A Short Fiction Fantasy Story By Bob Kaster

I’m an old guy. A widower. I live by myself. My 1906 two-story Victorian is in the old part of town. Wonderful house, no view. Three times more valuable if anywhere else. Beautiful mountains are out there somewhere. But I see the back of the police department. Much recent activity there. Extensive building renovation. Parking lot a staging area for heavy equipment. Every morning, I watch and hear the progress.

Saturday morning in August. It’ll be warm today. I wake up with a headache. What happened last night? Memory is foggy. The Wine Bar with friends. How much did I consume? Two beers, I’m positive. I head to the bathroom, a little shaky, nothing serious.

I go to my den. Open the shade and look out. Parking lot deserted. No heavy equipment! Strange. The building’s windows boarded up. What the hell?

I again try to remember last night. Brief glimpses in and out of focus. I’m at the Wine Bar with friends. A woman comes to our table. Twenty-something … beautiful. Long jet-black hair. Lovely college-girl face. She sits next to me. Her hip presses against mine. We talk. Nice voice. Sensual. Her name is Julie.  She gets up, goes to the bar. She buys two drinks. One clear, one dark amber. She stirs the clear one. She comes back. She sits down, presses closer than before. She hands me the clear drink. A sapphire tennis bracelet on her wrist. Deep blue. Looks expensive. Is it real? “Here’s to imagination,” she says. Our glasses clink. I take a sip. A gin martini, no vermouth. How does she know? Her hand is on my leg. It feels good.

My fantasy trip abruptly ends. Poof!  Julie is gone! Back to reality. Or is it? What’s reality anyway?  I keep looking out the window. Parking lot still empty. Building boarded up.

Confusion is an understatement. I get dressed. Zephyr Books and Coffee is two blocks away. I can already taste a blueberry-lemon scone and caramel latte. I’ll pre-order on the app. The app doesn’t open. No problem. I’ll buy it when I get there. My iPhone is acting up. Default screen displays today’s date. Saturday, August 19. That’s impossible. Today is Saturday, August 16. I’ll complain to Apple. Maybe an instant message to Tim Cook.

I go outside. I walk past my parked pickup. It’s filthy. Thick layer of dust. Yesterday I took it to the car wash. Did I sleep through a storm last night?

No tables in front of Zephyr Books. The “Open” sign is off. I peer in the window. Dark and deserted. What’s going on? It’s always open on Saturdays. I continue east on Miner Street. A ghost town. Store windows boarded up. Street deserted. No vehicles. No pedestrians. The wind howls. A horror movie.

I turn right onto Broadway. Pile of rubble in the intersection. I give it a wide birth. Household garbage, grass clippings, broken glass. Human body parts? Muffled moans. Stench makes me gag. I look beyond the Wine Bar toward the Post Office. A mound of masonry chunks, wood, pieces of glass. The blue mail collection box is there, undamaged. Good ol’ USPS. “Neither snow nor rain …” There’s a car. Brand new. 1956 Studebaker Hawk. Ugly lime green. Ugly car. A skeletal arm reaches out the window. Deposits something into the mailbox. It is wiggling.

The Wine Bar is intact, but dark. I push on the front door. It opens. Someone takes my hand. My eyes adjust. It’s Julie. More beautiful than ever. She leads me to the bar. She pours two drinks. One clear. One dark amber. She stirs the clear one. We clink glasses. I take a drink. She says two words, “Your house?”

My fantasy trip abruptly ends again. Poof!  Where the hell am I?

It’s 6:00 AM. I check my iPhone. It displays the date: “Sunday, August 17. I climb out of bed. I head to the bathroom. Something’s different. Usually, my body feels achy and stiff when I first get up. This morning I feel like a college kid. Okay with me, I’ll take it. I go to the den. “Will they ever be done?” I wonder. I open the shade and look out the window. There is activity. Backhoe and other heavy equipment in the parking lot. The building is looking good.

I go downstairs, fix my usual coffee and granola. Read the latest news online. Back upstairs to get dressed and make the bed. There’s a lump in the bed on the other side. I pull back the sheet and cover. It’s a beautiful sapphire bracelet. Deep blue. No idea where it came from.