The Coffee Shop

by Lauren Hunter

  Brian nodded. “Okay, why don’t we just try to think this through?”

  “I don’t think I need to say what I’m thinking right now, but I’m going to anyway. You’re kidding me, right? Oh, and while I’m at it, that patronizing: ‘There, there now, you poor deluded man.’ You can just drop that, please. That would be nice.” Leaning back, he shook his head. “This is happening, Brian. You may think I’m crazy. Hell I think I’m crazy. But I’m not. It’s real. I tell you what, I’ll prove it to you. Here, I want you to choose ten letters from the alphabet at random and write them down on a piece of paper.” He got up and grabbed the pad next to the phone in the kitchen, and he held it out to Brian. “Here. Any ten letters, but all different.”

  “All right.” Brian took the pad.

  “Just do it quick, off the top of your head, without even thinking about it. You choose.”

  Brian grabbed his pen and quickly wrote the first ten letters that came into his head. B, R, D, E, F, T, S, O, V, P.

  “Okay, now I want you to choose a number between one and ten, quick, without thinking about it.”

  “Seven.”

  “Okay. Give me the paper.” Derrick studied the letters and tearing the page off the pad he set it aside. Grabbing the pen, he started to rearrange the letters, trying to create words using what Brian had chosen. “Probes, proves, strode, stored, stoves, droves, strove, softer…” Derrick laughed. “You had to make this difficult, didn’t you? It’s easy to come up with a six letter word, but to find a seven letter word in that.” He stared at the letters, continuing to try every arrangement he could think of. “I found one. Frosted!” Derrick sat back in his chair and looked at his watch. The phone rang, and he picked it up. “A delivery for Dr. Taylor? Have them bring it up, please, Harold. Thank you.” Derrick crossed his arms and waited until there was a knock on the door, and motioned toward it.

  Brian got up and answered the door, signing for the letter. Slowly returning to the couch he opened it. Inside was a note from his attorney stating an envelope had been delivered to him, dated five months ago, and that it held instructions to be delivered to Dr. Taylor on this date, at this time, to this address. The envelope looked like any standard business envelope, and there was a sealed note inside.

  Brian opened the note. On the page was a single word. “Frosted.” For a while, Brian just stared at the note. He put it down on the coffee table and left it there, looking as though he didn’t want to touch it.

  Derrick grinned. “You know what’s interesting about this? I haven’t sent this yet, and yet it’s already here because we are experiencing the future of something I am planning to do.”

  Brian slowly took a deep breath. “Okay…so then why haven’t you just sent yourself notes into the future to tell yourself what to and what not to do?”

  “That’s just it, I would have, so where are they? I can only assume I did do that and as a result it made things worse in the long run, and so I destroyed the note before it got to me so that I wouldn’t use it.”

  “But how would you know you had destroyed the note, if you never got it to read it in the first place, so that it messed things up further?”

  “That has to be the logical progression of this whole thing. Otherwise, where are the notes?”

  “Has it ever occurred to you that the reason there are no notes is because you had this conversation with yourself, and never sent any in the first place?”

  “It had occurred to me.”

  “So, how do you know it makes things worse to give yourself advance notice then?”

  “Every time I see the future, it changes. Something different keeps happening every time I go back into the past, which is my present. I can only assume I am having these glimpses because it shows me something I need to see. But as to why and what it means, I have no idea. And as to why it’s happening to me, just out of the blue like this? I don’t understand what purpose this could possibly serve. What could I possibly do with this foreknowledge other than affect those individuals in my own little circle of life?”

  “Have you ever?” Brian paused.

  “What?”

  “Oh, looked at the newspaper to see where things are five months in the future.”

  “Please tell me you are not suggesting what I think you are.”

  “Why not? Maybe that is what this is for. Maybe that is what this is all about. Maybe you are supposed to be affecting things on a much greater scale.”

  “Oh, now you’re playing with fire. I start trying to affect things in the past based on what I read in the newspaper of my future, and it could lead to alterations in the timeline on a catastrophic level.”

  “Isn’t that just a bit grandiose?”

  “Armed with foreknowledge of five months into the future? One stock or trade could set into motion a domino effect and lead to who knows what. It could be disastrous, and you know it.”

  “You can’t blame a guy for giving it a try.” Brian finished the drink he was holding. “Mind if I have another?”

  “Help yourself.”

  “One thing is for sure, your hosting abilities have taken a serious downhill turn.”

  Derrick glared.

  “There’s the Derrick I miss and love.”

  Derrick laughed. “You said that to me three days ago.”

  “Three days ago?”

  “Oh, I guess you have no idea what’s been happening, do you?”

  “Kinda been out of the loop…if you know what I mean.”

  “I’m sorry about that.”

  Brian poured himself another scotch and took a drink. He turned to look directly at Derrick.

  “You remember the conversation about the dream, you know the day I met Annie?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let me guess, you thought I was crazy then, too.”

  Brian looked like he was about to say something, but he didn’t speak.

  “Uh-huh, thought as much. Anyway, that night the dreams continued, picking up where the first one had left off. Only it was different, Annie was different, just little things, pierced ears, calling me honey, she no longer read books and she loved to read, nothing major. But it wasn’t the Annie I had known the last time I saw her in the future. And when I tried to call you to find out what had happened to alter the timeline, you told me I had an argument with you the day after I met Annie and that I never spoke to you after that. I have no idea why I did that. I can only assume.” Derrick stopped speaking.

  “Assume what?”

  “Well, the argument happened, just as you said. You know, I have wondered why I didn’t send myself a note about that, but there would have been nothing I could have done. All I could do was to try and avoid it as best I could. And calling to cancel our appointment would probably have led to the same fight.”

  “Because it was about me being ticked at you for choosing Annie over me. And if you had cancelled it would have just been the same bad feelings on my part all over again.”

  “Yes, I had assumed as much. So I couldn’t avoid it. Just figured I’d call you the next day and try to fix it, but that night I dreamed my trying to fix it somehow got you killed, only I had no idea what happened, or when. Did I try to call you the next day, and that’s when it happened? Or did I assume I would call you the next day and so I just waited a day and then that’s when it happened? Or did I wait two weeks, or a month, and then try and as a result that was when it happened?” Drawing his hand across his forehead, he sighed. “So when I woke up five months in the past, I avoided you completely. Who knows, maybe my sending you something as simple as a note is what set into motion whatever caused your death. I just don’t know.”

  “You did the only thing you thought you could to keep me alive.” Brian came over to the couch and sat across from Derrick, slumping back into the cushions. “Wow, and here I just thought you were a world class a — ”

  “Watch it.”

  Brian laughed, but a frown crossed his face. “Wait a minute. If reconcilin
g with me gets me killed, what are you doing talking to me now?”

  “Because I know it’s safe to now. You were already dead two days ago here in the future, on a different timeline. That tells me that whatever happened had already happened before that point in time. When I talked to you three days ago, the first time here in the future, on a different timeline, before I knew my ‘fixing it’ would get you killed…it was already done. There was no taking it back. That you’re still here indicates it was safe to do so.”

  Brian stared for a moment.

  “I’m just glad that talking to you three days ago was not what led to your death.”

  “You and me both. Okay is this the strangest conversation on record or what?”

  “I could agree with that. So, you can imagine my shock when you and Denise walk through that door to have dinner with Annie and me. Annie had called Denise, and between the two of them, they got us back together. Had I known what she was up to I would have stopped it. They must have arranged to have us both meet without realizing we were meeting each other. Can’t explain it any other way.”

  “Wait, when was that?”

  “Two weeks ago yesterday, but that was in another timeline, and Annie was the one to instigate it.” He swallowed the last of his drink and walked across to the bar and filled his glass again. “But now I have totally lost her.” He swung his arm at the empty penthouse. “As you can see, there is no Annie.”

  Brian shook his head. “What did you do?”

  “Why do you say it like that?”

  Brian just shook his head. “Oh, Derrick.”

  Derrick closed his eyes, and dropping his head, he shook it from side to side. “After my first meeting with Annie, I realized I had done something slightly different. I commented about her book. And when I dreamed that night, that was when she was slightly different, and the books on the bedside table were gone. So I made sure the next two meetings with her went exactly as they had in my first dream, and over the next two glimpses into the future she became the Annie I knew again.” He looked up to see Brian watching him.

  “But you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You just had to do something, didn’t you? I know you, Derrick. I know your heart is in the right place, and you meant well, but let’s face it, you obviously screwed up big time. So, what was it you did that now has you here alone?”

  “You’re right. I should have known to leave well enough alone. The first meeting with Annie had already proved that to me. And when everything went back to the way it was, by doing it exactly as it had occurred in the first dream, that should have told me as much.” He took another drink. “I can honestly say I don’t know what I was thinking. I got comfortable, and as I had already been with Annie, in my head, for five months, I started to think of myself as that future Derrick. And I overstepped.”

  “Dare I ask what exactly it was that you did?”

  “I discovered she was hiding the fact that she was — ”

  “A stripper?”

  Derrick stared, his jaw tensing.

  “Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. You know me.”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “I’m sorry, I was hoping to alleviate some of the — ”

  “Life altering devastation?”

  “So, I’m guessing it didn’t work?”

  “I discovered she likes to do high IQ tests for fun.”

  “She what?”

  “Exactly. This is her idea of fun.”

  “And let me guess. You stuck you big, fat nose right in the middle of it, didn’t you? You can’t help yourself, Derrick. Like I said, you have this compulsion to help, only it winds up getting you in trouble, and I’m guessing your suggestion didn’t go down so well.”

  “I suggested she could be using her abilities for something on a somewhat grander scale, yes.”

  “Oh, Derrick, Derrick, Derrick.” Brian shook his head. “You poor, dumb slob.”

  Derrick stared. “You don’t happen to know a Mrs. Fleming, by any chance, do you?”

  “Mrs. Fleming?”

  “She said almost exactly the same thing.”

  “Smart woman.”

  “Are those words actually supposed to be helping me on some level?”

  “No, but they make me feel better.”

  Derrick stared. “Should I say what I’m thinking right now?”

  Brian grinned. “Look, you’ll go to her. Say all the right things. And fix it.”

  “I obviously tried to do that, and it didn’t work.” He gestured to the empty penthouse.

  Brian sipped his scotch. “And you have obviously not sent yourself a note to tell yourself what not to do to try and fix it.”

  “I probably did, and it just made it worse, so I retrieved the note and had it destroyed before I got it.”

  “You see, that paradox stuff…You send a note to be read in the future, so you can get a glimpse of it to use it in the past, only you see that it makes it worse the next time you get a glimpse into the future, so the next time you are in the past you destroy the note, so you never get it in the future to use in the past. But then you probably send it again, not realizing you already did all that, and, okay I am officially tired from thinking.”

  “Do that a few more times and you’ll be where I am now.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “The only thing I can do. Keep trying to fix it with Annie, and hope that it works.”

  “Well, I hope I’m talking to you in the next timeline. Oh, and that I’m alive. That part would be good.”

  “I am sorry about that, Brian, you do know that don’t you?”

  “It all makes sense now. Or does it? All this stuff has my head so turned in knots I’m not sure what’s real anymore.”

  “I’m going to miss you over the next few months. But you do realize that I can’t be certain it’s okay to contact you until two weeks ago.”

  “Um, yes?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Opening his eyes, Derrick stared up at the ceiling. He missed Annie, and every time he dreamed of her in the future, living here together, so much in love…and now to see she never will…

  He had to fix it. But how? Whatever he had tried to do obviously didn’t work. But as to what that was, he had no idea. How was he to know what not to do? It’s not like he could ask Angela, as far as she was concerned it hadn’t happened yet. No, he had to figure this out, and he had to figure it out fast. Problem was he knew no matter what he came up with, he would be second-guessing himself. All he could do was to approach it as he did every obstacle in life, and then, not do that.

  He laughed aloud at the absurdity of it. Here, he had to come up with a solution so that he would know what solution not to use. Then come up with something that was nothing like it.

  Derrick stared out the window. No matter what he tried to come up with, he couldn’t be certain it was what he did wrong the first time. He had never been in love, not like this anyway, and as to how to deal with something like this, it had never been something he had had to resolve before. And it finally came down to going with his gut feeling. It had never let him down before. But then maybe that was what he had done that had ruined any chance of being with Annie.

  You have to stop doing this. This is getting you nowhere. He knew no matter what he came up with he couldn’t be certain. All he could do was to go with his heart and pray that he did and said the right thing to fix what he had done in the first place. Just keep it simple, stick to the point, don’t digress or try to excuse it. Apologize, explain why you were so stupid, and tell her you won’t do it again. Now if you can just do that!

  Dialing Perfectly Natural, he waited as the phone rang. “Angela?”

  There was a pause. “Yes, may I help you?”

  “She’s working today, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, we have that.”

  “If I come down there to talk to her, is there some place we can speak in private?”

  “We may have some
in storage, in the back. Not sure about that though. You may need to go somewhere else for that.”

  “I doubt ambushing her on the street would work. It’s not exactly a conversation you want to have in public. And I have a feeling she won’t let me into her apartment just now so, that leaves — ”

  “Why don’t you come on down, and we’ll see what we can do.”

  “Thank you! You are a lifesaver!”

  “I hope we have what you are looking for, but until you get here I can’t say for sure. Okay, then, see you in a bit.”

  She ended the call, and he pocketed his cell. He had never been so nervous or scared in his life. If someone were to ask him if he had been either of those in his lifetime, he would have said not since he was a little kid. But things had changed. He had met Annie, and they had fallen in love. At least he had fallen in love with her. He could only assume she felt the same about him. It seemed she cared about him. And maybe that was why she reacted so strongly to what he had said last time they were together. What he thought and said mattered to her. And that he said it, someone that she should feel safe around, someone that she should feel she could share anything with and not worry about being judged or criticized…

  He had been thinking of her, wanting only what he thought was the best for her, but he hadn’t stopped to think about the fact that she had chosen the life she had, for a reason. She may have been perfectly happy with the way things were, and to expect so much from her may have been asking more than she could give. She wasn’t tough as nails, and that is just what you have to be if you are going to jump head first into the competitive world of the high intelligence arena.

  If he had really stopped to think about it, he would have seen that. But his way of seeing things, the way he had always done things, when it came to Annie it was as if he lost all sense of direction and that ability of his that worked so well in all other situations couldn’t be applied. And it was just occurring to him it shouldn’t be applied. She wasn’t a corporation, or a merger, she was the woman he loved. More than anything.