Senior Year

The Great Marvelo

“Don’t you wish you could have a second chance? Don’t you wish life could fold around you just once to bend to your will and allow you to fix all your past mistakes? Well, that is the exact reason I am here. Marvelo is my name and magic is my game. Anything you wish for I can make come true. For just the low fee of $25 all your problems can be solved.”

For a second, I believed him. I thought that maybe just this once I could be hit with a stroke of luck.

“Talk to him,” Jonathan said, pushing me toward Marvelo.

I resisted his urges, wallet in hand. “Nah, I just don’t think I can believe him. It seems too good to be true,” I responded. Boy, I could not have been more right.

It was the summer before my senior year in high school and me and some of my friends went to the beach on vacation. Jonathan, a tall, lanky guy with dark hair and glasses had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. We had been in the same classes for years. Both of us had been blessed with good height but we looked very different. I, personally, had been lifting weights and playing football for many years and still planned to in college. I was tall and muscular with light blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. I had always been a ladies man and that was a field in which Jonathan lacked some skills. This was the day my whole life changed.

“Aw come on Caleb, don’t be such a baby,” Jonathan said as he saw the look on my face. “Just pay the man, let him say some “magic words” and then come back and sit down.” He laughed as he pushed me. I’m glad one of us was laughing. I couldn’t help but be nervous. I was always the guy who over thought everything, no matter how small.

“I still just don’t know man,” I bit my lip nervously. “What if something actually does happen and it goes wrong?”

“Oh quit over thinking and live a little!” he kept pushing me not letting me stop. “Besides, nothing will happen. It’s just a gimmick.”

I was beginning to get irritated. “If I do this will you get off my back about it?”
He smiled like an idiot. “Sure thing man but you can’t chicken out.”

Then the panic seeped in. I was immediately terrified. What if this guy was for real? What if I walked up to him asking him about it and I actually get transported back in time? All these thoughts were rushing through my head as i walked to the stage and my hands were shaking as I pulled out my money. Once I got onto the stage I could feel the excitement and anticipation coming from the crowd. Everyone’s eyes were on me. Some people were looking excitedly, a couple with fear, the rest were either ogling or staring with a blank expression. Jonathan was in the crowd cheering loudly, easily heard over everyone else. I glared at him and he just laughed.

“Ah welcome good sir. And what might your name be?” Marvelo asked me.

My voice came out almost like a whisper, “C-caleb.”

Marvelo smelled like you’d think a science lab mixed with a zoo would smell. His teeth were slightly crooked and yellow. His breath reeked of cigarettes and booze. I thought to myself, Aw great, he’s just a drunk. All he’s gonna do is embarrass me. His suit was dirty and really needed to be ironed. He had a Jack Nicholson haircut and his eyes were slightly inside his head but still bulging. His brow protruded, casting shadows onto his eyes. His face was pocked and he had stubble growing in random patches all over his face. He had thick, bushy eyebrows that seemed to take up most of his face. His pupils were huge, he was probably high.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, barely able to reach them and touch both sides. “Speak up son. The people in the back can’t hear you.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat and spoke louder, “Caleb.”

“And what memory do you wish to change today Caleb?”

Immediately my most regretted memory popped into my head but I cleared my mind and came up with something random. “I wanna go back and beat up someone again.” I winked at Jonathan and he laughed.

Marvelo pulled out a big metal rod that was painted to look like a magic wand and waved it around my head. “Alakazam, alakazoom, take him back in time to correct his doom!”

I heard someone shriek then, BOOM!