WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

Trauma, Turmoil and Tea

It was a particularly tough day for Charlotte; her brain was overworked, and it still had not stopped. She could not sleep. While she was in the eye of a personal storm, the flowers sat peacefully as ever, untouched, right where she left them in the morning. Charlotte was restless, desperate for answers or some clarity at the least. She was a normal person before this morning, not a living flower goddess. Rather, she was not a freak, as the normal would call it.

She decided to inspect her unexpected present again, maybe for a clue she missed in haste, something in the note she looked past. She really did not know what she was looking for in a cluster of flowers. Hell, it was probably just a wrong delivery. But she had to look, if not for anything else, for her peace of mind. She began with the note, the crumpled piece of parchment that she had thrown in her drawer. She could have sworn there wasn't a name on there when she got it. What was all the more peculiar was that all it had on it now was a name, nothing else. A name Charlotte had never heard before.

Aurelia Winterblossoms.

She took out the yellow pages hoping to find her in it. But it was hopeless; the name wasn't in there. She decided to chuck it then.

The next two days sped past without her realizing it. In these two days, she had faced one too many accidents to keep 'Aurelia Winterblossoms' out of her mind. After turning the stools of her bakery into bean bags, making her hair go blonde, producing fishes out of nowhere in her bathtub, she had to go over it one more time. Who was this mysterious Aurelia? Was it one of her customers? Was it someone she had dated? Was it some distant relative she couldn't remember? When she couldn't recall, she decided to give the yellow pages one more look.

Last time she had found no entry by the name of Aurelia Winterblossoms. This time, all of the names were Aurelia Winterblossoms.

*

After the incident, for two days, Toby did not dare to step out of the house. He was too traumatized to be out in public, especially because he felt he was the epicentre of all peculiarities, and he was afraid people would pin it down to him. But staying at home spared him from none.

When he woke up one day, he found himself surrounded by thousands of balloons of every other colour. One time, when he was trying to blow off some steam by wanking, he found himself surrounded by a hundred red-haired naked women of all shapes and sizes pouncing at him and moaning. It was more scary for him than sexy. One time, while bathing, his reflection was a meatball. He screamed.

He was very stressed. He needed someone to talk to. That's when he thought of the red-headed owner of Kimberly's. It wasn't like he was thinking of her for the first time, just this time, in a different light. Something told him he could tell her everything, and she would understand. He didn't know why but he felt a strong connection with her as if she was going through the same.

At that very moment, he heard a knock. He wasn't expecting anyone because he had no friends and his family didn't know his address. He opened to find his landlady.

"Is everything alright, Toby dear? You haven't seen the daylight in two days, and I was worried."

The landlady, kind woman as she was, was genuinely concerned. There was a softness to her gaze and a knowingness in her manner that in the moment, Toby knew no walls.

"No, everything is messed up!" He blurted and started crying.

The landlady wrapped her arms around him comfortingly. "There, there, everything will be alright. Why don't you come downstairs and we'll talk?" said she softly.

A half-hour later, Toby was ensconced in Mrs Walker's couch. Toby had stopped crying though he was still sobbing.

"Why don't you help yourself to some scones while the tea gets ready? It's right there on the table. They were for my grandsons, but that's alright. I buy them scones every day."

Toby liked the idea of some food. For two days he was only eating leftovers. He went over to the table and saw a white box with Kimberly's printed on it. The sudden whiff of familiar, heady aroma got his brain jogging upon opening it. It reminded him of a familiarity that had earlier escaped his notice. Toby relied more on his senses than on logic. That's when it hit him. He had seen her there, at Kimberly's! Mrs Walker was the meek, old woman who had ordered before him! But how is it possible? The lady at the bakery looked far older than his landlady. She had more wrinkles, her hair was completely white, and she was shorter and slightly slouching.

Mrs Laura Walker walked in with a tray on which there were a teapot and two cups. As she placed it on the table, Toby studied her face. She had black hair with grey streaks; she wasn't tall but wasn't too short either. Her movement was fluid and confident. How would she look if she were ten years older? He had a sudden epiphany.

Toby never used logic, he was impulsive, and he immediately confronted her, "You were there! At Kimberly's. Only, you were older! You were also there at my job interview! You were the assistant, weren't you? How do you do it? How do you change your age? Why were you following me?"

Mrs Walker was about to answer when someone rang the bell. She scuttled off to see who it was and to send them away so she could deal with this mess. She opened the door.

"Ms Aurelia Winterblossoms? Wait — Laura?" choked an astonished Charlotte.

Mrs Walker showed her in. Charlotte found Toby sitting there with just as astonished a look on his face. A spark flew between them. Mrs Walker came in after she had shut the door.

"Since you two have started to figure it out, I can't keep it from you any longer. Sit down; this might be hard for you to swallow— Charlotte, Toby— the Earth has started to glitch!"