Short Story: “A Fracture in Time”
The wind blew through the trees, rustling the burnt orange autumn leaves ever so slightly, as Eve walked through her quiet neighborhood. Her long, blonde curls sprung up and down, moving along with her feet as they touched the cement. She was fiddling with her Jade stone necklace, a gift from her great-grandmother, on her way to babysit two five-year-old fraternal twin boys, Luca and Gray Silversmith. Eve Lancaster walked with her head down, looking at her phone and scrolling through Instagram, liking a post that captured a smiling family holding up one of the cutest Labradoodles she had ever seen. Suddenly, her thoughts clouded as she imagined herself having a puppy as cuddly as theirs, so she did not realize she was in front of the Silversmith house.
“Eve, dear, are you coming inside?” Snapping back into reality, Eve looked up to see Mrs. Silversmith in the driveway standing in front of her two-story brick house. “Yes of course. I’m sorry, I was just distracted,” Eve stated, as she hugged the brown-haired woman who had her hair perfectly pinned up, with piercing blue eyes, standing in front of her and nicely dressed in a grey suit. “You’re fine, dear. The boys are inside sleeping right now. Once they wake, make sure to feed them. PB&J’s will do. You know where everything is, make yourself at home. I must go now, before I am late. Please call me if there are any issues!” She quickly got into her 2018 Lexus RX 350. With a wave and smile, Mrs. Silversmith was driving down the road, rapidly disappearing into the distance. Afterwards, Eve strolled into the house, locking the door behind her. Going up the steps, she made sure to peak into the boys’ speed racer themed room to see them sleeping soundly in their beds, made to look like red and blue race cars. Turning around and slowly closing the twin’s room door behind her, Eve decided to walk down the hallway into the movie room. She sat down and watched one of her favorite T.V. shows called “No Tech.” This show always interested her because of its unique plot, based on a group of teenage friends who happened to have no access to technology, set in southern England.
Propping her chin upon her left hand as she turned on the T.V. with her right hand, Eve brought her legs up on top of the chair she comfortably sat in. The middle of episode three began to play as the main character, Jessica Brown, was at Lulworth Cove, swimming alongside her best friend Elizabeth Turner. Running across the screen were Matthew and Cole, frantically telling the girls of a secret passageway they had found, which led to a cave. Soon after, the girls were out of the water and walking into a cave that held a body of deep blue water, centered around shimmering crystals. “This is incredible” Elizabeth said, as Jessica walked over to one of the crystals to touch it. “Breathtaking” Jessica whispered to herself. Just then, a blinding light emitted from the crystal at the same time Eve felt a burning sensation coming from her necklace. Looking down at her now glowing necklace, Eve started to wonder what was happening to her as she started to grow weak and lose touch with life itself. In that moment Eve lost consciousness and woke up to familiar voices. “Jess are you okay!? What just happened!? Is she breathing!?” distant voices questioned. “Where am I?” Eve instantly noticed that her voice was different, as she opened her eyes and sat up to see Elizabeth, Matthew, and Cole hovering over her. “We thought you were dead! You were not breathing. You really scared us, Jess,” Elizabeth said, while pulling Eve into a sudden tight embrace. “How did I get here?” Eve managed to ask, before her head started to hurt and flashes of memories appeared before her eyes. She was seeing not her life, but Jessica Brown’s – as she attended school, writing down math notes on a piece of paper with a wooden #2 pencil as her teacher wrote on a chalk board, riding on a bus, going home after school while looking out the window to see the beautiful scenery of a family enjoying a picnic at a park or a man walking his dog, and even rushing inside her house to write a letter to her cousin living in another state, and joking with friends about the latest newspaper headline. Eve could remember Jessica having a bonfire with her parents, as they ate freshly caught fish and sang campfire songs. Eve could feel the joy Jessica felt to get home one day and receive a written letter her cousin wrote her. The most adventurous flashback involved a cold night, jumping off a cliff into icy water while holding hands with her friends. Her life was intentional, liberating, and far from boring – not controlled by the media, she could sit down with her family at dinner and have deep conversations without looking at a screen. Eve did not expect to see such a happy life without the presence of technology.
“Eve wake up! Luca and I are hungry.” At the sound of Gray’s voice, Eve jolted awake from her dream. She had fallen asleep in front of the T.V. The boys’ piercing blue eyes stared into her clouded grey ones. “Here – take my hand. We will go downstairs so I can make you PB & J’s.” Both boys were happy at the sound of that. They rushed downstairs, and once they made it into the kitchen, Gray asked for Eve’s phone to play a game. After her dream, she considered giving it to him but decided against it. Instead, she silenced her phone and decided to play outside after eating. Laughter filled the air as she covered her eyes, counting to twenty before chasing after the twins once they had hidden. Eve Lancaster had experienced life through a different lens. It took a flash of memories and a magic crystal, but in the end, she had found joy in the simplicity of life. She no longer looked forward to the ‘ding’ of a notification after school but the beauty in the trees she walked past every day. Her life would never be the same.
Cover art by: Benjamin Guevara