"Thanks for coming over, tonight," I said.
Mom handed my best friend from middle school a glass of cold chocolate milk for us. And she quietly closed my bedroom door. Looking around, my poster decorated bedroom of rock stars and popular musicians, Albert nervously took a long, noisy gulp of chocolate milk. He had a little wet brown mustache after he was done, drinking from his clear blue glass in his hands.
"What are friends for?" he asked. Whipping his chocolate mustache off with the sleeve of his short-sleeve collared T-shirt. "You say something is up with your clocks in your house, huh, buddy?" Albert, my friend, asked, suspiciously looking around my room.
I nodded and walked over to my office desk. Where Mom had sat my alarm clock radio next to my book bag on my desk. The red flashing lights were still glowing at 12:00 A.M. At midnight. On Halloween, October 31st.
"When did this happen?" Albert asked. He took the alarm clock radio from my hands and looked at the blinking red numbers. "It doesn't make sense." He continued. Trying to set the time on the clock radio, nothing would happen. "Does this mean anything to you, buddy?" Albert asked.
Albert angrily handed the alarm radio clock back to me in frustration. "Honestly, I don't know what to think about it," I confessed. "I just want things to go back to normal, here in Supernaturalville," I said, pushing buttons on the alarm clock radio to try to set the correct time on it again. But nothing was working.
"I don't know what to tell you, buddy," Albert said, handing me back my alarm clock radio. I shook it violently. The red numbers flashed a couple of times. But it continued blinking red numbers. "It seems like somebody is playing a mean joke on you," Albert continued.
I looked at my friend, with a confused, worried expression on my face. "But why?" I asked, suspiciously. I didn't want this to get any worse than it already was getting. "Isn't it time to make it right again?" I asked. Albert shrugged and snatched my alarm clock radio out of my reach again, looking at it closely.
"Why don't you go to the battery store with your Mom?" he asked me. "And ask an expert about your strange gadget not working properly," Albert suggested. He handed my alarm clock radio back to me again. "If it only happened to you, I don't know why the rest of the town wouldn't be cursed with the way time has gone all wrong for you," Albert said.
It did seem odd I was the only affected by the curse of time stopped all by itself, without any reasonable explanation. "It stopped when you and I returned to our homes after the Halloween party last weekend," I tried explaining. "I remember coming home after getting out of my Halloween costume. And when I suddenly tried waking up the next morning, my alarm clock radio had stopped at midnight on Halloween night. Why would it only stop for me? And why didn't anybody seem affected by the sudden time zone change?" I asked my best friend, Albert Alexander. I wanted to find the answers soon. Or there would be no time for a rational conclusion to what happened to the time around me.
Albert sat up from my bed covers. He walked over to my desk. And sat down her blue glass of cold chocolate milk on my office desk. He started pacing back and forth in front of me. Trying to find a way to get time moving forward again.
"If you want my opinion, buddy," Albert began, rubbing his chin, thinking hard. "You need to see an expert magician who can give you a reason for why this happened to you, okay?" Albert said. He walked over by my office desk. Grabbed the cold, blue glass of an almost empty drunken cup of chocolate milk. And finished drinking the rest of the delicious liquid drink freshments. "Does your Mom have any chocolate chip cookies for a snack?" Albert asked, changing the subject.
I sighed and plopped my back against my bed pillow in exhaustion. "You aren't going to help me, are you, buddy?" I complained. He was beginning to get on my nerves. Albert pulled out a pack of pink, sweet flavoured chewing gum packs out of his pocket. Looking at the gum pack in his hand, Albert offered me a piece. But I refused.
Taking out a pink stick of chewing gum from the silver tin foil wrapper, Albert tossed the wrapping paper in the wastebasket under my wooden office desk. And popped the gum into his mouth, smacking it loudly.
I was feeling ready to explode. I wanted Albert out of my room! He wasn't doing me any good. I forced Albert to get out of my bedroom. I wanted to be left alone. "I get the message, buddy! I'm out of here," he cried. Opening my bedroom door, he took one last look at me with suspicion. "Look, if you don't get help soon, nobody is going to take you seriously about your time situation making you sick, buddy," Albert said.
I shut the door in his face. I watched from under the light of the door as he walked out of the hallway. I sighed heavily and put my back against the bedroom door. And slumped to the floor. "This is going to be harder than I thought," I said, sadly out loud to myself.
Suddenly, electricity sparked from the alarm clock radio on my office desk in front of me. Looking up at it, I gasped when I thought somebody was trying to put a curse on me. When a man's voice on the other side of the radio got my attention…!
"Halt! Do you be afraid of me, Master Hopscotch!" The voice sounded like it belonged to an older gentleman who might be related to me. I slowly walked over to my wooden office desk next to my bedroom window.
I started to grab hold of the alarm clock radio in my nervous, shaking hands…When suddenly, there was an electrical buzz! Making my ears pop and burn! I dropped the alarm clock radio in my hands to the ground. It landed next to my wastebasket.
"Fool! I'm not going to hurt you! I'm here to be your friend. And explain to you what's going on here," the radio jock announcer said. Gasping for breath, I stopped to think and stare at the alarm clock radio on the ground.
I started to bend down and pick it up off the floor. There was a cockroach crawling on the ground next to the clock radio! I dropped the alarm clock radio in my hands. And started to smash the ugly black cockroach trying to crawl back under my wastebasket.
After it failed to hide back under my trash can, I sighed heavily with relief. "Are you done?" the voice from the radio jock annoncer came back on to life. I jumped with fright! He startled me again. "I know you don't like to be scared, young Hopscotch," the radio announcer continued. "You will learn the truth about why I wanted you to be chosen for the time management trials. You'll be lucky to know its purpose is to make you be able to control time and space with power you have yet to unleash," he said.
"What are you saying?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. "I don't want anything in my life to be different. Normal the way it's supposed to be, okay?" I demanded, angrily. For a moment there, I thought I was going crazy talking to myself. Then, there was static coming from the alarm clock radio on the ground. As I heard laughter coming from the radio announcer loud and clear.
I backed away from the alarm clock radio on the ground and sat on my bed. With my hands covering my face. "You do not have to believe anything I tell you, kid," said the radio announcer. "But if you just listen to what I have to say, it would explain a lot of what's happening around here," the radio announcer said.
I wiped sweat from my forehead. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I didn't know how much I could trust this new stranger on the other side of the radio announcer. Could he do anything to prove time has no meaning here? Or would he make time disappear altogether with me, included?