Hip-Hop Time Machine

5

"What?" I asked. "So, wait.. Was.. No, I wasn't dreaming."

"No, you weren't," Brandon assured me. "You really went back in time. What date did you travel to?"

"Um," I was still processing the information. "No-November 16th, 1994, I think."

"Have you found Eric yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, right away. We spent basically the whole day together." This is so weird. I spent the whole day with my role model, yet no time at all had passed. At least, here it hadn't.

"That's good. Tomorrow - in Eric time - is gonna be a long and hard day," he said. "You gotta stop him from from going to Death Row to meet with Suge. If you don't stop him, he's gonna die in March."

"Why? Are the rumors true that they injected him with HIV?"

"Not HIV or AIDS. I don't know what it is, but it's a virus that the doctors couldn't figure out, so they called it HIV. It was either Suge or one of the people there that injected him while he was unconscious."

"Why am I the one who's going back in time?" I asked, thinking 'how can I possibly stop him?'. "Did you know this would happen?"

"Yes, I knew. That's why I said to be careful. If you died in the past, you die in real time. the only perk is if you have a life-threatening wound and you come back before you die, you'll be fine, then you can go back to the past again. And I guess you can say – the car chose you."

"The car chose me? What are you talking about?"

"You were passionate enough about a certain person, a certain time, that it placed you right in its open arms," he explained. "I think you might be the one to save him."

"Am I able to save other people too?" I asked. I'm sure he's done with all my questions.. too bad.

"What do you mean?"

"Tupac, Biggie, and Big L for example. Maybe even Aaliyah and Nipsey. Can I use the Impala to save them too?"

"I mean I guess you could, but you'd have to stay in the past for a long time for the time to pass by."

"That's fine."

"As long as you're cool with it. I'd just focus on Eazy for now."

"That's all I'm focusing on, I promise," I said, opening the car door. It was the truth. Right now my day with Eric was all I could think about.

"Good. You should get some rest so you can come back later or tomorrow. Remember, you still got a house to move into."

"Two houses," I corrected. "I just moved in in the past, too."

"Oh, well, you got some work ahead of you."

"Well, Eric helped me move in then, but yeah, let me stop. I'ma end up confusing myself."

He left and I kind of chuckled. We exchanged our goodbyes and I walked over to my house, meeting Paris in the living room. "Who was that?" she asked.

"The neighbor," I told her. "He's nice."

Paris raised her eyebrows. "Nice?" she asked. "Or niiiice?"

"Just nice. We talked for a little and he's pretty cool. Nothing like our last neighbors," I sighed.

"Uh, yeah. They were an absolute pain in my ass," Paris replied.

"I think I got jet lag," I told her. "I'm maad tired."

"But- we- nevermind." Paris shook her head.

"Yes, I am aware we didn't fly here. But it still applies. I'm gonna take a nap."

"Don't sleep too long. You won't be able to sleep tonight."

"Yes, mom," I said with an eye roll. I walked into my room and laid on the bed, looking at the ceiling. Still, I couldn't believe what was going on.

So, I basically had to go back - back in time and save my favorite artist from dying, by stopping him from meeting with someone tomorrow evening. But what if I mess up? Do I get another chance?

I fell asleep thinking of all the endless possibilities that haven't even happened yet, well, they have - you know what I mean.

"Jaz," I heard a voice say. "Jaz, someone's at the door for you. Get up."

"What?" I sat up. "Who's here?"

"That guy from earlier."

"Oh," I said. "Day-Day. What does he want?"

"I dunno, he just asked if you were here and I said yeah lemme go wake her sleepy ass up. So that's what I'm doing."

"Ok, ok, I'm getting up." I rolled out of my blow up mattress and slipped on my Guess Los Angeles slides, walking to the front door. I opened it and Day-Day was standing leaning against the railing, so I walked out and shut the door behind me.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked.

"Nothin' really, just wanted to stop by and, show you around the neighborhood I guess," he replied. "How was the first nap in the house?" He smiled and looked at me.

"One of the best sleeps I've had in a while. Shittt, I used to never be able to get sleep back at my mom's house. Someone was always up making noise, and if they weren't, then the neighbors were."

"Mm, so looks like we're both glad you moved here."

I blushed and chuckled a little. "Let's take a walk," I told him.

-------

We walked a couple blocks just talking, until we came up to a little park.

"This is Kelly Park. All the Crips hang around here, so best not wear no red when you slide through," he said to me.

"I will.. take note of that."

"And down there, that's my place. The white house with the black Rover in front."

"Ouu, you got a Rover?" I asked.

"Yes ma'am. That's my lil baby. Name's Mamba, rest in peace Kobe. You like dem' Rovers?"

"Love 'em," I replied.

"Aight then, let's take a ride around the city."