SWNOVELS Chapter 2 Hello Detective
Looking straight at the mirror, I said, “Why on earth is there a funhouse mirror in the women’s bathroom? Is...Is this some kind of joke? Wait a second; her mouth just moved...there it goes again. Right when I started talk----ing. Oh no, you gotta be kidding me! Not Again!”
Just to make sure it really was happening to me again, I took a peek under my shirt, and I swear to you that I saw something white and lacy on my hairy chest. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was back at home, and everything was back to normal, but nooo. I got tricked. Knew I should’ve stayed in the fog when I had the chance.
“Now, what am I going to do with... you? I guess I should figure out what the heck you’re doing here in the first place, but what era am I in now? And it better not be the seventies. I hate that decade.” But with a look at her outfit, I could tell she wasn’t wearing anything from that era. Thank goodness. But something about the look she or I gave in the mirror seemed familiar, so I said, “Hmmm, so I’m not in the seventies…but what decade has lots of makeup, big hair, and big earrings? ….Wait, what am I saying? I know that era. It’s the eighties; that’s when my parents grew up and met. Awesome! If I can see them, that would be great. But I don’t want to see that,” pointing to the girl in the mirror. “So, what am I going to do?” I replied to myself, saying, “Well, there is one thing I could try...the wallet technique again. I mean, it worked well the first time.”
With nothing else to lose, I opened my wallet, grabbed my driver’s license, and aimed it at the mirror, and lo and behold showed the mystery girl’s identity to me. I could barely make out her name due to the bad lighting in this bathroom, but I think it was Elizabeth Mary Ross, and according to her driver’s license, she was actually from my hometown, and her home address was 432 Highland Ave. Wait! Thee Highland Ave. I know that neighborhood; that’s a couple of blocks away from mine. Wonder why I never heard of her since we lived so close. Then again never asked or knew she even existed until now. So, I guess that answers my question.
Now, back to my story. As I put away my driver’s license back in my wallet, I noticed that my school ID looked different in the mirror too.
I grabbed it and aimed the ID at the mirror, and it revealed that there was a new image of Elizabeth that looked pretty recent, judging by the different hairstyle than the one I saw in her driver’s license. But what surprised me the most was at the bottom of the card, it said Freshman at Chicago University. I said as I put my wallet back in my pocket, “Well, this is new, and oh, I know where that place is.”
I immediately exited the women’s bathroom, but before I left the gas station, the clerk said, “Take care now.”
“Will do,” I replied.
As I turned around to head out the door, the clerk suddenly stopped me by saying, “Wait, before you go.” I then saw him grab some pen, a post-it note from his counter and write down his name and phone number. He then made a hand sign to call me and whispered, “Call me.” Just in case I forgot what the sign was. He then walked over to me and handed me the post-it note. I grabbed it and said, “Umm, thanks?” He grinned like no tomorrow when I said that and went back to whatever work he was supposed to do. Is this dude for real?!
Anywho, I walked back to my car being calm and collected, but soon as I was outside, I let my anger into that post-it note and crinkled that stupid sticky note into a little ball and threw it into a trash can nearby where it belonged and filled my tank with gas then put those cat sunglasses that were on my head and were now on my face before making the journey to the great Windy City. But as I drove closer to the highway, I couldn’t seem to find the fog so I could take a shortcut because I really didn’t want to deal with highway traffic, but it was just....GONE.
Well, so much for the shortcut, I thought. I guess I’m on my own with this one.