[ WP ] All individuals receive the memories and knowledge of one of their randomly selected ancestors on their 21st birthday . Yesterday was your 21st birthday .

My stomach churned at the thought. 21 years old in 5 minutes. Then I ’ d be awoken. I shuddered. 
 Dad didn ’ t do so bad. He ’ d got some old farmer. Lucky for me family history was pretty lame I guess. Too bad Dad ’ s at the hospital, he ’ d be able to calm me. 
 Maybe I ’ d be lucky. Get a good ancestor, ya know? Or even just a lame old farmer. 
 I ’ d seen what the 21st awakening could do to people and it wasn ’ t pretty. 
 My girlfriend, sweet little thing she was, got PTSD from an American Civil War soldier. Her fall into depression was hard to watch, but at least she ’ s starting to cope. 
 That sort of thing happened a lot. There ’ s a reason the drinking age is set at 21. Countries that had it set higher were sanctioned by the UN for violating human rights. 
 If you were lucky you awoke with the memories of some genius or celebrity. 
 Jim ’ s awakening was Elvis. Sure he didn ’ t get the popularity of the real Elvis, but a cult following still stuck to him…in a creepy way. 
 Everyone who awoke to Ghengis Khan went pretty much insane and man there sure is a lot of those guys. 
 Oh man, oh man 1 minute. 
 Okay. Breath. Breath. Oh man. 
 10 seconds 
 It ’ s all good. Can ’ t help it anyways right? 
 3 
 Oh jeez 
 2 
 Here it goes 
 1 
 A flood of memory overcame me. 
 I tried to make sense of it. It ’ s a recent ancestor I can tell. There are cars. 
 I see some woman? A wife? Okay I ’ m holding a baby now. A son? 
 He ’ s growing up… that house….this all looks familiar... 
 That ’ s all I can remember. I guess I passed out. 
 I looked around groggily the phone ’ s ringing. 
 “ Hello? ” I say sleepily. 
 “ Hi, Mr. Jeffries? ” crackles the voice over the phone. 
 “ Ya? ” 
 “ This is Dr. Erickson calling from St. Ramses III Hospital. I have some bad news… ” 
 
 
 
 
 

