Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
A mina snuggled deeper inside the covers, ignoring the music which grew progressively louder from the alarm on her phone. She was surprised Mark hadn’t told her to turn it off yet.
Her eyes popped open and she shot to a sitting position in a panic. She frantically reached for her phone to shut it off before he got angry. Amina couldn’t hit the snooze button fast enough. Releasing a deep sigh of relief she glanced over her shoulder to make sure Mark was still asleep but his side of the bed was empty. In fact, it didn’t appear to be slept in.
There were times when he’d stay out at all hours of the night and not return for days at a time but something seemed different she couldn’t quite figure it out.
Amina rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stretched when suddenly all the events of the night before came crashing down on her. The robbery, Mark not answering her calls and then coming home to find him in bed with her cousin.
The worst part wasn’t even the beating where she was certain he’d broken her nose and knocked out some teeth, but the fact that he’d had such little regard for her as his wife and a person that he didn’t care that she knew about his affair.
And then there was Candace’s shrill laugher. It was the same laugher Amina would hear growing up whenever she’d get in trouble with her Aunt for the smallest infraction that none of her cousins would be faulted for.
Amina cautiously touched her face, afraid of the damage she’d suffered. There didn’t seem to be any swelling, or pain for that matter. Her nose felt completely intact as well. Running her tongue along her front teeth, she was relieved to feel they were all there.
Had last night been some kind of freakish nightmare?
One she was certain had ended in her death?
She took a quick look around her room and saw bright colors and paintings adorning the walls. What was going on? When Mark had moved in with her, he insisted she redecorate the house to suit both their tastes in the name of fairness, although when it was all said and done, he’d gotten his way in every decision of the renovations.
The sheets on her bed were pink with rainbows. Mark hated these sheets because he claimed they were childish and no grown woman ‘with sense’ would put them on her bed. She loved pink and girly things because she wasn’t allowed to have them when she was younger.
It was only when she was taken into her grandmother’s custody in her teens was she able to indulge in her love of ‘cutesy’ items and these sheets were one of the first purchases she’d made after inheriting this house. The music on her phone cut on again, and this time she noticed this was a model she’d owned five years back because of the pink and white Hello Kitty cover, another casualty of Mark’s annoyance.
How did she have this phone when Mark had broken it in a fit of rage by smashing it against a wall? She shut the alarm off completely and her home screen popped up with the date.
May 9 th .
This couldn’t be right because yesterday was the 9 th . She opened her phone to go to the calendar to see if there was an issue with her phone and a chill ran up her spine. The date still said the 9 th but it was it was five years earlier.
“What the hell? What’s going on?” she muttered to herself.
She slid out of bed, certain she was in the middle of a dream. She headed to the bathroom and noticed the hole in the wall next to the nightstand was gone. Mark had punched his fist through it with the intention of hitting her but she’d ducked before impact. Her crime according to him was questioning him when he’d come home drunk at 3 in the morning.
She ran her hand along the wall to ensure she wasn’t hallucinating. Something was definitely off. Hesitantly, she stepped into the bathroom and flicked on the light. Her clouds with smiley faces shower curtain hung proudly as if she didn’t have to pack them away when Mark complained about them. But what really took her by surprise was the glimpse of herself she caught in the mirror.
Her skin was flawless. The scar above her eye from when Mark threw a rock at her head because he felt she had been disrespectful to his mother, was gone. She yanked off her frilly pink bonnet and a multitude of knotless braids cascaded down her shoulders. She hadn’t worn this style in years because Mark said braids made her look ‘ghetto’.
Was it possible she had gone back in time somehow? Like in a weird episode of the Twilight Zone? She wasn’t sure how this had happened. And Amina still wasn’t convinced this was all real. This had to be a dream.
May 9 th five years ago was two weeks before Mark proposed to her. If she remembered correctly, he’d called her early that morning to ask?—
Just then her phone rang, and she stiffened almost afraid to answer. It couldn’t be. There was no way, this was happening. Yet, when she headed back to her bedroom and picked up her phone a gasp tumbled from her lips when she saw it was indeed Mark.
She didn’t want to answer the phone but instinct and fear made her hit the green button on her phone to receive his call. “H-hello?”
“Took you long enough to answer. Aren’t you usually up by now?” The affable almost jovial tone was one he used before he slid the ring on her finger. He hadn’t spoken to her with any cheer in his voice for a long time.
“I, ugh, was in the bathroom. What’s up?” she asked cautiously.
I was thinking I could swing by your office and pick you up for lunch.
Those were the words he used that morning when he’d called her. She clenched the phone tighter and braced herself, certain he wouldn’t say exactly that.
“I was thinking I could swing by your office and pick you up for lunch.”
Her knees buckled and she nearly tumbled to the floor. She placed her palm against the wall to steady herself.
“Amina? Are you there?”
“Ugh, yeah. I think the connection must be bad.”
Mark huffed in apparent exasperation. “I keep telling you to upgrade that old phone. It’s embarrassing when you pull that thing out in public. It’s bad enough you have that kiddy phone case. It’s time you grew up, babe.”
Had he always been this condescending to her before their marriage? Whatever was happening now, she couldn’t deal with him on top of it, especially if her suspicions were proven to be correct.
“My phone works just fine and there’s nothing wrong with my phone case. As for lunch, I already have plans.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Amina could only imagine Mark’s expression. It was rare when she spoke back to him and when she did, she was immediately met with some form of violence.
Her stomach was in her feet. Would he come after her for being defiant? But it occurred to her that he didn’t get physical with her until after they were married.
“Are you okay?” he asked with the clear implication that she wasn’t herself.
“I’m good, Mark. I need to get ready for work. I’ll call you later.”
“You know?—”
Click!
Her heart raced a mile a minute. She’d never hung up on him before. And when her phone rang again, Amina ignored the call.
She plopped on the bed and attempted to make sense of what was going on. Though it initially felt like a dream, all her memories of the past were intact. She was almost certain she had died last night. But how was this possible?
Her grandmother had heavily believed in an afterlife and reincarnation, but Amina didn’t think it worked quite like this. Maybe it did. Was this her second chance to fix all the mistakes she’d made in her life?
Was this her opportunity to live her life the way she wanted instead of being under the oppressive thumb of a man who never gave a damn about her outside of what she could provide for him?
She wasn’t sure how this worked and maybe this was some weird out of body experience before death where she experienced everything all over again before the real death set in, but did she dare miss out on this once in a lifetime chance for a redo of her life?
For now, she’d go through the motions and play things out as she remembered them to be and that meant going to work. She could figure things out on the drive there. She shuddered when she thought about going into that dreary office and being on the phone all day listening to customers yell in her ear about the lateness of their life insurance policy payouts.
She hated that job so much because she was in cubicle all day in an office that monitored how many bathroom breaks the workers took, a half an hour lunch and a micromanaging boss who spoke to everyone in a condescending tone but no one would complain to HR because her supervisor was the son of the owner.
The rest of her coworkers were just as miserable. No one spoke to each other and if they were caught chit chatting it would be a write up. Amina’s stomach twisted every time she walked into that dank building. She’d only been there for two years but she didn’t think she could stay there much longer. Not with all the debt…
Two years.
She’d only been at the Affinity Group for two years which meant she was still the office manager at the doctor’s office she’d once worked at Penn Neurology Associates. She’s been forced to quit that job because Mark thought one of her bosses was too familiar with her. Amina didn’t know what that meant since Dr. Han was friendly while keeping things professional with all of the staff.
Though she couldn’t explain this weird thing happening to her, Amina figured it was best to treat this like a normal day.
After showering and completing her hygiene, she picked out a pale pink blouse and a pair of white slacks. She’d never been good at applying makeup so she stuck to a brown liner with nude lipstick combo and mascara. To finish the look off she pulled her hair back with a big pink ribbon.
On the way to work, a song came on the radio she hadn’t heard in years. She hummed along as butterflies took free reign of her stomach. Part of her was scared she’d wake up and find herself back in the nightmarish prison of marriage to Mark.
For some reason, she had the sudden urge to buy a donut but not just any donut. She needed a triple chocolate crunch donut. It was a glazed chocolate cake donut with fudge icing, chocolate sprinkles with chocolate chips.
Giving into to this need to purchase this sugary concoction, she stopped by the bakery on the way that sold that specific treat.
Amina let out a sigh of relief when she pulled into the parking lot of a two story barn style office building that housed the three separate doctor’s offices. The office she worked in took up the entirety of the top floor.
Instead of taking the short elevator ride up, she slowly took the stairs, wanting to savor every moment of this new alternate reality in case she was pulled back into her old world.
The placard outside the door to the entrance of her office, listed the two partners who owned this practice with, Dr. Ethan Han’s name below Dr. Carter’s.
Amina took a deep breath before stepping inside the office and her heart sped up. She hadn’t set foot in this place in over two years, yet everything was so familiar from the gossip and news magazines in the corner to the water cooler by the window.
The plant that she watered three times a week rested on the receptionist desk by sign-in sheet.
Paisley, the receptionist sat at the front desk with one of her smiley face sweaters, despite it being an unseasonably hot spring day.
Amina pasted a smile on her face and walked through the reception door. “Morning Paisley.”
The usually upbeat receptionist gave her wobbly, “Hello,” with tear-filled hazel eyes.
“What’s the matter, Paisley?” Amina approached the other woman.
“I’m just being silly, but Dr. Han brought in donuts today and he knows how much I love those triple chocolate crunch donuts. I’m the only one who eats them because everyone else says they’re too sweet and should be named the diabetic special.”
“So whenever he buys donuts, he only gets that one for me. But Carole got to it first. She took one bite and threw it in the trashcan. If she didn’t like it, I would have still eaten it. I would have just picked off the part she bit around. Why would she do that? I was looking forward to that donut.” She burst into tears.
Amina remembered this incident that had caused a commotion in the office. Carole, one of the nurses who worked there, ate the donut, usually reserved for Paisley, and claimed she didn’t realize it was meant for someone else. That argument may have worked if other people didn’t hear her saying she wasn’t a fan of chocolate. One of the other nurses had accused Carole of doing it out of spite because Carole always took issue with Paisley’s cheerfulness.
It started an entire argument that led to the doctors intervening and a tense week in the office. Paisley, feeling guilty for causing a fuss over a donut, handed in her resignation.
Once she was gone, the office was never quite the same.
Amina plucked some tissues out of a box sitting on the reception desk and handed it to distraught receptionist. “Don’t cry Paisley, it’s okay to be disappointed when you were looking forward to something and it doesn’t work out.”
Paisley blew her nose into the tissue. “I’m sorry for being so silly. I’ll get over it. I just get so emotional sometimes.”
Amina remembered the paper bag in her hand and she understood why she’d gone to the bakery in the first place. “Fortunately, today must be your lucky day because I have a present for you.”
Paisley perked up and eyed the bag. “For me?”
Amina held it out to her. “Take a look.
Paisley took the bag and looked inside. She let out a squeal when she saw the contents. “Oh my gosh! Amina, you’re the absolute best. I know it’s just a stupid donut, but you have no idea how much I needed this. It’s shark week, so I’ve been craving one of these.”
“Shark week? As in the programs on the National Geographic Channel?”
Paisley giggled. “No, girl. It’s my time of the month, as in there’s blood in the water and I’m ready to attack, hence shark week.”
“Oh…” Amina still wasn’t 100 percent on board with that analogy but as long as it made sense to Paisley she would roll with it. “Well, you enjoy. I’m going to head back to my desk. The first patients should be coming in soon.”
The blonde gave her a thumbs up with a mouth full of the sugary snack.
Amina’s headed to her office and plopped in her seat trying to make sense of her morning thus far. By purchasing that donut, had she prevented Paisley quitting?
Did this mean she had really traveled back in time to relive the last five years of her life?
Amina barely got a chance to settle in, before a deep baritone called out her name and pulled her out of her deep musings.
She looked up to see her boss, Dr. Ethan Han standing in the doorway. All the color in his face was gone and his eyes were wide as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Amina?”
“Yes, Dr. Han. Good morning.”
“You’re here…” He whispered the words as if he was talking more to himself than to her.
“Yes…am I not supposed to be?” Judging from his reaction, maybe she wasn’t. But if that were the case, Paisley would have had the same reaction.
He nodded wordlessly before entering her office. “I mean…yes, you’re supposed to be here.”
Amina didn’t have a chance to react before he yanked her out of her chair and pulled her into his arms.
What the hell was going on?