"Aren't you cold?" "No." "All you're wearing is a T-shirt. You must be cold." "I'm not." It was early morning. There were no sounds of life except for the occasional car on a distant road. Even the birds slept. A breeze blew a strand of the girl's hair slightly out of her face as she stared blankly at the concrete on the porch. "What are you most afraid of?" the older woman asked. "This." "What's 'this'?" "The feeling I have right now." "Can you explain it?" "Loneliness. I am scared to spend another moment in this feeling." The older woman shifted in her chair and took in the surroundings of the small apartment porch. Cigarette butts were piled in a cup that sat on top of a tiny outdoor table. "What are you hoping for?" the older woman asked. "I had hoped for a different life. A life where I wasn't a failure, a life where someone loved me." Tears began flowing down the girl's face. The older woman stared intently at her, taking in her features. "I feel like I could scream and no one would hear me." "I would hear you." "I feel like every face I encounter goes home to a life that offers more than mine offers me." "Maybe you should have some water?" “Why can some people be thrown away like a piece of garbage? Why was it okay to do that to me?" The woman looked out into the parking lot and took a deep breath. She could see city lights between the trees in the distance, glistening as the wind blew. "If you could go back, what would you do differently?" "I'd leave. I'd never have gone. I'd have run out the front door and run all the way home, even if I didn't have the money to call a ride." "Did it change the way you viewed yourself?" The girl thought for a moment. "It showed me I'll never be enough. I'll always be a girl who isn't as good as the rest." The girl stood up. She ran her fingers along the metal railing of the porch. Her face was splotched with red, and her shirt had long, damp trails of tears. "I'm going to bed now." "If that's what you want," said the woman. The girl slid open the sliding-glass door and disappeared inside. The woman sat a moment longer and listened to the silence of the night that surrounded her like a thick fog. The plastic floor-to-ceiling shades rattled with the breeze. The woman passed through the small living room, observing the empty pill bottle atop the coffee table. She entered her former room and approached her younger self sleeping in bed. She pulled the covers up to her chest, tucking her in as a mother would. She kissed the girl's forehead and whispered softly: "You will love and be loved. You will bring life into this world and fight for it. You will laugh again and sing and smile. You will see happiness that will touch you with a warmth you've not yet experienced. You will feel the heartbeats of your children as you softly rock them to sleep. You will love yourself for everything you have survived. He took something from you that night, but the universe will give you far more." The woman walked slowly out of the apartment into the hallway. As she reached the end of the hall and entered the parking lot she passed three police officers making their way past her. Sirens rang out into the night air as the woman quietly disappeared into the darkness.

Sometimes I wish that I could breathe Enjoy the day to day But worry is a thief that stays To steal all joy away It isn’t just the big things Or even the mundane It lurks in every moment To replace all light with rain It wears the mask of death Of sickness and of despair If I don’t think three steps ahead Life will be beyond repair It brings me to my knees Sometimes it makes me run I’d like to be a lighter person If just for my children I want to watch my daughters soar Spread their wings in this sweet life If only worry didn’t choke me Warning of my plight Nightmares of last goodbyes Of intervention missed Something that I could have done Had I been more swift I’ll end this day on one more prayer That God will hear my cry Maybe he can give me strength To stop believing worry’s lies

Charolette was standing in her kitchen looking at her six year old daughter sitting on the couch. She was dressed in pajamas and her hair was still wet from her nighttime bath, she slowly yawned as her bedtime loomed. Her youngest was already tucked in, fast asleep, immersed in four year old dreamland. Charolette had managed to hold out here for ten years. Ten years of safety and normal suburban life. She served on her daughter’s PTA and was the model involved parent, never missing a class party or opportunity to assume the room mother role. Sure, she forgot things sometimes but nothing major enough for anyone but her to notice. “Sweetheart we will be going on trip tonight, I want you to go up to your room and pick two lovies. Only two though.” She said to her six year old Minney. She had heard a woman call her daughter Minnie nine years ago in a grocery store in Charleston South Carolina, it had always stuck with her. The little girl had bouncing curls to her shoulders and red patent shoes. She had a silk bow tied in a way that made it look as if she was wearing a headband. Charolette thought that she must be what the perfect child looked like. Her Minnie had no resemblance of South Carolina Minnie, she was rambunctious and fought to have her hair brushed daily and she certainty would never agree to put on a pair of red patent shoes. Minnie defined the meaning of true perfection in Charolette’s eyes the moment she was born. “Where are we going mama?” What about Caroline?” “Well Caroline isn’t coming.” Said Charolette Minnie looked at her wide eyed and bewildered. “She’s coming with us of course Minnie, I’m only joking. Now go get your things, I’ll tell you everything shortly but we don’t have much time at all.” She said with a hurried slightly urgent tone. As Minnie scurried up the stairs Charolette walked through her home, taking it in for what would be the last time. Both of her children spent their first days of life here. She never understood the attachment humans had towards physical objects but for the first time she began to understand. This home was a living museum, every square foot had a profound memory woven in. She was sad to leave. Her husband had been gone for two weeks. As far as her children were concerned he was on a work trip in Australia, seeing kangaroos and exploring the wild. He was exploring alright, just not on this planet, and what he found would be the ultimate reason for this abrupt abandonment of normalcy. Soon they would shatter their girls realities and open their minds to something they surely could not understand. In time they would grow to adapt to their new lives, surely with some resistance but in the end they would be ok. “Mama I have an experiment at school tomorrow, remember? Don’t you remember?” Cried Minnie, emotional and exhausted from a long day. “Minnie where we are going is better than any science project you could ever do.” She said as she bent down to meet Minnie’s at her eye level. “Are we going to Australia?” She said in a quiet voice. “No, we are not going to Australia. Your father is almost here to pick us up and once he does we will both explain everything to you I promise. Ok?” Minnie nodded and made her way to the couch to wait. Charolette gathered a few more things and placed her bag by the door. She knew her home would be a nuclear wasteland within a few hours but she couldn’t let her mind go there at the moment, time was of the essence. She opened Caroline’s door slowly, hoping she could stay in her sweet slumber as long as possible. She scooped her up out of her bed and grabbed a blanket from the basket on the floor. As she walked back into the hallway she looked back at the room that once held a crib and then a toddler bed and then in its present state a beautiful hand painted wooden bed. She swallowed the desire to cry, trying not to think of the longing she would soon have to be back in this very spot. Minnie was already at the door, stuffed animals and family cat Kiki in hand. “Shit.” thought Charolette. Having a cat in their situation would be more than difficult but she decided to deal with that challenge when it arrived. “Ready?” She asked Minnie. Minnie nodded and stood waiting for direction. Charolette opened the front door and stepped into the crisp October night air. The smell of turning leaves and cold air filled every one of her senses. She shut the door behind them and decided she wouldn’t bother locking it. The three of them walked toward their suburban street. The rows of houses were calm, presumably in bed or preparing to be. Charolette shifted sleeping Caroline to her other arm as she looked up into the starry night sky. “Minnie I need you to trust mommy ok? Daddy is almost here except he isn’t in a car. He’s in a… he’s in an airplane! Daddy is picking us up in an AIRPLANE. Try not to be frightened ok?” “Really!?” Squealed Minnie And just as the word left Minnie’s lips a bright light shown down on all three of them. They began to float and in true six years old fashion Minnie screamed, forgetting everything her mother had just said. As they floated to the interdimentional ship, she looked down on her neighborhood. None of them knew that tomorrow would never come for them. That unless Charolette could go back and fix this timeline somehow, the human race would cease to exist in less than two hours. She would try with everything she had for as long as she lived to save this world she had grown to love.