Chapter 2 Good Morning?
The sun was slowly streaming in the window as Danny pulled the covers of his bed further over his head. Mornings were his least favorite thing.
His bed was warm and comfortable. Maybe he would fake being sick so he could stay in bed all day, he thought. Noises were floating up through the floor telling him that his parents and Jazz were already awake. Of course they were being much noisier this morning than they normally were.
With a groan he rolled over and pulled the covers closer still. He tried to block out the noise and return to his dream. Very slowly he was, until he smelled the delicious food cooking downstairs.
Danny's stomach groaned in longing, but his body didn't want to get up. In fact in his hunger he barely remembered that his mother rarely made them breakfast. The voices grew louder and Danny covered his head with the pillow. Why did everyone have to be so loud?
Stomping sounds came up the stairs and Danny was only vaguely aware that it sounded like two pairs of feet. He decided that he was hearing things and tried to return to his dreams.
The door creaked open a small bit and there was some whispering. He groaned trying to tell whomever it was to go away. This had no effect what so ever. The door creaked as it was opened wider.
"DADDY!" two voices screamed as two small figures jumped onto the bed, scaring Danny witless. In his fear he phased through the bed and fell onto the floor underneath the bed with a loud thud. Giggling filled the room as the two figures began jumping on the bed.
"Get up! Get up! Mommy says get up!" the two voices chanted.
More giggles followed.
"Yuriko! Sanjiro! Did you get Daddy up yet?" a voice called from downstairs.
"He fell on the floor Mommy!" they screamed before jumping off the bed and running downstairs.
Danny rubbed his head. He must be dreaming. Either that or he was going crazy. No, he was pretty sure he had been dreaming. He must have phased through the bed and woken himself up.
More footsteps on the stairs. Only one pair this time. That was a good sign, he thought.
"Danny? Danny are you awake?"
Another figure walked into the room but all Danny could see was a pair of black boots that looked familiar.
"Danny?" they asked. There was a pause before a soft giggle followed. He knew that voice, it was Sam!
"You know if you got up when you were supposed to I wouldn't have to send them in here," Sam said kneeling down on the floor and looking at him.
It was Sam... only she looked older, more mature. "Sam?" was all he could ask in his shock.
She giggled again. "Who else? Come on, your breakfast will get cold. And you'll be late for work." She got up and left the room. Work? What was going on? Danny couldn't believe any of this, but his groaning stomach told him to worry about it later.
He crawled out from under the bed and looked around. A queen-sized bed stood in the middle of a nicely decorated room. Everything was done in a dark floral pattern from the bedspread to the curtains. The dresser, nightstands, and vanity table were all a matching cherry wood set. Walking over to the vanity table, which was cluttered with makeup, brushes, and a hand mirror, Danny looked into the mirror.
Staring back at him was an older version of himself. He couldn't understand what had happened. The last thing he remembered was being in the warehouse, fighting that ghost. Something seemed wrong, but he couldn't decide what.
"Danny?" Sam called from downstairs.
He turned away from the mirror just as Sam stepped into the room. "Are you feeling all right, honey?"
"Sam, what's today?"
"The tenth."
"Of?"
"September."
"What year?"
"Danny, what's wrong?"
"I'm not sure, Sam." Danny turned to look at the room again. "I just don't remember any of this."
Sam walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What do you mean?"
Danny told her everything that he remembered, but it wasn't much. She listened quietly without interrupting. When he finished she looked at him softly. Maybe she didn't believe him. What if it had all been a dream?
And then she smiled at him. "It's all right Danny. I thought this might happen someday."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Your memory has lapsed. Everything you told us I thought was your dream, but it wasn't, and so I thought that one day when you reached that point in your life you would have a memory lapse. It's fine though."
"I still don't understand."
"And you don't need to. Your memory will come back to you soon enough, for right now you need to get dressed, come downstairs and eat breakfast with your family. I'll call your work and tell them that you're not coming in today. You've got more than enough sick days," she said before heading back downstairs.
The noise had started up again but Danny ignored it. He tried thinking on what Sam had just told him, but it didn't make any sense what so ever.
His stomach growled at him. "All right, all right. I'm getting dressed and we'll go find some food," he told his stomach.
Danny walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. Inside was boxers, socks, and could it be true? Yes, it was! Bras and panties! He slammed the drawer shut quickly. He couldn't look in there. That was Sam's underwear! He couldn't go through her underwear. Could he?
No, no, no, no, no, no, he firmly told himself. What a horrible idea. Sam would kill him if she ever found out. Danny let out a sigh and then something came to him. The boxers, and half the socks, those had to be his. For Pete's sake, what couple shared an underwear drawer?
We do, I guess, he thought. He couldn't decide what to do. It was improper to look at a lady's underwear, but his was in there was well. That's when it came to him. Danny decided that he had seen a good enough view of the layout of the drawer so he could just reach in, without looking, and pull out a pair of boxers and some socks.
Yes, that would work, he told himself. So Danny turned his head away, closed his eyes, and opened the drawer. He stuck a hand in and grabbed a pair of boxers and a ball of socks. Quickly he shut the drawer and opened his eyes.
Pink polka dotted boxers and white socks. For a moment Danny was embarrassed, but then he remembered something. There was no Paulina around to embarrass him at school and make his pants fall down. No one else would see his boxers!
With a grin he turned to the next drawer. This one was filled with shirts that looked like they would fit Sam. He pulled out a black tank top and decided that these were most defiantly Sam's. After folding the shirt and shutting the drawer he went to the next one down. This one had mostly plain white t-shirts. Holding one up to himself he was sure that these were his.
He shut the drawer and moved on to the next one. Skirts and pants in this one. Clearly Sam's, so on to the next one. Jeans here, and some slacks. Danny opted for the jeans and shut the drawer. As he threw the clothes onto the bed he noticed there was one more drawer in the dresser.
I wonder what's in there, Danny thought to himself. His stomach growled again. "All right, I'll check it out later." He sighed and changed into the clean clothes. Once dressed, he ran one of the brushes on the vanity table through his hair and headed downstairs.
"Bye Daddy!" the two children called as they headed out the door towards the waiting bus. He waved meekly back. They looked just them... well, him and Sam.
Sam stood smiling at him by the sink of the kitchen. Danny's eyes roamed the kitchen trying to take it all in. This room was done in much the same fashion as the bedroom. The main difference was that this room was covered in food.
"What happened in here?" he asked dumbfounded.
"Breakfast. You get use to it," she laughed. "Take a seat and I'll get you some waffles."
He nodded, sat down and looked back at the door.
"It's amazing how much they look like us, isn't it?" she asked setting down a plate in front of him. Two steaming waffles covered in strawberries sat in front of him. His favorite.
"Yeah," he managed. Suddenly he didn't feel very hungry.
Sam took a seat next to him and watched him carefully. "You have to eat. They're your favorite."
Danny couldn't help but smile. He took a bite and it was like heaven in his mouth. "Sam how did you... You don't cook," he finally managed.
"I didn't cook. Why should I? I had a chef, remember? Once we went off to college I decided it was time to learn." She smiled brightly and softly laughed to herself. "I never understood how you managed to cough down all those burnt dinners, but you did, and that just made me want to try harder."
"They're great," he mumbled, blushing.
She smiled at him again. Danny thought that he could get use to this. He continued on his waffles and Sam kept talking.
"That was Sanjiro, he's 6, and Yuriko, she's 4," Sam told him motioning towards the door. "Off to kindergarten and preschool." She sounded almost depressed about it.
As Danny kept working on his waffles a thought came to him. "Sam, are they, you know? Halfas?"
This caused Sam to laugh. "Look at this mess," she waved her hand towards the walls and cabinets. "Of course they are."