The Time Capsule

Greg

I chuckle as the sound of Queen echoes through my back yard. Of course Amber would change the music at last minute. When Selena came rushing down the aisle I was worried that something had happened. Two scenarios flashed through my mind; she got kidnapped or changed her mind. Both of them didn’t have good outcomes.

It was only when Selena sent a smile my way that I felt a little bit more at ease, but not totally. I still wanted to know what was taking so long. “I’m about to go drag her down here.” I mumble, watching the sky slowly darken as the sun goes down. We had wanted to get married at sunset and that was quickly fading away.

Selena lets out a laugh, obviously hearing me under my breath, “She’ll be here, don’t worry. Give us two minutes before you totally freak.” With that she hurried back down the aisle, finished with whatever she was doing. No more than a minute later Amber came walking in to no other but “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Amber playfully glared at me as she read her not out loud. Our deal on when to open the letters was agreed upon not too long after our engagement. We thought it would be a cute and “fun addition to our wedding” as Amber put it. She was right. The look Amber was giving me as she read aloud the sappy love story that as her note was priceless. But it also made me nervous about my own note. Amber told me it was “sweet,” and in girl terms, that means I must have done something right. But do I really want to have written a “sweet” letter as a fourteen year old?

Amber finishes up hers with a blush and I smile at her, “I guess that makes it my turn. Though I don’t know why anyone would want to know what’s going through the mind of a 14 year-old boy.” The crowd laughs as I unfold the piece of paper.

Dear Future Greg,

How’s life at 30? I can’t imagine all of the technology there must be now. Do you have flying skateboards like in Back to the Future? Or what about robot-maids? I always thought it would be-

Amber coughs, cutting me off. I look up from the letter, “skip that part,” she whispers, “third paragraph on the fourth page.”

I follow her directions and flip through the pages, quickly scanning them and noticing that I went on for quite some time talking about technology and the future. This action once again got the crowd laughing, “sorry guys, I guess I wasn’t the most interesting teenager.” Finally I found the ‘sweet’ part of the letter that Amber was talking about.

Now onto the topic of girls. It’s seems that one finds himself in a hard place when there are only two girls he’s capable of holding a conversation with. And the obvious one to have any interest in is already taken and has had dibs on since before time. So that leaves me with Amber. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with Amber. She’s smart, because of me. She has perfected her cheerleading, because of me. She can even now ballroom dance, because of, well, my mom and me.

And it’s not like I’m settling, Ambers great, fantastic, amazing. She’s my best friend so of course I’d feel this way. I’m sure a relationship between us is inevitable; statistically we’re bound to fall for each other. Might as well start that now instead of later. That way we won’t have to be the two awkward people left out when we’re around the sickly lovey-dovey couple of James and Selena.

That’s the logical reasoning for being with her. There’s really no other way to look at it. James told me that the fact that I hate it when she’s dating some other guy or how I get nervous around…that that means I love her. But honestly, that’s not logical. That doesn’t mean anything. There’s no proof of that, no facts. So until he can show me facts, I’m going to stick to the logical side of the things. The factual side. And the factual sides telling me to date her.

That concluded the ‘sweet’ part of the note. My fourteen year old self went back to talking about robots and space-travel. We finished out the ceremony smoothly and continued onto the reception.

Amber is officially my wife. The thought couldn’t stop replaying in my head. The danger this would bring to both of us…to our kids.

“stop it.” Amber says, sitting next to me at our table.

“stop what?” I ask, looking up from my plate.

“thinking about ‘what ifs.’ Thinking about the dangers and asking if this was the best decision for me. All of what’s going through your head right now. Stop it.”

I smile, grabbing her hand in mine. “of course it’s the best decision for you. But that doesn’t mean it’s not-”

She covers my mouth with her other hand, “shut-up. It’s not dangerous for me, or you, or the little mini-us that are going to be running around the house soon. We will be fine Greg. We will be safe and happy and raise super-duper intelligent kids that will invent some invisible shield at the young age of five.” I laugh with her hand still covering my mouth. “oh, you like that idea, huh?” I nod my head and she smiles, “are you going to stop with the worrying?” I shake my head, knowing that that was the honest answer. “right, because that’s what fathers are supposed to do, huh?” I roll my eyes at her, motioning for her to let go of me. “I don’t know. This silent Greg is pretty nice.”

Before I could respond or she had a chance to let go, Selena and James walk up. “Greg going on about the dangers?” Selena asks, motioning to our position.

“yup. How are you guys?”

“well, besides the fact that everyone’s asking when the next wedding will be, we’re fine.” James mentions, not sounding too happy about the attention they’ve been getting. Which was funny because I swear he was going to pop the question once again tonight. At least that’s what we had been discussing earlier in the evening. Selena and Amber continue to talk about something, and as Amber gets more into the conversation, her hold loosens, finally making it so that I can free myself.

“James, can I have a word with you?” I ask, nodding my head to step away from the girls. He nods and follows me a little ways away. “You’re not going to chicken out, are you?”

His eyes finally show how nervous he actually is, something he’d obviously been masking for most of the night. “Dude, you haven’t seen her reaction. She’s just been laughing and making some comment about how we have time for that.”

“Dude,” I mock him, “you know her better than I do! That’s her reaction to any awkward conversation.”

“but what if it’s not? What if she’s not joking around this time?”

“are you listening to yourself? You sound like you have discussed this with her, but you have and she told you she’d say yes when the time came. You shouldn’t be nervous for an answer, you shouldn’t be nervous at all.”

“but-”

“no buts!” I push him back toward the girls, “now go ask the damn woman before you both freak out over the rumors going around.”

James grumbles as he shuffles back over to the table. I watch from afar as he takes her hand and leads her somewhere. Amber gets up and makes her way over to me, “what’s going on?”

I smile down at her, “be patient, you’ll find out soon. In the meantime let’s go dance.” She agrees and we walk out to the over packed dance floor. “So, what happens now?” I ask, holding her closely

“Now, we go home and work and have mini-Gregs.” She jokes, leaning her head against my shoulder.

“and what if I want mini-Ambers?”

“well then that’s too bad.”

“you do realize, honey, that we can’t choose the gender of the baby, right?”

Amber steps back and stares up at me, “you mean, with all that genius stuff going on inside that head of yours you have yet to come up with a way to mix the x and y chromosomes?” She asks, sounding smart and stupid at the same time. “and I thought I was marrying super-genius.”

I pull her back into my arms, “I’ve got to leave some stuff for the next generation to invent.”

“I guess. Fine then, we can have some mini-Ambers running around too.” I roll my eyes and start dancing with her once again, waiting for James and Selena to return from the tree house.

“Amber!!!” We both turn around in time for Amber to be jumped on by none other than a very excited Selena. James was standing behind her, grinning.

“What was that about girl?” Amber asks, getting her balance back.

Selena holds out her left hand, “it’s your turn to be maid of honor.”