One cool autumn night another incident occurred, only mildly, but nevertheless Toni knew it was another experience that she’d never forget. She had been walking along her neighborhood river bank where she jogged every morning, however this evening she had decided to simply take a nice walk reflecting on Bob relocating to Texas and him sharing a house with her, when out of the blue a strange greenish yellow bird flew down and landed on her shoulder and stuck its long brown beak under the collar of her jacket. As startled as she was with what was happening she found herself unable to react and as it was occurring - she swore she heard it say, Soon…soon Toni…you shall have your wish come true. Be ready. She jerked her head and shook off the bird in fear that she was losing her mind, and in doing so she dropped to the ground to catch her breath but overtaken by fear she began to moan. Was she having a panic attack or was she simply losing her mind and had imagined that the bird spoken to her? She knew better. What she didn’t know at that moment was that the bird was indeed real and as she shook free of it, the bird flew off to a nearby tree and secluded itself amongst the branches so as not to be seen. She convinced herself that it hadn’t really happened and before she could question the incident any further she lifted herself from the ground, got her footing firmly on the path, and tore out of there in a dead run and didn’t stop until she reached the front door of her home. Before she could react any further, and at that exact instance a bird was seen circling that house as if fixing itself at that location before flying off to a nearby loft, however in full sight of Toni. At that same instance she pushed in her key, nudged the door with her foot and opened it. She closed the door, fully out of breath and had a feeling as if she was going to faint, but instead stooped down resting on her hands and knees and lowered her head until she felt the blood coming back and flowing through her body and reaching calmness.
She dashed over to the phone with an unsteady thrust and called Bob, and when he answered she told him about the occurrence with the bird. He didn’t scold her or tell her she was losing her mind; quite the contrary, instead reassured her and told her he was catching the next flight out and would be there as soon as he was able. But before Bob arrived Toni had felt urgency to rest, and decided she had no choice but to stretch across her bed and quickly went into a dream-like state.
She heard or thought she heard the phone ringing and it jolted her awake, but when she awakened she discovered much to her chagrin that she wasn’t at home at all. No, she was in some strange city she couldn’t immediately identify hiding behind a building that looked like it was made of glass and pointed on each end. The surroundings were modern in fact so modern that she had only seen this type of structure in science fiction movies. She slapped herself several times trying to wake up until she realized she was real, awake, and she was in a real city. While in this location her eyes or her mind’s eye saw what looked like little car-like planes flying in the air and it was almost as if there were streets up in the sky because she could plainly see that they stopped at certain points waiting for another to pass before proceeding on. But how could this be she thought, for surely flying objects such as she was seeing couldn’t just stop at will and then proceed again while afloat in the air. She couldn’t tell whether or not these planes were occupied although there seemed to be total control in the airways with no incidents of fender-bending. She looked down at herself and saw that her clothing was made out of something that looked like plastic but also resembling leather. Her breathing was accelerated, her pulse was racing and she wanted to run, but to where? She didn’t know. In fact she didn’t know where she was or what city she was in because she had never seen anything like the surroundings she found herself in. No structures resembled commonly known buildings and these were made of materials foreign to her existed; this included the structure where she found herself hiding. As she leaned against the brick-like work the texture felt odd to her, but she was too confused at the time to be overly conscious of it right then. Besides all that was going on, Toni, in looking down, noticed she was wearing boots that had pockets in them and couldn’t understand why they were there, so she reached down to see what was in them. No sooner after doing so she turned her head to the left and saw Tessie sitting down on a funny little bench hugging herself as if in fear, crying uncontrollably.
“Tessie! Tessie! Is that you? What are you doing here? How did you get here – where ever here is? Toni shrieked.
She hurriedly raced to Tessie’s side and threw her arms around her to comfort her but in reality she was offering herself some comfort because in fact she thought she was alone in this strange surroundings. But at least now she had a friend who might be able to rationalize where they were and what was happening. As they calmed down as much as they could the two began to converse more coherently. Each in turn tried to tell their story of what brought them to this strange weird place, but neither could come up with any answers. It suddenly dawned on them that they were experiencing another event that happened to them that Christmas time years ago when the rooms they were in changed to another time; this seemed to be a re-run. This time it was different because neither Tessie nor Toni knew where they were nor did they know the date. They only knew that the buildings were different and that the flying objects in the air were flying autos. Their comfort brought great relief to one another because at least they were lost together, but now they had to find out where they were; more than that they had to find out if there were any people around with whom they could communicate
They brought themselves to stand, checked out their bodies for missing or bruised parts, after finding none they tried to formulate a plan of attack. With all their brain power they could surely locate something that might offer a lead as to what was happening.
Bob was frantic after he arrived at Toni’s home and found the house empty; with Toni nowhere in sight. Touring all rooms and the yard Bob was convinced that Toni was indeed not anywhere to be found. He checked her answering machine and looked for her cell phone, but the machine was empty and the phone gone. He tried to make a call to her but was surprised to hear such static which made listening all but impossible. What happened was that Bob thought he picked up a faint sound of a voice although undistinguishable, yet it sounded like a screech, but it could have been part of the static or it could have been someone on a short wave radio cutting in on the cell phone line. He hung up and tried the call again, and once again he heard or thought he heard a human sound; this time slightly more audible. He yelled into the phone but to no avail, or so he thought. Then he heard it again - like a Help! Help! Once again Bob yelled into the phone that he was there and that he heard the call for help. He asked if the person needing help was Toni. This time the response came in more recognizable. “Bob! Bob! Please…please Bob! Is that you?”
Bob was either trying to convince himself that Toni was on the other end when maybe in fact it was all in his mind, or she was indeed in trouble and was trying to reach out for him, in either case he was at a loss to know what to do. A thought suddenly came to him to call his cell phone carrier and ask them to identify the location of the call he had just made. He told them that his girl friend was in trouble and was trying desperately to reach him but the message was garbled. He needed to know the transmission point so that he could assist her in her need. The phone company could see the sincerity of Bob’s request and sent out a finder. They were stunned when a signal was sent back that although they could recognize a call, they were unable to trace a location because none appeared to exist in all of their stations; they were in fact just as confused and puzzled as was Bob.
Toni and Tessie were in the open between two enormous buildings trying to use their cell phone to locate a signal. The phone registered nothing telling them that no transmitting station was within reach of their location. Toni would not accept that so she dialed Bob’s number and yelled into it “Bob! Bob! Please Bob! Help! Is that you? Is that you Bob? Bob…”
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When Toni and Tessie regained their sensibility they discovered that there were people all over the place and that they needed to do was walk up to one and ask where they were, so they did. They spotted a police officer and upon approaching him he offered a greeting and told the ladies that they didn’t look so good and asked if he could help. They told him that they were lost and needed to get back home. When he asked where they belonged, Toni said she was from Berkley, California. When hearing that the officer informed them that they were close and only needed to get on the train and head north, for they were in southern California. Tessie thanked the officer and asked him how to board the train. He pointed out the tunnel leading to the underground boarding station and away they went.
“Can you believe this guy, Toni? I mean he thinks we’re in southern California, giggled Tessie with a nervous voice.
“Do we look stupid? Anyone can see that we aren’t in California at all…not at all…oh well,” reiterated Toni.
Nevertheless, they entered the tunnel and went down below and sure enough there was the loading platform. One of the destination charts indicated train numbers and locations, and sure enough there was one bound for Berkley; it was train 74. After a short wait, along came train 74 and they were surprised.
“What do you think Toni? Should we get on board? It says Berkley so what do we have to lose?” quizzed Tessie.
“Hey, you’re right. If we get lost, we will be lost together” The two ladies boarded the train but didn’t realize they hadn’t paid their fair, but it was too late for the train was about to leave so they got aboard, took a seat, and then the train began to move.
Two hours later the train came to a halt, and out the window they could read signs indicating that they had arrived in Berkley. Thrilled at their luck they disembarked and found their way up to the street level where they expected to look around and recognize the old home stead, but instead were surprised and shocked to find a city all right, but not one they recognized. Once again they found someone to quiz and once again that person assured them that they were indeed in Berkley. He asked them where they wanted to go and when they told him he put the street name into his GPS. It didn’t find the exact street name, but one similar.
“Ladies, this is as close as I can come to the street you are trying to find, but just wait on that corner over there next to Marcy’s store and the driver will take you to this street I have written out for you,” the young man responded, then turned and smiled.
The ladies, although puzzled again, followed the direction given, got on board and tried to offer the driver money, but he said none was necessary, and that he would let them know when he arrived at their street. Not too long after the driver pulled over the mini bus and told the ladies that they had arrived at their location. Tessie and Toni got off, thanked the driver, and looked around to see if they could recognize anything. The street name was different, but some of the houses seemed familiar.
“I know this house Toni. I looked at it a while back hoping it was for sale; it looked good to me. Let’s walk this way and we will come to my house. I know we will,” assured Tessie.
“Hey, this is your place so I am just one step behind you; all the way my friend…all the way for sure,” assured Toni.
So off the two went, down the street in search of Tessie’s house. It wasn’t too long before Tessie yelled out that the house across the street looked just like hers, but it wasn’t quite the same; something was odd yet familiar at the same time.
“Hey Toni, this is it, at least I think it is. I’m delusional or my house has been altered since I left, and who knows when that might have been, owing to the strange goings-on we have been experiencing.”
They approached the house and nearly everything seemed to match, so Tessie decided to play it safe and ring the doorbell. She did several times but got no response, so she decided to try her key and low and behold it opened the door. The two cautiously entered the home and looked around. What they saw amazed them for on the mantel were pictures of the two of them when they were in high school. “Hey, Tess, I didn’t know you had put out this picture of us from way back when,” stated Toni.
“Tell you what is so weird my friend, I don’t remember putting it out either,” came the startled response.
Not knowing what to do at this point in time, and being totally exhausted, they beckoned for the bedroom in great need of sleep. It was as if they were drawn to the upstairs rooms where they almost felt compelled to jump into bed and sleep. Each followed their sixth sense, did as their minds suggested and upon lying down found themselves falling into an uncontrollable deep sleep as if they were drugged. Losing all track of time from that point on, they slept deeply. They were awakened by the bright sun shining in on them. Tessie came out of it first so she looked around and things appeared different than when she climbed into bed. She slowly got up and studied the arrangement of all that was visible, and to her great surprise and amazement discovered that everything was hers, exactly as she had left it before she vanished, so to speak. She went screaming into the other bedroom. “Toni, Toni, wake up, wake up. We are home, I mean this is my house, I am home and you are with me” screeched Tessie. Toni came to and looked around and agreed with Tessie that they were in the Berkeley home. They walked down the stairs and cautiously opened the door and peeked out. Immediately Tessie recognized everything around her for after all it was her home, for you see, they had mysteriously arrived back in the Berkley they knew, and all was well, once again.
Chapter Four