The Girl Who Lived Twice

by Tina Clough

  “I have a sheet of paper with certain, ah … guesses or predictions on it. These refer to things that might happen in the near future. I want everyone in this room to read the paper, sign their name and write the date in their own handwriting, next to their name. I’d also like everyone here to give me their word that nothing relating to this will be revealed to anyone without my permission.”

  She looked round and saw that Paul was filming, capturing her speech. The others all nodded their agreement. Mia cleared her throat and continued. “When everyone has signed the paper I’d like Paul to take a close-up shot of it, then we’ll fold it in full view of the camera, seal it in this envelope, put the string round the envelope and...” She suddenly realised that Lorraine had not told her if Miles could bring sealing wax. Miles held up a square stick of red sealing wax. “Here it is, sealing wax and I have our firm’s seal to impress in it.”

  Mia smiled at him. “Thank you! Here is the sheet of paper.” She put the A4 sheet on the table and turned it round to face John and Miles. Lorraine came closer to read it, where it lay on the table. Paul continued to film. John MacFarlane looked at Mia after signing his name and considered her carefully. She met his gaze unblinkingly and said nothing.

  The others signed one by one and then Paul approached the table, focussed on the paper and then stepped back while keeping it in view. Mia folded the paper, put it in the envelope and tied the string round it, as one would round a parcel. She was careful to keep her hands from obstructing the camera’s view of the envelope. Miles got out a cigarette lighter, heated the end of the stick of sealing wax and dropped large globules of wax on the string in four places on the front, pressing the stamp into each spot of hot wax to make it adhere to the envelope. He then turned the envelope over did the same to the string on the back. Mia picked up the envelope and handed it to John McFarland.

  “Will you please keep this safely here until after the first of the predicted events? If that event happens, I’d like to ask that you all help me trying to prevent the second event taking place.”

  John took the envelope. “Please follow me. Paul, continue to film this, please.” He led the way upstairs and to a room that was obviously his own office. He hesitated for a moment and then walked round the desk and opened the drawers, one after the other until he found what he was looking for.

  “I’ll give you a receipt, Mia. As you can see the pages are duplicates and numbered, so it is an official receipt, but I must admit that we don’t normally do this sort of thing. The only reason I agreed was pure curiosity.” He smiled and put the envelope in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet and locked it. “I’m the only person who has a key to this cabinet, so the envelope is perfectly safe here.”

  Paul turned the camera off. Mia felt exhausted, as if she had run a marathon or held her breath for minutes on end. Lorraine said excitedly: “My god, that is the most amazing thing – you could save Steve Irwin’s life!”

  John looked searchingly at Mia again. “Are you a clairvoyant? Or a medium of some kind?”

  “Oh god, no, not at all!” said Mia truthfully. “I don’t really believe in that stuff.”

  John looked increasingly puzzled. “But you think you can foretell the future?”

  Mia had to reveal a little more than she had planned to. “Well, yes, I think I know that some things will happen. I might not be right about both events, because I’m not sure how this works yet. I’ll tell you more if this works out, even if only one or the other thing happens. The whole point of this exercise is to validate that I can predict some things that will happen in the future.”

  Miles and Paul were looking serious and puzzled, but made no comment and John broke the meeting up. “I think we all remember both events, so we’ll wait and see. Let’s meet here after the cathedral fire – provided it does happen.”

  Lorraine interrupted. “If the fire happens we won’t know until Saturday. St Petersburg is eight hours behind New Zeeland and we aren’t sure what time of the day the fire happened – I checked the time difference. So why don’t we meet here on Saturday afternoon? That will have given the media time to post it on websites, so we can check. Let’s say four o’clock, if that suits everyone?”

  Mia gazed at her in silent admiration. My goodness, she certainly does her homework – I never thought of the time difference. Once outside there was a distinct sense of anticlimax. Miles went off to his car, and Mia, Lorraine and Paul walked slowly along the street without speaking. Suddenly Mia couldn’t wait to be alone, to stop thinking about how this would turn out. “Thank you both so much for coming along,” she said politely. “I think I’ll just catch the bus home and go to bed early. Lorraine and I were up so late last night and I woke quite early.” They seemed to understand her mood, Lorraine gave her a hug and Paul patted her shoulder. “We’ll drive you home, Mia. It’s no trouble.”

  They were quiet and thoughtful during the trip across town. Mia was torn between wanting her predictions to turn out to be right, so her story could be proved, and feeling nervous about telling three new people her story and apprehensive about how they would react. It was such a strange tale and anyone could be excused for not believing it. When Paul stopped to let her off, she said a brief goodbye and got out of the car without further conversation.

  Mia closed her front door and turned the lights on, relieved to be alone at last. A rummage through the pantry produced a tin of pumpkin soup. The TV news had just finished and she sat at the table, surrounded by design magazines and sheets of paper, eating her dinner and making notes about colours and styles of furniture, but concentration was beyond her and she soon gave up.

  She got her diary out of her briefcase and jotted down some things to remember. Thursday: morning off, look at furniture, work afternoon? Dinner with Callum & Tex. Saturday: More furniture? 4 pm at police stn. Sunday: dinner at Carl’s.

  She had a bath, went straight to bed and slept like a log until the clock radio woke her in time for the morning news.

  Thursday morning Mia opened her eyes, slightly tense, and quickly took stock. Every morning she felt deep relief when she had reassured herself that another movement in time had not moved her back to That Time. It felt luxurious to wake at seven on a weekday morning and not feel the pressure of getting ready for work. There was plenty of time before the shops opened. She had a leisurely shower and sat over a cup of coffee getting her shopping list sorted and then stapled her magazine cuttings to it for reference. Before going out she rang St Petersburg to leave the message for Sarah and James. She got through to Hotel Astoria straight away. The receptionist spoke nearly perfect English and was politely professional. “If you can wait one moment I will try the line to their room.”

  Mia was quick to prevent the room being called; the last thing she wanted at this stage was a long conversation with Sarah. “No, please don’t put me through, just take a message if you don’t mind. I know it’s the middle of the night at your end. I am calling from New Zealand, where it is morning, but I don’t want to wake them up. Please give them the message before they leave the hotel in the morning, if you can.”

  “All right, would you please tell me the message? We will deliver it to their room with their breakfast; I see they have ordered breakfast for seven am.”

  “The message is this: Do not go into the Trinity Cathedral on Friday. And sign it with my name, which is Mia.” When the receptionist had read the message back to her Mia quickly thanked her and hung up. She hoped the message would be delivered as promised and that the receptionist did not think it was code for something. I might just ring them, when it’s early morning there – perhaps about four this afternoon, when it’s eight in the morning their time. All I really want from this is something that works as personal proof for them, so they find it easier to accept my story when I tell them.

  Before leaving the flat she walked slowly round each room with a second mug of coffee in her hand, contemplating the look and feel of the nearly empty rooms and vague
ly thinking of all the ideas her design research had given her. It set a mood that remained fresh in her mind as she set out on her shopping expedition. She felt happy and buoyant again, even slightly philosophical about her attempt to prove her story. But so what if it did not happen? All that would prove was that things change - it did not mean that she was mad or lying. She would just have to start over and find some event that really did happen again.

  The bus was not nearly as full as it usually was at her normal time for going to work and she got a seat with nobody beside her. She took out the list and mentally added up approximate values. A sofa and one armchair, something for the TV to sit on, a bed, a bedside table or two, a coffee table, maybe some new cushions. My top limit is $10,000, I think. I might get a couple of thousand from the auction, and I won’t be buying a new car, so I’ll be able to pay off the credit card bill I’ll create. Lucky I paid off the credit card the other day.

  She walked up Broadway - the sky was blue, the pavements were filling up with shoppers. She was fizzing with pleasurable anticipation. To take time off work and go out to selfishly spend thousands – what a wonderful adventure!

  Inside the Freedom shop she felt an urge to start rushing round, trying to find everything at once, but common sense prevailed. She stood in the middle of the store checking her list and working out where on the floor things were displayed. She declined offers of help and explained that she wanted to wander round on her own first. The key pieces are the bed and the sofa. Half an hour later she had looked at many sofas and sat on a few. She quite liked half a dozen of them and did the round again before dismissing all but two styles, both exactly right and available in colours that would fit. One was available as a two-seater, and that clinched it. The two-seater and a matching chair would be perfect.

  Selecting the bed was more difficult. What if it was not comfortable after all when you got it home? How do you properly test a mattress in a shop? A young assistant came to the rescue. “Pick a mattress that feels a bit firmer than you think you want. Most people regret picking something too soft - once they get the bed home and spend a few nights on it they wish they had picked a harder one. And if it’s really too firm when you sleep on it, then you get a soft topper pad.”

  “Thank you!” said Mia. “That’s very helpful – I’ll lie on a few to get a feel for it.” She lay down on the first of the beds she had been contemplating.

  “Don’t lie on your back, unless that’s your normal sleeping position. Curl up on your side or however you sleep.” The assistant was clearly an expert and had done this many times. Mia turned on her side and knew within seconds that the mattress was too soft, though it had felt quite firm when she lay on her back. Ten minutes later she made her choice.

  “I’ll have this one, please, and also two of the matching aluminium and glass bedside tables. And then I want the TV cupboard unit, the one in aluminium and opaque glass over there, and the two-seater sofa called Imara in the colour called Chocolate and…”

  “Stop, stop!” said the girl, holding up her hand and laughing. “Not so fast, let me get an order pad and we can start making out a proper list.” She returned with a pad and a pen. “Now, if you don’t mind, would you please take me to each item and show me, so we are quite sure I’m getting it right?”

  They did the rounds; everything was written down and colours confirmed and then Mia signed the order off at the counter. The order was entered into the computer system and Mia was handed an invoice to check. “That comes to $6180 and then the freight if you want it delivered.”

  “That doesn’t sound right,” said Mia, reading the invoice. “It should be a couple of thousand more – look, the price of the sofa is wrong for a start.”

  “Yes, but what comes up on the invoice are the discounted prices - the regular price less 25% up to the end of the month. It’s our end-of-winter sale,” said the girl cheerfully. “Didn’t you notice the banners at the entrance?”

  “No, I had no idea – pure luck!”

  Mia arranged for delivery on Saturday morning first thing, paid and left. Two and a half hours since I left home – pretty good going. I’m glad I spotted those cushions and the lamps, because they’ll go perfectly with the rest and I don’t have to carry them home on the bus. That was so painless it’s nearly scary.

  She sat in a café for an hour enjoying an early lunch and crossing things off the list that was shrinking fast. Her main goal was to keep busy until Saturday afternoon. New Zealand was eight hours ahead of St Petersburg and she’d be able to check if the fire happened well before four o’clock on Saturday. She was reasonably sure that the pictures she remembered had been taken in broad daylight. With new furniture coming on Saturday morning she’d have no problem filling in the time until the afternoon. Her mood varied between determination not to worry if the prediction was wrong and feeling sure the fire would happen. It felt a bit ghoulish to rely on the misfortune of others for her own satisfaction, but there was no way she could prevent this from happening anyway.

  On an impulse she went into a glamorous-looking ‘home shop’ and bought some stylish new linen for her new-look bedroom and some luxurious bath towels. The result was three super-sized and very heavy carrier bags; by the time she reached the office her arms felt as long as a gorilla’s. She stopped in reception and dropped her bags on the floor with a muted thump.

  “Have you been spending money, Mia?” Alice’s eyes twinkled wickedly.

  “Damn, I was hoping no one would notice. But it’s not more clothes - I promise! It’s just a lot of new linen. And hello to you too!”

  Alice grinned. “Well, I hope it was fun! To change the subject though – remember that I told you about my cousin Linda’s wedding in a couple of weeks, on the ninth? I just heard last night that it’s all going to be in a big marquee, not in the house, so it could be as cold as sin. I mean, at this time of year you can’t bank on warm evenings, can you? And I want to look sexy and gorgeous, you never know when there’s going to be some talent around.”

  She paused and Mia said, “And?”

  “And, my very nicest dress that I’m hoping to wear is slinky and bare-shouldered. Not the sort of thing you can wear a cardigan with!”

  “Get yourself one of those really thin silk shawls, you know what I mean, one of those pashmina things – or maybe they’re wool. You could wear it so it sort of slips off your shoulders, that would look sexy and keep you warm at the same time. And think how you could use it – trail it seductively behind you like 1930’s diva.”

  They both laughed, delighted with the prospect of Alice being warm and sexy at the same time.

  “Great idea - my mum’s got one of those, but it’s not the right colour. Oh dear, how sad! I’ll have to go shopping.”

  Mia was laughing at herself now.” It’s so funny that I am standing here being a fashion guru. I’ve never handed out dress advice before in my life!”

  “But you are so trendy these days, and you changed your look so completely, everyone says you are really clever with clothes.”

  Mia carried her bags to her office contemplating the strange new world she was living in. It seemed crazy that she was getting a completely opposite reputation after being Miss Mousy for so long.

  The first thing she did was to check the original spreadsheet file on the shared document drive but nothing had changed; she must wait and be patient. Or it might be that Josh was more honest in This Time. She realised that Josh’s betrayal had contributed hugely to the pathetic wretch she had turned into in that other time. It had added despair and hopelessness to her state of mind, which was already at low ebb. It had robbed her of her self-esteem and pushed her into a space, where she lost the will to communicate with people and simply drifted through life. This Time she was acutely aware of the need to take steps to protect herself.

  “Amazing how short the day seems, when you start work at midday,” she said cheerfully when Alan came to talk about a changed deadline for a shared project. He looked
at the large shopping bags in the corner behind her desk. “Looks like you got a lot done in one morning. My wife used to love that shop. I think most of our linen came from there.”

  “I hadn’t ever been inside the place before, but it’s a wonderful shop. I just walked in on impulse after I finished the big-item shopping. If you think these bags represent a lot of shopping, you’d be amazed at what I did in the first two or three hours this morning! Come to think of it, I’m amazed myself!”

  Alan smiled, delighted with her mood. “My god, Mia, it’s as if you’ve had a personality transplant. I’d never have thought that serious shopping was your scene?”

  “Well, it didn’t use to be, but somehow I needed a change of scene, so I’ve sent nearly everything I own to the auctioneers.” She saw the look on Alan’s face and added: “And Greg’s life insurance paid off the mortgage.”

  “Well, you are both unlucky and lucky then.” Alan generously looked pleased for her. “There couldn’t be anything worse than losing someone you love, and then having to worry about money as well.”

  “That’s so right. And because I’ve got over the worst shock now, I decided to get rid of lots of old stuff and start again in a new style. I think it’s become a kind of therapeutic design event?”

  She told him of having a sudden idea and ripping everything apart, ruthlessly sorting and discarding and about the man with the wobbly stomach who came and took things away. And how she had looked at pictures in glossy magazines and found the kind of style she liked and then continued from there. Alan was fascinated and frankly impressed. “What a fantastic thing to do! You know, I really admire the way you cope with how your life has changed and then generate even more change. Perhaps that’s what I should do.”