Mark rose from his chair and examined the window closer than he had ever done before. The diameter of the circle was about three feet making its circumference about nine feet. A double pane of glass fitted within the circled frame and it appeared to be simple and plain. He had painted the frame a dark brown because he thought the color made it look masculine against the white wall around the window. Something caught his eye and he paused. There was something etched into the inside edge of the frame. He removed his cell phone from his pocket and instinctively pressed the flashlight icon. Instantly, a light lit up the edge of the frame.
Small letters appeared and they looked like they had been carved into the wood with a penknife. He reached up and felt them with his finger. The wood felt smooth to his touch, confusing him, but he could definitely see letters etched into it. He slowly ran the light around the circle. He saw that the letters repeated and at the top and center of the circle, a small symbol divided the groupings of letters. Mark looked closer at the letters, and going clockwise, it appeared that the series of letters that repeated was IDAN. He stood up and looked out the window at the rooftops.
“IDAN?” he said. “IDAN? I wonder what that means?”
He went back to his desk and pulled a Post-It Note pad from the center drawer. He wrote IDAN and put the note on the top right corner of his computer screen. He pulled a second sheet from the note pad and went back to the window. He turned on the flashlight again and focused it on the symbol at the top of circle. It appeared to look like a plus sign on top of the letter X. The tips of every line were arrows. There were eight points of the shape and it looked familiar to him. He quickly made a sketch of the symbol on the Post-It he had brought with him and returned to his desk. He looked at his sketch and tried to figure it what it reminded him of. He turned it clockwise until it was upright again. It looked the same to him in all directions. He got up and returned to the window. He turned on the flashlight again and he looked closer at the symbol. He realized the arrow that pointed straight up was taller than the rest and he suddenly knew what the symbol represented. He hurried back to his desk and, scribbling below the sketch he wrote, compass.
“Why a compass?” Mark said out loud. “A compass is a symbol to indicate direction on a map. Why is there a compass on a window? Why is anything on that window? How come I didn’t notice them before? You are forgetting the weirder thing, Mark, and that is, how did you get through the window, into the past, to your actual birthday?”
Mark sat down again and looked at what he had typed . It was so simple. He had only typed his story outline. He wondered if that birthday event really happened with his Aunt Beth. I guess he is going to have to do some research. He picked up his phone again, looked at his list of contacts and quickly found the entry for Aunt Beth. The phone rang and was answered on the third one.
“Hello,” a female voice answered.
Aunt Beth still lived in Columbia having married Robert, Bob, Steele who she had met at a Farmer’s Market in the nearby town of Candlelight. They had three children, his cousins, all girls, Billie, Amber, and Lucy. Billie is the oldest and the one closest in age to Mark. She was named Billie because Uncle Bob wanted his first born to be a boy.
“Aunt Beth,” he spoke into the phone. “It’s your nephew Mark. How are you doing?”
“Mark! How are you? When are you and Terri coming down to see us? It has been a while.”
“You are right, Aunt Beth. We do owe you a visit. Listen, I have retired.”
“Good for you dear. You will have a lot more fun now. No worries, no cares but you have to keep yourself busy. Find a hobby. That’s what I did. I started a garden,” she advised him.
“Yes and that is is why I am calling. I have always wanted to write so I have decided to write my memoirs, more or less, for the kids,” Mark said.
“Oh, good for you,” she interrupted.
“Well, I am calling you to see if you can tell me anything about that the day I was born.”
“Well,” she paused, and he could hear a chair squeak on the other end of the line. “I think I do. You are my first nephew you know. The day you were born, it was a hot August day. Your mom went int the hospital the day before expecting a quick delivery and you weren’t. Your Dad was going nuts.”
“I bet he was,” Mark encouraged her as he listened to her giggle at the memory.
“I remember getting a phone call early in the morning. I was already up getting dressed because I had to go to work. It was Mary and she was crying on the phone as she told me she just had you thirty minutes earlier. I wanted to go see you right away, but she said she was tired and hadn’t even told your dad yet. She asked that I let our family know and set it up for all of us to visit that evening. When we did go, the hospital wasn’t the same. What a party that was!”
“Really? I can only imagine,” Mark said as he picked up a pen and began to make some notes. “What did you do before then? Did you go to work?”
“Hmmm, I think I did. I was excited to tell my co-workers about you. Yes, we went to see you at lunch through the maternity window where al the babies were on display. I forgot all about that.”
“Aunt Beth, do you remember where you worked?” Mark asked. He didn’t know why but he was nervous about what her answer might be.
“Yes, it was Lilly’s Boutique on Main Street in old Columbia. That’s right, I was working there for the summer before I went to college. I remember now. I was working with Marilyn and Lilly.
Mark took a deep breath and asked, ”What were they like?”
“They were nice. Marilyn was my age and blond like me, or like I was. I am so white headed now it is hard for me to remember what color my hair was before. Anyway, Lilly was the daughter of the owner and the store was named for her. She was a little older than us and she was a redhead. I would say she was very definitely the leader of the three of us.”
Mark was getting anxious as what he had seen earlier was beginning to be described by is aunt.
“Something weird happened that day,” she said and the hair on Mark’s arm began to rise. “I was late to work that day and was telling them why, the phone call from your mother about you, when this guy emerged from an aisle, looked at us, and tumbled out the door. It was very bizarre. But what really is weird, Mark, is that I didn’t remember that until just now.”
“Really?” Mark stammered. “You didn’t remember that happening until just now?”
“Yeah, like it just happened today, but back then. Weird, huh?” she said, and Mark heard a voice in the background. “Oh. I am sorry, Mark. Ron is calling me for something. I got to go, talk to you later?”
“Of course, Aunt Bath. Talk to you later,” Mark said and disconnected the phone.
He held the phone and stared at the screen of his laptop. He didn’t know what to do or what to believe. Aunt Bath just confirmed that he was in Lilly’s Department Store the day he was born. But how could that be? He got up from his desk, walked to the circle window, and touched the glass.
To be continued…
My First Stories 