Wake Up

By R

He sits down at an empty table at his favorite cafe. Setting his laptop bag on the table he adjusts his seat and starts removing the computer from its sleeve. A few hours to work on his presentation is all he needs. The light from the screen illuminates and a familiar greeting starts up. As he begins to type in his password on the keys, he’s suddenly startled by a push at his side.

“Wake up,” says a female voice just above his ear.

He looks down to his side puzzled. He finds a girl struggling to get her book bag off from the floor next to him. He tries to make out her face assuming he must know her. When he doesn’t recognize her, he assumes she told him to wake up as if he was in her way. Confused and now a bit irritated he says, “Excuse me?”

With her eyes still trained on the bookbag she smiles and places a hand on his shoulder. “No no, that’s totally my fault I thought I could squeeze by.” Looking at him she says, “sorry about that,” and leaves.

He lets out a small sigh. Perhaps he misheard the girl. As sure as he was that he had heard the words “wake up” he didn’t want to ponder on the idea any longer. He had misheard her and that’s all it was.

Interrupting his thoughts, a waitress greets him. She stands ready to take his order, getting her small black notepad out and gleaming at him. “Hello there, my name is Jolyne. Can I start you off with some coffee this morning?”

He quickly snaps out of his dazed thoughts and looks up at the waitress. He’s frozen. It’s the same girl that bumped into him only seconds ago. It can’t be, he thinks.

Stumbling for words he manages to mumble. “Uh I- …what?”

“Drink?” she mimes a drinking motion with her hands. “Coffee, water, tea?”

“Did you just bump into me a few seconds ago?"

She looks around herself as if searching for the answer. “Um I don’t think so…” she offers a playful laugh and grins.

Realizing how impossible the incident was for her to have bumped into him and changed her clothes in a mere few seconds was ridiculous. He shook his head and gathered his thoughts.

“Right I’m sorry. I just… yes to drink. Uh I’ll just have a cup of coffee and creamer please.” He smiles at her and looks back to his screen to log in again.

“Alrighty I’ll have that out in a bit”, she turns and walks away.

Opening his email, he scrolls through a few. Meetings and advertisements with a few scattered bill reminders litter his inbox. He gets a pencil out from his bag along with a notepad. Just a few notes to take down from a business email and he can start work on finishing the presentation. He finds the email from his supervisor and moves the cursor of his mouse over the email to open it but then pauses. Underneath the email is a spam email. “Wake up”, it reads at the preview message. He stares at the message. Unwilling to open the email for a few seconds he thinks back to the girl from earlier. “Wake up”, he thought she said. Coincidence? Curious, he opens the email.

A bright colorful advertisement loads on the screen and a cheery animated girl is shown smiling. She’s holding a white bottle of pills resembling pearls. On the bottle is a large purple label “Réveillez-Vous“ and just below the picture reads “Wake up the right way! Start your mornings energized and ready to take on the Day!” He chuckles. Caffeine pills. Feeling silly and relieved he deletes the message and opens his email from his supervisor and gets adjusted to start taking his notes.

Another waitress makes her way to his table and sets his coffee down. “Would you like cream or sugar?” she asks.

He makes room on his table for the coffee. Amused that she’s forgotten to bring creamer he looks up at her and says with a smile “creamer- pl…ease…?” He looks at her dumbfounded. It’s the same girl but she’s changed. Her hair and clothing are completely different from before. He narrows his eyebrows. “Are you the same…” he attempts to make hand gestures towards the front of the cafe.

She giggles, “Oh Jolyne is tied up at the moment. She’ll be back again to take your food order.” She nods her head to him. “I’ll bring you out that creamer.” She begins to turn and leave.

“Oh… are you her sister? You two look exactly alike”, he smiles at her.

She turns half way back to him and gives a small laugh “That’s the first.” She looks awkwardly around as if puzzled by his statement. She turns back around and walks away.

Not expecting her reaction, he looks back down to his computer. He starts to feel an uneasiness settle around him. He’s seen the same girl three times now. It can’t be in his head. He looks to his coffee. A gentle steam floats up from it.

“He’s still sleeping. He hasn’t woken up yet.” He overhears a woman talking at a table ahead of him. He immediately looks up in her direction. He sees only the back of her as she speaks to another woman. “I’ve been here since this morning. Just waiting to see if he opens his eyes”, she giggles. The two women seem to laugh but he is unable to make out what the other woman is saying.

“Wake up”, says a voice to his ear. With a gasp, he turns around to see the waitress Jolyne. She sets the creamer down by him. She smiles and looks to him. Before she can say anything, he raises his voice to her.

“What did you just say?!”

Her smile quickly fades as she is stunned by his outburst. “I’m sorry?” She looks scared and confused as she takes a step back and quickly takes her hand away from his table.

The cafe quiets and people turn their attention to his table. He quickly tries to calm himself. As he can see her distress at his outburst. He gently shakes his head. “I-… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-" he lets out a sigh. “What did you say just a second ago?” He points to imaginary pieces with his hand. As if to show her what moment he’s speaking of.

“Here’s your creamer?” She looks at him awkwardly.

“No,” he shakes his head and looks down recalling the incident. “You just said ‘wake up’. I heard you. That’s what you said. Why did you say that?” he looks back at her.

Her face is still contorted into a troubled expression. She shakes her head. “I’m sorry I don’t know what you’re talking about." She looks down and glances around the floor for an answer. “I just said here’s your creamer”, she looks back at him. “I’m sorry if I startled you. I didn’t mean to.” She clutches her hands together and raises them to her chest then turns to walk away.

He looks at her as she leaves. Feeling a pain of guilt for raising his voice and turns back to face his table. As he does this he notices the woman from the table in front of him looking back at him. He glances up at her.

He is hit with a wall of horror. It’s the same girl. The girl that bumped into him. The waitress that brought him his coffee. Jolyne that he just raised his voice to. That same face was staring back at him now. He slowly backed himself into his chair. He couldn’t move. As if time had stopped and he was unable to wield himself out of his horrified state.

Slowly she turned away from him. Bringing her attention back to her friend in front of her. As she did, her friend slowly peered her head around her to glance at him. To his already horrified mind he saw that her friend was again the same girl.

Terrified now he jolted up from his chair knocking it back. With hurried breaths, he gathered up his belongings as quickly as he could and rushed to get out. As he was leaving he looked at the two girls at the table. They both were indeed identical but only by face. Just as the other previous girls he had encountered before. A feeling of dread swept over him as the two women at the table looked up at him. Stumbling, he quickly walked out and stopped in front of a bank to catch his breath. He held tightly to his things and tried to slow his breathing.

“What the hell is going on”, he thought. He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. Opening them he noticed a girl walking near him. With dismay, he stared at her. It was once again the same girl. Her hair and clothing different but the exact same girl. Not noticing him she walked past. Not taking his eyes off her he saw another girl walking up from the opposite direction. Not noticing him either she just smiled and spoke into her cell phone. He began walking up to her as she made her way closer to him.

She was the same girl. Same voice and face. The exact same. As she neared him he could make out what she was saying. “Dean if you would just wake up”, she pauses and looks down briefly then back up again, “I miss you.” She passes him and continues walking down the sidewalk.

He’s confused. What is happening? He watches her walk away and steps off the sidewalk. He’s disoriented and terrified. He continues to slowly walk backward into the street. He looks down at his things stilled clutched tightly at his chest. Everything goes quiet and numb around him. He’s paralyzed. Unsure of himself and what is happening to him. A loud horn like sound slowly rises out of the silence and a woman screams. He looks up. The last thing he sees is the large window of a bus coming toward him and then blackness.

After what seems like only a few seconds he opens his eyes and draws in a deep breath. He’s in a quiet room. The only sound he hears is the soft hum of machines and beeps. He blinks his eyes a few times to adjust them to his surroundings. He looks around at the room. He’s in a bed with wires attached to him. At the side of this bed sits a girl sleeping. As he looks at her she stirs awake. Her eyes open and she sees him looking at her.

“Dean! Oh my god, you’re finally awake!” She quickly sits up straight and moves her chair closer to him and smiles at him.

He looks at her with confusion. She looks familiar to him. He’s seen this girl before but he’s unsure of where. He studies her face carefully and looks at her clothes. He knows he’s seen her before. Somewhere. He looks at her again. Her face bright and gleaming.

He opens his mouth to speak. “Who are you?”

She keeps her gaze on him as her smile slowly fades.

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