Chapter 5: A New Life

Denise felt the other side of the bed shift when Thomas rolled over. She asked, “Are you awake?”

He grunted his assent.

“Do you have a massive hanger the same as me?”

He grunted again.

Denise tossed the covers aside and got out of bed. She then pulled hard on the comforter and left Thomas uncovered.

“Get up, you’ve always said the best cure for the morning blahs is a run. Or maybe just a brisk walk this morning.”

Thomas rolled his legs off the bed and sat with his elbows on his knees and his head resting in his hands. He groaned.

“I haven’t felt this bad since I don’t know when. How much did we drink last?”

He looked to Denise. As they looked into each other’s eyes, they saw that they were clear and realized what they were feeling was probably not a hangover.

“Or,” Thomas thought out loud, “did we even drink last night? In fact, what did we do yesterday?”

Denise moved to stand in front of Thomas. They both slept naked, and even though her breasts were just inches from his face, there was nothing erotic about the moment. They were both very confused.

She started, “We went to my mom’s house for lunch, then to your mom’s house.”

“Right,” Thomas continued, “we ate too much at your mom’s so we could barely touch the food at my mom’s.”

“But she did send us home with dessert!”

“Yes,” Thomas paused, “but then what? We came home, but,” he paused, thinking hard, “then I do not remember anything.”

Denise was concentrating as well and had to agree. “Neither do I.”

“This is really fucked up,” Thomas said. “Why can’t we remember? Did something happen? Maybe a gas leak and we passed out? Or some kind of food poisoning that gave us amnesia?”

Thomas thought his ideas sounded ridiculous as soon as he said them, but he was at a loss.

Denise shook her head. “I don’t know, but I have to pee.” She turned to go to the bathroom. Thomas got up and pulled a pair of shorts and a t-shirt out of the dresser. He then went to the kitchen to start coffee.

Thomas emptied the grounds from the day before and turned on the water faucet to fill the carafe when he heard a knock at the front door.

“I’ll get it,” called Denise as she exited the bedroom. She had also donned shorts and a t-shirt.

While Thomas filled the coffee maker with fresh water and added a filter with fresh grounds to the basket he heard the exchange at the door.

“Denise!” Mrs. Willow said rather loudly and excitedly. “Is Thomas home?”

“Yes, he’s in the kitchen.”

Thomas heard a very uncharacteristic squeal from Mrs. Willow, then she said, “May I come in? I really need to talk to the two of you.”

Denise stood aside and Mrs. Willow rushed past and into the kitchen. When she saw Thomas she did not hesitate to give a him big hug and hold him tightly.

“Mrs. Willow?” Thomas asked somewhat shaken. “What’s this for?”

She had a tear in her eye when she let him go and stood back.

“Are you OK?” Thomas asked.

She smiled. “I’m good. Really good. And it looks like the two of you are also doing well after yesterday.”

Thomas and Denise exchanged a glance.

“Yesterday?” asked Thomas. He added, “We woke up with what we thought was a killer hangover, but then realized we really don’t remember anything since yesterday afternoon.”

Mrs. Willow nodded her head slightly. “Do you remember me being here yesterday? Or a visit from the, what was the name you called it, the dementor?”

“The what?” Thomas asked.

Mrs. Willow smiled broadly. The coffee maker gurgled signaling the end of the brew cycle.

“Why don’t you pour some coffees and I’ll tell you what I can,” Mrs. Willow said.

Denise took three mugs from the cabinet, poured coffees, then Denise and Mrs. Willow went to the living room while Thomas started a second pot of coffee.

When Thomas entered, Denise said, “You were here yesterday?”

Mrs. Willow said, “Yes, mid-afternoon. I was here for about thirty minutes. And everything I am about to say will sound crazy, but hear me out.”

She took a big gulp of her coffee then put the mug down and looked from one to the other. “The short version is that there are multiple timelines in the universe. In one timeline, Thomas lived through the eighties, and then continued his life well into the 2000s. For some reason, his timeline was switched to this one where he started again the eighties as a teenager, but retained memories of his other timeline. This was three years ago.”

Even though they were warned, both Denise and Thomas looked at Mrs. Willow skeptically.

“Stay with me,” she said when she saw their look.

“Yesterday was the day where you had to choose if you wanted to stay in this timeline or return to your original timeline in the future. Obviously, you chose to stay. However, a condition for staying in this time is that you would lose all memories of your previous life. The future. That’s probably why you are feeling like you have amnesia.”

“What?” Thomas exclaimed. “You mean, I lived for another few decades, then came back? And until yesterday, I knew the future from memories of my previous life?”

Mrs. Willow simply nodded and said, “Yes.”

“You never shared with me any of your previous life, even when we were,” she paused to think of her next word. She chose, “Intimate.”

Memories were starting to come through the fog as Mrs. Willow spoke. He remembered the time when he was sleeping with both the student teacher and Denise, then the breakup, and being consoled in Ellie’s bed.

“It looks like memories are returning?” asked Mrs. Willow.

Thomas nodded. “Some.”

“My guess is you will regain more memories of the past few years, but there will likely be gaps. Don’t worry about those. Concentrate on what you do remember.”

An uneasiness settled in the room. Mrs. Willow said, “One more thing.” She turned to Denise. “Yesterday when I left you gave me a hug, which was not surprising, but when I got home I found that you slipped something into my pocket. I think you went for it went you went to the restroom just before I left.”

Mrs. Willow pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and passed it to Denise. She opened it and saw that it was her handwriting. It read, “In the attic, find the box labeled, ‘Tammy crib.’”

Denise handed the paper to Thomas.

“What does it mean?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but if I gave this to Mrs. Willow it is probably relevant to today.”

Thomas left the room to look in the attic. Ten minutes later he returned with a folder. It was rubber-banded shut with a cover sheet in Thomas’s writing. It said, “For Denise.”

Denise looked a second time as a memory slowly returned. “Is that your financial summary?”

Thomas looked again as his mind cleared. “Yes, I think so. Why did I address it to you? And why did you hide it in the attic?”

Mrs. Willow interrupted and said, “I think it is because there was a chance Thomas could have chosen to return to his original timeline and he wanted to make sure Denise was financially secure. Then Denise, afraid that the black ghost would search the house, hid the summary.”