Jennifer chose a seat that overlooked the entire cafeteria so that she wouldn’t miss him. If he showed up at all. He didn’t say an exact time and she just sat there for a few hours waiting, thinking, watching people come and go and drinking coffee.
What if he couldn’t even help her? What if nobody could help her and she was stuck in this universe forever? She didn’t even want to entertain this thought. Of course she would get back home to her own world, see her husband again and give him the biggest hug. And then they would go out for dinner and spend a nice evening at the beach.
Making these plans made her feel a little better.
Another 20 minutes later he entered the cafeteria, alone. He seemed insecure and the way he walked was different, subdued, trying not attract any attention. When he saw her he seemed surprised to actually see her there but approached her table nonetheless.
“Hello. I guess if you waited this long then it really must be important?”
“Please sit down.”, Jennifer requested. He sat down on the chair opposite of her.
“I don’t even know who you are…”
Jennifer tried to think of the best way to answer this. She couldn’t just start with “Hey, I’m your wife from another universe” Would he even believe her? She never really thought of that. He had to actually believe her crazy story. This got more complicated by the minute.
“Well, my name is Jennifer Ryan.”
“Nice to meet you. Apparently you already know my name.”
“I might know a little bit more than your name.” Jennifer looked at his hands, the wedding ring was missing, so weird to see. She looked back at her own wedding ring as if she was scared it wasn’t there. But it was still on her finger.
This universe’s Jonathan MacLean looked puzzled. She still hadn’t told him what exactly she wanted, hopefully he wouldn’t get impatient and just leave so she decided to just get to the point.”
“Okay, this may sound crazy and weird and impossible but… this morning something happened and I ended up in an alternate reality, this reality. Nothing is right, strangers live in my house, my phone isn’t working, this place is different, you are different…”
“An alternate reality? Are you sure you didn’t just have a bad dream? You’re right this sounds crazy…”
“I just want to get back home and you’re the only one I could think of who may be able to help.”
“Why me?”
“You’re a physicist, right? Seems like this would be right up your alley…”
“I’m not a good scientist, I’m nobody, I don’t even like my job…” Jonathan paused. “How do you even know me?”
Jennifer took a deep breath. “In my reality… we’re married.”
“To each other? Really? This entire thing really hard to believe and you know that.”
“Yes, I know. But how can I make you believe me.. and help me? I realize that I have absolutely no proof and there is no reason you should believe me but… I promise I’m telling the truth.” Jennifer knew this wouldn’t be easy but her hope started to fade, she tried very hard to fight the tears.
There was a minute of silence.
“If you really know me, then you should be able to tell me something only I would know.” Jonathan finally suggested.
“Well… I don’t know if you’re exactly the same. I already noticed a lot of differences.” Jennifer tried to think of something. There was something in her husband’s past that he couldn’t really talk about so maybe the same thing had happened here, too? She didn’t want to bring it but she had to.
“When you were a little child you were kidnapped and held captive for years.”
He glared at her. Did she hit a nerve? Was it too much?
“Actually… I wasn’t. My brother was. But only a few people know about this.”
“What?” Jennifer realized something. This must be what went differently. The other brother was taken and it had changed everything, at least the life that she knew.
“If you’re telling the truth… then it means that I was the one who was kidnapped in your reality…and my brother is still alive?”, his talked in a quiet almost shaking voice, this seemed to be getting to him.
“Yes, someone found you… him… after several years and he was able to escape. So Thomas didn’t, I mean your Thomas.?”
“No… he was never found, not even a body, just nothing…”
He looked at her with sadness in his eyes and then stood up.
“Alright… I will see what I can do for you, if you don’t m ind waiting till I’m off.”
Jennifer smiled. “No, I’ll wait.”
Jonathan walked towards the today. “Thank you.”, she said to him, hoping he would hear her. He turned around and gave her a sad smile then walked out the door…
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