Strange day

"Ugh, where is it? I know I had it here somewhere... where are youuu... oh, there it is!" she said, pulling out this old framed photo that had by now made its way to the bottom of the antique chest she had inherited from her great... great great... great great great... or something like that, whatever, it doesn't matter, some great grandmother, which she was just told this curious story about by her grandmother.

Gazing at it longingly, remembering seeing her oil painting portrait by the staircase growing up side by side with other ancestors and relatively distant (or not so distant) relatives.

"*Sigh* I wonder... she seems so young yet so stern... and sad... and those children of hers... looking like little porcelain dolls all still... what led you to-anyway..." she thought to herself, seeming like the the mother's face moved for a second but instantly dismissed it as misseeing, some sort of visual glitch...

putting the framed photograph on the shelf above her bed and then throwing herself on her bed, getting pulled away by her thoughts, thinking about her own life and the similarities to her ancestors she knows about and now this one.

Out of apparently nowhere, the photo frame falling on her lap for seemingly no reason, jolting her out of her train of thought.

"What the... how-..." she said, looking up puzzled as to how the photo just seemed to fall off her shelf, and didn't hit her on the head while at it, so at an angle at that.

Noticing the back, seeing a corner started peeking out ever so slightly, she started undoing the back to put it back inside.

Rushing to put it back, she realised something... "Wait, hold on," she told herself, "there's something written on the back... what does that say..."

Struggling to read the lovely cursive writing, she admonished herself for never learning to write it, but then remembered that it's not like they unfortunately teach it in schools anymore, so it's not actually her fault either, is it... ANYway...

"Herta and Kaye... Jo-no, Jade... Wobben-no, Webber... with Evangeline and Harriet and Theodore... 1914... Courage..."

"Courage? I wonder if that has anything to do with what happened to her, them, later... probably but who's to say..."

"But that still doesn't answer one thing; what made the darn thing fall onto my lap in the first damn place..."

And right as she said that, she thought she saw her sheer lavender/lilac curtain whisk, but when she looked, nothing, still as usual on a non-windy day...

"is it you?" she said quietly, hesitantly

No response...

"If it's you, give me a sign..."

No response...

"Hmm" she shrugged, walking out of her room. "Whatever then..."

Getting her swim gear from the drying rack in the bathroom, she turned around just in time for a door hanger's nail to give up, making it appear as if a K is what's swinging on the door.

"K... as in-"

DING! the dryer pinged, making her jump.

"Well, I DID ask for a sign... Hello... :)"

Once again, nothing...

As she arrived at the pool for her daily training after school (well, university, but that's still school), she was lost in her thoughts once again, which to be fair is quite usual for her, "I must make the swim team when the season starts again... I have to... health issues or not... it's my thing..."

Yanking the door open and walked into the hallway past the entrance, she noticed this poster she had never seen before...

"Courage

What it takes to stand up and speak up

What it takes to stop bullying"

Huh... that's weird, when did they put THIS up? I mean, it's true and with all the bullying, especially lately, but still..."

"Wait, what time is it?" she thought, looking at her watch, "kak! I gotta go!" she said, rushing to her locker, shoving her things in as she stripped off her clothes above her swimsuit and put her swim cap and goggles on and grabbed her water bottle, and power walked to the door to the pool and then to her usual lane in the pool.

"And I thought you weren't gonna show up"

"Yah yah, sorry about that... something came up at the last minute..."

"Well please be more careful next time..."

"I will, thanks"

"Straight body! Elbows up! Point! Faster!"

"I am... I'm trying... I'm doing it... I think? Do it more, come on..."

"Come on! Come on! You can do it!"

laps after laps after laps later...

*long whistle sound*

"Time is up!"

Pulling herself out of the pool and walking towards her gear,

"You did good today, getting better...albeit slowly..."

"Thanks... I'm trying..."

"You can do it hey... you just have to believe in yourself..."

"I'm working on that..."

"Okay good. Well I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya"

Walking back home, as the sun was prettily setting, she was just thinking about how practice today went and the progress she did and all that, and what she was told today at practice... when she got snapped out of it by a brightly-coloured car with a message or slogan or something of the sort written on it, but she didn't get to see it for it went by too fast... oh well, must've been some corny slogan or such anyway, nothing of importance...

Walking through the door and running up the stairs to her room, she threw her bag on the bed, and got on youtube.

Right there on the home page, the first video that caught her eye is one of Courage the Cowardly Dog.

"Ok, now that's just getting weird... but wh-"

Right as she started saying that, she noticed another one, she could've sworn she saw- nah, it couldn't be... she looked again. "Interesting vintage photos" by some random unknown-seeming youtuber name

"Nah, false alarm, just looks a lot like the photo... That was weird anyway, weird day even..."

As she was drifting off to sleep that night, she tried to make sense of the strange things that happened that day, and if it ever will again, I mean, it WAS suddenly a lot in one day, 0 to 100... and wondered how many others does this kind of thing happen to... and if that also includes anyone she knows... figuring they wouldn't have told her, just like she's not planning on telling anyone except her special one, of course... who else would believe her anyway...