Rewind Reverie

The Adjustment Period

The voice fades as my eyes flutter open.  I feel like I've awakened in a stark white room twice in one day.  But it's different this time.  My vision is blurry, but I can there is more to the room than whiteness.  Gaudy green curtains rest of either side of opened windows, black top cabinets with glasses jar filled cotton, tongue depressors, and q-tips, and of course, a random box of facial tissues sitting on a table.  

Am I...in a hospital?

"You are awake, Miss Scott."  The voice sounds familiar.  As I slowly get up, I can hear footsteps coming from across the room.  When that familiar grey beard and tortoise shell frames come into view, I feel like I could jump out of my skin.  "Easy there, Miss Scott.  Try not to get up too quickly.  If you do, blood will rush to you head too quickly and you'll feel faint again."

"What? You!"  I sit straight up, shocked to see none other than the man with the tablet who gave me the opportunity to go back into the past.  He's traded his crisp black suite for a more comfortable blue dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and khaki pants.  "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you, of course."  He doesn't flinch.  I don't know what his deal is, but he definitely feels like he has a right to be here.  I guess otherworldly entities are good at everything?  "Your friends brought you in here because you complained of lightheadedness.  Now, I am here to provide treatment."

"So, you're a doctor now?  How can you be a doctor if I don't even know your name?"

"A man of my position can be anything he wants to be. I have no need for a name, but to make things easier, you may call me 'Black'."  

Black - what an ominous name.  "All right, Mr. Black..."

"No, no.  Just 'Black' will do."

"All right...Black...if you really want to help me, you can start by telling me why I feel like I've been hit by a semi-truck?  On cue, nausea churns in my stomach.  "What is going on?"

"I can assure this, this is completely normal," Black explains.  "We like to call this the 'adjustment period'.  Basically, your future consciousness is calibrating with your past physical body.  It may feel a bit uncomfortable but eventually, it will even itself out."

"'My future consciousness is calibrating with my past physical self'?"  Now, I'm really confused.  "I think you're going to have to run that by me again."

"To be frank, you're young body is linking with your old mind," the old man says simply.  "Physically, you are 28 years old.  Mentally, you are 56."

"Oooh."  I think I get it.  I think.  "Is that why I still remember how I died and all that stuff?"

"Yes.  We do not erase the memory of our participants because we feel such knowledge will help them with making better choices.  That being said, think of your previous fate the same way you'd read a choose-your-own-adventure type of novel.  You've completed one possible scenario and now you've gone back to the branching path to suss out another."

"Ah."  I actually understood that!  "So, what's the branching path in this scenario?"

"You'll find out soon enough," he replies with a smirk.  I mean, I get it.  I guess he answer every question.  We're practically creating a new timeline here.  There's a ton he probably doesn't know.  "What I will say is that it's Monday, the 28th of September.  The fall semester is in full swing for you and your friends.  But more importantly you're husband...well, I guess, your boyfriend, has begun calling around to your family."

Anxiety grabs my heart and squeezes hard.   As he speaks the words, it all comes back to me. Black wasn't kidding when he said I would return to a critical juncture in my life.  This is about as critical as they come.  This is when everything when downhill...