If you could do anything over again, would you? That’s the curse I’ve been ‘gifted’ with. If I ever wish to re-do an event in my life time, it will automatically bring to that place and time. There’s only one way I can get rid of it and it’s to pass it along to another person before I turn eighteen years old, but there are two catches. The first is that this specific person has to accept taking time traveling from me or I’ll be stuck with it forever. The second is that one day, when I have children, only my first child will inherit the curse.

I was cursed with time traveling because my mother was in debt to a witch, Moe, a few months before I was born. Moe warned my mother that she would put a spell on her baby if she didn’t pay her back by the time it was born. So lucky me, I’m stuck paying the consequence for my mother’s mistake. My mother’s task was to get rid of the witch’s son, but they fell in love so my mother tricked her and said he had drowned. Moe soon found out that my mother and he had run away and she was going to have a baby, me. She killed her son-my father-herself. After she killed him is when I was born and cursed.

Today is my seventeenth birthday, which means I only have one year left to get rid of this ‘gift,’ as Moe calls it. Seriously, it’s the furthest thing from a gift. I can’t just wish for anything like any of my normal friends. They can say that they wish they could re-take a test or undo a mistake, but I can’t. If I do, it erases everything that’s happened between today and the day I wish to go back to. At first, it sounded perfect. I could do anything I wanted and later erase it. Then I began to wish every day to do something over and nobody ever remembered anything I talked to them about. All the good that happened between those days was gone like none if it ever happened, which of course was the case to everyone but myself.

To stop wishing for things to do over is pretty close to impossible. I hear my friends or my family complain and wishing about this and that all the time, and I just listen because I can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes. I can’t keep wishing to go back in time. I’m trying to live like a regular person. There are many things I wish I could change, but I can’t keep living in the past. I can’t keep running from my mistakes, either. Anyways, I don’t even like going back in time because then I have to deal with the not so good things that happened on that day. It’s just better to let my life go on normally, but before that can happen, I have to find a receiver for this horrible charm.

The only way the curse can be transferred to another person is if Moe does it herself. My mother wanted to take it from me, but the witch wouldn’t let her. She said that she wanted my mother to feel pain watching her daughter suffer because that was the worst kind of hurt. No wonder people call her the baddest witch of all; she doesn’t feel any kind of emotion except anger. The only way she gets satisfaction is by watching other people suffer. For me to be free from Moe, she said I have to find the perfect man and marry him. But, there’s another catch. Once I find that guy and we get married, my curse will become his, which is not what I want. I don’t want to watch someone I love hurt like I do now. I want to be happy later in life with my husband and our family. Moe said I have no choice but to get married and get rid of her curse or live forever alone. I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t want my husband and my first child to always be living like I do now- backwards. Also, if they were able to time travel, I wouldn’t know it because I wouldn’t be cursed anymore so I would be like any normal person. I’d never remember what they told me or what had happened during our days together.

The only person besides me and my mother who knows about my problem is my best friend, Charlie. Charlie’s been my neighbor since I was three years old and we became best friends the day I moved in. He’s not just my best friend, though. I fell in love with Charlie the day he punched another boy in the face for calling me weird. Just that one word ticked him off and he jumped the kid. That was seventh grade. When all the boys ditched their girl best friends in elementary school because we had ‘cooties,’ Charlie stuck by me. I decided to tell him about my secret a week later.

Charlie’s never thought anything bad of me. Not when I liked the boys who were nerds, not when I ate all his Halloween candy in fifth grade, and not when I keep complaining to him about time traveling. We could hang out every single day for the rest of our lives and never get sick of each other. I would choose him to spend forever within a heartbeat if it wasn’t for the curse transfer. I couldn’t bear watching him in that much pain. I can’t even stand spending the nights away from him, so how would I spend days watching him go back and forth between then and now? There’s no way I could handle it.

Moe came by for a yearly visit today while Charlie was over. We were watching a movie on the couch when she just magically dropped in the middle of my living room. She sat down in between us and started hounding Charlie with questions about him and me. Who was he, where did he come from, how long have we known each other, does he know about my secret-just everything. She also asked him if he was aware that I had to be married by my eighteenth birthday or I’d be cursed for life. Then she asked him if he liked me more than a friend, and his face turned crimson red. I knew where this was going, so I jumped up and interrupted them to tell her Charlie had to leave or he’d get in trouble with his parents. She didn’t seem moved by my outburst, but Charlie knew what it meant, so he left. Moe didn’t seem too pleased, but why should I care?

Moe can do pretty much everything, including reading minds. She decided to tell me straight on how Charlie really felt about me. Apparently, he can’t stop thinking about me. He’s always loved me more than a friend, and he wishes everyday that he could take away my pain. There’s something that she said she won’t tell me, though, but I would be both happy and angry at the same time. She left after she said that to me, so I went to Charlie’s house to confront him about what I had just learned.

I entered though the back door without knocking and like usual, he was at his desk writing. Charlie loves to write, so much that he’s written me at least 12 short stories about me and my life. He seemed pretty tense when I walked up behind him, and when I tapped his shoulder, he jumped and let out a little squawk. He stood up and started pacing around his tiny kitchen mumbling words I couldn’t comprehend. I had planned what I was going to tell him but suddenly, he took two wide steps, looked me in the eyes, and crushed his warm lips against mine. I raised my arms to go around his neck and let him lead. He slowly pulled me away and said he loved me. When he got down on one knee, I swear I could’ve fainted. I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long, but I never thought he felt that way about me.

I couldn’t answer right away. He brought me over to the couch and I think I just sat there staring at nothing for half an hour. Then he asked me what was wrong and I told him what Moe had said about the guy I was going to marry. He said he would go through whatever was needed as long as I was his. I didn’t believe him. Who would ever want to aimlessly run back and forth through time and never be normal? I couldn’t let Charlie ruin his life for me, but he kept pushing. He said he wanted to take away this curse from me and make me happy. He said I deserve it, but what about him? I love him too much to let him do this. He took my shaking hands into his and told me he wanted this more than anything. That’s when I had to say yes. I knew him well enough that I had no doubt he was telling the truth, and I was too selfish to let him go.

Watching us silently from the window was Moe. I didn’t know how long she had been there, nor did I care enough to ask. She came over to us, and this time she sat at the end of the couch staring at us both. Charlie was now the one shaking and I could tell he was scared, but I also knew he was ready for what came next. Moe stood up and taking one of each of our hands, she started humming. She sang words from a different language which I did not understand and she raised both of our arms up to the ceiling. Charlie and I were holding our other hands together and intensely staring at each other. He was smiling widely like it was the best day of his life, even though he was about to have my curse. I knew it was both my best and worst day. I would now be able to love him the way I’ve wanted to for the longest time, but also watch him go through what I had to for seventeen years. When Moe’s ritual was over, she hugged us both like she actually cared about us, and then disappeared into thin air. Charlie and I spent the rest of my birthday acting like an engaged couple and explaining to my cheery mother what had happened. Today, I received the best gift I could’ve ever asked for.