Ordinary Day

Sometimes dreams were deceptive. Those were usually the worst kind, because Carolyn couldn’t tell if she was awake or asleep until it was too late.

The dream she hated worst started just like an ordinary day of hers, with her opening her eyes thirty seconds before her alarm went off. She hit the button to shut off the alarm before it could start and rolled out of bed. She hit the gym in her apartment building for a good half-hour workout, then hit the shower. She dressed and ate and headed for the office.

Kara, the receptionist, was as bright and bubbly as ever and greeted her with a list of appointments, a stack of files she had requested, and a chain of sticky notes for all of the calls left on the office voicemail for her.

Carolyn was halfway to her desk, puzzled as to why the attorney general was calling about the Millay case, and then Kara called her back. There was a Robert Summers waiting in her office, Kara said. Slipped in before her ten o’clock meeting.

It took Carolyn a moment, because she’d never really called him Robert aloud before, and only infrequently in her head, and then she knew precisely who Kara meant. Kara smiled and said he was polite and soft-spoken, seemingly shy, but pretty darn cute, and she hoped he wasn’t in some sort of legal trouble.

Carolyn only half-heard Kara’s words, and the stack of folders in her arms would have tumbled to the floor but for the glimpse she caught of a man standing in her office, back to her. His head turned, and she saw the line of his profile, traced its familiar shape, and her heart began to pound in her chest. How had he found her? The Agency had declared her officially dead, given her a new start.

But what if it wasn’t him? The man standing her office had short hair, and was taller than she remembered and -

She woke up.

Thirty seconds before her alarm went off.

(344 words)