Here is an excerpt for Seven Days:
Saturday was her relaxing day. She read or watched TV or played games online. She did a few loads of laundry and filled the dishwasher. She called Max around five, and they spoke for a few minutes. He was distracted and didn’t want to talk too long. Grant had bought a slip n slide, and he couldn’t wait to try it. Kat spent the rest of the evening curled up in bed with a good book. Unlike the previous Friday night, when she finally turned off the lights, she found herself tossing and turning all night. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamt of the lunar eclipse and how she’d stood outside staring up at it for so long. A dark figure who’d been hiding under her bed climbed out and logged onto her computer, sending that Test email.
Kat awoke with a soft yelp. Cursing under her breath and rolling out of bed, she logged onto her work laptop. It was past midnight, so the next day had arrived, which made it July 12th. She then remote accessed her office laptop. Her gaze immediately went to the date, which incorrectly read 7/5/2020.
She opened up a browser and went to Google, something she hadn’t yet done on the office laptop. She always checked her email on her work laptop and only used the one in the office to access the server, something she couldn’t do at home without the remote access. Google opened, and she stared at the search bar. Her fingers hesitated on the keys and then quickly typed, what day is it today? She held her breath as she tapped the enter key. Her mouth fell open with a gasp as the date appeared in large letters and numbers: Sunday, July 5, 2020
Shaking her head, chills went up her spine. Shivering, she switched to Google on her work laptop and typed the same question. She bit her lip as the answer was different: Sunday, July 12, 2020
Continuing to shake her head, she switched back to remote access, opened Gmail and composed an email to herself. After putting Hello in both the subject and body of the email, she pressed send. The email almost immediately popped up in bold. She then switched to her home computer and checked her email. There was no Hello email. She composed an identical email and sent it. Again, it almost immediately popped up in bold, but she could not see it on her office laptop’s email. Needing to try again, just in case the duplicate emails conflicted, she deleted the Hello email in both her inbox and sent folders and then composed another email, this time replacing Hello with Test.
Again, it immediately popped up on her office laptop, but it did not show up on her home computer. Tears filled her eyes as she closed down her laptop, anger and fear warring inside her. What the hell was going on?
Sunday was usually her cleaning day, but she decided to go for a walk. She knew the fresh air would do her good. Starting at the trail across from her house, she walked all around the neighborhood. As she slowly followed the trail her thoughts reluctantly returned to her office laptop. How was it possible the date was a week behind? It was incomprehensible, and she shook her head. She needed to think of something else.
She forced her thoughts to what Sabrina told her Friday night. Grant wasn’t dating anyone. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not. Wouldn’t it be better for him to move on and stop trying to earn her forgiveness? Isn’t that what she wanted? To be honest she didn’t know what she wanted. She was a different person than she was four years ago. All her friends tried to convince her to give Grant a second chance, that she shouldn’t throw away a good marriage over one mistake. The person she was now might have gotten over what he did, but not the person she was then. That person was drowning in grief. Choking on a sob, she realized she couldn’t go back there and relive that pain. Forcing her mind to the present, she took a few deep breaths and focused on her surroundings. Luckily, the trail looped around in a messy circle, so she found herself back to where she started.
July 13th
On Monday Kat opened her laptop at 8 am and checked her work email. Chris let her know that Lisa checked her laptop again, and the date was correct. She responded to both and apologized, blaming lack of sleep. She would not be bothering them again about the date difference. She avoided remote accessing her office laptop for as long as she could but was then unable to resist temptation as she opened a browser to check her personal email. At first she couldn’t get in and received an error that the password had been changed. She manually typed it in and was able to finally login.
Her eyes widened at seeing a new response to her Test email. She opened it and read Test what?
“Oh my God!” She remembered typing that a week earlier, but it had just been sent yesterday. “That’s why I had to type in the password.” A week ago Sunday was when she had changed her email, thinking she’d been hacked. But she was the one who sent that email. She remembered her dream. It wasn’t some stalker under her bed, or a faceless hacker. It had been her. “Oh my God”, she muttered again.
It was real. She was able to access seven days in the past whenever remote accessing her office laptop. That’s why the date was correct when Lisa checked. But how was it possible? And why?
Saturday was her relaxing day. She read or watched TV or played games online. She did a few loads of laundry and filled the dishwasher. She called Max around five, and they spoke for a few minutes. He was distracted and didn’t want to talk too long. Grant had bought a slip n slide, and he couldn’t wait to try it. Kat spent the rest of the evening curled up in bed with a good book. Unlike the previous Friday night, when she finally turned off the lights, she found herself tossing and turning all night. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamt of the lunar eclipse and how she’d stood outside staring up at it for so long. A dark figure who’d been hiding under her bed climbed out and logged onto her computer, sending that Test email.
Kat awoke with a soft yelp. Cursing under her breath and rolling out of bed, she logged onto her work laptop. It was past midnight, so the next day had arrived, which made it July 12th. She then remote accessed her office laptop. Her gaze immediately went to the date, which incorrectly read 7/5/2020.
She opened up a browser and went to Google, something she hadn’t yet done on the office laptop. She always checked her email on her work laptop and only used the one in the office to access the server, something she couldn’t do at home without the remote access. Google opened, and she stared at the search bar. Her fingers hesitated on the keys and then quickly typed, what day is it today? She held her breath as she tapped the enter key. Her mouth fell open with a gasp as the date appeared in large letters and numbers: Sunday, July 5, 2020
Shaking her head, chills went up her spine. Shivering, she switched to Google on her work laptop and typed the same question. She bit her lip as the answer was different: Sunday, July 12, 2020
Continuing to shake her head, she switched back to remote access, opened Gmail and composed an email to herself. After putting Hello in both the subject and body of the email, she pressed send. The email almost immediately popped up in bold. She then switched to her home computer and checked her email. There was no Hello email. She composed an identical email and sent it. Again, it almost immediately popped up in bold, but she could not see it on her office laptop’s email. Needing to try again, just in case the duplicate emails conflicted, she deleted the Hello email in both her inbox and sent folders and then composed another email, this time replacing Hello with Test.
Again, it immediately popped up on her office laptop, but it did not show up on her home computer. Tears filled her eyes as she closed down her laptop, anger and fear warring inside her. What the hell was going on?
Sunday was usually her cleaning day, but she decided to go for a walk. She knew the fresh air would do her good. Starting at the trail across from her house, she walked all around the neighborhood. As she slowly followed the trail her thoughts reluctantly returned to her office laptop. How was it possible the date was a week behind? It was incomprehensible, and she shook her head. She needed to think of something else.
She forced her thoughts to what Sabrina told her Friday night. Grant wasn’t dating anyone. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not. Wouldn’t it be better for him to move on and stop trying to earn her forgiveness? Isn’t that what she wanted? To be honest she didn’t know what she wanted. She was a different person than she was four years ago. All her friends tried to convince her to give Grant a second chance, that she shouldn’t throw away a good marriage over one mistake. The person she was now might have gotten over what he did, but not the person she was then. That person was drowning in grief. Choking on a sob, she realized she couldn’t go back there and relive that pain. Forcing her mind to the present, she took a few deep breaths and focused on her surroundings. Luckily, the trail looped around in a messy circle, so she found herself back to where she started.
July 13th
On Monday Kat opened her laptop at 8 am and checked her work email. Chris let her know that Lisa checked her laptop again, and the date was correct. She responded to both and apologized, blaming lack of sleep. She would not be bothering them again about the date difference. She avoided remote accessing her office laptop for as long as she could but was then unable to resist temptation as she opened a browser to check her personal email. At first she couldn’t get in and received an error that the password had been changed. She manually typed it in and was able to finally login.
Her eyes widened at seeing a new response to her Test email. She opened it and read Test what?
“Oh my God!” She remembered typing that a week earlier, but it had just been sent yesterday. “That’s why I had to type in the password.” A week ago Sunday was when she had changed her email, thinking she’d been hacked. But she was the one who sent that email. She remembered her dream. It wasn’t some stalker under her bed, or a faceless hacker. It had been her. “Oh my God”, she muttered again.
It was real. She was able to access seven days in the past whenever remote accessing her office laptop. That’s why the date was correct when Lisa checked. But how was it possible? And why?
--
Jude
Jude
