From Bullied To Boss

Jackie lay on his bed as he usually did at night, haunted by the nightmares of past mistakes and hating himself for being so stupid. It had taken more than ten years for him to control his fear of the mob; the combined peer pressure of his family, friends and associates. The bullying had started in high school, after his parents unknowingly bought him a pair of shoes typically worn by the effeminate. From then on, Jackie was terrified by the fear of what society would think of him, and petrified by the shame being tacked onto him on a daily basis. For the next few years, he avoided conversations or unnecessary socializing, too embarrassed to even ask for a refund for an incorrect meal order at a restaurant.

Diving into his games as a mean of escape, the hours of countless gaming meant that his grades deteriorated, suffering from a lack of work, effort and passion.

On the rare occasions that he did venture out, it seemed every eye was judging him, condemning him and disapproving of his every move. Society was a scary monster, made larger and more frightening by Jackie’s unnecessary fear of people.

The scars of emotional trauma bound Jackie to his fears, effectively incapacitating him from succeeding at anything, making friends or enjoying his life. It was as if his friends and family treated him as a puppet, controlling his every move with strings attached.

But probably the most important lesson Jackie learned over the years was that he had a purpose on earth, not just some useless bag of skin and bones leeching off society. Realizing how important his contribution to society could be, he gained a much needed confidence boost to stand up against his peers, make an effort to earn a living, and to be bold enough to engage and talk with others no matter how afraid he was.

Waking up the next morning, Jackie put his memories behind him and continued working on his machine, which he code named The Regret Buster. It was a sophisticated time machine, meant to get him back to his teenage years before his whole life started to fall apart. Armed with the wisdom he had so eagerly sought; a purpose to motivate his actions and an eagerness to exonerate restore his image in society. He would no longer be a frightened, rebellious and perverted creeper, but he would challenge those who would mock him, and live a life so blamelessly that no one could shame him any longer.

Driven by the many jokes made about him by fellow students, the pain of being pushed around, and the shame of the exposure of his faults, he worked on, eager to rebuild a life he could be proud of.

Is he doing it in the washroom?

I can’t believe he was watching kiddy porn!

Did you see him? He got excited!

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Jackie tried hard to focus as his mind replayed the countless times he was heckled, laughed at or even threatened.

If you don’t regret it, your family will abandon you.

If you don’t stop, Mom’s going to have to call the police.

Hearing his stomach growl, he paused his work and went downstairs to make his own breakfast, looking out at his small backyard where several fruit trees were in bloom. The plant that was the most fruitful and that he was most proud of was his blueberry bush; pruned every year to yield as much blueberries as it possibly could. Seeing the masses of white flowers being pollinated by the bees, Jackie knew that there would once again be a bumper crop of the small navy-blue fruits.

It had been nearly twelve years since he had moved out of his parent’s house, taking on life headlong and finding his stride. Inventing was his hobby, but he was also a successful writer, publishing more than ten books selling thousands of copies every year.

He had also wondered if he should make use of his future knowledge if he were to travel back in time, such as buying cryptocurrency, investing in electronics or exposing terrorist cells to the authorities. But he figured that getting rich or famous was not his goal. His goal was to relive his life so that he could avoid the embarrassing pitfalls he had made in the past.

After breakfast, Jackie checked on how his books were selling online before getting back to working on his time machine. Screwing on several last bolts and adding some finishing touches, he hit the power button and the machine roared to life, purring like an electric car. Seeing the dazzling neon green lights emanating from the core of the machine, he double-checked the dates he had inputted on the keypad to ensure he would be going back to the correct time-frame. Reassuring himself that going back to his grade ten year at school would be best, he put on the glove connected to the machine and pressed the button to start the process. The lights began glowing even brighter, and his body began to feel like he was being pulled apart, screaming but with no sound coming out. Closing his eyes and yelling at the top of his lungs, he found himself screaming in his childhood home, with his parents running to his room to find out what was wrong.

“Jackie! Are you okay? What happened?” His mom asked.

“Oh, um. Hi Mom. There’s nothing wrong, I’m just…practicing my yelling for drama class. Sorry if I scared you.”

Relieved to find her son okay, Jackie’s mom breathed a sigh of relief. “Well dinner’s almost ready, so come on down in about fifteen minutes, okay?’

Nodding his head in agreement, Jackie walked to the washroom mirror and was astonished to find himself looking at a skinny sixteen year-old boy, with short black hair and pimples dotting on his face. Touching his chin where his peach fuzz beard used to be, he realized his facial hair had not even begun to start growing yet. Realizing that his time travel was a success, he let out a smile on his face, his mind eager with anticipation of all he could do with the knowledge of what the future would bring.

Leisurely strolling into the kitchen, Jackie could smell the wonderful food being cooked, but he suddenly realized that his relatively new dietary restrictions would be unbeknownst by his parents. Tapping his mother’s shoulder, Jackie tried to make an excuse for himself not to eat the Chinese sausages and scallops being cooked. “Uh, hey Mom. I…um…don’t feel like eating the meat. Is it alright if I just eat vegetables?”

Looking quizzically at her son and raising her eyebrows, his mom immediately suspected something and probed into what the issue was. “What’s wrong Jackie? I thought Chinese sausages were your favourite.”

“They are! I mean, they were. But I just want to eat vegetables for a while if that’s okay.”

Helping his mom set the dishes onto the table, his dad came in after just finished cutting the grass. Jackie’s mom immediately relayed his strange behaviour to her husband, who was equally as shocked as she was.

“My son a vegetarian? What happened bud? It’s not like you to act like this.” Said his father, as he sat down at the table after washing his hands.

“Guys, guys. It’s no big deal. I can eat meat, I just want to choose not to eat it for the time being. Now can we stop probing into my motives and eat dinner before it gets cold?”

Leaning over to her husband, Jackie’s mom whispered quietly to him about their son’s strange behaviour. “Is it just me or is our son a bit more talkative and braver to stand up for himself? It’s like he aged several years.”

Nodding his head in agreement, he also believed his wife was right; there was something odd going on with their son.

As dinner finished, Jackie instinctively helped to wash the dishes, something he would have never done before, which astonished his parents all the more. Even more bewildering was that Jackie seemed to have lost interest in his videogames and was spending as much time as he could studying for an upcoming test.

The next morning, after being dropped off at school, Jackie’s schoolmates and teachers were just as confused by his apparent change in behaviour. No longer the shy, timid and quiet kid in the back, he was brave, courageous, talkative and willing to even make eye contact; something he would have rarely done before. Furthermore, his parents had reported that yesterday, it seemed Jackie had stopped giving in to his perverted habits, as if he had changed and became a completely new young man.

In his geography class, Jackie was impressing everyone, and in particular his teacher. “Condensation leads to precipitation and runoff then back to evaporation and transpiration to complete the water cycle.”

Clapping his hands, the geography teacher was astonished that the shy Jackie was seemingly gone and was replaced with a confident and proud individual. “Alright Jackie, here’s a question for bonus marks. What types of fault lines are there in the earth’s crust?”

“Strike-split, dip-split and oblique-slip.” Jackie said without any hesitation.

Shaking his head in admiration, the teacher couldn’t help but commend his bright student on his newly found wisdom and bravery.

Back at home, Jackie was feeling like he was on the top of the moon, but he had another important decision to make. His father was about to have a major fall from a ladder while decorating inside, and Jackie knew that he could prevent his father’s serious injury if he held onto the ladder. But he also knew that if he changed that part of his history, there would be ripple effects, creating a different future that he might not be familiar with.

Hearing his dad carrying the ladder to the hallway, he knew he had to make a decision now, or he would regret it for the rest of his life. Bounding downstairs, he helped his dad set the ladder, removing the carpet on the floor first and holding the ladder as his father placed several items on the top shelf. When his dad came back down, he thanked his son, before putting the ladder away back to the garage.

Going back upstairs to finish his mathematics homework, the formulas, rules and procedures were all coming back to him, and he blasted through each question, gaining confidence with each correct answer.

Heading downstairs for dinner, his mom had made a suitable meal, as per the request of Jackie that there be no pork or shellfish. Setting a steaming dish of tomatoes, egg and strips of beef on the table, the family of three began eating, casually chatting about the day’s events.

As they were enjoying their meal, Mom gave a signal to Dad to inquire about what made their son act so differently all of a sudden. They were happy with the new Jackie, but they were also very much curious as to what made him change.

“Jackie, um, your mother and I have noticed that you’ve changed quite a bit recently…”

“Oh no! Did I do something wrong?” asked Jackie.

“No, no. It’s just that, we’re wondering what made you change your behaviour so suddenly? I mean we’re glad that you’ve grown to be more responsible, brave and talkative, but how did you do it?” Finished with the question, Dad looked over at Mom to see if he did alright.

Smiling back at his parents, Jackie gave them a simple response: “Let’s just say I have a wise head on young shoulders.” Continuing to eat, he missed the shrug from his dad as his mom shook her head, still just as confused as before but grateful for her son’s new attitude.

The next day, Jackie signed up for the badminton tournament happening next week, but he needed a partner to play with him. Asking his friend Micah, who was shocked that he had the guts to ask him to play, they both decided to form a team and registered for the tournament. Heading upstairs to his math classroom, he sat down early and reviewed the lessons he had read in advance, making sure he understood all the concepts ahead of time. When it came to the pop quiz, he blazed through it and when it was marked by a fellow classmate, he easily got a perfect score of ten out of ten, which was a drastic improvement from his mediocre result last week. Handing his quiz to the teacher, who smiled and commended Jackie for his improvement, he then went back to working on the practice questions posted on the board.

At lunchtime, Jackie took out the blueberry and white chocolate pancakes he had made that morning and slowly cut them into bite-size pieces and began devouring them with a voracious appetite. Finishing up the pancakes as quickly as he could, he then fast-walked to the gym and signed in to the badminton tournament that was about to start. Hailing down his partner Micah, they chose their rackets and headed to the organizer who was determining the match ups for the first two games.

Eager to make use of his eleven years of experience playing badminton in his old life, Jackie spun his racket in his hand, smiling and imagining what the others would think after seeing his professional skills.

Thundering down yet another smash, Jackie sealed their second victory, making them one of the few teams undefeated in the first round.

Shaking his head in admiration, Micah asked when Jackie started playing badminton and how he got to be so good.

“It’s just practice and hard work honing in on my skills. I’ve been playing for quite some time now, and I guess it shows, eh?”

After recording their scores and handed them to the organizer, there was quite the buzz around Jackie and Micah being one of the frontrunners, and the team to beat.

Wiping down and changing back into their uniforms, Jackie and Micah said goodbye as they rushed to their new classes as the bells tolled the end of lunch break. Entering his information and communications technology class, he got to work coding and designing a website, making use of his coding skills acquired during his time studying at an institute of technology.

“Have you written HTML before Jackie? Your work looks like it came from someone experienced with the language.” Asked the teacher, clearly impressed.

“I’ve studied a bit of programming before, nothing major though.” Admitted Jackie.

“Well keep up the good work.”

Turning back to his work on the computers, Jackie hid his displeasure with the old computers, having been used to much superior computing power in his past life. The computer had taken forever to boot up, and it seemed every update to the script had a three to five second delay; agonizing to Jackie, who began to miss his five-core processor laptop.

“Yo, yo Jackie! I said could you help me with debugging this code?” asked Steve, who was waving his hands trying to get Jackie’s attention.

“Yeah, sure man, here, let me take a look.” Said Jackie, scooting over to the terminal.

“Were you daydreaming back there? It seemed you were off somewhere else in your mind.”

“Yep, just thinking back about home, that’s all. Plus this slow potato computer is driving me nuts.” Looking over at the code, Jackie quickly saw the error and informed Steve on how to fix it.

“You’ve got two header tags in the first portion but only one ending tag. You need another one to match it up.”

After the ICT class ended, Jackie headed upstairs to his locker and took out his science textbook, which included subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics. Remembering the trouble he had gone through after opting not to take a physics course, he made a mental note to register for Physics 11 in the upcoming year, along with the other sciences. He also thought about entering the International Baccalaureate program to give himself a heads start in university.

Picking a seat near the middle of the classroom, the teacher prepared to give a lesson on oxidation and reduction reactions. Like many other teachers and students, the teacher had heard of Jackie’s sudden rise in IQ and diligence, and decided to see how much Jackie knew about the subject.

Having read the chapter in the textbook beforehand, Jackie was able to easily answer the plethora of questions the teacher asked to the class, once again impressing everyone around him.

At the end of his classes, Jackie was near exhausted, and thanked his mom for picking him and his father up at school only five minutes past three. Jackie remembered in the past the boredom of waiting in school till six or seven, when his busy mom was finally free to pick him up.

“How was school today?” asked his mom as Dad got in the SUV.

“Not bad, me and Micah actually have a chance of winning the badminton tournament. We were undefeated today. Two for two games!” Boasted Jackie.

Jackie’s mom also inquired about her husband’s day, and he was eager to tell them what happened. “My assistant said he’s going back to Hong Kong for a vacation! It just reminded me of how long it’s been since we last went. Jackie was only eleven when we went for the second time.”

“Don’t like Hong Kong much, especially after what happened with my eyes getting infected and such.” Admitted Jackie.

“But your family is there Jackie, you have a duty to visit them, especially your grandparents.”

At his father’s mention of grandparents and extended family, Jackie became alert and brought up his guard as he remembered the conflicts with family that ultimately resulted in him leaving the house. Indeed, he knew it would be best to leave the house early, but as he could not afford a house or rent on his own, Jackie opted to wait till after grade twelve before making the move and potentially finding his landlord from his past life. Biting his lip, Jackie tried hard not to express his resentment at how his parents had betrayed him, causing him so much pain during his late teens and early twenties.

The short drive home was awkward, as the silence in the car was deafening. Mom tried to lighten the mood by playing some music form a cassette, to which she and Dad began to sing word for word.

Looking out he window at the farmland whizzing by, Jackie longed for the day when he could move out and make the most of his new and second chance at life. When they arrived back home, Jackie went back to finishing his homework, but was troubled by another choice he would have to make. It would soon be time that the costliest natural disaster in American history would take place.

Closing his eyes for a brief moment to think, he could still recall the news stories of the hurricane, and his astonishment at the sheer power of the disaster.

Over eighteen-hundred people have lost their lives and damages are to exceed a hundred and fifty billion dollars.

Shortages of food and clean water are plaguing the city of New Orleans, where an estimated two million residents had already fled their homes.

FEMA and the national guard have been deployed to help evacuate and rescue those still stranded in the flooded city.

Staring at his cathode ray computer screen, he opened his email application and started writing an anonymous email to the NOAA department in the US. Warning them of a possible category three hurricane going to hit the southeastern states in about five months later in August, he described the damage and breaching of the levees that would happen if nothing was done to mitigate against it. Sending the email, he didn’t know whether they would take him seriously, or if they would act and prevent the natural disaster’s damaging aftermath.

Returning to his homework, he breezed through the questions, but with hurricane Katrina lingering in the back of his mind.

Have I done enough? Will they listen to me? Will they find out that I’m from the future? Thought Jackie.

Going downstairs after hearing his mother’s call, Jackie sat down to eat with his family, waiting for any response from the NOAA and whether he had provided enough warning.

Several weeks later, Jackie received an email back from the NOAA, who shockingly had taken his email warning seriously. They thanked him for alerting them of the weakness in some of the levees and assured him that repairs are being done even as they speak. They also said they will keep a close eye on the hurricane if it does develop as Jackie had described. Municipalities and states have been warned and were advised to prepare for strong winds, storm surge and widespread flooding.

At the end of the email, the NOAA expressed their gratitude and respected Jackie’s wish to remain anonymous. They said they didn’t know how he knew about the forthcoming storm, but would appreciate future warnings of natural disasters. They also invited him to join their team, working for the administration as a mitigation and damage control officer.

Smiling as he read the email, Jackie suddenly realized that perhaps his duty was not just to avoid the pitfalls and mistakes he had made in the past, but perhaps it was also to help prevent the loss of life and property as best as he could. He could be…a hero.