New Friends

Most of the travellers at the Huckleberry dorm were from the past. 1984 was the future for them. This was pretty rational since most people would be curious about the technology and advancements of the future. Faith was an oddball as 1984 was the past for her and not future. This made her new roommates and fellow boarders curious about her. But she was not the only person who travelled to the past, there were a couple of others who did and she was a part of that minority.

Dormitories were created as an anchor for travellers to help them get used to their new environment. Travellers under the age of 18 had to stay in the dormitories until they reached the age of majority. Afterwards, they were encouraged to start striving towards independence. However, that was a slow process, they were not kicked out of the dorms on their eighteenth birthday. Most people left the dorms by the time they turned twenty. They still had the ability to summon their over-watchers when they were in need of help for the rest of their lifetime. For those who travelled at the age of eighteen or older, they were expected to stay at the dorms for at least two years, then they had the choice to move out. Travellers were expected to live the lives of their age mates in the time period they lived in.

People of school going age were expected to go to school. People of working age were expected to find a job and work. If necessary, certification like diplomas were provided to those who needed them. However, they could only get certification equivalent to what they had in their original time period.

The Huckleberry dormitory had 20 rooms and each room had seven bunk beds and 14 boarders. Each room had a natural unassigned leader. It was an unspoken rule that the person who had been in the room the longest was the leader. In room 5, that would be Peter.

Peter arrived at the dormitory in 1980 as a ten year old. He was only 14 years old, definitely not the oldest in the room but was the leader by seniority. Peter travelled from 1960. His first lifetime ended as a victim of war. He was Germanian. 1960 Germania was very different from the developed medical haven Germania of 2020. In 1960, Germania was at War with the neighbouring country, Côte d'Or. The war was about land claimed by both countries and was a good location for mining. It lasted a decade. The war ended in 1970 with a treaty and a deal to split the land. Peter requested to be taken to a time period very far into the future after the war had ended and to a peaceful country in a different continent so he could live his last 10 years happily. That was how Peter ended up in Cher and in the Huckleberry dorm. Four years passed in a blink of an eye and Peter only had six years left to live.

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It was the morning after Faith had arrived at the dorm and it was not only the weekend but it was a holiday. September 1st was the independence day of Cher. Most boarders tried to leave the dorm on a holiday even if they did not have plans. This was because Madam Eunice used every holiday as an opportunity to organize a thorough dorm clean up. It involved everyday chores with an inclusion of others like fixing the garden, scrubbing the walls, cleaning the vents, deep cleaning the carpets and more. All other rooms only had three to five people still at the dorm on that day but everybody from room 5 was present. This is because they would rather go through that draining clean up than lose a second of Faith's story about the future when it started.

It was 5pm and Madam Eunice finally let them go after having a meal with her. All thirteen roommates were trying to be as close to Faith's bed as possible. With four on her bed with her, eight on the two lower bunks close to her bed and Peter on his top bunk, the inquiries started. Faith had to shoulder the responsibility of being the first person from 2020 in her room. In fact, she was the first person at the Huckleberry dorm from 2020. Samir of room 11 was from 1990, Melissa of room 2 was from 2000, Annie of room 13 was from 2010 and they were the pride of their rooms. 2020 was a whole different game. It was never before seen by the current residents of the Huckleberry dorm and that made Faith's roommates so excited.

As Faith was about to answer their questions about flying cars, oppression of humans by robots, everlasting peace, the end of poverty and more, the door to room 5 burst open and boarders from other rooms flocked in to hear the stories. Faith satisfied their curiosity but the follow up questions never ended. The boarders were most impressed by the smart phones of 2020. The new Motorola Dynatac 8000X was just out and everyone wanted one. However, it was nothing compared to the smart phone of 2020. They had heard of cell phones of the 90s from Samir, Melissa and some former boarders at the dorm but never anything like what Faith was saying. Annie of room 13 was from 2010 but was selfish with her knowledge of the future.

"Why did I not choose to go further into the future? You're telling me that instead of going to the mall, I could just order anything on my smartphone and it would be delivered to me in 2020?" Sarah the girl sitting next to Faith exclaimed.

Peter was unusually quiet. He was not impressed by the smart phones, the flat screen televisions or Alexa, the helpful robot in everyone's house. He sunk into his bed in disappointment after hearing that in 2020 there were still political wars and innocent people died as a result. He just could not understand it. He wondered why the politicians sat behind fancy desks and made decisions so recklessly because it was not their life that was at stake but that of their people. He wondered why the people gave politicians so much power that they could give a soldier a gun to shoot an enemy and the soldier would do it no questions asked. He wondered why arms and ammunitions that have no daily use outside war were still being manufactured. He wondered about so many things that he could not sleep long after the crowd around his and Faith's bed had disappeared. He could not sleep at all that night. The night sky unfolded itself and the roosters in the coop crowed at the piercing of the light.