Black 24-year old Shari Johnson walked through the mall to "Victoria's Secret", currently on her phone talking to Daryl, her boyfriend.
"Don't worry, baby, you'll love it when you see it," Shari purred to him, referring to the sexy lingerie she planned to buy.
"On you, almost anything would look great, baby," he said. "When ar .. oo ... ing ..." The phone call got disconnected.
"Damn," Shari uttered. "Must be no service here." But when she checked the cellphone availability, she was getting 100%. "That's weird." She hit redial and heard the call being answered. "Sorry about dat, baby. My phone got ..."
"Who is this?" came the voice of Daryl.
"What do you mean? It's me. Shari."
"I don't know anyone by that name. I don't know how you got my phone number, but you better not call me back here again. My girlfriend is insanely jealous. I don't want to piss her off."
"Girlfriend? But I'm ..." she started, but then heard Daryl cutting the connection. "What da hell?" she uttered, beyond confused. She was about redial again, but before she could, the screen automatically went back to her contacts list ... which Daryl wasn't on. She scrolled through the entire list, but she couldn't find anything Daryl-related. In fact, she couldn't find a lot of contacts that she knew she should have. What she did see were a bunch of contacts she had never seen before. Like, who was Tiffany? Or Claire? Or Greg? She didn't know any of these people, so why were they on her contacts list? There were a few that she did recognize, but they were all family contacts. Everyone else? Strangers.
Looking down at her phone in her hand, she suddenly noticed something. But it wasn't on her phone. It was on her hand. Her left hand. It was a small-diamond ring. A wedding ring. Where had that come from?
Little did Shari know, she was now married to a man named Greg. Not only that, but she was now older, at 30 years old. Before the reality change, she was the middle chi1d in her family, having a younger sister (21 years old) and an older brother (29 years old). In the new reality, she was the oldest, at 30, and she had two younger siblings - a 21-year old sister and a 25-year old brother. Essentially, age-wise, Shari had sort of switched places with her brother. Everything else about her family was almost virtually the same. But everything outside her family? That's where things were quite a bit different.
Shari stared down at the wedding ring. What the hell was happening?
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White 40-year old Greg Wilson walked out to his car, holding one shopping bag. In it was his wedding anniversary gift to his wife. It was their 15th, so he wanted to make it special this year. He had it all planned out. After getting a babysitter for his 11-year old son, he'd take Laura out to a fancy restaurant, then to a luxury hotel, where he'd present her with this gift, before making passionate love to her. He hoped.
As he drove back home, Greg failed to realize that he was getting younger, by almost a decade. And by the time he got to his house, he was 31.
Walking up to his front door, after parking in the driveway, Greg felt more energetic, but he just chocked that up to being excited about his upcoming anniversary plans. He put his house key into the lock, but for some reason, it didn't work. He tried again, but still, it wasn't working. He pressed the doorbell, hoping either his wife or his son Michael would answer the door and let him in. A moment later, the door opened, revealing his lovely wife. Even in her late 30's she seemed just as beautiful as the first day they met all those years ago.
"Yes?" she asked.
"For some reason, my key didn't work," Greg explained.
Laura looked at him oddly. "Who are you? And why do you think you have a key to my house?"
"What? What are you talking about? I live here. Now, come on, let me in," he said, pulling open the screen door. But his wife unexpectedly pulled it shut. "Honey, what are you doing?"
"I don't know who you are, but I want you to leave right now. I'll call the police if you don't." This wasn't a joke. He could tell that she was being serious. But why? Why couldn't she recognize her own husband?
"Listen, Laura ..."
"How do you know my name?" she asked, getting panicked.
"Laura, I don't know what's gotten into you, but ..."
"Just stay away," she said, even more panicked. "I have children in the house."
"I ... wait, did you say 'children'?" Looking past her, he saw a boy around Michael's age, and a little girl, a few years younger. The boy was not Michael, but he could see some resemblance in him to Laura. The girl had some resemblance to Laura as well. What was going on here? What happened to Michael? And who was that other girl?
Sun Dec 16 14:58:02 2018