SWEET DREAMS

Chapter: Supersonic

"She was lying at the corner of Maple and Candlebridge this morning. Nobody knows what happened. Even her daughter said that they had a small chat and she just fainted. Yes, very odd, very odd indeed."

All of a sudden, she opened her eyes.

It was the clinic. The Mineral Town Clinic. But it wasn't the clinic she knew. It was much, much smaller and didn't have as many medicines on the shelves. It also had a less comforting atmosphere. She was surrounded by doctors and people she thought she knew.

"Karen? Are you okay?"

She turned her head to whom she thought was her grandmother. Did she just call her Karen?

"Me? What do you mean am I okay? Of course I'm okay, gramma!" came her reply.

But that wasn't the reaction that her grandmother expected of her, and she burst into a million tears. Some of the surrounding doctors pushed Karen down on the stretcher, literally freaking her out.

"What are you doing to me? I'm fine!!" she screamed at the stunned doctors.

"How?" One of the doctors stepped forward. Karen noticed that he had to be the head of them all, since he had a huge X cross on his robe. This wasn't going to be the greatest time to argue, so she decided it would be best just by listening.

The doctor licked his lips, and said, "If you're so fine, Karen, why can't you tell the difference between your mother and daughter? Honestly."

Karen turned to look at her grandmother and mother. The doctor then said, "The girl who is about fourteen-years-old is your daughter. The woman who is about fifty-eight is your mother. You live in the big pine house in the mountains along with your husband, Jeff."

"WHAT?!" Karen screamed at the top of her lungs. "JEFF? How could I be married to my own fath" -She looked at the palm of her hand, realizing that if she continued saying what she was about to say, they would consider her crazy, even though she had no clue of what was going on- "...Uh, yeah! How could I be married to such a sweet guy? I'm so lucky!"

Some of the doctors chuckled, and Karen got off the stretcher. "I'm going home. I think I just fainted from shock, since, you know, Velvet had its name changed to Maple."

Everyone looked at her like she had gone insane. "I'm joking!" were her next words. "I really don't know why I fainted."

Karen wasn't such a good liar, but she was able to pull this one off. With a fake grin, and a vague wave, she and her family were on their way.

"This is Mineral Town?" Karen asked once they left the clinic.

"But of course, Karen! I don't know why you've been so forgetful lately, but I'd better re-introduce myself to you!" Karen's 'mother' said. "My name is Judy. This is your daughter, Sasha. You work at Saibara's Blacksmith on weekdays, you love to visit the Goddess pond, you are a marvellous singer, enjoy baking and loath doing the laundry. That about sums it up."

Now wearing a smile on her face, Karen looked at Judy in the eyes and said, "Really?"

Judy nodded. "You sure do."

The people of Mineral Town seemed to have switched generations. Not just that, but they were also living in the past, whether they were alive at the time or not. Who were her friends?

Summoning her courage, and hoping that she was living in this world, "Where's Popuri?"

Sighing, Judy replied, "Karen, Karen, Karen. It seems you have forgotten a little too much about life around here. You know that Popuri has had that awful disease for so long. She and her kids, Rick and Lillia had to end up leaving for the city for health reasons."

Karen put her head down. Her best friend was gone. At least she now had the info that she had switched places with her mother too. But... what about Ann? She couldn't have switched when her mother wasn't alive!

"Tell me everyone living in town, mum," Karen demanded, adding the last part.

"Well, if you insist. The clinic is run by Ellen and Horvat. Ellen has a brother named Stu, and a grandmother named Elli. Horvat's father, Tim, is planning on visiting Mineral Town during the festive season. Mary, the librarian, and her parents Anna and Bazil live in the north-western part of town. Manna, Duke and Aja live at the winery. Gotz, the lumberman, lives in the mountains, just like us. Finally, the farm is owned by Jack and his wife, Mitzi, with their daughter, Ann. Quite the bunch in town, eh?"

Karen had already started biting her fingernails. Elli's family had been switched around, and so had the doctor's. Mary's had stayed the same, strangely enough, but had. Jack stayed the same, but Ann had switched with her daughter, since she had no mom.

"Mummy! What is for dinner tonight?" Sasha asked Karen.

When Karen heard that, she started biting on her hair. "Ger-rate. I can't cook. I mean, yeah, I don't know. Uhh, maybe... maybe you could ask daddy if he wants to cook dinner tonight."

Judy burst out laughing. "You know that Jeff can't cook, Karen, dear! Don't act silly, now!"

It was going to be one long night.

Finally, the three women arrived at the house. Karen noticed there was a hole in the door. "That's a keyhole, yes... mum?" she questioned, sounding dumbfounded.

Judy let out a fake laugh. "No, really dear. Get out your key."

Karen ran her hands through her hair. She didn't have any house key. Heck, she didn't even know what the hell was going on and her mother... or grandmother wanted her to pull out a key that she didn't have?

Shrugging, she dug into her pant pockets. Perhaps to her delight she would find a key that was magically put in there. When that search turned out to be unsuccessful, she tried her vest. There was something in there. It was only a watch, but Karen got suspicious. How did the watch travel through time with her?

"Karen, you didn't lose your key now, did you?" Judy asked her daughter.

Unaware of how to answer, Karen turned towards her mother and said, "It must be back at the clinic. Shoot!"

Judy pulled out her key and unlocked the door. They walked into the house. The first thing that Karen found amazing was that the kitchen and living room were combined. There was a big carpet on the floor and a nice fireplace in the north-eastern corner of the house. A radio was on the table next to the stove, with a nice lamp beside it. There was an enormous vertical bookshelf next to the front door, with books on wildlife, cooking, travel and maternity. It was a very livable place.

"Where is my... uhh, husband?" Karen said, catching her choice of words.

Judy put her purse down on the small, round table next to the entrance and grabbed a book from the shelf. "Jeff is still at work, honey. You know that, so please stop it with all of the unnecessary questions, please."

Karen walked into the kitchen part of the combined room, and saw a recipe book next to the stove. She began flipping through it, and whispered to herself, "Damn. It looks like I'm going to be caught cooking dinner tonight. I really have no choice, either."

In the other part of the room, Sasha and Judy were talking about Karen over a hot cup of tea.

"Mum has been acting like a space cadet lately. But not just today. Before today too."

Judy nodded. "You are right, Sasha. It's a true mystery whatever is up with her. I really don't want to find out though. It could spell doom right in front of your face." She sipped her tea, which was still steaming.

Sasha shrugged and added on, "Then again, it may not."

At 9 o' clock that evening, the door swung open, and Jeff stepped in. "I'm home!"

Sasha got off the couch, and went over to her father. "Hey, dad. Hug?" Father-and-daughter embraced for a few minutes, and then they finally let go. "Now you go wash up for dinner, dear."

Jeff walked over to Karen. "Hey, honey."

Please don't kiss me. Please don't kiss me. Please don't kiss me. God lord, please don't kiss me! Karen thought to herself. Suddenly, she felt two big arms wrap around her. "How was your day today?" she asked, her teeth chattering.

"Charming, actually," he began, "one guy got fired and begged the boss to re-hire him because his family is still in debt, and they have been for over thirty years which I think is a little too long. Mitzi spilled paint on the boss, but he didn't hold it against her since it was only a small accident. They're considering promoting me to peddler, which may be a little too intense, considering I'd have to leave home every weekend and that would be the only time I'd work."

Nodding every three seconds, Karen slipped in, "Well that would be good. Five days at home... but you'd be alone. I, uh, work. Right? Right. Sasha has schooling and mom..." -She eyed Judy- "Mom's got her fishing to do!"

Jeff put his hands in the air. "Really, Judy? I never knew you liked to fish."

Judy played with her tongue. "Neither did I, actually." She glared at Karen, who just shrugged.

Finally, dinner was served. For an appetizer, there was green salad with chopped carrots. The main course was a huge chunk of chicken on everyone's plate, with mashed potatoes and corn. Gravy use would vary between each person. Lastly for desert, since Karen was told she loved to bake, she made a cherry pie, with vanilla ice cream scooped on top of it.

The family dug into their food.

Later that night, as Karen was getting ready for bed (or rather exploring her new room), she thought to herself: this is weird. What if tomorrow I wake up, and I'm back where I'm supposed to be? Odd, odd. Well I guess I'll have to find out in the morning.

Jeff came into the room a few minutes later, quickly got changed and said, "Well, it's time to go to sleep. And your mother says you're crazy and that she's never liked to fish." Karen rolled her eyes, even though she knew that her grandmother never liked fishing.

"So, before I turn the lights off, you have to give me your opinion on the promotion truthfully. None of that fishing garbage, dear."

Karen sighed. "Okay, I don't care if you accept the peddler job or not, because, deep down, you'll only be around mum all day. Wouldn't that be kind of boring? We'll have almost no time to spend together. Life will be iccky, like the day that we both met."

Shocked, Jeff cried out loud, "You hated the day that we both met?!"

Karen punched her husband. "I was kidding, Jeff. Jeez."

"So, what was this I heard about you passing out this morning? The boss didn't let me take the day off to see you. What an evil prick... I mean, that's just so unfair. Family comes before pay, eh!"

Karen rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she whispered. "Uh, yeah! You're, like, so right! I think I may have been stressed out. I was, uh, on my way to work, and started getting a little dizzy, and just completely passed out. I woke up four hours later, if I'm not mistaken."

"The doctors thought that you had lost your long term memory for a minute."

"They did. I couldn't remember who Sasha or my mom was, or where I worked or anything. I forgot that I loved baking, uh, loathed laundry work and all that sort of stuff. I also couldn't remember where everyone lived in town and such. Yep. I forgot a whole lotta things today. Even Popuri's departure into the city. Loooong and hard day, today."

Jeff nodded. "Yeah, it's been a hard day. A long and hard one. We should have dinner at the restaurant sometime soon. We haven't been there in a while. Okay, kiss goodnight."

That meant they had to kiss on the lips. Karen didn't want to do that, but basically had to. After she gave him a peck, he turned the lights out and giggled. Then he fell fast asleep.

Karen threw the covers off and ran into the bathroom. She flicked the light on, and went over to the sink. She turned the taps on and the water started rushing out like a waterfall. She splashed her face over and over, and then looked at herself in the mirror. "What the heck is going on here?"

Then suddenly, again... again...

Her world went dark.

Dark...