I dropped the rose into the grave as the coffin was lowered, six feet under. That was the end of it. My marriage, my husband and the life we had built. A life of silence, but a life nonetheless.
I stayed back, long after everyone left. His mother, my mother in-law, Mrs. Catherina was bedridden as she had fainted from the news of the sudden death of her son. Some had gone to stay with her at the hospital, while non-family members had gone back home.He, and everything he used to be was now only a cold stone. Nothing else."Do you really think so?" A hoarse voice said next to me as I heard the small beating sound of a walking stick. I looked up to the person that had spoken, but he was not someone I knew. He was old, and had a smile that boldly said, 'I know something you dont.'"Do I really think what?"He shrugged. "That this is the end?" He asked."Is it not? Will he be in bed tomorrow morning when I wake up looking at me like I forced him to marry me?""Have you really never loved him?" He asked. "He is such a sweet person.""He probably was, but not to me.""Is that why you never tried? Because he wasn't nice to you? What if you couldn't see the flip side of the coin?"I smiled and clasped my hands together. "I don't need to see the flip side. I saw the side he chose to show me. That's what's important."The old man smiled, and turned to leave, unintentionally dropping something from his pocket."You left something." I said, making no move to pick it."I don't leave things behind. I gave it to you."I sighed. "By throwing it down on the floor?""You can step on it if you want," He said with a nonchalant shrug. His expression hardened however, as he pointed a finger at me, as if about to warn me. "But be careful. The threads of time are not to be stepped on like that. They can glitch too."I rolled my eyes. "I get it now. You left a nursing home, didn't you?"He chuckled. "No. It's a little easier.""What?""Its a little easier to run from a nursing home than from the past, and the future and the present. Don't do anything to put yourself in this race. Or you'll find yourself running forever."I watched him as he walked away, and I looked down at the thing he had dropped. It looked like a small digital calendar, reading January 4, 2015. The day I entered college. I rolled my eyes and walked forward, stomping on it.I heard the glass break under my feet, but also felt the shock reverberate through my leg, even though I was wearing shoes. I immediately moved my leg, frowning down at the now broken calendar.I turned and left the grave side, as eerie rain cloud gathered in the sky.That day, I lay in bed again, this time with a dizzying headache. I was happy about it, though. It kept me from thinking of how hard my life has been even though I had everything. The loneliness in my heart seemed to swallow it up, and was still hungry for me. My soul. And every time I lay in bed, I felt it gnawing away. Very slowly, I drifted off with the darkness."Congratulations!" There were a lot of voices, and I closed my eyes tighter, trying to go back to sleep. Yesterday's headache had been almost surreal, and it made me feel like I was falling through my bed into a darkness. I needed this sleep."Hey, wake her up." I heard a familiar voice say, and someone suddenly started shaking me.If it isn't that my husband's grave has been dug up and his corpse went missing, I would gladly rip the head of the person that woke me up.When I opened my eyes, in place of the mansion I and my husband shared before his death, I was in somewhere different. Somewhere that looked like the apartment my parents had bought for me on my 18th birthday, right after I finished high school towards the end of 2014. It had happened to be close to college then, and I moved in once I made my choice of a college. Some weeks later, I was accepted.I sat up, throwing the familiar pink sheets off me, my brain going blank. Did my husband's family throw me out or something? But, I would have remembered that, right?Bernice was leaned to my height, a large smile that threatened to split her face into two graced her face."Ber...Bernice?""Of course, its me! The college accepted you, and you didn't think we were gonna throw a party?""College? What college?"Bernice furrowed her brows. "You didn't have too much wine, did you? You sound drunk. The college of your dreams, Karla. Your dreams are coming true!" She exclaimed as Kate and Bonnie echoed, joining her as they circled around my bed.These were people that I haven't seen in at least three years since we finished college in 2019, especially since Bernice, the group's general friend left the country immediately after graduation."Wait. Bernice? I..I haven't see you in...years."Her brows furrowed. "Years? Do you perhaps mean last night?" They all laughed as she balanced the cake on my bed beside me."Bernice." I said. The fact that I was talking to her itself a surreal fact, and the fact that they were all here... "What is..the date? I mean, today's date.""It's January 4, 2015."I looked from Bernice to Kate and the others behind her, then back at Bernice again."Are you telling me that you traveled all the way from Australia down here just to play this dirty joke on me?"Bernice scrunched up her face. "Australia? When did I go to Australia?" She asked and turned to the others as if asking for them to support her."You left immediately we finished college."She actually reclined at that. "Oh my God, Karla. Did you hit your head somewhere?""What are you trying to say?""No, just.." She placed a palm on her head and shook her head, then looked at me. "You just got accepted into a college!""I was accepted into college seven full years ago!" I yelled back, getting sick and tired of the whole joke. I know they were trying to lighten the mood but this was too much."You have any idea how old you would have been then? Eleven." She said, with an expression that said, as a matter of fact.Kate cracked up and I glared at her."Eleven? Really? I am 25 right now. Wi
I watched a strange phone ring. Bernice had sat me down after consoling me, then made her way into my closet to find something for me to wear. I was still trying to grasp at the situation, trying to understand why I had come back to this time. Why not any other time? Why not the 1900s? Why did it have to be this exact time in my life?"Won't you pick your phone?"Bernice walked in with two dresses each hanging from a clothes hanger."My..my phone? I don't..use an android." I said. The last time I used an android was during my last year of college."You do, Karla. And It's ringing. Where is your head these days?" She rolled her eyes then brought the phone to me. The caller ID showed dad.My father. I was very close to him, until the news of the marriage. We got into a huge fight that night and it caused a dent in our relationship, one that was not mended by the apologies after. I guess I took it too hard because I depended on him so much. Just for him to give me up as some gift to ce
"L...luke?" His eyes were closed, blood flowing from the side of his face. I shook my head to bring myself back to reality as I wrapped my arms around the upper part of his body and pulled hard, freeing his leg from the crushed car. After getting them out, I straightened, trying to calm my nerves. My hands shook uncontrollably as I tried to analyze the situation in front of me.What should I do now? What does someone have to do when they witness an accident? I stepped away from Luke's body and felt around for my bag. I got my phone and called for an ambulance.It took roughly twenty minutes, and I got in with them after saying I was a family friend. They had started resuscitating Luke and putting an oxygen mask over him, but the older, weirdly extremely familiar man was completely still. It scared me to my bones.I don't remember seeing this accident back then, the first time I was 18 years old. So why and how was I seeing it now? What does this even mean for me? I was sure this w
Luke had his head buried in the crook of my neck, and for a second I forgot all the pieces I had been trying to put together. I had been trying to think about just why I was brought back here, to see him from this perspective, and this...it just made me forget."My dad....my dad." He just kept saying into my neck, his breath fanning my skin. I slowly put my arms around him as he pulled himself closer to me. I understood just how much he needed someone right now. To be there for him. Strangely, I found myself willing."I am sorry, Luke." I managed to say as I patted his back. "I am so sorry."Something in me told me I wasn't just apologizing for this one thing, but I kicked the notion away.He released me slowly, and when he looked at me, his eyes were slightly swollen from crying so much. I didn't even know this was how he looked when he was less than calm and collected. I didn't know this was how he looked when he was devastated."I want to go home..." He said to me, his voice bre
The feeling of his eyes on me was electrifying, and I looked down at my feet."So uhm..." I said, and cleared my throat. Being 18 years old made me a lot shyer, and to an extent, I was feeling so much more than I used to. It was like as I grew, I lost the part of myself that felt, and it was a little dizzying to find it again.I had become cold and hard, and maybe...maybe this was the best version of me."I will go back home. And I will make sure to thank you properly.""Thank me properly?""I hope we meet again." He was extremely gentle and shy, and he has a one sided dimple that gave him the pure, innocent look.I nodded absent mindedly and watched his back as he left.It was an especially cold morning, and he was only wearing the hospital wear. I found myself running to my closet. It had all the old clothes, the clothes I used to wear as an 18 year old jolly girl.I checked them for a jacket, and I found only one black one. It was the only dark colored piece of clothing I had and
"You didn't have to do this." I said, lightly kicking the umbrella away as I moved closer. He shrugged. "Made me feel like I was still with dad. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that he won't ever be around."I stopped checking the cookies out and looked at him. He didn't let me comfort him however, as he cracked a smile. "I guess I at least learned to bake." He laughed and transferred the batch to a glass bowl."So how did you get so much flour all over you?""I just wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for the next batch." He said with small laughs punctuating his words."And you made a human cookie instead." I laughed as I said it, and it satisfied me that he found it funny too."You know, my dad and I...explored cooking all the time. I hate to say it, but I was into stuff like that. I still am, but not with the same vigour." He said, as he dusted himself off."So..how did you develop a liking for cooking?"I sat on the kitchen island, watching him talk. Maybe he found
I suddenly lost appetite, as the scene of my first introduction to Luke, 7 years into the future floated behind my eyes, causing me to hear his mother's voice ring in my ears."We have maintained very close friendship with your family, Karla. In fact, your father is the only best friend that my late husband had and acknowledged. Other times, he had his nose buried in science books..."I shook my head and closed my eyes tightly, then opened them again."Are you fine?""It must have been so hard, Luke." I said again, trying hard to swallow the lump that was growing in my throat.He must have thought I was disgusting. He must have thought I was like my father. Or when he looked at me, he saw his late father's pain. I didn't do any of it, in fact, I didn't know, but...he wouldn't know that. I wouldn't even care if I was in his shoes."It gets better." He said, then pushed the bowl of cookies to me. "Do you not like it?""I do. Thanks." But I couldn't help that I had lost my appetite. My
I stopped for a while, just looking at the parcel. It felt like I was looking at Luke's disappointed eyes all over again. He had looked so disgusted. He must have thought I planned it all. Meeting him, helping him. He must have have seen me as an even worse person.I picked the parcel, but then thought of looking around to see if he would be around. He wasn't.I went back home and dropped the parcel right next to the cookies from yesterday. Maybe this travel back in time isn't working out well. Maybe I should have stayed ignorant. That way, with time, he will learn to let it go.Now...he never will be able to.I picked up my phone, but there was no one to call. My dad was the last person I wanted to hear from, and I am not sure I wanted to hear from my mum too. I didn't want to talk to Bernice or anyone. The only person I wanted to talk to was Luke. But I didn't even have his number. I sighed. Even if I did, I am sure he wouldn't pick up.I lay my head on the table, supporting it with