'It's...lonely now,' I thought to myself. My coworkers and boss didn't recognize me. As if i never existed, 'Am I even real? Am i conscious...maybe...maybe its all just a hallucination. Maybe oxygen is just anither drug that I'm on,' I thougt. 'Help me, help me, help me, help me, help me, help me..." the thought swam through my head like a mantra. A never ending spiral.

I couldn't take this anymor...

I wake up one morning in my usual bed right by my usual nightstand. The house is quiet. Too quiet. I run downstairs, thinking that my mother should already have breakfast prepared. I scrambled down the stairs, almost slipping but catching myself with the railing. Randy sits at the table drinking his milk, then he spits up some baby food. My mom laughs and carefully cleans him up, tickling his head...

‘Do you remember that time we went to the beach and it was so windy we had to sit in the car?’ I laughed to myself thinking of our folly.

‘I’m sorry?’ Came the reply

‘You scalded yourself with tea from the flask, spilt it all over your jeans and you cursed like a trooper!’

‘Are you ok Janine?’ - a blink.

What, wait, who the fuck is Janine?

‘I didn’t ask you a question, why are you asking ...

“It was right here. The eggplant hit the pizza guy square in the chest. He made fun of Hanna and I when we asked for just one slice cut in half, remember? So we walked out and you grabbed the eggplant from the fruit stand, and sent that sucker flying.”

Charlie cackled. “You’re a hoot! I’ve sent some things soaring through a room before, but never an eggplant. You don’t want beef with the pizza guy...

I woke suddenly on the couch in my apartment. The snow came down silently. I called my parents.

“Mom, how are you?” I said.

“Who is this?” Mom said.

“It’s your daughter Shari,” I said.

“This is a terrible prank!” Mom exclaimed.

“It is; I just woke from a nap on my couch,” I said. The phone clicked. “Hello hello,” I said. I called again.

“Hello, Mom…. “ she hung up again and I heard tears.

...

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Everyone had said that they didn’t remember. No one did. No one remembered me. Still, I turned from the mirror and turned to my family. They stared at me. They didn’t believe me. My father sighed as he said, “I am sorry, ma’am.”

“But father.”

I reached out to him but he backed away. The look on his face tore through me. It hurt. My heart hurt. I pressed my ...

That was the longest, darkest night he had ever experienced.

A deep black void. Beyond any nightmare he had ever had.

So intense, that when he woke up, it took him a while to figure out where he was. A numbness enveloped his whole body, his sight hazy and blurred.

Before him was a tiny living capsule, kitchen, shower, toilet and bed, all together in a single cubic enclave with a round window.

L...

It was a cloudy Thursday when Wendy woke up to start her day. She prepared her clothes, took a shower, grabbed a yogurt and drank some coffee. She entered her car and listened to a podcast as she drove to work. She parked her car in the Target parking lot and proceeded to get into her office. Kim her employee stopped her “where are you going?” Wendy replied “What is wrong with you, Kim?” She...

“Grandpa!” I exclaim, walking in. “I brought you some presents!”

I stared at my grandfather with pity as he was forced to be stuck in this hospital when there was nothing wrong with him.

Hopefully, these presents would cheer him up.

Grandpa was one of my most favorite people in the whole world. He tells jokes, he is so wise, and he spends all day playing with me.

“You see, Grandpa,” I point ...

I have a theory. It is probably wrong, but on this very strange day it has mysteriously fallen inside my head, and so I feel the need to tell it.

You see, every year, every hour, every minute, and every moment, is a part of the great concept we call time. Time has been a thing for a good while now, but each of these bits are the building blocks that make up time. Time-blocks, I call them. Little...