3 Erased

Mae arrived at the front entrance of her workplace. It was a tall building with ten floors. The company she worked for focused on international business, but she does not know much about it since she only file and organize their documents.

When she entered the building, she checked her attendance by scanning her I.D. card into a computer at the front desk.

"Six more hours and then I can go home," she sighed as she sat down at her desk. Linh, her supervisor, came over to her desk. She was carrying a stack of paper.

"Here Mae," said Linh. She laid the stack onto Mae's desk. "You don't look so good," she said as she walked away.

"Of course, I would be happier if you gave me a smaller stack." Mae thought to herself. She turned on her computer and began filing the documents.

Moments later, there was a buzz sound coming from inside her bag. She reached into her bag and her phone was lit up. A message from her friend.

"Hope you are working and not playing games," it read. The time on her phone displayed 1:38 P.M. Her stomach made a unsatisfying sound.

"I think I need a quick snack," she said. Mae walked to the front room and stared at the contents inside the snack machine. There was a variety of chips and candy bars.

"Cheese crackers look tasty right now," she thought. She took out some money from her bag and insert them into the machine. There was only one cheese cracker left. She entered the number that was labeled on the row with the crackers.

The machine started to push the cracker from behind so that it would fall down. The cracker fell forward and got stuck.

"This is not happening!" she said. She sighed with frustration. She did not bring enough money for another snack. Mae walked back to her desk with an empty stomach.

There was another buzz coming from her phone. It was her friend again.

"Look, what I ate for dinner!" She clicked on the message and a picture of a bowl of noodles appeared. Mae's stomach made the same unsatisfying sound again.

"I don't think it is the right time to tease me when I just had bad luck," she replied.

"Hahaha, what happened?"

"I will tell you tonight when we play the game."

Mae put the phone into her bag and returned back to filing the rest of the papers. There were only twenty remaining papers left to file. She only have until 3 P.M. before she goes home for the day.

The last data had been entered onto the company's system. Mae turned off her computer and checked the time on her phone. It was 2:56 P.M.

"Just in time. My stomach really needs something to eat," she said. She walked to the front and checked out of the system by scanning her card again.

"I have a feeling that I am forgetting something.." she thought. She walked to the bus stop. Since, there were less traffic during this time, it was faster to take the evening bus then having to walk a long distance to the train station.

She waited at the bus stop with a small group of people. The bus came twenty minutes later. On the side of the bus there was an advertisement for baby milk. It showed a mother feeding a baby with a bottle.

"Babies are so adorable. I wish I can hold one but unfortunately I won't have one anytime soon," she said to herself. Mae got on the bus and took an empty seat near the front. She sat down next to the window and pulled out her phone and messaged her friend.

"Get ready to lose again I am almost home." she texted.

"Don't get your hopes up too much Mae. Like I have told you yesterday, my plan to beat you."

"What did you told me yesterday"?

"You forgot already?"

She paused for a moment to try and remember what happened yesterday. She could not remember anything from yesterday, not even what she ate yesterday night.

"This is strange, how come I can't remember anything.." she said to herself. She looked at her phone and tried to scroll up to the previous messages from the other day. The oldest message on her phone was from her friend this morning.

"Maybe my phone is acting weird," she thought.

Mae got home around 4:24 P.M. when the sun was almost setting. When she opened the front door, she saw that her mother was in the kitchen cooking and her father was watching the news on the couch.

"There will be rain throughout this week starting tomorrow," said a voice from the television. Her father was watching the news channel.

"Hey Mae, did you get the milk?" said her mother.

"Oh no...I actually forgot."

"What a pity. I was going to bake some cookies. Hey hun, can you drive to the store and get some milk?"

"I will go tomorrow morning. It's quite late and I just got home," said her father.

Mae grabbed a bag of chips from the cabinet. She then walked into her room and dropped her bag onto the floor near her bed. She fell forward onto her bed and hugged her blanket.

"I missed you so much bed," she said. She reached under her bed and pulled out a box. It was a board game that she often played with her friend. Mae opened the box and started to spread out the game pieces. She picked up a piece of paper that was inside the box. On the paper, she had wrote the positions of each game piece from the previous game and which game card had already been used.

Mae positioned each game piece according to the notes on the paper. She got up and went to the bathroom to shower and into more comfortable clothes.

When she came back to her bedroom, she grab her phone from her bag.

"I'm ready!" she texted.

"I have already set up my game and have been waiting."

"I just got home."

"So what happened today?"

Mae explained to her friend about the snack machine incident from work. She also talked about how her phone did not show old messages.

"That's strange indeed. I rolled a five, move my swordsman forward five spaces."

She grabbed the swordsman character from the game and moved it along a path five spaces forward. Her character was seven spaces behind. She picked up the dice and rolled it across the board. The dice spinned and bounced a couple of times before it landed with the six faced up.

"Guess you got to move my character six spaces," she texted.

"I hope you are not cheating on the dice rolls."

"Hey, we both promised not to cheat on the game. I am a woman of my words."

"Ok haha, you are lucky I am not there to witness your rolls."

She moved her swordswoman character six spaces forward. Her character landed on a special spot labeled "Card." Mae got to pick a random card from the stack.

"The card said I get to roll again."

"That is so unfair hahaha."

This time her roll landed on the six faced up again. She moved her character six spaces forward. There were no more spaces at the end of the board. Her character got to the final spot where she had placed a treasure chest.

"I believe I have won. My character got to the chest!" Mae took a picture of the board and sent it to her friend.

"I can't believe it…maybe another game tomorrow then?"

"Sure!" she replied immediately.

"Ok, Goodnight!"

"Night!"

Mae turned off her phone and threw it on her bed. Then, she folded up the board and gathered the game pieces into the box. She took the note paper, rolled it up into a ball and threw it into a small bin across the room.

"I still wonder why my phone is acting like this," she said. Mae laid down on the bed trying to figure out where the old messages are. Her mouth slowly widened and out came a long yawn.

She slid her phone under her pillow and turned off the lamp. Her eyes slowly blinked until she could not open them anymore, while drifting away into a deep sleep.