Over the Rainbow

Chapter 6: It's a game!

Sarah woke up to the smell of bacon frying. This brought back memories of a different life. The memories weren't clear, but they brought on a feeling of horrible dread. She was too scared to open her eyes, fearing she would be back in that cabin again. She remembered fire, but no details.

"Do you want coffee?" The door swung open and Jared leaned in, a big smile on his face. Seeing the apparent confusion on her face, he tried again. "Coffee?"

"Um, yeah, sure." Sarah stammered through the words. "Um, I'll be out in a couple minutes."

"Ok, but don't dawdle." Jared scrunched up his face. "The eggs will get cold. Yuck!"

With that, he closed the door and returned to his chef duties. Sarah looked around the room. Thank God! Wall paper, no log walls. She had to concentrate to remember where she was. How she'd gotten there. Slowly, the night came back to her.

Dancing with Marianne really had helped her mood. But before they'd been there long, she had spotted Jared at a table with a friend. It took some convincing, but eventually she got Mari to agree to take the friend out onto the dance floor and leave Sarah to confront Jared. It hadn't gone like she'd imagined though.

He was sweet. A little shy, but seemed genuinely happy to meet her. He seemed to think they'd met before and that was a good sign. Somehow he must have had buried memories from her original timeline, or universe, or continuum. Something like that. Whatever it was, they hit it off right away. It felt like they'd been together forever. It wouldn't have taken much to make her forget all of the trouble she'd been through getting here. But she knew she wasn't home yet. She knew that somehow, Jared was the key and she held onto her memories jealousy.

Pushing all this aside, she got up and looked around the room. King size bed, but it appeared that she had slept alone. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about that (that felt familiar though). She was wearing her panties and an oversized tee shirt, probably Jared's. Thankful she hadn't woken up naked, she quickly found her clothes neatly folded in an overstuffed chair in the corner. She got dressed and made her way to the kitchen. Breakfast did smell good.

Breakfast was good. She ate mostly in silence while Jared waited on her and chattered on about his job. When they got to just coffee she felt it was time to breach the subject of 'her problem'. He quickly understood that she was serious and sat down, warmed up both their cups and prepared to be schooled.

As with Marianne, Sarah began with the box of matches. She related how she couldn't find her lighter so she struck one of the bizarre matches. In as much detail as she could remember, she talked in a muted voice about how she woke up in a different life. Her boyfriend dead (she couldn't bring herself to admit it was Jared), her best friend telling her she had never dated him. Altogether she'd struck 13 matches and each time she'd awoken to a world, a life, a reality further from home. Until, finally, she wound up here, with no more matches and no way to get home.

She finished her story barely able to hold back the tears. She was sure Jared would think she was insane and send her on her way. But to her surprise, he seemed to accept what she told him. There were no rolling eyes, no heavy sighs. He, very solemnly, got up and freshened their coffee. He sat across the table and took both of her hands in his.

"I don't know what to say, Sarah." He sounded serious, but not condescending. "I mean, it sounds crazy. I'm pretty sure you already know that."

Sarah was nodding. A tear broke free and rolled down her cheek. But Jared wasn't waiting for a response. He continued, "The thing is, the moment we met at the club last night, I felt like I knew you. Like I'd known you for a long time. I don't know. Maybe it's a brain-fart, a memory short circuit. You know, like deja vu. But I can't just dismiss your story. Somehow, it just feels real."

Sarah, unable to speak, got up and sat in Jared's lap. Putting her arms around his neck, she rested her head on his shoulder and began to cry softly. Somehow, this Jared felt like her Jared. She didn't pretend to know how that could be, but it was the best feeling she'd had since this whole mess started. She cried quietly in his arms for several minutes before falling into a peaceful sleep. The first real rest she'd had in... she didn't have any idea how long.

***

"No Johnny, I didn't get laid," Jared wasn't the kiss'n'tell type to begin with, but more importantly, he needed to start a different conversation here. "I wouldn't tell you if I had, and you know that!"

"Hey, can't blame a guy for trying." Johnny had been hoping for some vicarious thrills, but it looked like that was out. "So what were you trying to tell me?"

"I've got an idea for a game."

"Dude, we're up to our necks in this game! What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's a multi-verse game. You travel to different realities and the object of the game is to get back home." Jared was obviously excited.

"Ok, but we have our assignment already." It was unlike Johnny to be this pragmatic. "What do we do, just bag this and take your idea upstairs?"

"No, Johnny," Jared spun Johnny's chair to face him. "We do this on our own. You know we could do it. Hell, we do most of the work on company games already. It might take longer with just us two. We'd have to work on it evenings and weekends, but we could do this!"

"Ok, but your idea is pretty sketchy. We're gonna need more than that."

"I know," Jared went on. "I'll put together some notes tonight. Tomorrow we can talk it out. Then see what you think. I'm telling you, this is the break we've been waiting for. It could kick off our own company."

"You mean we could be rich?" There was the good old Johnny. "Like billionaires?"

"Well, not what I was thinking, but... yeah Johnny. Billionaires."

Jared went back to work feeling more satisfied then he'd felt in a long time. He felt a little creepy not having told Sarah about his plan, but he was sure she'd be ok with it.