” I said enthusiastically. “How’s it been?”

“Patrick!” he whispered, ignoring my question, “I’ve got something extremely important you need to know, but I can’t tell you here in the classroom.” We started for the door, when Ms. Monica stopped us.

“Just where are you boys heading?” she firmly asked.

“We’re…going to the bathroom…” Freddie stammered, looking at me nervously, “together…in a group…” I proceeded to elbow him in the stomach, which seemed to hurt me more than him.

“Next time, I’ll do the talking,” I whispered.

“Well,” replied the teacher, “the bell will ring in–”

“Ten… Nine… Eight…” yelled the other students.

“Well, boys,” shrugged Ms. Monica as I rubbed my elbow, “never mind. Have a good one.”

“I’ll see you after school,” said Freddie. We walked to the front exit when two bullies stopped us. Their names were Tony and Marcus and they patrolled the school looking for trouble everywhere they went.

“Well, well, well,” cackled Tony, punching his palm, “if it isn't the fake little genius himself and his useless friend!”

“You leave Patrick out of this!” demanded Freddie.

“What are you gonna do about it, Freddie?” laughed Marcus.

“C’mon, guys,” I said, trying to sound smooth, “you’re probably better than this. Don’t you have other things to do?”

“Like what?” replied Marcus. “Go to the store and see if Freddie’s dad is still looking for milk?”

Freddie froze briefly as if he was thinking about something terrible, when he suddenly kicked Marcus in the gut. Marcus crumpled to the ground in agony.

“Run, Patrick,” Freddie yelled. “I’ll come by your house!” I tried to run, but Tony grabbed my shirt collar.

“Stop right there, Robinson!” he demanded. “I’m gonna toss you in the garbage where human trash like you belongs!”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I wasn't the best at hand-to-hand combat, but it seemed like there was no other choice. As Tony dragged me to the nearest trash can, I hastily drove my left heel into his shin. Tony collapsed, dropping me and giving me plenty of time to escape to the doors.

“Come back here!” Tony yelled.

“Eh,” I shrugged from a safe distance, “we’ll see about that.”

I glanced around the corner, only to see the principal headed our way. I followed my friend’s orders and ran outside to the carpool lot, roughly hearing the word “detention” directed at Freddie, Tony, and Marcus. I did what he would’ve wanted me to do and found my mom’s car, got inside, and yelled, “Let’s go!”

“What’s the sudden rush?” my mom asked.

“Don't ask,” I said. “Just drive!”

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, mom dropped me off at the house and drove away to the elementary school to pick up my brother, Jake. I was home alone for the next hour. Freddie never came by or even called, so I eventually gave up waiting for him. I spent the next hour lying on my bed playing Mario Kart on my N64, listening to my Smash Mouth album, eating a bag of Doritos, and enjoying the first day of Christmas Break. That’s the sort of stuff I usually do when I’m bored or out of ideas. It’s unproductive for sure, but it beats tagging along with mom to pick up Jake. That’s when my dad came home and walked by my room.

“Hey, dad,” I said halfheartedly, not diverting my eyes from the game.

“Patrick,” he said, “Freddie's here!”

I immediately turned off the TV and rushed to the front room. When I arrived at the door, Freddie was standing on the porch with two boxes in his arms. One was pretty small and wrapped in red and green-striped paper, and the other box, which was wrapped in plain brown paper, was rather large and had “do not open ‘til 2000” written on it.

“Hey, Freddie,” I greeted him. “How was detention?”

“What detention?” he asked, looking puzzled.

“The principal gave you–”

“Nope. If he did, it was for Tony and Marcus.”

“Oh, okay. At least you’re finally here.”

“Yeah, and I brought something good.”

We went into my room and I opened the first box. Inside was a small rectangle with a screen covering most of the front. It had four buttons: a big one under the screen and three on the sides. It also came with a long charging cord with an unusual connector.

“What is this?” I asked.

“It’s called an iPhone 7,” he explained. “It’s the best thing ever.”

“This is the smallest cell phone I’ve ever seen!” I exclaimed. I couldn't see any visible keypad or any way to make it turn on until Freddie held down the power button to start it up. It came with a virtual contact list that only contained two numbers: Freddie’s number and the number for my home phone. I was surprised that I had never heard of such an advanced cell phone before, and I didn’t see any trace of the company who made it. After I explored the phone’s features with Freddie’s guidance, I put it on my nightstand and turned back to my friend. “Wanna watch a movie, or play some Super Smash Bros., or something?” I asked.

Freddie was just about to say something when his pants rang. He pulled another iPhone out of his pocket and answered the call.

“Yes?” he answered. Long pause. “You’ve found it?” Pause. “Great! Where are you?” Super long pause. “Oh. I see. You must be exhausted. I’ve got the perfect guy to keep it safe.” Pause. “Yep, it’s him. We’ll meet you there.” As the call went on, my expression changed from confusion to fear and then right back to confusion.

“What was that about?” I asked, suddenly very concerned.

“Uh... gotta go, Patrick!” he said, making a mad sprint for the door. I picked up my iPhone and attempted to call Freddie, but it simply went to voicemail. I decided to just chill and watch a movie, then dad came back in with big news.

“Guess what, Patrick,” he announced, “at our town’s New Year celebration, you get to launch the fireworks!” I cheered. This had been something I’d been waiting to do for years, and now it was finally time, now at the turn of the millennium.

As he walked away, I found my new Star Wars Episode I tape (which was also from Freddie) and put it in the VCR, immediately skipping to the best parts. As I was watching the movie, I heard the garage door open. Moments later the distinct sound of small feet echoed through the house, coming closer and closer by the second. Oh no, I thought, pausing the TV.

Mom and my seven-year-old brother Jake had come home from school, and from the looks of it, they had made an additional stop at the store. Jake ran into my room with a new Nerf gun that he had already opened and filled with darts on the way home. Jake immediately proceeded to shoot me before I hastily grabbed another gun and shot him in the hand. He dropped the gun and I tickled him until he started screaming. We laughed and I added the new gun to our Nerf arsenal.

“Guess what I got you, Jake?” I told him.

“Whatya get me, Patrick?” he started asking, jumping up and down.

“It’s the latest and greatest,” I said, walking over to my junk drawer. “I call it the Walkboy!” I opened the drawer and pulled out a modified cassette Walkman I had made for Jake: It worked like a Walkman, but it had an AM/FM radio built into it so that he could make his own mixtapes.

“I love it!” yelled Jake gleefully. He sat down on my bed and I turned the TV back on to Star Wars.

“You know what this movie needs,” said Jake, lying on his stomach with his feet up in the air, “is more of Jar Jar Binks.” I looked at him like he was crazy (which he was), but decided to just not say anything. But while we were lying down watching the movie, my new iPhone buzzed. As I picked it up, I saw a text message from Freddie that read “Park at midnight.” I figured it probably had to do with the weird conversation he had on the phone earlier, so I texted him back.

“Are we meeting the person you were talking to earlier?” I asked.

“Yes,” Freddie replied almost immediately.

“Who were they?” I asked.

“All will be revealed tonight,” my friend replied, being annoyingly ambiguous. I gave up trying to get information out of him and turned my phone off just as the podracing scene started.

“So, uh, how was your day?” I asked Jake, trying to make small talk in case he tried to ask about the texts.

“It was pretty good,” he said. “We had our class Christmas party this morning and after that we watched a few Christmas movies and drank hot chocolate.”

“Lucky,” I muttered, remembering when I was little and in his position. Jake and I continued watching the movie and I tried my hardest to get the texts off my mind, but I just couldn’t.

* * *

Later at dinner my mom apparently noticed that something about me was off. I guess subtlety was never one of my strong suits, and it showed when I wasn’t swiftly devouring my food as usual.

“So Patrick, dad told me that Freddie came over after school,” said mom.

“That’s right,” I said, as I chewed for an extra long time on a small bite of my chicken. “But he didn’t stay for long.”

“Which is weird,” mom continued. “He’s not one to just show up and leave.”

“True,” agreed my older sister Emily. “He’s usually here all day when he comes over.”

“Well, he wanted to meet me at the park tonight,” I replied. “He was kinda vague about it.”

Suddenly both my parents glared at me. “At what time?” they both asked in unison.

“It’s… at… midnight,” I stuttered, knowing full well that my parents wouldn’t let me out past 8:30. I sighed as mom, dad, and Emily shook their hands. “What are we doing over break?” Emily asked.

As I sat in defeat, Emily winked at me. I tried not to smile so that my parents wouldn’t get suspicious.

Mom and dad talked about what we would be doing but I didn’t pay much attention. My sister and I hastily finished our chicken parm, staring at each other the whole time as if we were in a race to eat the fastest. The two of us finished our dinner just as mom and dad stopped talking and nodded as if we had been listening to anything they had said.

“May Patrick and I be excused?” Emily asked.

“Certainly,” said mom. Emily and I cleaned our plates and went upstairs to my room. The current time was 7:30, giving us four hours until we needed to leave.

“So what happened when Freddie told you to meet him at the park?” asked Emily.

“At midnight; after school he gave me this,” I answered, picking up the iPhone 7. “It’s called an iPhone 7 and it’s the best cell phone in the world. He got a call right before he left and then texted me to meet him at the park a few minutes later.”

“This thing’s incredible,” said Emily, playing with the features. “Who makes these?”

“I have no idea,” I said as my sister gave me the phone back. “There’s no trace of a brand anywhere. But I don’t know how this hasn’t caught on.”

“We can ask Freddie about the phone later,” said Emily, sitting down on my bed. “For now we need to focus on sneaking out. Mom and dad are usually in bed by 10:30, and Jake’s asleep by 9. We’ll pretend to get ready for bed sometime around 10:30. Then once they’re all asleep, we’ll take my car and go to the park at 11:30.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, lying down beside her. We both knew that this was going to be a long night.