I kicked myself for the tenth time that week, mostly for letting Tomsin take off with my car, but partly for thinking today would be another slow, boring drag. If I\u2019d known the coffee shop wanted to have me come in and interview for the manager\u2019s position, I would never have let her take the car. Sneaky, self-absorbed brat that she is, she didn\u2019t bother to tell me they\u2019d called; she left the message taped to the phone.<\/p>\n
Of course I didn\u2019t find it until I had less than an hour to get ready and get into town. Maybe I should kick myself for my husband and I having to move home in the first place, instead of staying in town where getting to the interview wouldn\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n
Even with my new husband\u2019s recent promotion, we just couldn\u2019t make ends meet if we included rent or a mortgage into the mix. I needed a job. I needed to get to that interview.<\/p>\n
I texted Tomsin, but of course she wouldn\u2019t reply. Too busy with her friends, she probably didn\u2019t even check the screen. Owen was at work and hated being troubled, but I had no choice. No answer, not even the secretary. That was odd, usually she picked up right away, and I knew Owen didn\u2019t have any special meetings, so what the hell? I didn\u2019t really have time to dwell, so I moved on to my next option \u2013 my mother. I tried calling her at her office, but there was no answer there, either. Of course there wouldn\u2019t be, that\u2019d be too simple. I tried getting hold of two friends in town, and still no go. I gave up and glanced out the window at the old bike leaning against the barn wall.<\/p>\n
A lot of deodorant, hair up in a scalp-tearingly tight braid, a light shirt and slacks combo, and I was off; on a thirty year old ten-speed, heading the two miles into town on rutty gravel roads. I was never called sane by anyone I know of, so this probably wouldn\u2019t have surprised any of my old friends.<\/p>\n
I should have checked the crossroad better than I did. I know that. Now. A quick glance to the right, and I saw nothing. I didn\u2019t stop pedaling, though, and I should have. I should have stopped, checked both ways, twice!, and then crossed. It\u2019s called hind sight for a reason\u2026 because it\u2019s something from the past, and you\u2019re looking at it from the future.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t really feel anything when the truck hit me, mostly I heard the horn blaring and then that became my ears ringing. I remember telling the driver I was okay, that I could go on, but then everything went black and that was that.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t realize I\u2019d be waking up somewhere so similar, yet so different.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/center><\/p>\nThe alarm was going off, blaring rock music into the ears that were attached to my painfully sore head. Really should have watched how much champagne I\u2019d partaken of the night before, but one only gets real champagne once in a lifetime\u2026 at least around here.<\/p>\n
Wait. Why was I thinking about champagne? I didn\u2019t drink before I went to bed last night, and it wasn\u2019t like I\u2019d never had it before\u2026 I\u2019d had plenty of it when Owen and I got married. Urgh. Maybe I was coming down with the flu.<\/p>\n
When I opened my eyes, my room wasn\u2019t right. This one was far more modern, less jumbled with the stuff of life. It certainly didn\u2019t look like the room I\u2019d left before I went for the job interview. Oh, crap! The interview, the\u2026 the truck at the crossroads. Shit, I couldn\u2019t remember anything after that. <\/p>\n
Had I gone to the coffee shop? Did I get the job? I kicked off my blankets, desperate to get downstairs and find out what was what. A robe was at the foot of the bed, so I threw that on, and opened the door, not really thinking about why everything was different, because maybe Owen had finally gotten around to putting his stuff out in the garage. When I stepped into the hallway though, that changed. I no longer cared whether or not I had the job, nor did I care if Owen had put his crap away.<\/p>\n
Even the hall was different, and there were no stairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the hell?\u201d<\/p>\n
I worked my way slowly down the hall, discovering a bathroom and what looked like a spare room \u2013 the bed was bare and there were boxes on the floor \u2013 on the way. I went past a second hallway, and continued on. I discovered another bedroom, this time there was a teenage boy sleeping in it.<\/p>\n
Backing out of the room, I all but ran through the next hall, exiting into a kitchen where the smell of coffee was nearly overwhelming.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood morning, dear. Coffee?\u201d The woman at the sink turned, holding a cup in her hand. She was definitely my mom. Looked just like her, only she must have had her hair done, since it was darker and there was no gray.<\/p>\n
I nodded. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t believe the dream I had last night! It was horrible, and your father-\u201d she passed me the mug, pointing to the whitener on the table. \u201c-said he had the same one. That\u2019s never happened before, let me tell you. The bacon is done and in the oven, I was just about to start your dad\u2019s eggs. How do you want yours? If you want them scrambled I can do everyone\u2019s all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded, sorting her words mentally while taking a sip of my coffee. I shouldn\u2019t have been holding hot liquid when the realization of her words hit me.<\/p>\n
She turned away, not noticing that I practically fell into a chair at the table, holding my stomach. You know the feeling you get when you\u2019re on a roller coaster, and it starts heading down a steep decline? That. That\u2019s what I was feeling. I set the coffee down, my hand shaking so bad I spilled quite a bit of it. Even the burning from the splash across the back of my wrist didn\u2019t snap me out of whatever hell it was.<\/p>\n
I stood, reaching for a towel that was near the sink. As I crossed back to the table, a door slammed on the other side of the kitchen, and in walked my dad.<\/p>\n
My dad had died when I was fifteen.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/center><\/p>\n’til next week…
\n<3\nJL\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The author guest blog fell through for this month, so I thought I’d post a sneak peek at the novella I’m working on for the Big Bang challenge via WriYe. It’s pretty much done, but could be worked into something larger.
\nHope you enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[871,1710,1,870,799,2,4],"tags":[1963,1060,1966,25,1962,1705,1965,1964],"class_list":["post-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-fiction-2","category-general-pondering-on-writing","category-headline","category-miscellania","category-projects-news","category-titles","tag-awake","tag-death","tag-dying","tag-fiction","tag-free-read","tag-friday","tag-multiverse","tag-quantum-death"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3648,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions\/3648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"awake\"](\"http:\/\/jodilee.sacredtriskele.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/awake-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>It hasn\u2019t always been like this. I used to have one life, just one. Then I made the mistake of not looking both ways before crossing the street, and now I\u2019m living more lives than I can handle.<\/em> <\/p>\n