In a sea full of faces, I search for myself.

I wander up and down to notice any sign of familiarity,

Any sign that someone could point me in the right direction;

The direction to who I was, but more importantly,

Where I was going.

“I can help you!”

I turned to see a child with the same toffee, brown skin as my own and eyes to match.

I felt like I knew her from somewhere.

She bounced up and down, eagerly awaiting to help me.

Before I could say anything more, she grabbed my hand and lead me to a thinner part of the crowd.

I couldn’t quite understand where she was taking me, but it all felt like déjà vu.

As if I had taken the same path at a different time altogether, I stopped.

“I think we’re going the wrong way.”

The girl scrunched up her nose, little wrinkles forming on her small face, “We’re going to the Backward. That’s where you’re trying to get to, right?”

Backward. That word stuck out above all others. I felt my stomach clench and fall beneath me.

“I’m sorry, I really do appreciate you for trying to help me, but I am not trying to go backward to anywhere. I just want to find the present me.”

The girl looked even more confused than she had before I stopped us. “What is a present me? I know a ‘present’ is a gift…so like a gift!?!?”

There were so many thoughts that clouded me at that moment: this situation is so strange, with a little girl that didn’t know another context for the word ‘present,’ and moreover, looked like me when I was a child…

The light bulb turned on. “Would you mind telling me your name?”

“Jessica, duh, silly!”

My own name being said back to me by a child that was me when I was younger. No one would believe me if I told this story blindfolded. Am I crazy? “How are you me? How did you come to this place?”

“I was supposed to meet you here. Some woman said it was important that I find you and take you to the Backward and make sure you didn’t leave to find what you were looking for, but I didn’t know you weren’t trying to go there. I’m really sor….”

I held up my hand to stop her, “Wait, what woman? To stop me?”

My mind was trying to make sense of these unusual events, but before the girl had a chance to answer me, an idea struck me.

“Could you take me to her? I just want to find what I’m looking for. Maybe if I explain my case, she’ll change her mind.”

The girl shook her head quickly. “Now that I know she tried to trick both of us, I don’t think that it’s such a great idea. But I can take you to someone else who might help.”

She took my hand and bounded toward the path we just left from.

Meeting myself in the Past wasn’t on the agenda today. Reality had flown completely out of the window. This should be interesting.