Past or Present?
Mai had been staring at the number and name for a while now, and for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to press the call button.
Everything felt so real, so… what if this wasn't a very realistic figment of her imagination? What if this was somehow real?
According to the date on her mobile's screen it would mean that she somehow ended up ten years in the future. Although she somehow appeared to have ended up in her own body, she had no memories of what had happened between her going to school 'this morning' and 'today'.
'What would I even say to Future Shirley? I've talked to present Shirley for the first time today… would she immediately realise that I'm not the same me she knows? Would it be bad? Will I somehow break the space-time-continuum or something if she realises? … or will she just think I'm playing a prank on her? Perhaps thinking I've gone crazy because of Chris' death?'
Mai shook her head, trying to get rid of all those complicated thoughts. She was still unsure whether this was really the future or the most realistic dream she had ever had. In the end, she decided against calling Shirley's number, at least until she got a better grasp on her current situation.
However, going through her contacts she did stumble upon another name, a name she was quite confident she could easily talk to without messing up or somehow revealing herself not to be Future Mai in case this was more than a dream.
Pressing the call button and hearing the ring tone, her heart was beating fast. She didn't know why but she felt nervous. She had spoken with Simon on the phone countless times in the past before, so why did it feel so different right now?
Was it because this wouldn't be her Simon, but Future Simon?
[The person you are calling now is currently unavailable, please leave a message after the beep.]
Mai let out a sigh of relief as the phone went to the message tone.
"H-hi, it's Mai, long time no speaking... maybe? I guess? Or maybe we talked yesterday, I'm sorry my mind is in a bit of a mess right now. I just wanted to ask you a few things, so please call me back when you can."
After hanging up the call she started to hit her head with the phone.
"Stupid Mai, what was that? So much for NOT sounding suspicious." She berated herself, continuing to bang her phone against her head.
'Now what do I do?' She thought while looking at a room she was very unfamiliar with. At first she closed her eyes. Since she had appeared in this 'dream', 'world', 'reality' or whatever this was after going to sleep in her room, perhaps falling asleep again would allow her to wake up back in her room.
Alas, her current body wasn't sleepy in the slightest, so she just ended up spending fifteen minutes lying around on the couch, until she couldn't take it anymore.
Her next attempt to wake up was to splash water on her face, but if anything it only made her feel more awake and refreshed. As a last resort, she got her nails prime and ready and dug them into her shoulder.
"OWWW!" She screamed. "Okay, this definitely isn't a dream, but how is this possible?" She asked herself, looking at her phone again, double checking the date.
While trying to wrap her head around what was happening, she eventually calmed herself down. Everything was just so unbelievable she started to wonder if she was on a prank show, but looking at the mirror, no amount of makeup should make it so that small wrinkles would actually appear on her face.
'Okay, assuming this really is ten years in the future, then at some point I should return back, just like I did last time. So perhaps I should use this time to try and confirm something?'
With the phone unlocked, her idea was to google something that should have happened ten years ago, a week from the current date she was currently in. A big event that would happen that was impossible to just be a coincidence.
However, looking at her phone, once again, the picture of her and Chris was staring at her in the face.
"Ahhh, were we really so lovey dovey? Did we have to have photos everywhere." She said while covering it with her hands. Eventually peeking through, she took a look at his soft smile, a smile she had never seen before.
'That smile, it looks so real. Does that mean you were happy with me, did I make you happy at least?'
Although she was planning to try and look up great events, looking at the picture she started to type something else.
[Chris Beneard's death]
She lacked any memories of how they got together, so naturally Mai had no clue how her future husband had died. Since the funeral should have happened recently she hoped to find some information on it.
Unfortunately, she discovered that Chris Beneard was quite the common name, making it nearly impossible to pinpoint the one she wanted to know about. Soon after searching for him, she started to type in her own name, but there were no results. It appeared as if neither one of their future selves had become any kind of persons of public interest.
'After all that studying, I didn't even become anything special, huh? Wait till I give mom an ear full.'
Finally, getting back on track, she started to search about large events that happened during the year 2022. Something close to the month they were in. Finding information from ten years ago turned out to be harder than she thought, especially since their small village was nothing special.
'Why can't it be as easy as in the movies?!' Mai was frustrated.
Only major events were easy to find about, but Mai hoped to find anything for some evidence that would convince her once and for all that this was the future instead of a dream.
'Finally, I found something. A week from 'now', wait that's not right, would it be a week from my present? Or should that be past? Argh, anyway there's meant to be a bank robbery gone wrong in the village. Apparently there will also be a famous video uploaded online.'
Clicking on the link, after having to suffer through some advertisement, a video with over ten million views on Poutube loaded up. There were two men who walked into a bank, only to be chased out by an angry old lady with her handbag. She managed to knock the gun out of the robber's hands with her handbag and continued to beat the two men silly.
Thankfully no one got hurt, so Mai wouldn't feel too bad to use this event to check if this was the future. Of course part of her reasoning was that she didn't want to be made a suspect if she did somehow tip them off. There was also the risk of her creating a butterfly effect.
Just as she made sure to remember the correct date of this failed robbery, the phone started to ring, and the name Simon appeared on the display.
Her heart started to once again beat rapidly. Even picking up the phone felt like a mammoth of a task.
'What if he asks me something the current me doesn't know? Should I make up something and say I have amnesia or go with the flow?'
Struggling with what to say, the phone had rung a few times and she was worried she would miss the call. As such, she quickly answered after taking a deep breath.
"Hello, Mai." A soft voice greeted.
"H-hello.."
It was the same voice she recognised only a little rougher around the edges than she remembered. However, there was one worrying thing, Simon didn't sound upbeat or like his usual self. With the two words she could tell something was up.
"You sound happier than I thought you would be. To be honest, I didn't think I would ever hear from you again. I was especially surprised to get such a strange message out of nowhere."
"Oh yeah, sorry about that?" Mai replied awkwardly, since this was not going according to her plan at all. She was still trying to figure out what he meant by his words, 'ever hear from you again'. Just how long had they not been talking to each other.
"I'm sorry. I'm not sure if you've heard, but Chris died. My mind is all over the place and I just thought talking to an old friend would help. Say, when was the last time we spoke?"
Without any other good reasons, Mai just decided to blame it on possible shock from Chris' death. Perhaps that would invoke some sort of sympathy in Simon, making him forgive whatever she might have done and prevent him from questioning anything odd about her behavior.
There was a slight pause while Simon finally gave a reply.
"Oh. I'm sorry for your loss. Shame, it took such an event for you to talk to me again after… I guess soon it would be nine years ago."
Stunned by the answer, Mai nearly dropped the phone out of her hands. What could have happened that made her and Simon stop talking to each other, without any reconciliation for nine whole years?
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Let's try hit a hundred stone in one week, and will do extra chapters on top of my regular upload.