Changes – Chapter 3

“Excuse me?”  his mother said to him.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” Mark said, and he went back out the door.

  He was back in his room with his hand on the window.  He pulled his hand away, raised it to eye level and stared at it. 

  “What was that?” he whispered to no one but himself.  “What was that?”

  He put his hand down and began to pace around the room.  He walked to the desk, sat back in his chair, and stared into the computer.  The page on the screen stared back at him and he read what he had written;  ‘I was born on Sunday, August 7, 1955 in Columbia, Missouri in a hospital called Boone County.  I was told that it was a balmy ninety-two degrees at 7:00 a.m. at the same time I erupted into the world.’

  Mark looked back at the circle window and stood up.  He didn’t move but looked through it and to see the familiar scene of his neighbor’s rooftops.  He stepped around his desk and walked up to it, never moving his eyes from the scene.  The glass shimmered and he paused.  The shimmering stopped.  Maybe, he thought to himself, the shimmering was caused by his footsteps causing vibrations up the wall shaking the window glass.  It shimmered again.  He didn’t move but the scene in the window morphed, reshaped and he was looking at Lilly’s Department Store again.  He stepped forward, placed his hand on the window and he heard a small click.  He pushed it open and stepped through the opening a second time.

  Mark found himself stepping out of a car that was parked in front of the department store.  He turned to look at the car as he closed the car door.  It was definitely an older car, huge and heavy, and multi-colored.  A light blue-green on the hood and the lower half of the door panels with white across the hood and tops of the door panels to the trunk.  The colors were divided with a strip of chrome running from the front to the back of the car.  He walked toward the front and noticed a small medallion that had a three pointed crown on top of a three colored base of blue, green and red.  It is centered in a dip of the chrome that reminded him of the letter V at the front of the car door.  Quite fancy, he thought as he continued walking around the front of the car. 

  “Wow,” Mark said to himself.  “Nice car.”

  He stood in front of it looking at it head on.  The headlights were huge, round, and looked almost bug-eyed.  An identical medallion to the one on the car door was centered on the hood just above the scripted name of the car, Fairlane.

  “What’s the matter, mister? You don’t know what car you are driving?” a voice yelled.

  He turned to see a group of three boys riding their bicycles behind him on the sidewalk.  They laughed and scattered down the road.  He shook his head.  What is going on?  He looked at the store window staring at him.  It was Lilly’s and, from what he could determine, it was a clothing store for women.  He didn’t know why but he had a feeling that he needed to go inside.

  Mark pulled the door open and a bell jingled over his head as he paused to look around the store.  Spaced sporadically around the room, round displays of clothing hung from hangers.  To his left, boxes of shoes were neatly displayed in small compartments behind a few displays of the latest shoe styles tempting buyers to buy.  At the rear of the room, beneath a small, round clock displaying ten minutes to ten, a glass cabinet held, what he thought might be, jewelry.  He was too far away to see the items in the case but, somehow, he knew what it was like he had been there before.  Three women were gathered at the corner of the glass case next to a small, cash register.  Two were blond and the remaining one was a redhead.  They all wore their hair short that showed off large, shiny earrings.  They all wore dresses, too, that were long and colorful.  The redhead turned toward him.

  “May I help you, sir?”

  “No, thank you.  I’m just looking for a birthday present for my wife,” Mark said as he walked toward the shoes.

  “Well, let me know if you need anything,” she said and turned back toward the other two women to continue their conversation.

  Mark walked around the room, first, looking at the shoes, which happened to be next to a few aisles of accessories; purses and wallets.  He was hidden from their view and he began to pick-up pieces of their conversation.

  “So your sister finally had her baby this morning?” the redhead asked the woman he couldn’t quite see from where he stood.

  “Yes,” he heard the response. “She called me this morning and that was why I was late today.”

  Mark silently moved so that he could see the woman who was talking.  She was the smaller of the two blonds who was talking as the other two that were gathered around her.  She must be the one whose sister just had the baby.  He still couldn’t see her as he was partially blocked from seeing her by the back of the redhead.

  “What are his specifics?” the redhead asked her.

  “Well, he was born…”

  “It is a boy!” the other blond squealed at her side, clapping as she did so.

  “Yes,” the woman continued.  “He was born exactly at 7:00 a.m..  My sister told me he weighed in at exactly seven pounds, seven ounces and is twenty-four inches long.  I can’t wait to see him tonight.”

  “Not until tonight?” the other blond whined at her.

  “No, they want her to rest for a bit before she gets visitors,” the speaker said.

  “Too bad.  We could have gone at lunch,” the blond remarked.

  “Amy! I am sure we couldn’t have seen her sister,” the redhead scolded her friend.  “But why couldn’t we go and look in at the baby window at lunch. Hey Bethany, what is his name?”

  Mark stood taller then as he strained to see the woman whose sister who just had the baby because he knew the name that was about to be spoken.  The two women in front of her separated just enough for him to see his, much younger, Aunt Beth say, “Mark Allen Morrison.”

  Wide-eyed, he started to step toward the door.  All three women turned to look at him.

  “Sir, do you need some help?” the redhead stepped toward him.

  He just looked at her with his mouth opening and closing, not knowing what to say or do.  He stopped and looked directly at Beth.  She was younger and her blue eyes were as wide as his felt to him and he turned and left the store.  He barely heard the bell jingle as he strode toward the Fairlane.  He opened the car door, sat down, and closed the door.  Something shimmered.

  Mark was standing in his office again staring at the window.  He was looking out at his neighbor’s rooftops again.  His hands went immediately to his head and he vigorously rubbed his hair in bewilderment.

  “I must be going crazy, or dreaming,” he whispered to himself.  “What’s going on?”

To be continued…