TO THE PAST

“You have exactly 10 minutes. The pill might have slight side effects, press this button on the ring if you feel abnormally nauseous” Mrs. Lightweight said as she strapped me to a funny-looking chair

“Or you know…feel like you’re about to die”

“What?” I gawked

“Don’t mind Preye, she’s just trying to scare you” Mrs. Lightweight assured me with a nervous chuckle, Preye smiles sheepishly and with that, my blood pressure rose by 130%

This was not an ideal day for me; strapped to a chair in a lab that only God knows where by my science professor and her annoying lab assistant/ niece. Let the record show that I would rather spend my Thursday morning counting my nose hair than here but circumstances have brought this upon me. Losing my job had put me in a lot of uncomfortable situations, like, wearing a smelly hot dog suit while singing “I love hot dogs” in the barney tune or eating out of leaves for a whole week as a brand ambassador for a compost business.

Being broke was not something that came with dignity, so when my old science professor Mrs. Lightweight offered to pay me 80,000 naira to be her lab rat, I was all in. She was developing a pill that could take people to the past and she wanted me to test it. When she told me that, I had to pinch myself from laughing at her. She always had so much faith in science in a way that some might see it as deluded, I saw it as ambitious and sometimes comical. It was one of the reasons I had kept in touch with her after I graduated 5 years ago, well that and because she was stinking rich

There’s a difference between science and magic, I had every doubt that this “pill” of hers would only give me diarrhoea at the very least. Either way, I still end up leaving with 80,000.

“We’re going to send you 9 years back, that means you’ll see yourself when you’re 16” Preye explained again “We’ve set the user interface to place you in your childhood bedroom at 1:00 pm on August 15th.  You’re not to leave that setting until your time elapses or press the button on the ring and we bring you back, Don’t do anything stupid. You’re prone to it”

“Mrs. Lightweight, she’s being rude to me again” I report

“Preye stop. Makena, wear these glasses, we are about to commence launch” Mrs. Lightweight squealed delightfully

I sigh putting on the ugly-looking thing on my eyes, rendering me blind. Let’s just get this over with

“Okay, get ready!” Preye shouts

Then I hear a bunch of buttons being pressed, and before I knew it an electric jolt takes over my body and I’m screaming in agonizing pain. I close my eyes as the pain becomes worse and start hearing loud whooshing sounds. I felt like I was being torn apart

All this pain for 80,000 naira on an experiment that wouldn’t even work? Heck No!

I raise my hand to remove the glasses but I feel nothing on my face, I touch my eyes confused.

What happened to the glasses?

I open my eyes and wince at the sunlight that hits me, using my hand to block the light streaming directly from a window I hadn’t noticed before. I stand up and look around. It took me almost a second to realize I was not in the lab.

Holy Fudge, it worked.

I was in my childhood bedroom. I look around as a wave of nostalgia hits me in the face, If I remember correctly August 15th was the week before I was about to enter University.

Before I knew it, the door flew open and the most beautiful creature you’d ever seen walked in; me

“Uhm-hello,” I say posing awkwardly

 She (me) looks at me (I) like I’m some weird pervert that just broke into her house, “Are you the new housekeeper?” she asks me after a while

How rude! Did I look like I was a housekeeper?

“Y-yes” I lie

“Alright, I’m Makena. My laundry is in the yellow basket, try not to stain it” she commands crumpling a Busha flyer in her hand “Oh! Please help me to trash this”

I took the crumpled-up flyer from her and then it hit me.

That flyer was given to younger me 30 minutes ago at a pop-up Busha booth at the mall. I had no interest in learning about Bitcoin so I just took the flyer not to seem rude. At the time, Busha was an upcoming trade cryptocurrency but now it was one of the biggest bitcoin trading platforms in Nigeria, If I could somehow convince my stubborn younger self to sign up on Busha and start trading, according to my not-so-thought-out calculations by the time I get back, I would be filthy rich like all those other Busha currency traders.

This was a very good opportunity and I was going to grab it by the b-

“Hello? Are you deaf?” Younger me snaps me out of my thoughts

I look at her, fighting the urge to slap her, “I don’t think you should throw this away. Maybe you could research, it looks promising”

She gazes at me, “No thanks, I have no interest in cryptocurrency. Besides you look like you need it more”

I hate her

“I’m just saying, it seems like it has potential, might come in handy in the future”

“What’s your name?” she questions

“Make-i-enzie” I blurt “Mackenzie”

“Okay, Mackenzie. I don’t think my parents are paying you to harass me” she starts “So if you plan on keeping this job I suggest you do your work instead of giving me useless advice”

I swear I don’t remember being this irritating when I was a teenager, maybe I was on my period.

She walks over to her bed and lies down, I catch a glimpse of the wall clock; 7 minutes before Mrs. Lightweight and Preye bring me back. This was my only chance to fix my life. I couldn’t tell her I was her from the future, not only because it would freak her out but it’ll also give Preye more reasons to think I’m stupid.

I turn to face her, “How can I convince you to take this Flyer?”

“Miss, why’re you disturbing?” Young me asked, “Please do what I ask of you or leave my room!”

I take a deep breath as I sit next to her, the face she gave me was all I needed to know I was not welcome but I didn’t care, both our lives depended on this very moment.

“Makena, Cryptocurrency is the future of the world. It’s like a sure way to earn good money, has inflation protection and maintains your privacy. And right now, the cryptocurrency market isn’t full, so you would be very successful if you started early. Busha is a really good place to start, there’s a thing called Busha Yield Wallet that allows you to earn interest on any digital currency put in your wallet, it also allows you to grow crypto holding by investing them and earning interest from your assets” I explain to me

“The only thing I got from there is “earn good money”, and why’re you on my bed?” she scowls at me

I quickly stand up

“Anyways, how much have you made?”

“A lot” I lie. To be honest, I know absolutely nothing about trading and one wouldn’t describe me as financially smart, everything I just said to her was what I subconsciously read from the Busha website opened on Preye’s laptop. Thank God for my photographic memory.

“Then why’re you poor?” she asks “Or is cleaning houses just a hobby for rich people?”

“Charity” I reply “I like helping the less privileged”

She gaped, insulted. I smirk in my head; happy I finally have a retort back.

“Now that you’re a teenager and you don’t have other commitments. You can use your savings to purchase cryptocurrency like Bitcoin easily, sell it to Busha and get your naira equivalent in minutes. Quick and easy.” I continue

She almost looks convinced, “Why’re you telling me all this?”

“Because I wish someone would have when I was your age” I answer

We stare at each other for a minute.

I glance up at the wall clock.

1 minute.

Reaching for the pocket on my maxi skirt, I bring out 5000 naira.

I pinch myself from crying as I hand the money over to her, “Take this. Please use it wisely, I am literally begging you”

She looks skeptical as she takes it, along with the flyer.

Loud beeping noises comes from the ring, “I’m going to go use the bathroom” I say as running towards the bathroom in her room. Immediately I close the door, the enormous pain I felt before came rushing through my body as I closed my eyes.

Hopefully, I never have to do this again.

My future depends on me.