PS...sorry about the lack of paragraphs, for some reason the blog won't copy how I have my paragraphs, and I would have to go in and put a space in between each paragraph. If someone knows how to fix this, please let me know!! I am lost on how to make it show up like I have it in word. :)
7:36
Chapter One
Warmth. Comfort. I sighed gently as I let my head rest against the soft pillow, and tucked the covers under my chin, nestling my face into their softness. Sunlight was gently streaming in through the blinds on the east side of our small bedroom. Such a perfect, peaceful morning I thought.
But suddenly I jolted upright in bed. Sunlight?
I threw my hand towards the nightstand at the side of the bed and picked up the small digital wristwatch that was sitting there on top, exactly as I had left it the night before.
The soft grey and back display pronounced to me that it was 7:36am.
7:36?
That couldn't be right. It was nearing the middle of the fall season here in southern Michigan, and the sun didn't rise well in the sky until at least after eight in the morning. What was going on?
Panicked, I reached back again to turn the alarm clock towards me.
The screen was blank.
Great. Late for work. I mumbled angrily in my mind as I rushed across the cool floor to the dresser where I had set my cell phone the night before to charge. Better find out how late I really am.
Gingerly scooping up the phone and pulling out the charging cord, I hit the power button. Nothing happened. I sighed and starting punching random buttons across the keypad, but no button yielded any results. The screen remained black. No light to display the time I so desperately want to know. Awesome. Must not have charged and then died, completely my luck of course. I had a feeling I was going to be really late for work today.
Still grumbling inwardly and frustrated by not being able to just find out the time, I walk out of the bedroom to the top of the stairs and shout down towards the kitchen, where my husband would undoubtedly be.
“Camden!” No response. “Camden!” Where is that man when you need him? He worked on our own farm, so he had to be around somewhere. I waited a few more seconds and then heard a distant reply.
“What?”
I rushed downstairs, tying my warm robe around me to throw off the morning chills that the fall season brought to Michigan. “What time is it? Why didn't you wake me up?” I threw the questions at him as I rounded the corner into the kitchen, scrutinizing his strong figure as he sat at the kitchen table, eating his customary breakfast of cereal and eggs while he read the newspaper.
“I don't know, it's not time for you to get up yet is it? It's not eight.” He replied nonchalantly.
“Well, why is it so bright out?” I tossed back at him, still confused and frustrated.
“The sun?”
“Cam! I'm serious!” I stamped my foot like a little kid, desperate to know what was going on, and annoyed that he didn't seem to care, but just kept on reading the paper. “It's fall! The sun doesn't come up until well after eight, you should know that, you're a farmer!”
“Oh. Yeah well, uhh...” He dropped the paper slightly, a curious and confused expression briefly crossed his face. He then proceeded to look down at his watch, and then smiled back up at me.
“Look, see! 7:36.” He pointed to his digital watch triumphantly and held it closer for me to see, then brought the paper back up to eye level to continue his reading, satisfied with his deduction of the time.
Sighing with exasperation, I walked towards Camden and slammed the paper out of his hands and down onto the table. He looked up, startled at my sudden movement against his regular newspaper reading.
I grabbed the watch off of my own wrist quickly and shoved it in front of his face, showing him what my watch said. I was beginning to think maybe he had played some practical joke. So Camden.
“Look! The exact same time as my watch!” I dangled the watch in front of his eyes, and it took it from my hands, examining it in his own large, calloused hands.
He looked up and smiled again at me. Normally, Cam's smile always made me warm inside, but today, it just infuriated me even more. Like an adult smiling knowingly, almost apathetically, at a kid who has said they believe in Santa Claus. Why was he being so frustrating today?
“Jenny, it's a watch. Aren't they supposed to be the same time?” I could tell he was holding back a small chuckle, probably knowing that if he did laugh, it would throw me over the edge.
“Camden! It's been more than a minute since I've come down! Did you plan this? Come on, it's not funny anymore, what time is it?” I ran over the works like a steamroller, quickly becoming more and more confused and agitated that Camden wasn't getting it, or he wasn't letting me in on the cruel joke.
“Woah, calm down. Come on, it's 7:36, just like the watch says, Jenny.” He replied, slightly taken aback by my growing anger.
“This isn't funny anymore Camden Michael! What time is it?” I found myself yelling into his bewildered face. His dark eyebrows pushed together and he shook his head, trying to disarm my anger towards him.
“Jenny, I told you. 7:36, it's what the watch says. I don't know, I'm just going off of that. Go check the computer or something if you're worried about it.” He softened his voice, but signaled that he was done with whatever I was freaking out about, and that there was nothing to worry about.
I couldn't even think straight on the other hand. Fury and frustration were easily overtaking my mind this early in the morning. I stormed out of the room, deliberately making as much noise as I possibly could. I heard Camden sigh from the kitchen, and he was probably rolling his eyes at me, too. He knew I could be, shall we say, difficult? Interesting? In the mornings at times. I was definitely a night owl, and the mornings didn't suite me as well. He was probably just marking this down as one of those mornings for me. I couldn't fully blame him, but I was still fuming, and I wanted to know what time it really was!
I stormed into our office room, and all but threw myself into the computer desk chair that was sitting peacefully in front of the long, L shape oak desk. I punched the power button on the computer and the desktop, and folding my arms as I slumped back into the squishy chair. All I could think of was how much trouble I would be in at work if I was already more than an hour late. My boss would no doubt be in hysterics. I was actually surprised that he hadn't already called the house phone to see where in the world I was.
I took a quick glance at the computer screen.
Black.
Of course it would be black. Why would anything actually work or go my way today? I sighed and punched the power button again, waiting to see if the tell-tale green light behind the power symbol would come on, whirring the computer to life.
Nothing went green, and nothing came on. Great.
I stormed towards the TV on the other side of the office and hit the power button with a little more force than was probably necessary. I mean, it wasn't the television's fault that my natural lack of tech savvy and bad luck with all things electronic leaked to everything I touched with a power cord and seemed to shut it down. I didn't really care for the electronics at all, actually, but I had grown accustomed to the convenience of using all the latest modernity that technology offered.
My mind was racing around in stressful circles at all the commotion this morning, and I momentarily forgot that I had turned the television on to find out the time. But I suddenly realized that the TV hadn't turned on either.
“UGH!” I hit the power button one more time, with intentional cruel force this time, just to make sure.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I let out a long, frustrated groan and turned out of the cold room, storming back into the kitchen.
“Camden! The power is out.”
“What?” Boy, was he slow this morning. He looked up at me after scanning the last few remaining words of the article he was pouring over. I took a deep breath to try and offset my frustration.
“The. Power. Is. Out.” I said slowly yet punctuated each work with my agitation. I continued, “Did you not send in the electric bill on time this month or something?”
“No, I did. On time, just like always.” Camden replied as he eased his tall frame out of the kitchen chair he had hunkered down in this morning, abandoning any hope of a peaceful morning now. He crossed over the squeaky floor boards until he reached the kitchen light switch and flipped it on.
Nothing, as I expected this time.
“Told you.” I said, my words laced with a tone only worthy of a hot tempered, sore loser six year old at best. I felt like sticking my tongue out too, but held back the urge as I stormed out of the kitchen and back to the stair landing to finally get ready for work- no matter how late I was going to be now.
“Sorry.” I heard Camden mutter after me as I stomped out. “I'll call the electrical company, see what they can do today.” He called out after me, his voice puzzled, yet patient.
“Good. Do something useful.” I mumbled back in spite. “Call my boss, too. Explain what happened and that I'll be there in forty five minutes.” I yelled back down the stairs as I headed for the bathroom. “Please.” I added to the end after a few seconds of hesitation. It really wasn't Cam's fault after all, he was just an innocent bystander to my early morning tirade, and I had gone after him all to quickly.
I sighed in resignation to the fact that today was just going to be one of those days. Throwing the shower handle on, I jumped into the ice cold stream a few seconds later. Still freezing cold, but there was no time to let the water heat up to allow a nice, relaxing shower today. Nope, straight to business.
The water felt like sheets of ice pelting into my back, but that made me hurry all the more, and woke me up a little bit more, which I supposed was probably a good thing. Not quickly enough, the ice cold torrent of a shower was over, not a degree hotter than when I started, and I began throwing on my work clothes.
I hurtled down the stairs a few minutes after that, towing my purse and work bag with me, trying desperately to button my sweater while attempting to fix said bags over my shoulder. It ended up being that- only an attempt. I couldn’t manage to do both tasks at once, so gave up and again resigned to the fact that today was just going to be one of those days, and I would fix my sweater later.
The kitchen flew by my peripheral vision, and I stopped, then backpedaled back into the door way, scanning the room for Camden. He wasn’t in the kitchen anymore.
“Cam?” I called out once more, but no answer came in reply. I shrugged and made for the front door and continued to make a bee-line to my car, sitting peacefully in our long driveway.
Fumbling through my purse trying to locate my car keys proved to be a difficult task as well. Why is it that everything goes wrong when you’re in a hurry, when you need things to go right more than ever? I let my mind quickly flit over the thought, and decided that that just must be a sign that you should be prepared and try not to be in a hurry. Well, too late for me today. My fingers finally felt the cold metal key ring that belonged to my car keys, and I quickly unlocked the door and all but threw myself and my bags in through the door.
I had started to slowly back out of the drive as I spotted Camden come sprinting towards my car across our expansive front lawn. It would take him forever to reach me, and my frustration of being late was still festering slightly, and I didn’t feel like being even more late for work. My foot was itching to slam down on the accelerator and get to work as fast as possible.
Camden had made it faster than I had thought he would, he was already two thirds of the way to the driveway, and I could see him motioning me to stop, so I slowed my car to a stop and rolled the window down to hear what he was trying to say.
“Camden, I really have to go, I can’t be later for work than I already am.” I tried to plead with him, cutting him off before he could try to explain.
“Jenny…” He was panting, out of breath from all but sprinting across the lawn, coming from the direction of our neighbor’s farm. “Neighbors….power…is out….too.” He got out as he was closing in the distance to my car.
“Well at least I’m not the only one who’s probably running late then. We’ll figure it out later. Call the electric people, I really have to go to work. My boss is going to kill me if I’m a minute later than I have to be.”
“But-” He tried to go into more detail, I could tell he was about to launch into a more detailed explanation and theories, but I cut him off.
“Hun,” I interrupted, my frustration and my itch to punch the gas and fly to work were growing by the second. “I really have to go. We’ll talk later. I’m really, really late. Sorry.” I closed the window and gunned the accelerator, throwing my car into the deserted road. The street rarely had any traffic, especially at this time. Maybe a few farm trucks here and there, but not street traffic. And boy was I thankful for that today as I sped towards the freeway, watching the needle slowly pass sixty, seventy, seventy-five miles per hour, before finally settling at eighty miles per hour.
I wanted to push it more, but felt it may be unwise in the unlikely event that a police officer was waiting to catch any kind mischief this morning. Topping out at over thirty five miles an hour over the speed limit just because I was late for work probably wouldn’t make a good excuse if I did get pulled over. Oh well, on to work. If I get stopped, I get stopped, I reasoned.
It suddenly occurred to me that I had a clock in my car, right in front of my very nose. See what being in a hurry did to me? My eyes darted to the digital numbers displayed proudly in bright green on the center console.
7:36.
My heart skipped a beat and I let a string of mumbled curses escape my lips, something I rarely let happen, but it seemed like such an occasion for the divulgence. I still couldn’t know what time it was, and it was pushing me over the edge.
But my frustration was soon undermined by the sudden onslaught of confusion, and a bombardment of question flowing like a raging river in my mind. Why wouldn’t the car clock be working?
I reached over for the radio dial and flipped it to on, hoping I could pick up what time it was from one of the broadcast stations.
Static.
I turned the seeker knob, listening for any clear station I could possibly pick up, even if just faintly. Sure, I could make out garbled radio broadcaster’s voice through unending static. I would attempt just about anything right now to find out the time.
I hated living in farm country sometimes. Not having a clear radio signal at this moment, in this situation, created one of those times where I found myself repulsed by the idea of “country” living.
Huge, green signs were beginning to appear and alert me to the fact that I was finally closing in on the freeway- a stretch of road that I knew for sure I would have better luck receiving a better radio signal.
As I sped onto the entrance ramp to the freeway, I pushed one of the pre-programmed buttons that marked a favorite radio station of mine.
Static.
I tried for the second button.
Static.
Another.
Static.
This continued through all six programmed buttons, none wielding any sound more than the grainy, gravely, annoying sound of static.
This was getting weird. What in the world was going on? Was the universe really that out to get me? That determined to make sure that absolutely nothing working right for me today? This day was beginning to take the record for the amount of technology that wouldn’t work for me in a day.
Mumbling for what seemed like the millionth time today, I glanced once more at the digital clock to the right of my dashboard. The green lit numbered still displayed the daunting time 7:36.
But suddenly, it began to grow fainter. Or maybe it was just my eyes in the morning light. I looked away, scanning the passing fields and patches of trees that moved past my car window in a blur of brown, green and red. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced back at the clock to see if indeed it had just been my eyes.
They were gone. No numbers were there at all anymore.
My heart began to stutter in a wild frenzy, trying to compute and figure out what was going on.
But just as suddenly, 7:36 appeared on the black display once more. Relief washed over my soul, but I wasn’t sure why. It was just a clock. But why had the numbers disappeared? My mind threw the question back, trying to fight off the relief and replace it with confusion and panic.
Determined to calm my fluttering heart and push out the panic and cling to reason, I focused my eyes back on the road. I carefully and deliberately took in all of my surroundings, slowly, concentrating on each passing object and landmark, trying to push out all outside thoughts and worries.
Fall really was a beautiful season here in Michigan, and I often forgot in the busy rush of life. I found myself being able to slip away easily from the distant worry of technology that wasn’t working for me today. It seemed small and inconsequential as beautiful trees, lace with leaves of brilliant red and orange sprang up in my vision, gently splashed with the warm golden rays of the morning sun.
The ground that was streaking past my car was a mixture of brown and fading green, but covered with a crunchy dusting of fall leaves that had already been shaken from the boughs of trees. It was like a sea of rippling, crisp and golden peaks, gently lapping up at the trunks of trees, splashing their color across the ground.
I sighed. It really was beautiful, and I began to be panged with guilt for how I had acted this morning. Maybe if I had always slowed down and taken in beauty like this, it would be easier to have a better morning. But as my mind danced over the morning, it was darkened once more with the agitation of not being able to even know what the time was. A simple thing, I just wanted to know the time. I hadn’t quite completely given up my hope of finding out, and I began to feel a growing, burning desire to look back over at the clock, to see if it had magically changed back to what time it was supposed to be. If it had gone back to normal.
My mind began fighting against itself internally.
Just look at the clock, what can it hurt? I reasoned with myself, pleading to look over and just see.
It will make me mad if it hasn’t changed, I retorted back to myself.
You don’t know that, it’s just a silly thing, just see if it’s changed. I began to waver in my mind, trying to fight back, but my curiosity was beginning to win over, and the desire to look was overwhelming me.
I tried focusing back on the road again, on the fall colors and trees, but they looked dull and uninteresting to me now.
Fine, I’ll look. Just one more time. I gave up and gave in to my curiosity, and glanced over at the digital display.
7:36 still blinked back at me. I sighed and did feel a tinge of frustration well up again, but I pushed it out and looked back away and out the window once more. Wait. It was blinking back the time to me? I threw my eyes back at the clock.
No, it was cutting in and out, fading to a flicker, then jumping back to life and shining its bright green color across the console.
But then, it cut to nothing. The display was black again, and I felt panic begin to crawl across my skin like an unwanted insect bent on infecting me with its poisonous venom. Something from the panic made me cast my eyes back to my wristwatch, which I had almost forgotten about as well. What I saw made my heart all but stop completely.
Where 7:36 had been clearly displayed for what must have been close to two hours now at least, there was nothing.
It was black, too.
Nothing at all.
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