I looked from Bernice to Kate and the others behind her, then back at Bernice again.
"Are you telling me that you traveled all the way from Australia down here just to play this dirty joke on me?"
Bernice scrunched up her face. "Australia? When did I go to Australia?" She asked and turned to the others as if asking for them to support her.
"You left immediately we finished college."
She actually reclined at that. "Oh my God, Karla. Did you hit your head somewhere?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"No, just.." She placed a palm on her head and shook her head, then looked at me. "You just got accepted into a college!"
"I was accepted into college seven full years ago!" I yelled back, getting sick and tired of the whole joke. I know they were trying to lighten the mood but this was too much.
"You have any idea how old you would have been then? Eleven." She said, with an expression that said, as a matter of fact.
Kate cracked up and I glared at her.
"Eleven? Really? I am 25 right now. With a husband who just died yesterday."
"A husband?" Bernice looked like she was getting tired of me. "You don't even have a boyfriend for goodness sake! Did you have a nightmare or something? You are scared of becoming a young widow?"
She sat close to me and blinked, then touched my forehead. "You are fine. Just maybe sprinkle some water on your face and get a grip." She said and patted my back gently.
I deflated. "Are you telling me I am somehow 18 right now? How is that?"
Bernice thought about it, then smiled. "Because you celebrated 18 birthdays, blew out 18 candles and lived past 18 october 4ths. I guess."
I turned to her, my eyes wide. "Look into my eyes and tell me this is not some sick joke."
She cupped my cheeks and leaned forward, looking me straight into my eyes. "This is not a joke. Please get up. We announced your acceptance on the school group chat and they wanted to throw a party. So we have a party to attend. You lucky girl. Everyone wants to please you." She smacked my shoulder as they stood up, chatting excitedly and then walked away, probably to the kitchen.
I sat there, feeling a little dazed. 18? That is seven years of my life gone. What are these people saying?
Did I...somehow...fall back seven years of my life? Time travel?
I turned to the familiar row of books on the small bookshelf. It was mostly science books, and I ran to them, opening the first one I could grab. Nothing.
Then only something about the theory of relativity in the second. Then the third had an article. The writer of the article was in the top left corner of the page, and in it, he was talking about how he believes it is fully possible to bend time and pass through, letting yourself in through different horizons, at time either long past, or never experienced.
He talked about the existence of the past and the future, just that they were at a different place from the present. Like three different houses, separated from the now. But I wasn't sure if this was not me in one of those far off, distant places, separated from the present. I swallowed.
"How on earth did this happen to me?" I thought out loud, pushing my fingers into my hair.
To him, time was like an interloping of threads, all related to each other and the ultimate space, and in rare, yet possible cases, it was possible to bend those threads.
Threads...threads of time...it rang a bell, but I wasn't sure where I had heard it from. I closed the book and fell on the chair. Time travel? Me? For what? So I can re-live some of the worst years of my life?
I held my hair in handfuls and yelled, hoping that if I yelled hard enough, some miracle will take place and take me back to the time I belong. I have already lived past this. This is not my life any more.
Bernice came back in, and watched me from the door.
"Is there something wrong? This is not how I imagined you taking the news of your acceptance into college, especially when you have wanted this ever since. You said you wanted to learn science under Mr. McGregor. We all thought it was foolish since you have never even seen him, but...we are happy for you, so why are you not happy for yourself?" She asked, taking slow steps towards me.
Would she even believe me if I told her that we would drift apart and I wasn't just speculating? Or that I got into a loveless marriage and he died?
I shook my head. "I guess I have been too in my feelings. So sorry. I am happy."
She spread her arms towards me and I embraced her. I have missed her, but this was not how I wanted to meet her again. Not in the past. It felt like we have been apart far longer than those three years, but the memories were in bits and pieces that I didn't have the capacity to put together now.
"Now, let's get ready." She patted my shoulders. "We have a party to turn up at."
She laughed and I gave her a small smile, before she turned and left again.