The Ten Pretenses, 2041

A simplified version of my "Ten Pretenses" essay

It was only a dream, a nightmare.

That is what I try to tell myself, but I remember it now, in nearly every waking hour.

I was back in fifth grade, a whole six years ago, and somehow, although there was no image of it, I knew it was the very day that old Mr. Scott had told us, in a tone of voice we had never heard from him, out there on the soccer field w…