by Jason Ayres
A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips, her mother used to say. Not today it wouldn’t be. Kay hadn’t eaten so well for months, living primarily off junk food since she had split with Alan. As long as she could still fit into her Catwoman costume after eating two dinners, she would be fine.
She enjoyed a great chat with her mum and dad over the meal, reminiscing about some of the holidays they had had when she was a kid. She wished she could have spent more time with them, but tonight was all about her and Kent. There would be more opportunities for family time later. In fact, she already had an idea in mind.
As soon as she had eaten, she headed upstairs to make herself look beautiful – not that she really needed to. Looking at herself in the mirror, she had to admit that she looked amazing. She was a flower in full bloom, before the inevitably of aging had made that flower begin to wither. There was no going back for most people, just a long, slow decline into death. But Kay briefly had been given the chance to bloom afresh, and here she was now, dressed to kill in her Catwoman outfit.
Almost ready to go, she checked her handbag, making sure she had stowed the pack of condoms inside. She had been keeping them in her bedside table as a teenager for just such an occasion. Just as with the money she had spent and the calories she had consumed, she was aware that when it came to sex, taking precautions had no consequences in this body. But she would take them, anyway. This version of Kent didn’t know that his world wasn’t real and if he wanted to use protection, she had to respect that.
Most men didn’t want to use condoms in her experience, despite all the warnings. Perhaps it was down to some sort of primeval urge to ensure their sperm hit the target. Then again, perhaps the men she had been with were not representative of the population as a whole, considering that she generally picked arseholes. Nearly all of them either conveniently forgot or made up some bullshit like Glen had about being allergic to latex.
Kent was right on time calling for her, and within an hour they were at the ball. Of Glen there was no sign. It seemed he had wisely heeded her advice and stayed away to avoid any further humiliation. Despite all his bravado, he was clearly a complete coward when someone stood up to him like Kay had.
Kay couldn’t have hoped for a better evening. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that it was the happiest day of her life, and that included her wedding day, which wasn’t actually all that great. How could it have been? She had been lumbering herself with Alan for twenty years.
This night may have been taking place in a fake universe, but in Kay’s eyes, it would always be real. The memories she was making tonight would be precious, and she would be able to carry them with her for the rest of her life. Nothing could take them away from her.
She and Kent were inseparable all evening, cherishing every single moment together. Of course, he had no way of knowing that it was only for one night. It seemed almost cruel in a way. Was it right of the angel to create new universes at will and then delete them at her leisure?
Was that not tantamount to murdering the people who lived in those new universes, even if their counterparts lived on in the original? Who was to say? At least in Kent’s case, ignorance was bliss. He was clearly deliriously happy at what was happening, unaware that he would soon cease to exist.
At least there was another Kent, the original one back in 2018 who had got to live his own version of this day again. She wondered how he had felt when he returned. Had he fallen for her in that timeline, just as he had in this one? It would certainly explain why he had been so much kinder to her in recent weeks in the real world.
In this world, the evening was racing past far too quickly for Kay’s liking. It seemed like no time at all until they were sharing the last dance of the night, a smoochy ballad from Wet Wet Wet. As the song came to a close, she knew it was time to tell him what she wanted to say and what she hoped he wanted to hear. She whispered into his ear, “I want to come home with you tonight.”
He didn’t resist, just as she had hoped. Within an hour of that final dance, the two of them were making love in his bed. The contrast with the original version of this night could not have been greater. Glen had wanted her purely for sex: this was different. This was more like the movie sex she had always believed was a myth. No man had ever gazed into her eyes before in the way that he did. It was without a doubt the most intimate experience of her life.
Later they held each other tightly, cuddled up in the afterglow. This wasn’t something she was used to, either. Alan used to just roll over and go to sleep straight after sex and none of her one-night stands during the past year had shown her the slightest bit of affection.
Right at that moment, curled up with Kent, she had never felt so close to another human being in all her life. She tried desperately to cling onto the moment and stay awake as long as she could, willing the angel not to take her back, but in her warm and contented state, sleep soon came.
Chapter Eleven
December 2018
The next thing she knew, she was back in the bathroom in her flat. It was all over. Strangely, she didn’t feel sad at being dragged back to reality. Instead, she felt a sense of triumph. She had achieved everything she had set out to do and the results had massively exceeded her expectations.
She turned to the mirror, a smile on her face.
The angel was waiting for her.
“That’s the happiest I’ve seen you,” remarked her reflection.
“It should be,” said Kay. “I’ve just had the most amazing day of my entire life. Whatever happens in the future, nothing and nobody can take that away from me now.”
“That’s great to hear,” remarked the angel. “I can see that my presence here is doing some good.”
“I’m very grateful,” said Kay. And she meant it. What the angel was doing for her was really starting to turn her life around.
After two trips back in time her head was brimming with ideas. Her easy disposal of Glen had made her keen to serve up some just deserts to Alan, too, but she wanted more than the satisfaction of some short-term revenge. Kent’s tale of his antics with the dinosaur had made her think of all sorts of humiliating pranks she could pull on Alan, but it would only be a brief moment of satisfaction, and that wasn’t enough. She wanted to do something in the past that could actually make a tangible difference to her life here in the present.
“That’s what I’m here for,” said the angel. “It’s good to see you making good use of your days.”
“There’s plenty more I want to do yet,” she said.
“So I see,” replied the angel, probing her thoughts. “You’re a smart girl. I can see you are looking at ways to make the most of this experience. Not everybody does. Far too many just squander it on pleasure seeking and trivial things.”
“Well, I’ve got a good idea what I want to do next,” said Kay. “But I’m not sure I might not be breaking the rules doing it.”
“It’s not actually physically possible to break any rules,” replied the angel. “There’s no way to cheat the system – say, to smuggle some money forward through time, for example.”
“I realise that,” said Kay, “Though what I have in mind does involve money.”
“I can see what you’re thinking and there’s nothing to say you can’t do it,” said the angel. “Just keep in mind the physical limitations of what you are trying to achieve. The golden rules remain set in stone. You can’t take anything into the past with you and you can’t bring anything back from the past into the present day. If you can figure out a way that works around that, then I would say go for it.”
“I will,” replied Kay. She would certainly figure it out. The angel was right. She was still that smart, clever nineteen-year-old inside, despite the wasted years since. It was time to put that intelligence to good use.
“Well, you have all day to think about your plans,” said the angel. “Good luck.” The image of Kay’s younger self faded from the mirror, to be replaced by her present-day
reflection once again.
She could spend the day at work thinking about what she was going to do and then run it by Kent in the evening. Despite it being Sunday, it was no day of rest for her. This was the ninth day of ten in a row that she was working, up to and including Christmas Eve. She needed every penny she could get, especially with the pressure McVie had been putting on her.
She hated the job, but no matter. It was only two more days. Then, hopefully, she would be finished with it forever. She was formulating a big plan to get her out of this mess, and this next trip could be the key that would unlock her future.
She had an earlier finish at work with it being a Sunday, the store closing at 4pm. Despite that, it was already dark when she left the shop not long after, and remarkably there was snow beginning to fall. Surely they couldn’t be in for a white Christmas, could they? She had waited her whole life to see one. They happened in every Christmas movie or festive TV special she had ever seen, but never in real life.
Snow or not, maybe this Christmas really was going to be the one when all her dreams would come true. As she walked up the street, watching the light, powdery snowflakes lit up by the glow from the street’s Christmas lights, she began to feel quite festive. Yes, this was going to be a Christmas to remember. Or possibly even two. She had come up with an idea that would enable her to uniquely enjoy two Christmas Days this year.
Arriving at the shop, she could see that it hadn’t yet opened for the evening. McVie usually shut it for a few hours in the afternoon, opening again about 5pm for the teatime rush.
When Kay was young, it would have been unheard of for a chip shop to open on a Sunday. Her family, like most others, always sat down to a traditional roast dinner on that day. It seemed that people didn’t bother so much with that anymore. Most shops and fast-food places were now open seven days a week. Kay thought that was a shame – she had liked it when Sunday had been special. Now it was just a day like any other.
The lights were on inside the shop, but the door was still locked. She let herself in with her key, not happy to see her dreaded landlord behind the counter after the way he had harassed her the day before. He had his back to her and was once again berating Anna, the young Polish girl.
She could see that Anna was clearing away some of the uneaten food from the lunchtime session, but McVie was having none of it.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he said, as Anna removed a crusty, dried-up fish cake from the glass cabinets with a pair of tongs, and turned to put it in the bin.
“These have been here all afternoon,” replied Anna in her perfect English. “The cabinets have been switched off for two hours.”
“I know,” replied McVie. “I switched them off. Do you know how much electricity those things burn? Now put that back in there right now. That’s pure profit you’re throwing in the bin there – profit that keeps me in business and you in a job.
Reluctantly, Anna complied, but added, “What about health and safety?”
“Bollocks to health and safety,” replied McVie. “Cook some fresh ones and hide that one back in among them. Then make sure you give that one to some old pensioner. If it is dodgy and they end up croaking, no one will get suspicious. It’ll just get blamed on the cold weather. They drop like flies at this time of year.”
Kay stood watching this exchange, unnoticed by McVie who was still facing away from her. She caught Anna’s eye, who gave her a resigned look as she reluctantly complied. Meanwhile, McVie poked around in the bin.
“What else have you chucked in here?” he asked. Then he pulled out a jumbo sausage.
“What are you doing throwing this away? There’s nothing wrong with this. Two quid, these sell for. You can put that back, too.”
“It’s dirty,” said Anna.
McVie pulled a piece of blue tissue paper from a roll behind the counter, and turned, wiping down the sausage. “There. It’s as good as new.”
As he spoke, he caught sight of Kay for the first time.
“Here you are, why don’t you sell it to this bitch? She likes getting her lips round a big sausage, from what I’ve heard. Tell you what, since I know you’re hard up, missy, you can have it for half-price.”
Kay was in no mood to be trifled with.
“Do the food and hygiene people know you sell food out of the bin?” she asked.
“Why, are you going to tell them?” said McVie, leaning over the counter towards her, aggressively. “Take a look at the front door, darling. Five-star hygiene rating, that’s what I’ve got here. Who are they going to believe – me, a respectable local business owner, or you, some drunken slag with barely two pennies to rub together?”
Kay could easily have lost her rag with him right there and then, but she forced herself to play it cool. She needed to hold onto her flat for a couple more days, just long enough for her to take another trip or two. If all went according to plan, he could stick his flat after that.
“Forget it,” she said, resisting the temptation to tell him to shove the jumbo sausage up his arse, Kent-style. “I’m going upstairs.”
“Don’t forget I want that rent by tomorrow night,” he said. “Or the electricity goes off and you’ll be eating raw Bernard Matthews turkey roll for your Christmas dinner.”
“Whatever,” said Kay, opening the door at the back of the shop and swiftly closing it again behind her. What a disgusting excuse for a human being McVie was. She may have to think of a way of sorting him out, too, once she had dealt with Alan.
She was tired out by her recent adventures and the long day at work, so she decided to get her head down for an hour and have a power nap. It was an apt description. Never in her life had she had any real power, but now she had plenty. The gift the angel had given her was potentially more powerful than any position or amount of money if she used it wisely.
If she did manage to pull off her audacious plan, she may soon be enjoying a siesta as opposed to a power nap. Technically that’s what this was, being a sleep in the afternoon, but she could hardly call an hour in a freezing cold flat in pitch darkness a siesta. It was a far cry from snoozing in the Spanish sun on a baking afternoon.
As she drifted off to sleep, she vowed to herself soon she would be there, enjoying her time in the sun. As soon as all this was over, she intended to get herself off to the Canaries for some much-needed winter warmth. Such a trip was completely out of the question in her current perilous financial position, but that situation was something she intended to change.
She awoke after an hour or so and began to prepare herself to go out. Kent had promised to meet her in the pub to talk about the trip she had just taken and she was feeling very excited about it.
She wasn’t going to hold back any information about her day and she hoped he would do the same. It would be fascinating to see what similarities and differences there had been between there two experiences.
Feeling refreshed and happy, she prepared to leave the flat, full of anticipation for the night ahead.
Chapter Twelve
December 2018
At 8.30pm she walked into the bar of The Red Lion to be greeted by an unholy cacophony of noise coming from the back of the pub. Some fat, dark-haired woman she didn’t recognise in her thirties was belting out a truly awful rendition of an old Abba song.
The pub was very busy for a Sunday, but then it was only two days until Christmas. There was quite a crowd gathered around the DJ booth at the far end of the dance floor where, despite the bad singing, it seemed the karaoke was going down a storm. As the woman finished her song, she was met by a huge round of applause. The audience was clearly tone-deaf, drunk, or both.
“Wow, what a performance!” announced the DJ, a rotund man in his late-forties with thickset glasses. “I don’t know how we’re going to top that, but we’ll give it a go! Next up, please can we have The Three Drunken Twats?”
Amid much laughing, three young lads headed up to the stage. There was plenty of festive spirit around
tonight, it seemed.
Kay made her way over to the bar. Andy was there, talking to his mate, Nobby, who as always was immaculately dressed and groomed. He was the only person Kay had ever seen wearing a suit in the pub. There was no sign of Kent. When Kay got to the bar, Craig greeted her much more enthusiastically than usual. It made a welcome change. He had been a right miserable sod recently.
“What do you think of the karaoke, then?” he asked. “I told you it would be a winner. I’m thinking of having it every Sunday.”
“I bloody hope not,” interrupted Nobby. “Because if you do I’ll be drinking elsewhere. That last woman was dreadful. Her voice was like squeaky chalk on a blackboard. And now listen to this lot!”
The lads who had formed the impromptu group called The Three Drunken Twats had embarked on a rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. It sounded more like it was being sung from the terraces at Old Trafford than over a microphone. Everyone watching was in hysterics, especially when one of them made an obscene gesture in relation to the line “Five gold rings”.
“Well, I think it’s quite funny,” said Kay, who wasn’t averse to the odd spot of karaoke. “I may even have a go myself after a few drinks. Speaking of which…”
As she had been speaking, she had pulled a tenner out of her purse and handed it to Craig who had already poured her a double vodka as soon as he had seen her heading towards the bar.
“You did want the usual, I take it?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said. She would have to resist the temptation to knock it straight back. She would have to make it last. This tenner was all the money she had left in the world for the time being.
“Can you fill it up to the top with Coke,” she asked. That would make it last a bit longer.
“No problem,” replied Craig.
“Have you seen Richard tonight?” she asked him, trying to say it quietly so that Andy wouldn’t hear.