Dumb Luck

Looking back at that day, I never realized my future, wouldn't become my past.

That day, the overcast weather, the traffic jam. Maybe it had something to add that caused my predicament.

Maybe it was just dumb luck.

I knew that day was special. I had spent years idle, no friends or family. On my own. Recently I had taken initiative and made some new friends, they were nice.

My friend Fred wanted to introduce me to his friend Sky, who had just moved here. We hit it off, she seemed into me.

That day we were going to the movies as a "double date", but also as friends.

That day I was going to make it official between us. We would become a real couple.

We would hold hands. I would tell her how beautiful her freckles were, the ones that lightly painted the bridge of her nose and across her cheek bones.

I would look deeply into her hazel eyes and listen to her soft sing-song voice go on and on.

Then it started to rain. I walked down the busy street to the antique store.

Just the week prior, we were there, just browsing around, killing time.

Sky had seen a locket, an old slightly rusted gold plated heart shaped locket.

"My grandmother had one just like it." She had said. The tag labeled it well out of her price range. She moved on, but I could tell something in her heart hurt.

I was back to buy it for her, it would take all of my savings, I didn't see a better thing to have saved for.

I bought it, and also a small box, wrapped in a silver bow.

It was going to be great. I could feel it.

The rain poured down, I needed a cab. As I sat inside headed to the theater, the traffic had become more piled up.

We were at a standstill, I was 20 minutes away, stuck.

While I waited, I thought I should check the locket, to make sure it's empty.

I took it from the box carefully not to undo the bow. I held it up, it was a dark gold heart with small flowers engraved around the edges.

I tried to pry it open, at first unable to, I tried again, slightly grunting with effort, suddenly it opened.

White light stabbed my eyes, my head pounded. My ears rang fiercely. It felt as if I was in cold water, floating without knowing which way was up.

I couldn't think, I couldn't move, I just screamed. I was scared, confused.

After a moment I realized I was somewhere. There was no more bright light, ringing, or floating feeling. Just cold, wet, and heavy.

I realized my eyes were closed. It was day. I sat in mud, on a river bank. I was in my nice clothes still, but they were soaked and muddy. The river I was next to had ran outside of our city. But it was just a muddy river bed.

The locket. I looked inside. It was a picture of Sky and me. We looked older than 21, we looked to be about 30, she was smiling her radiant smile, and I was scolding unlike myself

I turned around to focus on the cityscape, and was taken aback.

The buildings were in ruin, rubble mounds of what use to be apartment buildings, sky scrapers were collapsed and half standing.

I couldn't breathe.

I took a shaky breath and walked towards the city. I needed to figure out what happened.

The walk was hot and tiring. By the time I got to the outskirts of the city I could tell there was no life. Everything looked as if it had been abandoned for years. Everything had began to be overgrown and decayed. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"It was the 'big blackout', it took the lights, then the people lost it." A small girl, about 10 years old, emerged from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin, I spun to face her, she was alone.

I looked at her, she was dainty, and dressed in homemade clothes. Her eyes a vibrant hazel.

"Wh-what happened?" I stuttered out, unable to swallow.

She noticed the locket chain clenched in my hand.

"You come with me now" She said softly and grabbed my hand with a death grip. She lead me into the city.

The streets were like an apocalyptic film. The grey rubble had already started to be covered in overgrowth. Something that had to take years to grow.

"What, day is it?" I asked the girl, as she continued walking, unfazed by the mysterious collapse of society.

"No one has kept track of that in a long time. We track the time by the moon cycles. Since 'the blackout' it has been almost 110 cycles." She said matter-of-factly.

My lungs hurt, my brain was racing, there's 12 cycles in a year which means it had been about 9 years.

I couldn't breathe, I felt dizzy, my steps got heavier, my vision blurred, everything spun around.

"Not far, it's jus..." I faintly hear the girl, everything goes black.

I awoke to talking, low voices. I thought, 'I'm in the hospital', 'I was just in a car accident'.

When I opened my eyes, I seen I was laying on a cot in an empty room. It appeared to be an old class room, the ABC decorations, were faded. The ceiling was missing tiles and the chalk board was covered in writings about moon phases and some sort of agricultural schedule.

My head throbbed with every beat of my heart, I got up and headed to the door, it began to open.

I stood on guard, ready for anything.

I wasn't ready for who walked through it.

It was Sky.

She was older, like the picture in the locket.

And my god, she was beautiful still. Her hair, vibrant, like honey. Her eyes, though more serious and mature, still glistened with the magic I seen the day I met her.

"Sky, what's going on." I was unsure suddenly of everything I knew. I was confused about reality, was she real, was I?

"I know you must be confused, just let me explain." Her soft musical voice soothed me, I sat on the bed. She joined me.

She took my hand, to look me in the eyes.

"Its so good to see you, I've missed you so much. Have you brought the locket?"

"How did you know about the locket? It's suppose to be a surprise. I'm confused." I exclaim. Beginning to feel frustrated.

"That day we were suppose to meet, a powerful EMP struck the Earth from deep space. No one saw it coming. When it happened, it was to late, authority lost control. It was a bloodbath, a terrible war, everyone who remains is just picking up the pieces trying to reestablish order. It's been almost 10 years." She sighed. "Come with me".

We walked down a hall. Through some doors, to what appeared to be a cafeteria. There, a few tables were placed in a square where people sat around eating. At first I didn't realize until everyone stood to meet us, but three of the eight people were tall. Close to 10ft tall. They were abnormally lanky and their skin was pale. Their eyes were glossed grey and their hair was white. They wore long silver robes.

My breath caught in my throat.

"I'd like you to meet everyone, these are Onyx, Tex, Mitch, Beau, and Quinten. And these are, Wan-I, Wan-A, and Wan-J. They are from deep space, where the EMP originated. But it wasn't them, they are here to help us put the pieces back together again." Sky explained.

They looked at me, with a sort of warmth that I could feel buzzing inside my head, it comforted me strangely.

I introduced myself, my voice shook

Sky grabbed my hand and lead me to the table.

We sat next to the Wans, they ate only green vegetables and drank something red and thick. Wine I thought.

I was given a plate of fresh veggie salad, with grilled chicken breast. It smelled so good I devoured it in only a few minutes.

"If you are finished, there is something else you need to see." Sky whispered into my ear. I nodded and we stood excusing ourselves from the table.

We walked outside. The setting sun burned a deep red I'd never seen before. The clouds rolled over the sky with an orange glow.

She took my hand tight, and pulled me close to her side. As if we had always been together, holding hands often.

I was tense, it's what I'd spent hours before falling asleep thinking about. Being held so tightly by her, to hold her so tightly. To pet her hair, and snuggle her.

She lead me off to the side, to an old walk through fenced garden. Overgrown slightly now, the walkway cracked and unlevel, it was mystical.

Down the path a few paces she stopped and turned to face a small creek that trickled through the flower beds. But just before it, in between the bushels of lavender, was a headstone.

On the headstone it read:

Howey O'Dell.

12,15,2006 -- 04,23,2036.

I felt as if my lungs were on fire, as I suddenly realized I had not been breathing. I collapsed to my knees on the cracked cement path. I placed my palms in the soil that laid over my own body, my own grave, I tried to breathe.

Sky crouched beside me.

"I-I'm d-d-dead, I shudder, barely audible. My eyes welled with tears, my brain pounded with confusion.

Sky, giggled to herself a little, which caught me by surprise. I jerked my head to look at her, to see her expression.

But she appeared empathetic, as if she knew exactly how I felt. At the same time she seemed at ease, like she could relax.

"You are very much alive Howey. This Howey was the version of you that lived through the last nine years with me." She sighed.

"This Howey had to do things no one should. It changed him into something you never should have had to be. When this Howey died, I longed for the version that you were when I met you." She looked me in my eyes.

"The Howey you are, is the you my heart wished for."

She grasped my cheek in her hand. Wiping my tear with her thumb.

"The Wans, couldn't bear any more. So they embedded the locket you had given me, the day we got together. With their technology, and sent it back in time to replace the original." She explained. Trying to ease my confusion.

I tried to wrap my head around everything and construct a coherent thought.

"So you brought me here now, because you love me?" I asked, my throat raspy and dry.

"Yes Howey, it's safe, the Wans are going to help us developed a new more efficient way of life on Earth. You won't have to endure the hardships the last decade brought humanity. So you can be in this new peace, with me."

She waved someone over. To my surprise, the small girl skipped to us, and sat next to Sky.

"This is Harmony. Our daughter." Sky said. Looking up at me with a grin.

I looked back and forth between them, I seen the resemblance.

Reality sunk in, I realized these bizarre events I faced, are better than what had happened to the me in my future.

Which was their past, with that Howey that laid under the lavender.

I looked at my family, I had a family, one I had always secretly imagined having. What dumb luck.