I opened my eyes. The ceiling was painted eggshell white and light by the early morning light. Cautiously I turned my head to the left, to look out my bedroom window. I saw plants partly obscuring a view of a wooden fence. A fence I hadn’t seen in fourteen years.
It worked.
I sat up slowly, looking around my room. It was a mess. An old desktop computer with a CRT monitor, a brick of a TV and a PS2. Where did I keep my phone? On the computer desk? Yes, there it was, an old Nokia. I tried to check the date but I couldn’t immediately remember where to look so I just turned on my PC.
It booted Windows 98. After a longer than usual wait I checked the date. March 5th, 2004.
It worked. I couldn’t believe it, it actually worked. Not even 10 minutes ago I was in 2018, now I was in 2004.
When I’d signed up for the study I’d just been needing money. I was a 32 year old college drop out bouncing from job to job, either in fast food or retail, no real goals, no future, a lot of burned bridges and no motivation to repair any of them.