I have to get this down…Right now, before I forget it.
I wake up, standing in the dark, wondering where I am. The realization comes and I understand that I’m standing in my darkened office at home. It’s clearly the middle of the night, as I always keep the top part of the blinds lowered a few inches to let in light during the day, and there’s no light spilling into the room. I stand for a couple of minutes and let my eyes adjust to the dark. Then, it’s back to bed. It’s interesting, because I haven’t sleepwalked in years.
The bedroom door is closed, and as quitely as I can, I open it.
Oops.
Stepping lightly into the bedroom, I see that there are two people in bed, and the light coming in from the French doors that lead to the second floor deck shows that the one closest to where I’m standing is me. If I wasn’t wide awake before, I surely am now. I’m frozen for a few seconds and wait to see if I wake up. I don’t.
I glance toward the source of the light coming through the doors to the outside and realize they are Christmas lights. So, Christmas lights from this year, next year or further into the future? I thought about it for a minute. We did lights out back this past Christmas, and the one before. But that was it. How far into the future we decorate, I have no idea, of course. So far, I’d only bodily travelled into the future, and that time it was a 16 day trip. One way.
But here I was, clearly in a time that I already inhabited, even though the then-me was asleep. Very weird.
As quietly as I can, I back out of the bedroom and ease the door shut. I head back to my office, and sit down in front of my computer. I always leave the Mac on, so touching the shift key brings the screen to life in a couple seconds. No apps are open, so I mouse down to the dock and it slides up from the bottom of the screen. I immediately see that the operating system on the Mac is still OS 10.4, and I ugraded to 10.5 a couple weeks after Thanksgiving this past year. I moved the mouse to the time display (3:19 AM) in the upper right corner of the screen and clicked. It showed that the day was Thursday, November 29, 2007.
Hmm.
So I’ve travelled back from January…18th, 2008. About two months. Okay. Not sure how long I’ll be here, but since I don’t have any memory of running into myself in the past three months, I guess I either go back pretty soon, or go get lost for awhile. I suppose if I have to, I could raid my cash stash in the floor safe in the basement and go stay out of the way for 90 days. Actually, wouldn’t be a bad time to do so. I could use the vacation.
Sitting at my computer, I laugh to myself, not believing I’m thinking this way. But, I guess being in your own past, knowing everything that’s going to happen in the next couple months makes things pretty comfortable. Then it hits me. Knowing what’s going to happen. Think. What could I turn that $3,000 cash stash into, knowing what’s going to happen in the next few weeks?
But no, I’ve been into the stash, adding to it in the last three months and didn’t find any of it missing. So that idea must not go anywhere. Then, another one hits me.
I log into the editor for this blog and write a quick post. As soon as I hit “publish,” and close the browser, I start to stand up and immediately start to get dizzy and suddenly so exhausted I feel like I’m falling asleep, unable to stop the process.
The next thing I know, I’m looking at the ceiling of our bedroom, and the gray light through the window shade tells me it’s morning. I’m certain I’m back to when I should be. I hear small footsteps crossing the floor and see my little girl climbing on the plastic step that helps her get up into our bed. She’s crawling toward the space between my wife and me, and I see both of them look at me, neither surprised that I’m here.
I immediately remember where I had just been, but know I’m back. I kiss them both, and after a few minutes, climb out of bed, walk to my office and check this site. Clicking on the November, 2007 archives, I quickly scan the page.
My mouth drops. It’s there. The post that I made, one that I had never seen, since I apparently don’t pay attention to the headers of previous posts when I write new ones, was there. It says:
Here for a quick visit. Big news. She died, waving from the sunroof of her SUV.
Butto.
Wow. This is a first.
