Aurora

35

"I have a child with you!"

"Sarah and I have a child."

Aurora laughs in shock and disbelief,

"Technically, she's not yours."

"Try telling that to a court or a child. It was my body, you had no right, no right at all to mess with my life, first, she ruins the relationship with my sister and moves in with you, now you're saying she had a child."

Aurora was pouring in anger.

"We didn't plan Emily, she just happened, just how just happened to meet Sarah and fell in love with her."

"That didn't give any of you the right to mess with my life."

"I understand, I understand you're upset, you have every right to be but, right now shouldn't we be focusing on a way out of this, a way to bring Sarah back to this life--"

"What do you mean, bring her back?"

"The real Sarah..."

Aurora stopped pacing around and sat down with a huff,

"How did you get out?" He asked

"Through a stone."

"A stone?"

"Yeah, it's supposed to be magical, it lets people wander across one parallel universe to another." Aurora soon realized how crazy she sounded.

"How's all this even possible? You're saying there's a stone that lets people travel, wow and all this time I thought Sarah was crazy."

"Did she mention how she got here?"

"Even if she did, I never paid attention. . I never believed any of this was even possible, I always assumed she had a creative mind, that's one of the things I loved about her."

Aurora remembered Jack and how he had believed her on the first day, not once did he question her, or least doubt her intentions, he saw through her from the first day, she thinks of Jack Hyde every second of the day and misses him, even more, each day.

"What changed?" She asked,

"Sarah would never stay this long without Emily, she would even go to the next room without Emily, after a week everything just dawned on me."

Aurora got up and looked out her store window, as if the outside world held all the answers to the questions that haunted her mind, "Aurora, I need your help." Eric waved in.

Aurora turns to look at him,

"I can't bring Sarah back." She told him

"I know. Right now I just need help with Emily. I don't know how to be a parent without Sarah and she's been crying a lot, I think she senses Sarah's absence --"

"I'm gonna stop you right there--"

"I'm not asking you to be her mother or anything like that, I just need you to show up and give her some hope."

"You can't just show up, toss this on me, and expect me not to react, or be mad, we're talking about a child!"

"Please..." he injected.9

"No... Actually, I think you should leave." Aurora turned away from him, "Please, just leave."

Eric doesn't argue, and stands up to leave, "Once again I'm sorry to fling this on you, it was never my intention to put this on you, I-I just thought.... you know to be honest I don't know, this is all too crazy." He placed his hand into his pocket, "I will leave my card."

"That won't be necessary, I-I--"

"Please."

Aurora is reluctant at first, but she takes it eventually,

"Thanks." Eric smiled and turned to leave. "And by the way." He turns to look at her, "Ahem, Welcome back, I guess." He said and left. Aurora is left staring at the card, conflicted. She never foressed coming home to this, to this new life, let alone to raise a child.

Days went by and Aurora kept pushing to place her once stable life in order but, every time she stepped out of her comfort zone, every second she's reminded that this was no longer her life, but Sarah's.

"Sarah?" A woman called out as Aurora roamed around the food store, "I thought that was you, how are you dear?"

Aurora throws in a kind smile,

"I'm alright."

She didn't want to seem rude to the lady,

"I'm sorry to hear about Emily, I hope she's feeling alright."

"Ahem, what about Emily?"

"Eric called in saying she had a fever, is she okay?"

"Hmmm, She is, Thank you."

"Thank God...See you around."

Aurora nodded and watched her walk away, she tried not to let it get to her, but she was not so heartless not to at least check on the child.

She reached into her purse and drew out Eric's card, she had kept it in case she really needed to contact him.

Aurora grabbed her old phone and called.

It rang a couple of times before Eric answered, he told Aurora that Emily was running a high fever, perhaps because of Sarah's absence, and he needed her even more now.