I Represent Sean Rosen (12 page)

Chloe smells something. She looks over at a bunch of hot dogs rolling around on one of those old hot-dog cookers. Grandpa comes over. Chloe orders a hot dog and a Coke. Grandpa is really nice to her, but not in a flirting kind of way. She's still only twelve.

You can tell she thinks he's a super nice guy and cute, too. He explains the chemistry of how the soda fountain makes her Coke. Chloe isn't usually interested in science, but she listens really hard because she likes him and he knows how to explain things.

Grandma and Chris and Grandpa are in the basement watching Chloe in the machine. From the outside you can't tell what's going on. After a little while, Grandma hits the big red button that stops the machine. Then she pushes TALK. “Chloe . . . are you okay?” Then she pushes LISTEN.

“Why did you stop it? I wanna go back!”

Grandpa looks at Grandma, who shakes her head. Grandpa helps Chloe out of the machine.

“Oh my God. Grandpa. Oh my God.”

Grandma says to Grandpa, “See? We shouldn't have.”

“Yes, you should. It was amazing. Grandpa, I love that candy store. Chris, you should have seen Grandpa. He was so cool. Not that you're not cool now, but . . . Oh my God!”

Grandma says, “Chloe . . . I just want to be sure you understand.
Nothing
happened. That was only what Grandpa
would
have said and
would
have done if you met him more than sixty years ago. But you didn't.”

“Yes, I did.”

Grandpa finally says something. To Grandma. “It
is
only virtual reality, but I wouldn't say it's ‘nothing.'”

Chris is dying to try it, and like most grandparents, they want to be fair, so this time Grandma spits on the glass slide and Chris climbs into the machine. He wants to meet Grandma when she was his age, fifteen. He picks November 13, 1951.

We see Chris's virtual reality experience. He's in an old-fashioned high school where the guys are wearing ties and the girls are wearing dresses. Chris walks down the hall checking out how strange it all looks. He comes to a girl sitting at a table with a big sign. It says T
HANKSGIVING
F
UND
. Everyone just walks past the girl at the table and Chris is about to also, when the girl says, “Get over here.”

Chris looks around to see who she's talking to.

“You. Get over here.”

He realizes the girl is Grandma. He nervously walks over to her.

“What are you having for Thanksgiving this year?”

Chris says, “What do you mean?”

“For dinner. For Thanksgiving dinner. What does your family eat?”

“Oh . . . turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce . . . you know, the usual.”

“Usual for you, but there are families right here in this town that can't afford those things. Do you know how lucky you are?”

“I guess.”

“You
guess
? Don't you think everyone should be able to have a nice Thanksgiving with their family?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

This girl doesn't look or act like the other girls Chris sees in the school. Or like any girl Chris knows in real life. He ends up giving her all the money he has.

Suddenly, it's over. Grandma pushed the red button. Grandpa gets Chris out of the machine. He can't really talk. He just keeps staring at Grandma. Chloe wants to know what happened, but the only thing he'll say is it was something about high school.

Chris is freaked out. He has a big crush on his grandmother. He doesn't know what to do. She doesn't look like that fifteen-year-old girl now, but he can see that she's the same person. He always thought she was kind of bossy and annoying as a grandmother, and now he doesn't know what to think.

Chris says he's tired and goes upstairs. He calls his friend Zahid. Chris really wants to tell Zahid about Grandpa's invention, but since he swore he wouldn't, he can't.

Chloe comes to Chris's room. Neither of them believes what just happened. They swore not to tell anyone else, but they have to talk about it with each other. They're brother and sister, but they're also friends.

Now that they know Grandpa's virtual reality time machine actually works, Chris and Chloe think of other things they want to do with it. Chloe is having a fight with her friend April. April had a spa sleepover, and after their manicures, when April's mom took the girls to a restaurant for dinner, Taylor Swift was there and they all got her autograph. Of course Chloe heard about it and her feelings were hurt that she wasn't invited. April swears she texted Chloe about it the week before, but Chloe knows she never got that text.

If she can get some of April's DNA, Chloe can go back to the Friday in school before the sleepover and find out the truth. Will April talk to Chloe about it or try to avoid her?

All Chris really wants to do is to spend more time with his grandmother when she was fifteen, but he's embarrassed about that. There's another reason he wants to go to the past. Chris is on his high school's varsity tennis team, which is pretty good for a sophomore. He always plays doubles, but Chris is sure he could win if he got to play singles.

Last week he had the perfect chance to ask the coach, but he got scared and didn't do it. He's been mad at himself ever since. If Chris can get some of the coach's DNA, he can use Grandpa's invention to go back to that day last week and talk to the coach in virtual reality. If it goes okay, Chris will have the courage to try it in real reality.

The rest of the week is very, very interesting. Chris and Chloe each take a few more trips to the past with their grandparents' DNA. They'll never think of their family the same way they used to. Everyone was young once, and now Chris and Chloe can actually picture it.

Even Grandma, who still doesn't trust the virtual reality time machine, decides to give it another try. Roscoe, their next-door neighbor's dog, always barks like crazy when he sees Grandma and Grandpa's blue Toyota. If they want to get any sleep at night, they have to keep it in the garage.

Grandpa says, “Roscoe must have had a bad experience as a puppy with a blue car, a Toyota, or a blue Toyota.”

Grandma thinks it happened the day he brought the car home. She wasn't there, but she has a feeling Grandpa missed the driveway and almost ran over Roscoe. Grandpa still sometimes misses the driveway.

Grandma, who's very organized, finds the receipt for the car with the exact date they bought it. She gets Roscoe to lick a slide (he licks everything), then goes to Roscoe's past to wait outside for Grandpa to drive the car home that day.

Chris and Chloe's parents come home from their week in the empty part of Bolivia. It was a crazy experience, but they survived it together without any devices. They'll talk about it for years and they'll keep taking vacations, sometimes without their iPhones and sometimes without Chris and Chloe, who don't mind, because they can't wait to spend another week with their grandparents.

The movie ends with Chris and Chloe back home. We see them in school trying to collect DNA samples from April and the coach without them knowing it.

I like this movie idea. I wrote down a few notes so I'll remember it. I can't believe how much time passed since I came upstairs after dinner. Time for bed. I can't wait until tomorrow.

I
woke up thinking about Chris and Chloe and their parents and grandparents. It's amazing. I know them now, and before last night they didn't even exist.

It was weird being in school. No one knows that later today I have a meeting with one of the biggest movie companies in the world.

The day was going so slowly that I told Mr. Knapp I have to leave history fifteen minutes early for a yearbook thing. I actually don't. I try not to do this too often, but today I thought even a little less history would help.

Mr. Hollander was in the Publication Room. I wanted to tell him about my meeting, but I would feel bad if I tell someone else before I tell my parents.

School was finally over. “Hey, Ethan!” He was on his way home. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“For what? Acting school?”

“No. No more acting. I want to tell you an idea I have for a movie.” I wanted to practice. We walked to a playground a few blocks away. I pointed to a bench. “Why don't you sit there.”

“Where are you gonna sit?”

“I'm not. I'm gonna stand.” I wanted him to be able to see my face while I'm telling it, like the people in Los Angeles will later.

It took about eight minutes. I kept watching Ethan to see if he looked bored. I couldn't really tell. I finished, and it was very quiet.

Sometimes I think I know what people are thinking. But with Ethan, I have no idea. It was
so
quiet. Then he finally said something.

“I like it.”

“You do?” He nodded. “What exactly do you like about it?”

“What do I like about it?” He thought for a few seconds. “It's good.”

“Oh. Okay. Good.” I was thinking of more questions to ask him, but then he asked me one.

“Does Chris have a girlfriend?”

“No. Wait. I actually never thought about that.” I thought about it. “Yes! He
does
have a girlfriend.” I pulled out my notebook and started writing down a new part of the story with Chris's girlfriend so I would remember it. Ethan got up and walked away. “Ethan! Thanks!”

I finished writing down the idea and started walking home when I got a text.

We

It's Buzz. Should I go play Wii with him? If I go home, I'll just sit in my room and get nervous about the meeting. Everything is ready. Skype is working. I printed out my notes. I won't be able to read them on my computer during the meeting, because I'll be on Skype. I guess I actually
can
play Wii for a little while.

Nah. Nothing against Buzz, but it's a big day for me, and I don't want to spend part of it playing Wii, which I don't even like that much. And it won't be much fun being with a friend, not talking about the only thing I'm thinking about.

Not today but soon.

I went home, but I didn't even go into the house. I dropped my knapsack in the garage and got my bike. I rode to this little waterfall. Actually, it's not a real waterfall, just a place where water falls from one level down to another. It's pretty and I like the sound. I sat on the ground next to my bike for a while. I started throwing rocks into the water, but then I thought there might be fish in there, so I stopped.

When I got back, my dad was home from work. My mom is at the hospital. She's working an extra shift tonight. When my mom works the evening shift, my dad and I almost always have pizza for dinner. We both love pizza, and when it's just us, we don't have to have a salad, which is what makes it okay for my mom to have pizza for dinner.

Dad doesn't care what time we eat. When I asked him if we can make it a little later tonight, he was actually happy, because his favorite thing with pizza is TV and there's a show we like at eight. Eating in front of the TV is another thing that wouldn't happen if mom was home. Dad said he'll time the pizza order so we'll have our trays open in front of the set with hot pizza at eight.

I went upstairs to get my room ready for my Skype meeting. While I was sitting by the waterfall, I thought of a few other things I have to do. Like taking pictures of myself with my computer facing different directions, because with Skype they see you and they also see some of whatever is behind you.

My room is okay, though seeing it in these pictures makes me think it's time to get some new posters. You can love something when you're eleven, and you put up a poster for it, and then two years later you don't hate it exactly, but you don't want it on your wall anymore. And you definitely don't want it in the background for your Skype meeting.

I'm not one of those kids who looks in the mirror all the time. I know what I look like, more or less, and looking at it a lot doesn't do much for me. I can't really explain it. But since I just took five pictures of myself with my computer to pick the right background for the meeting, I got five chances to look at myself. I'm glad I did. There was a little piece of lunch on my shirt, so I changed.

I could comb my hair, but what would be the point? After a few minutes, it just goes back to looking however it wants to. My skin is okay. So far. My dad says, “Just wait.”

Skype is working fine. Since Brad gave me their Skype address, I guess I'm supposed to Skype them. The meeting is at 5
PM
their time. So when it's exactly 5:00 in Los Angeles I'll Skype them. Not before. Not after. Some people are always late for things and some people are always early, but to me, if you decide on a time together, that's the time.

I put my digital voice recorder on the desk next to my computer. I'm recording our meeting. I want to remember everything I tell them and everything they say. I may be so excited that I'll forget parts of it. I usually have a good memory, but you never know.