Life As I Knew It

It was nearing midnight as I settled into my bed and pulled the silken sheets up to my chin. I had just set the alarm clock one hour ahead for daylight saving time. As the night faded into morning, my eyes fell closed and the darkness of sleep welcomed me into its embrace.

It seemed as though a mere sprinkling of hours had swept by when the light of day coaxed me from my slumber. The open window bathed me in warm sunshine and invited in the sweet melody of late morning birdsong.

I drew myself out of the soft comfort of my bed with the thought of steaming pancakes drizzled with sweet maple syrup. I had expected to be greeted with a commotion like any other day, but the house was eerily silent on that beautiful spring morning.

"Hello?" I called out, "Anyone home?" Where had they all gone? Searching through the empty hallways and abandoned rooms, confusion washed over me. I gingerly picked up the landline phone and dialed each number one at a time. Each call was met with a disconnected beep.

I tried to find the cat instead because then, at least, I would know that I wasn't alone. She wouldn't come, no matter how many times I called out to her. I looked outside, too, but the garden looked so different. Untamed weeds strangled the life out of all the brilliant flowers we had planted there once upon a time.

There was one clearing of soil, with visibly less weeds than the rest, in the depths of it all where someone had obviously been tending to it. A single post wrapped in fake flowers and engraved with a name sat in the center of the clearing. And the name read, "Simba". Our cat.

Tears prickled and threatened to fall. What was going on here? I turned around before I had a chance to let that sink in, and rushed around to the side of the house. As I had feared, the driveway was empty. No cars. My sister's motorcycle was gone, too. Inexplicably, I couldn't find any traces of my family at all.

There was no evidence that they had ever even been there from the very start. But they had been, just yesterday. I was certain of it. A deep sense of panic injected itself into me. I couldn't breathe.

I bolted inside and frantically rummaged around our home for clues to their disappearance, stumbling around with tears pouring down my face. All of the bedrooms were empty and they all looked as though they hadn't been occupied for some time.

But there were letters scattered around in each bedroom. Letters written by my mother and by my sisters. Letters telling stories of the lives that they had lived without me in it. They told a tale of a boy who had fallen into a deep slumber late one night and never woken from it.

A tale of the grief of a family who had had no other choice than to continue living their lives, each day hoping and praying that he would awaken from his sleep so that they could see each other once again. His family had watched him sleeping almost peacefully every day for forty years, never growing a day older as if frozen in time by magic.

Life had not been kind to any one of them, pushing them roughly through the years as it held onto him with an iron grip. They had lost their hearing and their sight, their smell and their taste. They had grown frail and sore, their skin sagging and wrinkled.

His mother had finally given out only a few years before at the age of seventy-seven. Both of his sisters would have been in pushing sixty by now, if they were even still of this world.

I wouldn't even know where to begin looking. I crumpled the last of the letters tightly in my fist and allowed the sobs to rack my body. When my tears subsided at last, I sauntered to the living room and sat heavily in the armchair.

There was a newspaper sitting on the coffee table before me, with crosswords half filled out on the back page. Taunting me. Slowly picking it up, I scanned the front page for the date that would make everything that much more real. Thursday 5 April 2057.

My breath caught in my throat and stuck there, choking me with emotions. Sorrow. Regret. Loss. Confusion. Anger. How had this happened to me? What had I done to deserve this? My entire life had passed me by, and for what? I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Just go on living my life? I couldn't.

I didn't have anything left to live for. What was the point of living without those you love? That wouldn't really be living, only existing. I remembered it as clearly as if it had been yesterday. And for me, it was.

I had set the clock forward for daylight savings and fallen asleep within minutes... Had the clock thrust me forward in time? It was like magic. Just like how I hadn't aged in forty years. It had to be. A crazy idea hit me. It was insane, but it had to work.

It was the last option I had. I shot out of the armchair and hurried to my bedroom. It had to work. I was counting on it. I snatched my alarm clock from its spot on my bedside table and hurriedly set it back an hour, diving into the bed and wrenching the sheets up onto me.

I shut my eyes and willed sleep to take me. Please. Minutes ticked by. Sleep, sleep, sleep. I tried counting sheep. Come on. If ever there was a time for the darkness to claim me, it was then. Help me out here, universe. And then sleep pulled me in.

My eyes cracked open after what felt like hours, blinded by the sunlight streaming in through the window. The world outside was alive with birdsong once more. I threw the covers off me and jumped out of bed, stopping only when I reached the door.

My heart was pounding in anticipation. I closed my shaking hand around the doorknob and paused. I didn't know if I could handle it if I opened that door only to find an empty house, if the outcome hadn't changed even despite the hope burning inside me. Please.

To have that hope shattered then might have broken me for good. To know that I would forever be alone... I wouldn't be able to survive that. Sucking in a breath, I turned the handle and inched the door open, peering outside with a lump in my throat.

A sudden meow shocked me and I jerked my head down to look at the ginger cat standing at my feet. He looked up at me with those emerald eyes and my heart melted and jumped and slammed against my chest all at the same time. Thank you, universe. "Oh, Simba."