If I hadn’t been downstairs, if the necklace hadn’t been sitting in front of me obviously missing a pearl, I would’ve thought it was a dream. Maybe I’m just crazy, but I don’t think I could’ve sleep-walked down those stairs unharmed. So what I’m left with is the conclusion that I’ve found a necklace with magic pearls. I’m definitely crazy, but I’m also not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Pearl number one took me back to the memory of a night when I was six years old, not my memory of the night, but the memory, like an echo left here by what this place used to be. That leaves two pearls remaining. I pick the necklace back up and return it to my pocket before heading back up the stairs to the apartment.
Everything is exactly where I left it when I went to sleep, cardboard boxes broken down and stacked in the middle of the living room rug, blankets washed this morning folded up on the couch, through the windows I can see it’s still dark out and I wonder how much time has passed. My phone should be in the guest room on the charger, but the hallway is exceedingly creepy at night and I haven’t gotten around to changing the bulb yet, so I opt to check the digital clock in the kitchen. Just as I reach it it turns one am. I went to bed at eight, five hours seems about right for the amount of time passed in the memory, but it definitely wasn’t one am when it ended, maybe more around ten pm. So the correct amount of time passes, but the memory isn’t limited to the same time frame as the present.
I take a seat at the kitchen table, procrastinating a little longer before having to walk back down the creepy hallway to my room. How did the pearl select the memory for me to visit? When I was drifting off I was thinking about the busy nights at the rink downstairs, did it just pick one of those because I was thinking about them? Can I be more specific? If I get five hours, and the time doesn’t have to overlap with real time then it could be during the day right? I find myself nodding off slightly, my thoughts more and more frequently tying themselves into messy knots, it’s then that I realize I haven’t actually slept tonight. With a begrudging groan I pull myself up from the chair and make my way back towards the dark, creepy hallway that leads to my bed.
Nana and Grandy had black cats that would hide in the shadows of this hall and pounce on the legs of anyone who walked by. They scratched up my legs and scared the daylights out of me more than enough times to give me an innate fear of this hall in the dark. The cats are long gone though, and I know that, but still I brace myself with a deep breath before hurrying down the hall on my toes. My arm still flies out in front of me, grabbing for the handle before my feet reach the doorway and I still throw myself into the room and slam the door shut behind me as if I am being hunted. On the other side of the door I know that I’m being foolish, that I am alone here and nothing is going to reach out from the shadows and claw at me, but my heart still pounds the same.
My alarm goes off at eight am, and for several groggy moments everything about last night is blurred. As I drag myself out of bed to get changed though, I see the necklace resting on the dresser. My foggy brain seeking distinction between dreams and truth compels me to pick it up for further examination, and I find two pearls on a silver chain. There were three when I found it right? I remember there being three. I stare at the necklace a moment longer, my tired eyes searching it for secrets and finding nothing but confusion. I grunt and discard the necklace back onto the vanity so I can get dressed, but when I go to the bathroom to get some shirts out of the dryer I catch a glimpse of my hair in the mirror and decide that I definitely need to shower first.
As I turn the water on and lock the bathroom door the mirrors quickly fog up from the steam. The hot water is nice, the place may be old but the water heater works well. I let myself take my time scrubbing the shampoo into my hair and rinsing it all back out again, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and letting my mind de-fog as I wake up. As my thoughts become clearer they keep drifting back to the necklace, and the memory from last night. Could it have been a dream after all? Did I really prove it wasn’t one or did I just convince myself I wasn’t dreaming while I was still dreaming? How many pearls did the necklace have before? I turn the water off and step out of the shower, pulling a towel off the rack to dry off with as I go rooting back through the dryer for a shirt. I find a suitable t-shirt and head back to my room to get some of the pants I put away yesterday. Once I’m dressed I go back to the vanity for the necklace, two pearls on a silver chain just like this morning.
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There’s no way to know for sure if there were ever really three, but I can take a picture now to prove there are two. I put the necklace on and pull the chain with my thumb so it's closer to the camera as I take the picture. Perfect, there are two pearls on the chain, the picture clearly shows it. Now if the same thing happens tonight, tomorrow I will know for sure that it’s real.
I set to work for the rest of the day, eating a quick breakfast before putting away yesterday's laundry and starting a load of towels and sheets. Then I head downstairs to start cleaning up the sitting room, dust everything, vacuum all the cat hair off the carpet and couch, vacuum the stairs. I finish cleaning everything I can reach sometime around lunch.
I don’t really feel like making anything, and all I have right now are ingredients. I definitely need to get some microwaveable meals when I go to the grocery store. In the meantime, I grab my car keys and decide to check and see if the glass kitchen burger joint down the road is still in business. The gravel rumbles under my car all the way out of the driveway. I look both ways, more for animals than cars on this road at this time of day, then take a left and head towards the old strip mall next to the motel. Most of the old storefronts have been empty for years, all that’s left is the donut shop on the end and the glass kitchen in the parking lot. I pull up to the window of the glass kitchen and order a burger and some fries, putting the bag in my passenger seat before turning around and heading back.
When I get back to the apartment I hesitate, not sure if I should eat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen or the dining room table. I settle for the coffee table in the living room and put on family feud while I eat. The burger is as good as I remember, I can see how that old place stayed in business all these years. I wipe the burger grease off my hands and head to the kitchen for a drink. There should still be some energy drinks and sodas in the fridge, sure enough there's about a box of XS energy burn left, strawberry kiwi flavor, just for me. I take one of the tiny cans and crack open the green tab as I head back to my food. I finish up my burger and most of the fries and take in another episode of family feud before getting back to it.
Time to make a shopping list. I go back through the pantry, fridge, and freezer, typing things into my phone as I think of what I’m missing. I search Google Maps for the nearest grocery store that’s still open, it looks like it’s the United Supermarket in downtown Iowa Park. I grab my keys back off the coffee table and head back out.
By the time I get home I’m ready for dinner. I unload all the groceries, regretting my life choices as I haul them all up the stairs, and start prepping some potatoes for baking. I’ll have one for dinner tonight and keep the rest in the fridge to eat throughout the week. The oven presents a challenge, it’s older than any oven I’ve ever used before and it takes some googling and investigating to figure out how to make it do what I want. After about an hour and a half I remove the successfully baked potatoes from the oven, manage to figure out how to turn the oven back off, and prepare one of the potaotes for dinner so I can eat while I let the rest cool.
I opt to eat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen this time, my decision heavily influenced by my desire to walk as little as necessary for the rest of the day. While I eat I gaze out the window over the huge gravel parking lot that is now my driveway, my eyes eventually sliding over to the remnants of the swimming pool. There’s practically a forest growing out of the concrete bottom, everything over there has decayed after years of neglect and weather. My mind drifts back to how it used to be, a place full of people smiling and laughing and having a good time, there was so much life and joy at the pool.
I sigh softly at the memories of splashing sound with my friends, absentmindedly beginning to fiddle with my jewlery until my fingers run over one of the pearls. I snap back to the present, remembering last night and the bizarre magic I seem to have discovered. If last night was real, I visited the skating rink during its prime, so tonight I’ll try to visit the pool.