To See or Not To See, That is the Question
If you could see your entire future spread before your eyes, would you take a look? Would you dare? Are some things just better off unknown? Is it better for life to be a banquet of the unexpected? Or is it better for it to be as predictable as Friday's cafeteria menu?
The question bothered Ethan more than he had thought. Just a week ago, Ethan had shaken Erica's hand, sealing what he considered a fiendish bargain with the stubborn Dusk fan. If Erica was willing to wait four years, Ethan would offer a pint of his valuable blood to the bloodsuckers just to make Erica one of them again. The alternative? Erica would have guilelessly offered herself up to be bitten by a vampire, and ended up being drained dry by the vengeful un-dead.
When Ethan shook Erica's hand, he had unwittingly had a glimpse of events extending far into the future. A vision that passed from his memory as rapidly as it came.
"Don't be a idiot, Ethan" Sarah told him, as Ethan walked her home from a movie. "Do you really want to see your life start to end? It'd be so boring. Look at me. It was only weeks ago I had a long, empty, cursed existence stretched out before me. Now my life is my own again. It's full of hope, the unexpected, and yes, even some fears. And, look, we've got each other and a real relationship. Who knows where that's going to go?"
Ethan definitely had ideas, as they made out on Sarah's front doorstep. Until somebody, probably her father, starting blinking the house's pot lights on and off.
Yes, if Ethan had just Sarah to listen to, he probably would have forgotten about the vision in good time.
Even the ever-enthusiastic Rory was uninterested in a glance of the years to come.
"The Ror-ster wants to live each day as it comes" Rory announced the last time Ethan brought it up. "No spoilers for me."
In fairness, though, Rory was preoccupied with other things. Rory had taken the sobering demonstration Benny and Ethan had gave of just why being a vampire sucked very much to heart. Rory had been in a frenzy of "doing human stuff." This included but was not limited to eating as much garlic as possible.
"Ethan, dude" said Rory, at lunch one day to Ethan. "Look at this! Today's cafeteria special. Garlic butter on garlic toast. Garlic salad. Garlic pasta. And, from home, my mom packed me a couple of fresh cloves of garlic."
It was better than raw rat, or whatever else Rory had been catching as a vampire.
"Yeah, Rory" said Ethan, tolerantly. "It's great to be alive, buddy."
"I swear" said Benny, joining the two at the table, "the school is gonna reek so bad this afternoon. Everybody's having the cafeteria special! Talk about bad breath."
"Yeah, if there were still any vampires in school, they'd be so dead" Ethan joked.
"I'd just like to see a bloodsucker try walking in here with all this garlic" laughed Rory. "Burn city."
Ethan and Benny stared at Rory incredulously.
"Guys, I'm just trying to get in the spirit!" Rory protested. "Beside you know that the only good vampires in town were me, Sarah and Erica. Or, you know, I guess, good considering we were cursed to be evil bloodsuckers."
"I'm not all that sure about Erica" observed Ethan frostily, remembering Erica's setting him up for "dinner" at a vampire restaurant.
"Yeah, well," said Rory, "now we're definitely humans again on the side of good. Or should I say we're Team Sabre. Like the Jedi fighting against the evil Sith, Team Sarah, Benny, Rory and Ethan fight against any creatures who would prey on the innocent denizens of Whitechapel!"
"That's a pretty cool way to put it" said Ethan, taking out his smart phone and typing it out.
"It'd make a awesome movie" said Benny, craftily. "Team Sabre battles through the years. One I'd pay to see."
Benny had been waiting for an opportunity like this. From his backpack, Benny pulled out the magic book his grandmother had given him. He turned to a page near the back.
"There's a spell here to recover and project repressed memories into a crystal ball" said Benny. "A couple of video and ethernet cables, and we can connect it and play your vision via your DVR and TV."
"You do that" said Rory dismissively, "just don't tell me how it goes."
"Look, I've talked to Sarah. I've even talked to Rory. And I've thought about it" said Ethan. "I'm not going to watch my life in advance."
"Dude" said Benny. "You were only out of it for half-a-minute. How much could you have seen."
"To me, it was like hours" Ethan retorted. "I remember that much. Besides, Benny, if it's nothing, why are you so interested in seeing what happens?"
Why? Benny couldn't believe that anybody would pass up a chance to see their future. Who's lucky enough to see what they'll be doing long before they're actually going to be doing it? Why wouldn't you want to see your future self and your future job? And your future chicks? It would be totally cool. Besides, you might just catch a glimpse of the future stock market and the future Lotto Max winning numbers. Which would not only be cool but make Benny his fortune besides.
And if you didn't like the future? For an optimistic guy like Benny, that wasn't even a serious possibility. And Benny was desperate to see how awesome his future would be.
And Benny's friends would be praising Benny to the hilt for having talked them into looking.
But Benny figured this wasn't the approach to use on Ethan. No, Ethan could be a very practical guy. Benny had to pitch a hard-nosed reason for Ethan remembering his vision. Having known Sarah and Rory were against the idea, Benny knew that he had to make a really good pitch. Why Ethan needed to see his future!
"Ethan" said Benny, "you usually have your seer visions for a reason. The sky queen? The yeti? Sarah and the vampires? Going into my grandma's mind? How can you ignore that major vision you got from Erica? All you say you remember is that you and me will never be bloodsuckers; and Sarah and Rory here won't be bloodsuckers again. But what else do we need to know from what you saw? If we never know what it is, how can we prepare for it? I mean, just think. If the President of the Twelve Colonies knew ahead of time Count Baltar was a traitor, would he have fallen for that fake peace treaty with the Cylons?
Ethan mulled over the possibility. That is to say the possibility of Ethan needing to see his vision. It was obvious that the twelve colonies wouldn't have fallen to the Cylon ruse if everyone knew Baltar was a traitor.
Benny, seeing his plan start to work, thought to himself "He shoots! He scores!" But who should upset it, but . . . Rory?
"I don't know, man" said Rory, chewing one of his garlic cloves. "You think you forgot most of your vision because you were supposed to? Because you didn't need to know it yet?"
"That adds up" said Ethan. "I mean, I haven't really forgotten before."
"Do you want to bet on that theory?" said Benny, putting as much disbelief in his voice as he could manage without sounding too corny.
Benny had prepared a Plan B. He flipped to another page of his magic book.
"This is a memory spell" said Benny, finger on the page. "If we're not supposed to know, I can cast a memory spell on us so we'll forget again."
"How will we know if we're not supposed to know?" asked Ethan.
"We'll know if after we know we figure we're better off not knowing" replied Benny.
"Huh?" said Rory. Rory had to repeat the phrase several times to himself, and concentrate his usually scatter-brained and overeager mind, to figure out that Benny meant they'd only know after they saw it.
Ethan, for his part, understood what Benny meant right away. And it was a good argument! Wasn't it Ethan's responsibility to use his visions? And if Ethan didn't want to remember his vision, Benny's memory spell would pretty much wipe it from his mind. After all, Benny had once used the memory spell on Vice Principal Stern to prevent Sarah from being expelled. It was one of those spells Benny actually knew how to work.
So, looking into the future was no risk and all reward.
"Yeah, yeah I guess so." said Ethan. "Tonight my parents have their date night. Might as well try it."
"Have fun guys" said Rory, unenthusiastically.
"Man, you've got to come" said Benny. "The more the merrier? Don't you want to see your future? Uh, um, I mean, you know, to be prepared."
Rory made a face. Rory's life had been totally ruined two years ago just by going to one dumb vampire party. And being changed into one of them. Fortunately, for two years, no one had ever explained to him exactly what being a vampire meant. Well, Rory had been given Jesse's brainwashing spiel at the party . . . but until Rory was (accidentally) cured no one had told Rory the whole picture.
"Dudes, I don't want to ruin my life . . . again."
"There's no risk" said Ethan.
"Look, buddy" said Benny. "We're your best friends. We wouldn't willingly let you wreck your life. We tried to save you, remember? And, we sort of, eventually, did."
They were Rory's best friends. And they were only looking into the future.
"I guess, guys" said Rory. "I mean, what could go wrong?"
Author's Note
I appreciate the reviews I've received for "The End of the Beginning".
I didn't originally intend to write a sequel/continuation - but I've been happy to extend the story as per my reviewers' requests.