Well, today’ sure has started off on the strange side o’ things. I’m gonna start off telling ‘bout it, then Merritt can take over on account he can say it with less words.
I wudn’t even dressed from my washup and my head was spinning around with ideas that’ll come out later in this story when my iPhone rang. It was Hannah, and she was in a tizzy.
“Emma, I can’t get Merritt to answer. Something happened last night and I want to talk about it.”
She seemed real upset, so I went o’er to Merritt’s ‘parment in my bathrobe, so now he can go on ‘bout what happened.
~~~
Emma showed up at my door saying Hannah was upset and wanted to talk immediately. We agreed to meet at a coffee shop as soon as we could get dressed and get there.
So, I need to say that Emma and I both were a little shaken, too, but we didn’t mention why, at that moment, nor on the way to the shop.
Hannah started talking before we got in the door. “I had a crazy dream. Insane…”
Strangely, it was also a crazy dream that had me shaken.
Emma replied to Hannah, “I had a crazy dream, too!”
By the time we had finished our refills, we realized that a most incredible thing had happened.
We had all dreamed the same dream.
“I went to bed thinking about your time shift,” Hannah said. “I was wondering what happened to the yous you replaced.”
We were all in Memphis, TN in 1880. We were standing in the lobby of Leubrie’s Theatre. However, it wasn’t exactly us. It was different versions of us.
Emma was from 1984, shifted back to 1880. She had hitched a ride on a semi and woken up in a boxcar.
I was from 2024. I’d been driving to Vancouver, hit a strange cloud, and came out on a train from Knoxville.
Hannah was from 1984, too, shifted back. She had gone to sleep in her college dorm room and had woken up in a boarding house.
“The dream didn’t ‘splain how we come to meet,” Emma said.
Emma was a cleaning lady at the theater. I was an engineer working on the new sewer project.
“At least your jobs fit.” Hannah was a dancer in a burlesque show.
We finished the coffees but still wanted to talk about the dreams, and we thought a day at the beach, given the waning summer, would be fun, but Emma had to go to work.
“You two go,” Emma said, “an’ tell me tonight what you figure out.”
Hannah went to a boutique and bought a bikini on our way to Brighton Beach. Once we settled down, we resumed talking about the details of the dream.
In the dream, we all knew each other and we all knew we had time shifted. There were numerous parallels.
Emma and I lived next door to each other in one boarding house. Hannah lived nearby in a different boarding house.
The 1880 version of me had just finished studying to be an engineer at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which was at that time the closest engineering school to Atlanta and the 2024 version of me somehow knew that.
The 1984 version of Hannah had been just about to graduate from Syracuse as an engineer, and she had taken the place of the 1880 version of herself as a burlesque dancer.
“Why that job?” she asked.
My mind raced for an answer, then I sort of let the words stumble out. “Attractive woman confident enough to be… inviting… to men…”
Hannah furrowed her brow, so I went on. “Your Snap last night… What would that look like in 1880?”
“I don’t know. I'm sorry if it…”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. It was…”
Hannah rolled her eyes and laughed. “Inviting…”
We changed the subject back to the dream, and I said, “So, in 1880 are the 1984 versions of you and Emma and the 2024 version of me.”
Hannah nodded.
“And in 2024 are the 1880 version of Emma and the 1984 version of me.”
“Yes.”
I looked at Hannah. “You said you were from the future… Is…”
She was shaking her head. “No! I was flirting… I’m the 2024 version of me!”
“So if 1984-you went back, where is the 1880 version of you?”
We made a chart in the sand. We decided that 1984 must have versions Emma-2024, Merritt-1880, and Hannah-1880.
“Poor Emma,” Hannah sighed. “She’s got her hands full!”
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