Will Mitchell leaned against the lockers and stared at Neil Parker. The older boy lay on the floor, his head surrounded by blood. Was Neil dead? Or just unconscious? Will dropped the baseball bat he had used to attack the bully. It hit the floor with a loud thud.

Mr. Krauss, a math teacher, came out of his classroom. Within seconds, he was shrieking for help. Miss Allan, a gym teacher, joined him. She taught first aid so quickly went to work.

“He’s alive. Someone call 911,” she yelled.

Will sank to the floor and stared at the bloodied bat. He didn’t really remember much more from that afternoon.

***

“So you beat the school bully almost to death? Shit, that’s insane, man,” said the guy next to Will at the bar. His name was Jack Stevens.

It was New Year’s Eve almost a decade after that terrible event. With nowhere else to go and no one to spend it with, Will had settled for hitting a local watering hole. He and three other guys were nursing beers at the bar. The Times Square festivities in New York were on the bar’s television since there were no sports to speak of on TV.

“I went crazy, I guess. Just completely lost it,” Will explained.

“What did this asshole Neil do anyway?”

“Neil had been going after me since grade 6. It was just years of torment built up to the boiling point. Then he suggested he might have ‘some fun’ with a girl I was getting involved with and that put me over the edge.”

“So what happened to you? Jail?”

“Five years for assault causing bodily harm but paroled after two. Could have been worse but my attorney and the Crown agreed that my mental state could be taken into account. I finished my high school diploma and started university before I even got out. Still, it mucked up my life pretty good. My parents broke up because of the stress. The girl I thought I was protecting didn’t want me around anymore. And I had trouble getting a career going after I got out.”

Jack nodded.

“Man, that’s rough. The guy probably had it coming, too.”

“I suppose. Looking back, though, I wouldn’t do it if I had it all to do over. I’ve always hated violence and seeing the impact of what I did just increased that. If I could go back there, I would definitely try to talk myself down.”

“What happened to Neil?”

“He lived but the brain damage left him with permanent disabilities. I’ve offered to contribute to caring for him now that I have a good, steady income. His family turned me down. I think they would prefer I had been shanked in prison or something. Don’t entirely blame them.”

Will finished his beer and yawned.

“I should probably go home,” he concluded, “I’ve had a busy week so I don’t really feel like staying up until midnight. Thanks for picking up that last round, Jack.”

“Hey, you picked up the first so no probs, man.”

As Will stepped out into the street, another bar patron stepped out with him. He had been at the bar with Will and Jack but Will did not catch his name.

The man lit a cigarette, then said, “Hey, I heard your story. You said that if you went back, you’d try to stop yourself?”

“Yeah. You got some kind of time machine handy?”

“Sort of. It’s not like in the movies, though. You get one chance to go back and change something. It’s kind of like a dream.”

“And if I succeed and it changes my life?”

“You won’t even know it happened. You’ll wake up living a new life.”

Will looked at him in disbelief. Then again, he figured it couldn’t be worse than the hell he had already put himself through.

“Okay. So what do I do?”

The guy handed Will a little packet of green powder.

“Dream powder. It’s magical stuff I learned from a shaman. Or an alchemist. He was a bit hazy on that point. Just snort it like coke, then lay down and let it hit you.”

Taking drugs was not Will’s usual thing, even in prison. He had tried pot and coke, but avoided making a habit of them and had not touched either in four years. Likely, this dream powder was just cocaine cut with something. Still, something rang true in the man’s voice. At the very least, the guy seemed to genuinely believe in his “dream powder.” And if it was just coke, at least Will could get high to celebrate the new year.

“What do you want for it?” Will asked.

“If you have a better life, that’s my reward. Do something good with it, man.”

Will took the packet and nodded, then headed home. The man watched him go before fading into the darkness.

At home, in spite of what Will said in the bar, he was unable to sleep and stayed up for the ball drop. As the big red ball went down in Times Square, Will stared at the packet. Was this really a new start? Could snorting green cocaine enable Will to reboot the life he had squandered when he assaulted Neil Parker?

Midnight came. Outside the apartment, fireworks exploded in the distance. On TV, the crowd in New York were singing “Auld Lang Syne”. Will started singing along.

Then it was over and Will found himself in a new year. Taking a couple deep breaths, he opened the packet and snorted the contents like the guy said. Feeling a bit woozy, Will lay down on the couch and closed his eyes. Vaguely, he could hear more fireworks and singing.

After drifting in a dreamy haze, Will found himself watching a teen walking along a street. The teen looked very familiar. So did the street.

***

Seventeen-year-old Will Mitchell walked slowly towards Eversham Central Secondary School. He was hunched over and his facial expression was somewhere between dread and rage. Will was tired of bullies, of school, of life itself.

The teen came up short when a man approached him, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

“Hey, kid,” said the stranger.

“What do you want, man?” Will snarled.

He studied the man’s face. It seemed familiar but the teen could not place it.

“Do I know you?” the teen asked, “I swear you look like someone I should know.”

“No, you don’t. Not really, anyhow. I’m an … old friend of the family. Jack Stevens.”

The man hesitated before the name. It did not take a genius to realize he was making it up on the spot.

“So what do you want, ‘Jack Stevens’?”

“I know you’re angry and upset, Will,” Stevens told him, “But just leave the baseball bat where you find it, okay? What happens after you use it won’t be worth it. Honestly.”

The guy sounded really worried, even scared. Will frowned, trying to figure out who the guy was and what he was rambling about.

“What am I going to do with a baseball bat that I am going to regret?” the teen asked.

“Hurt someone. Badly. And you’ll suffer for it.”

“How do you know?”

“Look, I just know okay. Call it psychic or prophecy or whatever. Just don’t do it, please.”

Will shook his head, then glared at the man.

“You’re weird, man. Family friend, my ass. That’s not even your real name. Get the hell away from me.”

“Sure. Just remember that violence brings more pain than it takes away. Okay?”

“Whatever.”

The man calling himself Jack Stevens walked past Will. When the teen looked back, the stranger was gone. Will frowned, wondering how the guy got away so quickly. He shook his head and continued on his way to school.

The last person Will wanted to see that day was Neil Parker, ringleader of the school’s bullies and toughs. However, as soon as Will entered the school’s lower hall after classes, the first person he saw was Parker. The bully was chatting with Mick and Glenn, two of his partners-in-crime.

When he saw Will, Neil flashed a wicked grin his way. Will tried to go around the trio but Neil moved quickly to bodycheck him into the lockers. The crash echoed down the hall as pain erupted in Will’s shoulder.

“Fuck you, Neil,” the teen shrieked as he shoved the bully away, then kicked at him.

“Oo, the little fairy is fighting back. Next time someone picks on you, just fly away,” Neil taunted.

Mick and Glenn laughed, making no effort to help Will. At least they also made no effort to join in.

“I am so fucking done with you, asshole,” Will sputtered in rage.

He threw a punch at the bully. Neil handily dodged it, then rammed Will into the locker again. That knocked the breath out of the teen.

“What the hell are you going to do about it?” Neil growled, “You can’t even throw a punch right. I’ll bet Cathy Hunt fights better than you.”

Will stared, brought up short by the mention of Cathy. Neil grinned.

“Oo, that got your attention. Tell you what, maybe I’ll find her and give her some fun that a dickless wimp like you can’t.”

“She would never do that with a piece of shit like you,” Will growled in a low voice.

“Oh, once I make her try it, I’m sure she will enjoy it more than listening to you whine.”

Will glared at the other teen, contemplating throwing another punch. Instead, he stalked away, fighting back tears as he went. Behind him, he heard the trio laughing.

There was a baseball bat sitting in the stairwell by the gym. Someone must have brought it in from the school’s ball diamond, then forgotten to return it to the gym’s storeroom.

For a moment, Will stared at the bat. Then he walked over and picked it up. The teen hefted it and grinned. He wondered how hard he would have to swing it to crack Neil’s thick skull with one blow.

“Just leave the bat where you find it, okay?” the stranger calling himself Jack Stevens had said.

Neil and Mick came out of the hall. Will gripped the bat tight in his hands. He pictured swinging it at Neil’s head like he would at a pitch. Except Neil’s head would not fly away like a ball. It would, Will hoped, just collapse under the force of the blow. Blood and brains would spatter the floor of the school atrium as Will struck again and again.

More of the conversation with the stranger came back.

“What am I going to do with a baseball bat that I am going to regret?”

“Hurt someone. Badly. And you’ll suffer for it.”

Will relaxed his grip on the bat, then slowly put it down. After a final nervous glance at Neil and Mick, he headed up the stairs. There was another exit he could take that would let him avoid meeting them.

Instead of heading straight home, Will went to Montgomery Park down the street. The large park had a quiet corner where Will often went to be alone with his thoughts. The teen climbed a little hill surrounded by trees at the North end of the park and sat down. As he thought about what had happened at the school, Will began to shake.

“I was going to kill him,” he whispered to the wind, almost sobbing.

“But you didn’t?” asked a familiar voice.

Will looked around in surprise. Jack Stevens, whoever he was, sounded even more worried than he had in their first meeting.

“I found the bat,” he told Jack, “I remembered what you told me. But I still came so close to doing it. God, I even imagined how it would feel as I struck Neil’s head.”

There was a look of relief on Jack Stevens’ face. He smiled and nodded.

“I’m glad to hear you took the high road, Will. It will change your life, believe me.”

“Who are you really?”

“Someone who has been there and done that. Someone with regrets you won’t have.”

Suddenly, Will found himself alone again. He blinked and stared at the space where the man had stood. Was this all imagination or a daydream?

The teen got up and started down the hill. Halfway to the bottom, Will paused. Suddenly, he knew why Jack Stevens had seemed so familiar. It was like looking at himself in a mirror, only much older.

“Nah, it couldn’t be,” he muttered, continuing down the hill.

As he neared the bottom, Will saw Cathy racing towards him. His mood immediately picked up.

“There you are,” Cathy called out, “What happened, Will? We were expecting you at Jessica’s place almost an hour ago.”

“I had a run-in with Parker and his buds that really upset me. I had to decompress.”

He almost said more, but decided this was not the time to tell Cathy how close he had come to committing murder.

To Will’s surprise, Cathy hugged him and planted a light kiss on his cheek.

“Come on, I bet you’ll feel better with some friends for company.”

Will smiled and hugged Cathy back. In fact, just having her for company was making him feel better.

“Yeah, I guess I will.”

***

Will Mitchell awoke on New Year’s Day. He sat up on the couch and yawned, then looked around the room. For a moment, he felt confused. This was not the room or couch he had dozed off in, was it? It was like awakening into a new life, not just a new year.

“You won’t even know it happened. You’ll wake up living a new life.”

Will remembered those words all of sudden. However, he could not remember who said it or where he heard it. Shaking that thought out of his head, Will picked himself up off the couch. There was no new life here, just the house he and Cathy had bought a year prior. He yawned and looked out the window of his rec room. The sun was just starting to rise for the first dawn of the new year.

“Are you okay, Will?” asked Cathy as she came out from the kitchen, “I was worried when you dozed off on the couch last night instead of making it to bed.”

His partner of almost a decade, his friend since high school, Cathy Hunt was dressed in a long, pale green nightgown. There was a noticeable bulge in her midsection where their baby was growing. Will looked at Cathy in amazement, still unsure of how he had landed such a wonderful woman.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Will answered, “Not sure what happened. Just felt kind of sleepy and a bit woozy. And then I had a weird dream.”

His partner walked up and put her arms around him. She kissed him lightly on the lips.

“What did you dream about, Mr. Mitchell?”

“I dreamt that I assaulted Neil Parker with a baseball bat.”

Cathy cocked an eyebrow and shook her head.

“Seriously?” she said.

“Quite serious. Completely messed up my life. No you, for one thing. I think you hated me, or maybe feared me, after the incident. And I went to jail for it.”

“I know you and Neil had your problems, but attacking him seems a bit extreme for you.”

Will sighed.

“I was really angry with him for a time in high school. Just got sick of all his bullying and taunting. And there was a day when I did come close to letting loose like I did in my dream. He … he suggested he might hurt you.”

“I just can’t picture you as an enraged assailant, Will. Surely he was just using me to get a rise out of you.”

“I know that now. But at the time I was really out of it with rage so maybe it could have happened. I remember picking up a bat and thinking about hurting him. Then I dropped it again and walked away. Kind of talked myself down.”

Will gave Cathy a kiss.

“It’s all behind me, anyhow,” he told her, “Happy New Year.”

Neither noticed the little plastic packet lying empty on the coffee table until much later. And then Cathy just tossed it out, not even sure where it had come from.