Fateful beginning of vacations

Chapter 21: (no) time travel

The thought that occurred to her seemedfar-fetched, but couldn't it be? Smoking was one thing, her greatestvice. Was that the subconscious cry to tell her to get rid of it?Also, the arrogance she showed towards herself really just disgustedher, was she like that to those around her? No, she was not like thatbut, the arrogance she saw, that could have easily been her, with thedirector or any other authority. She always wanted to have the lastword, always know everything better, so was this all her personalrevenge on herself? A way to hold up a mirror to herself? So themanner and the smoking made sense at first, but there remained theage. Her counterpart was her nine year old self, so what was 7 yearsago?

"Boah biste soon times ready with thinking?"was Sarah abruptly interrupted by itself.

Sarah didn't letherself get upset and closed her eyes. She concentrated for a momentand a short time later, nine-year-old Sarah's mouth was covered witha decorative X made of armor tape. This was the first time she had tostruggle with it, Sarah thought to herself. She had control over herdream, so she also had control over her beastly reflection.
Sowhat was seven years ago, she began her reflections again.

Theweather couldn't have been nastier on that gloomy autumn day. It waspouring rain and storming a bit. Sarah was on her way home fromschool. She still had an appointment with Sandra for the afternoon.Her school day had gone well despite the lousy weather, she hadgotten two of her class papers back, both with A's of course, thenine year old was proud as Oskar and was already looking forward toher parents' reaction, although this was actually no longer aspecialty for the two of them. Sarah tried to get home as quickly aspossible, since the weather really left a lot to be desired. She wasalready thinking about making an appointment with Sandra on anotherday. Less than 10 minutes later, Sarah arrived at her parents' house.It looked like a rock in all the rain and the storm, the longed-forretreat. She saw that her parents' cars were parked in front of thehouse, but she didn't think anything of it. Both of them had theluxury of taking time off early, Sarah knew that. She walked up tothe house and put the key in the lock.

"STOP" Sarahcalled out.

"Hmhmmhm..." her nine-year-old selfspoke up through the duct tape.
With a spiteful feeling ofsatisfaction, the sixteen year old grabbed the armor tape and rippedit off her younger reflection's face.

"Ouch. If I werereal, that would have been really painful right now, why do you haveto be so rough?" the younger girl asked.

"You've been bugging me. So I justtook your advice, so I literally beat myself at my own game,"Sarah replied with a big grin.

"If it were me, I wouldn'talways rely on what I say. Who's going to tell you that I've told youeverything and not just give you the illusion that you're in controlhere?" the young Sarah asked simply.

Sarah hadn't eventhought of the option yet, but that wasn't important now, what wasimportant was the place, or rather the time at which they were inthat place. Nine-year-old Sarah still stood frozen at the front door,by sixteen-year-old Sarah, who all at once knew again which day thiswas, the day she actually didn't want to think back to.
"That'swhy I appear to myself as a nine-year-old! The day my parents brokeup!" she breathed into the ghostly scenery.

"Well,you're clever, I'll give you that." came flippantly from thefuming nine-year-old.
"But you know what happened after that,don't you?" she asked, probing.

Sarah took a deep breath.She knew what she was getting at, but didn't want to talk about itany further now, the trip that day was enough for now. It was time togo. She took another deep breath and closed her eyes. Sheconcentrated on waking up.

Sarah opened her eyes. She was inher bed, which was a good sign, at least for now.
She turned herhead to the window. There was a faint light there, so it couldn't betoo early yet. A picture on her cell phone told her 5:30 in themorning. "If this keeps up with my dreams, I'm going to end up awreck." she said to herself and flopped back into bed.

Shefelt surprisingly awake for actually feeling like she'd had one ofthe worst nights of her life. She stretched briefly and moments laterhad both feet on the floor, ready to start the new day. She wanted topush away the thoughts of last night as much as possible. Shestretched again while standing. The bodysuit tightened in her crotchand she noticed that her diaper felt funny. She already knew thefeeling from her dream. Apparently she had wet her diaper.Coincidence, she thought to herself, got dressed and left her roomfor coffee.