Here's an odd little short story.
Charles Winsett checked his watch. It was 11:45 a.m.,
almost time for lunch. He straightened up the papers on his desk, stood,
stretched, and grabbed his jacket. The morning had been filled with meetings,
note-taking, and number crunching, but lunchtime was here. A cool breeze
earlier this morning may have died down by now, but he didn’t want to take a
chance. Stepping out of his office building into the windy canyons of downtown
St. Louis would probably call for a jacket.
His favorite sandwich shop was across the street and down
half a block, so he didn’t have far to go. Outside, the shadows of the tall
buildings kept the noonday sun at bay, at least at this time of year.
Charles exited his office building, went to the corner, and
crossed the street when the light allowed. He walked the few steps to Broadhurst
Sandwich Shop and entered. The owner waved at him as he headed for his usual
spot, a stool at the end of the long lunch counter. He left the booths on the
opposite wall for the folks who had two or three people eating together.
The waitress greeted him at the counter and asked if he wanted
his usual.
“You bet,” he answered. He always got the roast beef
sandwich, with a side order of fries. Charles’ life was uncomplicated like
that, the same old job day after day, the same old sandwiches, lunch after
lunch.
While he was waiting for his sandwich, he took his cell
phone out and started reading the various news tidbits coming across his news
feed.
A minute later, his sandwich was delivered, steaming upon a
small plate, with a separate plate for the fries. He picked up the red plastic squeeze
bottle on the counter and carefully extruded a pile of ketchup on the side of
his plate, something into which he could dip each fry after he picked it up.
He was just about to do that when for some strange reason
he turned his head and looked toward the entrance door. There, standing in the
doorway, framed by the glare from the street, was the shadowy outline of a statuesque
woman.
She stepped forward into the sandwich shop, and with the
glare reduced, Charles could better make out her features. She was beautiful,
one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. It was astounding how her
every feature was perfect and intriguing. He found himself staring at her as she
scanned the interior of the establishment, looking for someone. When her gaze
met his gaze, she stopped.
Charles quickly averted his gaze, hoping she had not seen
him staring at her. He turned his attention back to his sandwich and fries.
To his surprise, the woman focused all her attention on
him, and strode forward quickly, coming to a stop just behind him. He froze.
“Charles Winsett?” she said.
He thought it odd that she knew his name. Cautiously, he put
his French fry down and turned his stool around. “Yes,” he said. “Do I know
you?”
She stared at him with a hint of distress. Her beauty this close was even more disarming. “You will
know me. We need to talk.”
Charles became a little concerned at this point, trying to
remember if he had ever seen her before. He assured himself he never had,
however, because she was so incredibly gorgeous that he would have remembered her
for sure. “What is this about?” he carefully asked.
“Grab your lunch and come over to one of the booths, I have
a desperate story to tell you.” She walked across the restaurant to the wall
lined with booths and sat down on one of the cushioned seats.
Charles hesitated a moment, then picked up his sandwich and
fries, turned and walked over to the booth. His waitress, who had been watching
the drama unfold, picked up his drink from the counter and followed him over to
the booth. As he sat down across from the woman, she put the drink on the table,
saying “Here’s your drink, Mr. Winsett.”
The waitress then turned to the woman and asked, “Can I get
you anything, honey?”
The woman looked at her, sighed, and answered, “No thank
you. I won’t be here long.”
The waitress nodded, then turned and went back behind the
counter to wait on other customers.
Charles stared into the face of the young woman seated across
the table from him.
“Where do you know me from?” he asked.
She leaned forward, folding her hands on the table, and for
the first time, a hint of a smile crossed her face. It was a beautiful smile, a
warm comforting smile. “I know this is probably difficult for you, but if I try
to explain it, you may think I am crazy.”
Charles sat back. “Please try. I really would like to know
what is going on.”
“You won’t remember this,” the young woman said, “But at
one time you promised me that you would do what you have to do to help me come
here, and now there’s a chance that that won’t happen.”
Charles stared at her. “What are you talking about?” was
all he could think of saying.
“Back before you were born,” she said, “back when we were
all waiting our turn, you said you would tough it out until I had a chance to
come into this world. Now I am afraid that if you don’t watch your step, I won’t
get that chance.”
Charles took a deep breath and began to wonder just who the
heck this woman was and why she was saying all this really weird stuff.
“Listen, Miss,” I really don’t know who you are, and I
certainly don’t remember making any promises to you about coming here. This is
kind of crazy stuff you’re saying here…”
She smiled at him. “Well, of course you don’t remember
making the promise. It was on the other side. We all forget the promises we
made before we come here, before we are born.”
Charles started to respond to that, but he decided to wait
a few moments. He picked up a French fry, dipped it in ketchup and put it in
his mouth.
After chewing and swallowing the French fry, he looked at
the young woman, marveled once again how beautiful she was, then asked, “Who
did you say you are?”
She looked at him with a depth that scared him a little. “I
am your future daughter. I will be born when you get married in a few years,
and I will live a glorious and wonderful life…”
He stared at her.
“All that will happen only if you survive today,” she then
said.
That kind of caught his attention. “What do you mean if I
survive today?”
She paused. “Well, I’m not supposed to tell you this, I’m
not even supposed to be here, but there’s a 50-50 chance you will die today.
And, of course, if you die then I won’t be born. I’ve waited so long for my
chance to come across, I really hope you don’t die today.”
Charles had to agree with her on that. “How do you know I
might die today?” he asked her.
“We discussed it, all of us,” she said.
“Who is all of us?” Charles asked.
“All of your soul group. We were trying to figure out what
you had to do to learn what you needed to learn by coming here, but you were
kind of hesitant to go through with the hard stuff.”
“What are you talking about, the hard stuff?”
She winced. “Well, I’m REALLY not supposed to tell you this, but
in the next two years, you are going to go through some seriously bad events.
Stuff you need to go through to learn what you have to learn, but you weren’t
that excited about going through all that. You were given a chance to stay and
suffer through it or if you chickened out, you could die today and avoid it all.
Come back into another incarnation later on to deal with that problem you need
to face.”
Charles smiled. This was getting really off the charts crazy.
“Miss, I don’t know who you are, but…”
“Alicia, my name is Alicia. I am your future daughter, if
you don’t die today.”
Charles looked to the side, almost beyond bewildered, and
finally turned back and took a bite of his roast beef sandwich. “Look, Alicia,
I appreciate you coming to me and telling me all this, but I really am having a
hard time believing any of it. You do realize what you are telling me is off-the-wall
whack-a-doodle, right?”
She sighed.
He continued. “And there is nothing really that you can
tell me that would make me believe all this. You are not my future daughter,
and I am NOT going to die today.”
“You will if you don’t watch your step,” she said.
Charles shook his head. “Look, Alicia, or whatever your
name is, if you are my future daughter, waiting for a chance to be born, how are you here right now? Aren’t you
here already?”
“Not really,” Alicia said. “I borrowed this body so I could
meet with you and tell you what was happening. I chose the most beautiful
person I knew to sort of just, step in for a few minutes so I could talk to
you.”
Charles really didn’t know what to say at this point. “You
borrowed this body? You just swooped in and commandeered this poor woman’s body
so you could warn me about impending death?”
She nodded.
Charles sat back against the seat cushion. “This is the
weirdest lunch hour I have ever had.”
Alicia went on to explain. “I thought she was just so
beautiful you would be sure to listen to her rather than just a disembodied
spirit like me.”
“Well, you are right on that point,” Charles admitted. “Talking with you like this is more
preferable than being haunted by the spirit of my future daughter.” He was
trying to make light of a seriously bizarre situation.
“And please remember I am trying to save your life,” Alicia
reminded him.
“How am I supposed to know if you are my future daughter?
Who made that decision?” he asked.
“You did,” she answered. “Two re-incarnations ago I was
your wife, and in the incarnation before this one I was your landlady.”
Charles had to laugh at that one. “So, you and I go way
back,” he said.
She nodded.
Charles took a deep breath. “So, what am I supposed to do?
What would you like me to do?” He was trying to get rid of her as quickly as possible.
She looked at him, somewhat pleading, with even some tears
welling up in her eyes. “I want you to be careful today. You didn’t really know
what you would decide to do today, to die or to continue living, face the
turmoil, then get married and have a daughter. Me. I’m going to be a great
daughter, smart, talented, lots of potential. But you have to decide to live
today. We weren’t sure what choice you would make when the time came to make
the decision.”
Charles knew one thing and that was he didn’t want to die.
He had a good job, was on a fast track to a promotion, and things would be great
in two or three years. Even though this woman was telling him things were about
to get a lot worse, he didn’t see himself committing suicide to avoid a little
trauma.
Alicia stared at him. “You don’t commit suicide. You have
an accident. That’s all I can say about it. We talked about it at length. If
you did decide to bail on the tough stuff in this life and try it again in
another incarnation, then there would be a tragic accident. And I wouldn’t be
born for another 20 years, to somebody else, probably in some small town.”
Charles shook his head. He was definitely getting some “run
for your life” vibes from this woman and her crazy story. He didn’t get to
think about it long, though, because an elderly woman suddenly stopped in front
of their booth and looked at both of them.
“You two are remarkable,” she said.
Charles looked at her, wondering what the heck she was talking
about.
“Your auras are so much in sync,” she went on. “I’ve never
seen more compatible auras.”
“I’m sorry, but who are you?” Charles asked the newcomer.
“Oh, don’t mind me, dear. I can see auras, that’s all. And
you two have really powerful auras, really linked into each other. Are you related?”
Charles said, “No, not really.”
Alicia looked at the old lady and said, “We will be, in a
future life.”
The old lady nodded. “Well, that explains it.”
Charles interrupted. “Are you two in on this together? This
is really getting to be seriously warped.”
Alicia saddened and hung her head down.
“Now, now, don’t get all fussy on me,” the old lady said. “Your
aura just took a turn for the worse. Brighten up my boy. This young lady, this
beautiful young lady has an incredibly beautiful aura. I’m really impressed.”
Charles looked at her. “Well, thank you and have a good
day.”
The old lady nodded, then turned and walked towards the
cash register.
Alicia looked up. “All I am asking is that you please be
careful today. I want you to live so I can be born in a couple of years.”
Charles looked at her. “Well, you are already here, in a body, so maybe you could just keep it a while longer,” Charles
suggested, half-heartedly.
“Can’t do that. The owner only loaned it to me for a short
time. We are friends going back 11 lifetimes, so she was willing to let me make
my pitch to you in person and then it’s back to the other side to wait for your decision.”
Charles shook his head. “There is no decision, young lady.
I am alive. I will continue to be alive. I want to become more successful,
happier and someday get married and have children. Don’t worry about that. You’re
good to go.”
She nodded slowly. “That’s good of you to say that now, but
30 years ago on the other side you weren’t so sure. When you were facing a
life-threatening situation in order to learn and grow, your decision wasn’t so certain.”
Charles had had just about enough. He was about to say
something harsh, when another woman walked up to their table and started
talking directly to Alicia.
“Well, Melinda, I finally found you. Been calling you for
the past hour. Why didn’t you answer?”
Alicia looked at the woman, and while she didn’t recognize
her, she had to pretend that she did since she was apparently the boss of the
woman whose body she had borrowed.
“Oh, I’m sorry. My phone must have been off. I will be back
at the office in a few minutes,” she told the woman, who was still very
aggravated and standing at the table.
“Who is this?” the woman asked, pointing to Charles.
“This is Charles Winsett, my father…my father’s friend
who I just ran into.”
Charles nodded towards the lady.
“Well, please get back to the office as quickly as possible.
We need to get those Anderson proposals out.”
“Will do,” Alicia said, not really knowing what she was
talking about.
The woman stalked away, and Alicia turned and looked at
Charles. “That’s what I have to put up with when I borrow someone else’s body.
See what trouble I had to go through to have a few minutes alone with you?”
Charles had to laugh at this point. “Man, what a lunch this
has been. I really have to hand it to you. I feel like I’m on Candid Camera or something.
Good God.”
Alicia stood up and looked at Charles one last time. “Please
be careful. My future happiness all depends on what you do in the next hour.”
Charles nodded. “Spoken like a true daughter,” he said in
jest. “Well, Alicia, I can’t say it’s been a pleasure to meet you, but it has
been entertaining.”
She smiled.
She was about to turn and leave, when he stopped her. “And
thank you for choosing a beautiful woman to talk to me
with. I enjoyed being seen with such an attractive
lunch partner.”
Alicia nodded at him. “If you decide to survive this day,
you will be seeing a lot more of her,” she said. “She’s scheduled to be your future
wife.”
She turned and walked across the restaurant to the front
door and exited. Charles watched her as she left, a little stunned by what she
had said to him.
In silence he ate the rest of his roast beef sandwich and
fries. As he was paying his bill, his waitress asked him, “Who was that good-looking
lady you had lunch with?
Charles looked at her. “I’m not really sure,” he said,
still a little perplexed by the whole experience.
On his way back to his office, he was deep in thought. When
he got to the corner, he was about to step off the curb to cross the street
when a sign caught the corner of his eye. It was painted in black letters on a white background, on the street curb. The sign said, “Watch Your Step.”
Charles paused for a second. That’s what she had said, “Watch
Your Step.” He thought about that for a moment.
Just at that time, a city bus came speeding by, with its
rear view mirror whizzing by just inches in front of his face. If he had stepped
out into the street without stopping to read the sign, he would have surely been
killed.
End of Story
