After settling with the cashier, Ryan looked around for a place to sit. Not liking what he saw, he said, “How about we head back to the park for a picnic?”
“I’ve got a better idea.”
“What could be better than a picnic in Central Park?”
She
is
about
to
ask
you
to
go
to
her
dad’s
condo
.
Don’t
do
it
!
“I was just thinking…we could grab a cab and head over to my dad’s condo. It’s not far from here, and I know you’ve always wanted to see it.”
“Does he mind?”
Don’t
let
her
talk
you
into
it
.
I
know
you
want
to
get
her
alone
,
but
it
turns
out
bad
.
Don’t
do
it
!
“Not at all, he even gave me a key,” she said. “He hardly ever uses the place, except for business. Most of the time it just sits empty.”
The area from 59th street to 96th street, between Central Park and the East River was noted for having some of the most luxurious and expensive residences in the world. It was a place where New York’s rich are shrouded behind thick walls, guarded by uniformed-doormen with ermine collars; where children go to elite private schools, and the subway stations even seem cleaner.
As chronicled by Tom Wolfe in his novel,
Bonfire
of
the
Vanities
, it is an area touting a “who’s who” list of retail stores, art galleries, museums, restaurants, and expensive boutiques: Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, the Guggenheim, and FAO Schwartz. Some said it even surpassed the Ginza in Tokyo as the most expensive retail area in the world.
I’ve
been
here
.
I
know
how
this
plays
out
.
You
won’t
be
able
to
control
yourself
.
It
was
a
terrible
mistake
!
It
is
wrong
!
You
MUST
make
a
different
choice
…
even
if
it
is
only
a
dream
.
Ryan’s dream double looked at her. “Keri, as much as I would love to see your dad’s place, it would probably not be a good idea for us to go there alone.”
You’re
doing
the
right
thing
!
“You’re probably right.”
Now
…
quick
…
before
you
change
your
mind
,
grab
a
cab
to
the
park
.
“It’s a beautiful day. Let’s grab a cab back to the park,” his dream double said.
“Sounds good.”
* * *
Keri was sitting on the edge of the bed when Ryan opened his eyes. “It’s time to wake up, sleepyhead,” she said.
“How long did I sleep?”
“About eight hours.”
“Eight hours? Are you sure?”
How
could
that
be
?
I
was
just
taking
a
nap
!
“Let’s just say you’ve slept long enough.”
She
must
be
messing
with
me
.
He cleared his thoughts, thankful he was married to such a wonderful woman. He stared into her brown eyes. “I’m blessed we ended up together.” He took her hand and rubbed it.
She smiled, leaned down, and kissed him gently. “We were meant to be together from the beginning.”
“You won’t believe what I dreamed,” he said.
“What?”
“Do you remember that day in New York when we met on our layovers? I was married to Emily and you were about to be married to Rex…which, by the way, I didn’t know anything about at the time.”
“How could I forget?”
“Well, in my dream, the entire day was replayed with one exception; we never went to your dad’s condo.”
“What do you mean?”
Not sure why she was confused, he clarified, “In my dream, after we got our lunch at the deli, we went back to Central Park
instead
of going to your dad’s condo.”
With a puzzled look, Keri said, “I don’t understand what you are talking about. What gave you the idea we went to my dad’s condo? Is that something you dreamed?”
“Keri, are you messing with me? You know what we did.”
Keri said, “I remember we bumped into each other in front of the hotel where you were staying. You were getting a bagel. We walked to Central Park and you told me about your mom. Remember? Then we walked to Delmonico’s Food Market, picked up lunch, and took a cab back to the park where we had a picnic. How could you forget?”
“Why are you saying this? You know we went to your dad’s condo, right?”
“Ryan, we never went to my dad’s condo that day! I think I would remember that. However, I do remember mentioning to you that I normally went there on layovers, but when I brought it up, you said it wouldn’t be a good idea to go there alone. I agreed. So instead, we went to the park and had a wonderful picnic.”
“Keri! Why are you messing with me?”
Keri turned her head toward the bedroom door at the sound of Martha’s voice. “Mom, I’m hungry.”
“I’m coming,” Keri said.
“Keri, you can’t go! Either I’m losing my mind or you are really testing my patience with your little game.”
“How much longer,” Martha said.
“Just a minute, darling.”
“Martha,” Ryan said, “let David help you with your breakfast. Mom and I need to talk.”
“Dad you are silly,” Martha said, as she headed for the kitchen.
“My wife thinks I’m crazy and now my daughter calls me silly.”
Keri turned to Ryan. In a stern voice she said, “Your five-year-old daughter thinks you are silly because you suggested her little brother should fix her breakfast…and I don’t think you are crazy…just forgetful.”
“Wait! What did you say?”
“I said you are not crazy...”
“No. What do you mean her ‘little’ brother? David is fifteen.”
“Ryan? Are you okay?” Keri paused. “Oh, I get it. So now you want to mess with
me
?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ryan, what is wrong with you? You know we just celebrated David’s second birthday last week.”
“Keri, you’re taking this too far.” Ryan got out of bed. The room spun like a slow moving carousel.
I
must
have
stood
up
too
fast
.
I
need
to
find
David
.
“Where are you going?” she asked, following close behind.
“To find David and stop this ridiculous game.” Ryan hurried down the hallway to David’s bedroom. On the floor in the middle of the room sat a two-year-old boy playing with a model airplane. Ryan turned to Keri and asked, “Who is that boy?”
“Are you serious?”
“Keri, please don’t joke with me. Where is David?”
“Ryan, he’s right in front of you! That little boy is your son.”
CHAPTER 5
Buckhead
,
Georgia
Saturday
morning
—
August
2004
Standing in the doorway, staring at the two-year-old boy, Ryan said, “That’s impossible!” He laughed out loud. “Somebody pleeease tell me what’s going on?”
Keri put her arm around him and led him back into the bedroom. “Honey, why don’t you lie down.”
Slightly dizzy and spatially disoriented, Ryan followed Keri willfully to the bedroom and did as she requested. “How can this be happening?”
“Ryan, I don’t know why you’re so confused.”
“I’m not confused!” He rose up on the bed.
“Calm down…everything is going to be alright.” She eased him back down. “We just need to talk this out.” Keri sat quietly for a few seconds rubbing his hand. “That must have been one doozy of a dream.”
“I feel like I’m living parallel lives. Part of me knows that little boy is my son, but another part of me believes just as strongly our son, David, should be fifteen years old.” He sat up quickly. “I didn’t notice! Is our son deaf?”
“No! What makes you think that?”
“I don’t know. I just remember—or dreamed…I’m not sure which—that our son is…was…deaf.”
It
seems
so
real
that
we
had
a
fifteen
-
year
-
old
deaf
son
named
David
.
Why
?
“Well, you definitely dreamed it.”
“Keri, it’s hard to explain…I don’t even know if I understand what’s going on. All I know is that in my dream, I knew if we went to the condo, we would be overcome with passion for each other, and would regret it for the rest of our lives. It was as if it had already happened in some
other
life.”
“Regret what?”
“That you would get pregnant with David. That is why I believed we had a fifteen-year-old son...we were in New York fifteen years ago. The timing would have been perfect.”
“That would have been a mess.”
“No joke.”
“Well, I’m proud of you.” She patted his hand. “You could have done anything without consequences, but you did the right thing. That shows you are a man of character, even when you are dreaming.”
“If you say so,” he said, still confused.
It did make sense that if they didn’t go to the condo, Keri would not have gotten pregnant. Therefore, the fifteen-year-old version of David would have never been born. He began to settle into the idea that his
other
life, regardless of how real it seemed to him, was nothing more than a dream within a dream.
“So other than the rendezvous at the condo,” Keri said, “is there anything else you dreamed we did, or didn’t do, I should know about?”
He laughed. “No, everything in the dream I believed to have happened after that day in New York, has happened. Emily left me. You married Rex. You caught him cheating and y’all divorced. Then we got married and lived happily ever after. That is the way it goes, doesn’t it?”
Keri leaned over and kissed him. “Yes. And the frog turned into a prince.” They both laughed. “Let’s hope you don’t have any more nightmares like that.”
He said, “Do you think the perfume had anything to do with my crazy dream?”
“What perfume?”
“The perfume that gave me the allergic reaction.”
“You didn’t say anything about any perfume in your dream. Plus, I don’t think you can smell inside your dreams.”
Why
doesn’t
she
remember
the
allergic
reaction
?
“Don’t you remember? When I came back from Starbucks I was sneezing. I went to the bedroom and took a nap.”
“Maybe in your dream. You just slept late, and I woke you up so you wouldn’t miss our traditional Saturday morning breakfast.”
That’s
strange
.
She
really
doesn’t
remember
.
Maybe
I’m
still
confused
.
“Well…maybe it
was
in my dream, but what if there
was
an imaginary perfume that did have magical powers that would allow a person to travel back in time and change things in their past?”
“Okay…so just for fun, let’s assume you jump in your time machine and gas it up with perfume. Where would be your first stop?”
“That’s a no-brainer. First, I would travel back to a time before I ever met Emily Anderson, and I would have never married her. Then I would find you and marry you before Rex had a chance to meet you. From there, I would search for every mistake I had ever made and fix them all.”
“That sounds nice.” She kissed him again. “While you work on fixing our past, I’ll fix us breakfast.”
From her playful banter, he could tell she had no recollection of his allergic attack. “Sounds good. I’ll take a quick shower.”
“You have fifteen minutes,” she said.
“No problem.”
While showering, he searched for details of any memory of some
other
life—imagined or dreamed. Every detail in his dream was vivid and clear. His memory of the events that occurred at the condo in New York was as real as the skin on his body. The concerns he had as a father raising a deaf child could not have been imagined. As hard as he tried, it was impossible to accept that it was simply a dream within a dream. But could he have actually lived another life?
That’s
preposterous
.
Then how could he explain being completely awake, staring at his own two-year-old son, and not recognizing him? Was he sleepwalking?
The events that occurred in his imagined
other
life were too real to dismiss, but too crazy to believe. And the freakish possibility he had somehow altered his present reality from within his dream was even more ridiculous.
Is
it
possible
the
perfume
had
some
twisted
effect
on
my
mind
?
Could
it
happen
again
?
It
wouldn’t
hurt
to
try
.
To conduct the experiment, he needed the exact fragrance, but there was no way he could describe it. He could sample fragrances all day at a cosmetic department, but if he sampled more than one fragrance, it would be impossible to isolate which fragrance caused the reaction.
He needed to find the woman who was wearing the perfume, but he had no clue who she was or where she lived. Her relatives were visiting from Alabama and she was taking them their morning coffee. She must live in Buckhead...near that particular Starbucks. More than likely, she is a regular customer. There’s a chance she will return in the morning wanting to continue her hospitality for her visiting relatives.