To put things Into context first, on my first memoir I talked about my special watch (Casio CMD-40 ) it’s a 1992 Japanese made watch which has a built-in universal remote controller and had a calculator keyboard. My uncle gave it to me in 2004 after he used it for some time. It had a small paper manual which included codes for different TV brands like Sony, LG, Toshiba, and etc. It’s still considered a technological breakthrough of its time in terms of what a mere digital watch is capable of back in the 1990s. Casio does not make them anymore and the watch is now considered among many valuable collectible items.

And like I mentioned in the memoir I wasn’t the best kid, I loved troublemaking and pranking. I started pranking students in school by  controling TVs at the library and in class sessions. I switched channels, played with the volume and also powered them on and off. I memorized several 4-digit codes of common TV brands from its manual and everytime I had the chance I would get in the watch’s settings and input the TV’s code. Everywhere I went to places like the hospital, a restaurant, a dental office or other places I would play with the TV and wildly confuse people which made me feel like I had a super power.

Despite the excitement and the rush I got from pulling those “disasters”  and getting students so confused I did not tell a single soul about my watch capabilities. But there was this one particular class in 7th grade, it was a social studies course and I did not like the teacher. I forgot her name because I didn’t care enough to remember it, for I tend to remember names of teachers that I liked or those who left an impact on me. But that teacher, was known for being grumpy and mean even with good students. One day on a  parent teacher conference, she told my dad that I was goofy in class and be disturbing. The next week that teacher announced that we’re going to start visiting the school’s library every Friday to use the TV for documentaries and course related films. I remember On the first Friday we were watching a documentary about Mesopotamia, and I waited until the last 10 minutes before class was over and started to play with the TV and students were freaked out and started saying to each other “wow! even this one?” then a student told the teacher that everytime we use a TV in our other classes they act up.

Anyways I continued doing the same thing the following weeks and the teacher lost her cool and spoke to us as a class she said “I know one of you has a universal remote somewhere and you think it’s funny”. She was so mad considering  she developed that theory and kept checking everyone out during TV sessions but did not find a clue because everyone’s hands were on the table. Weeks passed by and during one of our TV sessions I started playing with the volume, the teacher walked up and paused the film and started yelling “I know one of you is doing this. This is a new TV and there’s isn’t anything wrong with it because I used it in my other two classes and it was fine. One of you is controlling it and thinks it’s funny. I might as well turn it off and take yall back to the classroom!” right after I heard her finish that last sentence I turned the TV off and the whole class started laughing and some students were upset. We all went back to the classroom and a student started telling everyone “Hey we know it’s someone among us and I just want to tell you whoever you are that this needs to stop, it was funny in the beginning but it’s really creeping us out.” and other students started agreeing with her. That time I felt anonymous and powerful at the same time. The teacher came to the classroom and gave everyone extra class work and everyone including myself were upset. But there was a difference, I was upset at the teacher while my classmates were upset and mad at this anonymous person they called “ghost” who keeps remote controlling the TV in our classrooms.

The word spread throughout the school and I heard students talking about it in the cafeteria some thought it was cool and some were mad but I felt so isolated and anonymous because everytime my friends spoke to me about the “ghost” I nodded and agreed. I didn’t want to show too much support nor disagree with those that hated it. I didn’t trust anyone in the school to tell them it was me even though I had a strong urge to do so, I knew I would face consequences and my watch would be taken from me or banned.