"ouch" she said as she sat upright in her seat her, one hand was on her head and another on her neck feeling the pain, she looked to her left and saw there was a woman with a little girl in her laps again except this time she wasn't looking at her cause she didn't curse, she took her phone from her laps to see what was the date and time but she was so disappointed when she saw it was still the same four o'clock Thursday the 13th, she breathed out heavily and looked over to her right, there was a sticker on the window, "today is the first day of your everyday life" said the sticker on the window, "oh now your just mocking me" she said while looking at the sticker, the tone in her voice was of someone full of stress and sadness, the conductor was announcing the train's next stop, "the next stop is green avenue street, passengers who are getting off please get ready" the conductor's voice was heard through the speakers allover the train, soon as he was done announcing May got off her seat but before she could make a step she felt a heavy drowsiness that she put her head on her forehead, she almost lost her balance but she hang on tight on a pole that was in front of her, "are you okay" asked the woman with the little girl on her laps, May looked back at her nodded her head in reply, she tried walking to the door but she still felt the drowsiness, she got to the door walking like she was drunk cause she kept loosing her balance with every step she made, her vision was also blurry so she couldn't really see what was in front of her, when the doors opened she tried getting off but she bumped into a guy as she got off, the bump was too hard that her phone fell down to the ground, soon as she stepped foot outside the train her vision was slowly getting well and the drowsiness was slowly fading away, she picked up her phone and started walking away from the train, she was a few steps away from the train when she looked a little further ahead and saw the old lady with her dog on a leash, soon as she saw them she quickly changed her way to avoid them cause she was afraid of the dog, she quickly ran into the bathroom that was close by cause she wanted to take some pills for the headache and drowsiness she was feeling, just when she was about to touch the door handle the door was opened from inside and two giggling ladies came out of the bathroom, she let them pass as usual and then she went in, when she got in there she stood right in front of the mirror staring down at her own reflection, she pulled her hair backwards and she was surprised to see there was no any scar on her face like every time she woke up, she kept looking every inch of her face but there was nothing other than her glowing smooth skin, she was suddenly interrupted by a ding sound of her phone from her pocket, she pulled it out and saw it was a text from her mother, 'am so disappointed in you' said the text, "and the cycle never ends" she thought to herself as she looked at the text, she put back the phone in her pocket and she then reached her hands in her purse, she pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen pills and spilled two of them on the palm of her hands, she quickly swallowed them and quickly drank from the tap on the sink that was already flowing with water, after she was done she grabbed her purse and off the subway she left, soon as she was out of the subway she got into a tax going to pay her mother a visit, as she was still in a ride going to her mom's place she got another text from her 'why aren't you picking up my calls' May jut looked at the text and never responded to it, few minutes later she got a call from her sister as always, she let the phone ring till the call ended, after two minutes passed she decided to call her back,
"May what did you do" asked April soon as she answered the call, May sighed and looked out the window as the car kept going,
"what do you want" she replied,
"why aren't picking up mums calls"
"i was busy, anything else"
"she called me and she sounded pretty disappointed"
"it was just two missed calls she'll be fine"
"tell that to her face"
"hey look I'd love to stay and have a chat but I've got to go" said May and then hung up the phone, she then kept looking out the window thinking about the crazy day loop she is stuck in, she then turned back looking at the driver through the small front mirror,
"hey may I ask you a personal question" she said,
"ask away" said the driver with hands still on the wheel,
"have you ever heard about someone re living the same day over and over again"
"like a de ja vu" asked the driver,
"yeah kinda like that, but more of a stuck in a time loop kinda thing"
"no" he replied, May leaned back on her seat in disappointment cause she was expecting he would understand what she was saying,
"but if this was happening to me, I would look for something that's different every time the day re sets" said the drive,
"what do you mean" asked May with an intrigued face,
"if am re living the same day over and over again, not every thing will be the same...…"
"there has to be something that changes each time" May interrupted,
"exactly,….. and that's what I would look for, cause it might be the key for me ending the loop"
"what if it isn't there" asked May,
"then I try changing things myself" replied the driver,
"huh...," said May while nodding her head in appreciation,
"are you writing a story" asked the driver,
"yeah" she replied, she lied to him cause she didn't want him to know anything about her, once she was done.
once they got her mother's house she stood at the porch thinking about what she was going to say when her mother comes to open the door after she knocks, after a while she eventually got the courage to knock on the door and when she did her mother came out and opened it for her,
"well if it isn't the prodigal daughter" she said soon as she opened the door,May without a reply she gave her a big hug,
"there's no such thing as the prodigal daughter" said May as she hugged her mother, she then got in and went straight for the living room, there were a lot of pictures of her late father decorated allover the room, she put her purse on the couch and took a seat, her mom sat at another couch opposite to hers' and the only thing between them was a glass table with another picture of her father on top staring at her, there were also several drinks on the table and glasses,
"you weren't taking my calls" asked her mother as she poured May a drink,
"mom, it was two missed calls get over it" replied May and then threw her phone on the table,
"i was starting to get worried" she replied, she the pushed the drink towards May,
"i just turned twenty three, am not a teenager anymore"
"am a mother, I have a right to worry" replied the mother and then poured her self a drink, "did you talk to your sister" she added as she took a sip of her drink, May was about to take a sip of her drink but she stopped, her face suddenly changed and turned red
"mom why did you call me" she asked cutting straight to the chase and then landed the glass back on the table,
"a ha!, that reminds me" said the mother, she quickly put the glass on the table and opened the drawer on the table, she pulled out a small box wrapped in gift paper,
"if you say happy birthday am going to throw up in my mouth" said May soon as she saw the box,
"May we've already been through this, its your birthday not your father's funeral, you deserve to be happy" said her mother with the box still in her hands giving it to May,
"happy, its funny you said that" she replied,
"it's already been five years May, you've got to move on" she added
"and how am I supposed to do that, every birthday is just a constant reminder that he's gone" said May with her eyes getting wet with every word she spoke, her voice was stammering like she was holding in a cry, her mother just sat there with no words to say just looking back at her with her eyes full of sentiment, "just tell me one thing mom, do you miss him" she asked while looking at her father's portrait on the table, her mom picked up the portrait and put it in her laps,
"only every day" she replied with a soft voice while looking at the portrait, "not a single day goes by without me thinking about him" she added, "I remember the first day he held you in his arms, he had this smile on his face, the kind that would last forever, you were holding on tight to his pinky finger and you wouldn't let go, he was the happiest man in the world" said May's mother with a soft sentimental voice, May was intrigued by what her mother was about to say so she was carefully listening,
"he leaned closer to you're tiny little ears and then whispered...….., Spero Spera" she continued with a little smirk on her face,
"what's that supposed to mean" asked May with clenched eye browse,
"it means as long as you leave there's hope"
"hope, strange word don't you think"
"we've all lost people in our lives May, but that not an excuse to loose hope, cause loosing it means we're dead too" said the mother, May rubbed a little tear drop that was falling from her left eye as he gave a thought about what her mother just said, she slowly picked up the gift that her mother had prepared for her and put it in her purse,
"so what's new" asked her mother as she took a sip of her drink,
"nah..., nothing much" replied May with a high pitched voice then she lifted glass from the table and took a sip of her drink,
"why am I get the feeling that you're lying"
"it's the high pitched voice isn't it...…"
"the high pitched voice" quickly replied the mother, "also its written allover your face" she added while pointing at May using the glass in her hand,
"i guess am an opened book"
"you want to talk about it"
"no, no I don't think am ready"
"well whenever you're ready am here for you, and remember I love you" said her mother,
"yeah I know" May replied with a soft low voice, May thought about telling her about her re living the same day over and over again but she hesitated, so instead they talked about something else and exchanged beautiful memories, they talked for hours till May felt like it was the time to leave, she said goodbye and she a took a cab to go home, in the car she decided to open the gift that her mother gave to her, it was a silver ring made into a necklace and on the ring were words engraved on it "spero spera", she put on the necklace with a little smile on face and held the ring with her arm on her chest.
She thought about going straight home but she went out to the bar instead, she wanted to have a drink in memory of her father cause she was ready to move on with her life after a long conversation with her mom, so she made a stop at the bar for quick drink.
The moment she walked into the bar she saw two bar tenders behind the counter exchanging shifts, she looked on her phone and saw it was five minutes past nine, "lets hope it all ends after tonight", she walked straight to the counter and then took a seat,
"what can I get you,….oh wait, let me guess, a Piña colada" asked the bar tender behind the counter, May was confused a bit cause to hear that but she tried not to show it on her face,
"no,...…a Sazerac please" she said with a faint smile on her face, "how's that for a first drink of the night" she added, the bartender was holding a small table cloth in his hands when he heard her say that,
"how did you know" asked the bar tender as he put the table cloth in front of her,
"oh I saw you guys exchanging shifts as I got in" she quickly replied as the bar tender was filling her glass with ice cubes,
"no, not that, I mean how did you know I was going to say its my first drink of the night" he said as he put the glass with ice cubes in front of her,
"i dunno,...lucky guess I think" she replied as he prepared the drink, he was pouring a couple of drinks simultaneously in a separate glass mixing them to get a Sazerac cocktail,
"why this drink specifically, if you don't mind me asking" he asked as poured the final drink inside the glass filled with ice cubes in front her, she picked her drink to take a sip before she replied,
"it was my dad's favourite" she replied as she landed the glass on the table, "he told me it was made in 1838 by a guy named Antoine Peychaud" she added, she had this smile on her face that looked so sweet and nostalgic, "he made it while working in his workshop in New Orleans, it became my dad's favourite cause its where he grew up" she continued,
"he looks like a guy who knows his drinks" he replied,
"yeah, he is" she replied as the sweet smile was slowly fading away from her face, a guy came out of nowhere and sat next to May as they were having a conversation, he had a glass of drink in his hand,
"beat it loser" she said to the guy before he could even put his drink on the table, the guy in disappointment got up from the chair and walked away,
"i take it your not in the mood flirt" said the bartender leaning on the counter,
"or he's just not my type...…"
"hey is that Four the bar tender" a voice was heard amongst the crowd in the bar interrupting May, when Four raised his head to look around he saw it was his friend approaching the counter,
"in the flesh" he replied his arms spread in the air, he then took a few steps to the left to talk to his friend
"long time no see my man" he said, "oh and am sorry about Maria man she....."
"dude, not here man" Four interrupted him in a low soft voice, and he nodded his head to agree with him, "so what can I get you" continued Four, May looked at Four and saw that he was already holding a bottle of vodka in his hands, she got confused as to why was he holding the bottle even before his friend had made an order
"a vodka tonic" replied Four's friend, he then started going through his pockets searching for the money to pay for his drink, "check the back pocket" both Four and May said together at the same time, they both looked at each other and smiled a little, Four's friend checked his back pocket and found the money, "how did you guys know" asked the friend with a confused face while putting the money on the table, "am good guesser" Four replied and he went on ahead and started to prepare him the drink,
"who's you're friend" he asked while while tilting his head to point at May,
"my first customer, you were just about to show me something, what is it"
"oh right" said the friend and then pulled out a strange object from his backpack "so, I was going through some old stuff of my dad and I found this" he said as he pushed it towards him, "do you know what it is" he asked, May could hear them talk cause she wasn't that far away and they were being too loud, she looked at the object that the bar tender's friend pulled out and she got so shocked, it was the same as always a metal cylinder surrounded by a series of rotating disks engraved with random letters on them,
"no..., no I've never seen it before in my life" replied the bar tender to his friend and he then pushed the glass of vodka to his friend, May was so shocked soon as he heard the reply cause it was absolutely different from the other replies that he gives out, "why don't you just Google it" added Four, as his friend took a sip of his drink,
"oh yeah, why didn't I think of that" he replied as lowered down the glass on the table, he then reached in his pocket and took out his phone, he took a picture of the item on the table and started a Google search to see what it was, "hey, hang on a sec I gotta do my job" said Four and left to go attend to May cause she looked like she was done with her drink, "can I get you anything else" asked Four,
"no….., but I need to ask you one thing" she said with her index finger in the air, "sorry I didn't mean to eavesdrop but, you know what that thing is, so why did you lie to him" she added while gazing straight in his eyes,
"what do you mean, I literally just said I've never seen it before"
"yeah I know, I know, its just that...…uh," she said and then sighed in disappointment, "you know what never mind" she added, she took out the money for the drink from her purse and gave it to him, she got out of the chair and started walking out of the bar, "hey" called out the bar tender, she slowly turned around and looked at him, "my tip" he added,
"i didn't know I was supposed to be tipping bar tenders whenever I drink here" she said, the tone in her voice was high and looked like she was upset,
"no, no, no that's not it, its just that you always tip me before you leave"
"but this is the first am see...….," said May and she was then interrupted by a quick epiphany, they both gazed at each other for a few seconds without exchanging words, finally May got out of the bar walking so quickly and breathing heavily, she looked so confused and shocked about what just happened, she still didn't want to believe what she thinking in her head, "Is he just like me" she thought with every step she made, she stood at the side walk and called a taxi but it stopped on the other side of the road so she had to crossover, she started crossing the road while a lot of thoughts pacing through her head, "hey" the bar tender called out again, May was already at the middle of the road and she suddenly stopped, she turned around to take another good look at him, he was standing at the side of the road breathing heavily like he came out of the bar running for her, "its happening to you too right" shouted the bar tender, she looked at him with nothing to say and her eyes were starting to get wet, she looked to her right and saw a big truck coming her way, it was coming in very high speed and it looked like it wasn't going to stop, it was going to crush her if she kept standing there, the bar tender also focused at what she was looking at and saw the big truck, he then looked back at her and he immediately knew what she was thinking, "no, no, no don't it" he quickly yelled
"find me when you wake up" she yelled back and closed her eyes, all she saw was darkness and she couldn't hear anything but the blowing wind around her ears while she stood there awaiting her death, the truck knocked her and sent her flying high up in the air, she landed a couple of meters away and the moment she did she was already dead.
She woke up and sat upright in her s
eat, she looked to her right and saw there was a woman with a little girl on her laps.