START

It's truly an experiment. Never on public record has this been. I will see if after this one event, which will take the person I observe in two completely different directions, their lives will match back up.

Not every one is aware of these two different universes. They are the same as ours all of our basic history is the same but we deviate from them in a different way than they do to each other. We are aware for the most part. An innate part of us is aware, but, this awareness does not have the same strength in everybody.


This is my record of what I see. This is my experiment. This is a test.

START

Something was not right, she could feel it. It wasn’t gentle either; it was severe fear and anxiety that she felt - her heart was racing. Sitting up Natalia looked at the clock, it was two-twenty, and in an hour she could leave school and see if anything really was amiss. Looking at the projector screen she had missed a few slides on the power point. Her English teacher was giving a presentation on the Heroes Journey. Natalia zoned out. The bell rang; time to head home. She had almost forgotten about what she had felt earlier until she had gotten into her car it had slipped to the back of her mind. On her drive home she pondered what it could have been, what would make her feel that way? It was probably nothing but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was something. It was not normal to be sitting in class and then all of a sudden feel that great amount of fear. Turning into her neighborhood she knew something was wrong. She parked along the curb, her heart racing, she got out and pushed her way through the crowd of on-lookers and when she made it up to the curb of her yard she sat. It was all she could do.

She sat still, thinking. This was not supposed to happen. Things were not meant to end this way. She knew life was not fair - but, not this unfair, no, not this unfair. She sat outside of her house... or rather where her house used to be, wondering how the hell all of this had happened. Everything she knew is now gone. Her life is changed forever. She cannot keep going on living life without knowing the truth. Truth, it is a tricky subject. What you view as the truth is the truth to you and nobody else. Each individual has their own truth to find and Natalia had to find hers. Her family was gone; her house was gone; her life was gone - and nobody knew anything. She just came home from school and her house was not there, she came home to a backed up street filled with news reporters, police cars, and fire trucks. It had only been an hour since everything changed. The school was not notified because no one could remember who lived there. Her parents were not the most social people in the world. They never talked to the neighbors they just kept to themselves and Natalia.

The moment she walked up the street she knew something was wrong. She knew something was wrong even before she saw the cars - she felt it. When she saw the cars she panicked and ran toward where her house should have been. She gasped and she stopped running. Where there was once a two story house there was nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing. Slowly she walked forward. Holy fucking shit, she thought, what the hell has happened? She walked toward the nearest cop and asked what had happened, that was her house. The cop grabbed her hand and led her through the crowd.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“Natalia Blank. What happened to my house,” Natalia asked.

They didn’t know - nobody knew what happed to the house or the rest of the Blanks. She sank to the ground and we are back to the beginning of this interesting situation. All she could think of was how this was unfair. Why did it have to be her house? Why not the Andersons, across the street? She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up.

“You’ll have to come with us,” a gentle voice said and the hand pulled her up and led her to a police car and helped her in. She sat in silence while they drove her to the police station. She was taken inside and was told to sit and wait. So she sat and waited, and waited and waited. She was forced to wait for what seemed like hours upon hours. And, apparently it was hours because when she finally got taken to a different room they apologized for the wait. Natalia didn’t know what to think. This seemed wrong; it was not right. The police should have asked her more about her parents, her next of kin and stuff like that so that she could get taken care of until they had figured it all out. The first thing they said to her was:

“We have found no record of any Natalia Blank in this city, county, or state. Someone here is lying and it is not me,” said the cop. Natalia just stared at him. “Though, since you are a minor, or at least since you claim to be a minor, I will have to release you. I don’t know who you are and I don’t know what happened to your house but you can’t stay here. I will have someone drive you to a family member’s house or to a women’s shelter, whichever you prefer.”

She just stared at him. This was wrong. This was all wrong. This is not what the police are supposed to do in this situation. Actually, what they were supposed to do, she didn’t know, but she did know it was not supposed to be this. This was wrong. But she managed to force out an okay.”

They wanted to know where to take her. Since her nearest relatives where twelve hours away she only had the option of the shelter and she that was her answer. And so they went. Off in to the unknown weirdness of a women’s shelter. They just dumped her there and she had to figure it out for herself.

She approached the desk. “Excuse me, what am I supposed to do?”

The lady turned around and smiled at her, “what do you need?”

“I guess a place to stay since my house disappeared and this is where the police took me?”The lady at the desk made a face but responded in a kind voice.

“Go through the door and someone will take care of you.” And so she went.