Audrey and the Aberkerzki #1

Episode one: The vanishing point.

Living with an open heart, but a closed soul, she slipped unnoticed into the crowd by being like almost every other human she knew. Why was it that she knew in her way of knowing, that something was missing from her life, when in fact, from the outside, most people would say that she lived quite well, although, most people would also agree that she could do with being slightly less picky about… well, several things all at the same time.

There was not much color in Audrey’s life, and had it not been for her nickname ‘Cakey,’ refering to her strawberry shortcake red hair, you could say that perhaps, her life had been quite basic… which wasn’t all bad, I mean, nothing terrible had ever happened, that was until that day… the most eventful day that Audrey had ever experience before.

As she walked along the pathway towards the same large grey building that she had worked in for seven years, she sighed, for she knew the drill, nothing ever changed, and for a moment, she wished that something… even something small, would be different from the day before.

“Be careful what you wish for,” said a rather small in stature, elderly homeless woman, who sat cross legged in the gap between two buildings.

“Oh, but I didn’t…” started Audrey.

“Say anything?” said the old woman as she shuffled to her feet, “No, but you didn’t have to. when you know this place well, you learn a few things. Same old, same old… right?”

Audrey nodded. She didn’t feel like the woman was dangerous, but several times, she’d felt overwhelmed by the desperation that she could see on the faces of those that lived homeless in the city.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I am freer than any of these lemmings,” laughed the woman.

“Oh,” said Audrey, not knowing what to say next. “Anyway…” she started.

“You’ll be late if you talk any longer,” said the woman, completing what Audrey was thinking.

“Have a good day,” said Audrey with a smile before she continued walking.

The morning sun felt warm on her freckled skin and she couldn’t help but feel glad that she didn’t have to work in the sun all day.

Audrey looked down at the pavement and felt confused, ‘How did my shoes become so worn, so quickly?’ she wondered, for although she slipped them on without looking that morning while she was shovelling a piece of toast into her mouth on her way out the door, she could have sworn that they now appeared much older than she thought they should.

As she turned the corner and approached her workplace, she gasped, “What?” she screamed out loud. The entire building where she had worked for so long, was simply gone. She stood there staring at the empty plot of land, as if looking at it would somehow make it come back. There was absolutely nothing of the building left, which was strange enough, but somehow, the lot was also overgrown in weeds, despite the fact that she was sure she had gone to work the day before.

‘Wait, no,’ she thought, ‘I’m clearly just a few blocks from where I’m meant to be.’ Audrey pulled out her phone to check the maps. She was sure that having an unscheduled conversation, had simply confused her and that with a tiny bit of effort, she could get back on track. She looked at her maps… then back up… then back at her maps, and as it would seem, she was in the correct place.

“No,” she said as she shook her head and began to call the phone number of the company she worked for.

“Hello?” asked an old man with a croaky voice.

She looked at her phone to make sure she had called the correct number, before asking, “Um, can I please speak to Joe?”

“Joe? Hey Lucy… do we know a Joe?” he said. There was some rustling, then a woman said, “Sorry about that, my father forgets things. Can I help you?”

“Erm, uh… I must have called the wrong number… I was trying to reach my work place.”

The lady on the phone chuckled. “Yeah, this could only be your workplace if you are my father’s new carer.”

“I… Um, I’m sorry I disturbed you,” said Audrey as she hung up the phone.

‘Well… I guess I’ll head home,’ thought Audrey, as she was too confused to be able to think of another option for how to solve her dilemma. She assumed that she was probably dreaming and she hoped that tomorrow… or… whenever it was that she would wake up, would be back to normal.

As Audrey reached her front door, she pulled her keys from her bag… ‘Ha? Where’s my keychain from Jenna?’ she wondered, but she continued the motion to open the door instead of searching her bag for it. Audrey’s key didn’t fit in the door. ‘Great,’ she thought, ‘now something is wrong with the lock and I’ll have to wait for a locksmith.’

She began to browse the internet for one that looked trustworthy… as really, Audrey didn’t trust anyone. She sighed as her anxiety rose inside her.

“Hello?” asked a woman that stood in front of Audrey.

“Did you… um… did you just come out of my apartment?”

“No… I came out of my apartment,” said the woman.

“Um, I must be on the wrong floor. This whole day has been extremely strange. No wait… this is the correct floor. Who are you?” asked Audrey.

“I’m Bree, I’ve lived here for three years.”

Audrey needed to check that Bree was not lying, so she hoped that if she pulled a request for hospitality, she might get a chance to see inside the apartment. She acted dizzy, and as Bree held out a hand to try to help her, Audrey asked, “I’m sorry, could I trouble you for a glass of water?”

Audrey sat on Bree’s sofa. “Three years, huh?” she asked, after asking several times for Bree to confirm the address that she was visiting. Audrey looked at the walls that were painted different colors than Audrey remembered, and she could tell that there was no smell of fresh paint, so hoping that this was a strange joke, seemed out of the question.

“That’s a nice poster,” said Audrey as she looked over at the wall.

“Oh yeah, I love that movie. I can’t believe it’s been a year since it came out.”

“A year? ‘The Aberkerzki,’” said Audrey as she read the poster. “Huh… I don’t remember it.”

“Oh my god, everyone knows that movie, that’s not even funny,” laughed Bree.

“Right… right…” said Audrey, then the calendar on the wall caught her eye. ‘2029’ Audrey froze… then laughed. “Nope…” she said, “Why do you have a calendar for the future?”

“The future? It’s cats in baskets… well… and miniature pigs,” she laughed.

“No, no, no, no, no… It’s 2022.”

“Are you feeling okay? Perhaps I should call a doctor.”

“I don’t need a doctor, I need to know why it’s 2029, not 2022.”

“Wait… 2022, I know your face… you’re that girl… You’re Audrey Ravensly. You went missing in 2022. Where did you go?”

Audrey felt afraid. Bree couldn’t be right. Audrey dropped the glass of water that she was still holding and felt as if she was halfway towards the door before it hit the ground.

As she ran out of the apartment, she really did begin to feel dizzy, but now, she felt certain of what was going on… the old woman must have done this.

“Hello?” asked Audrey as she approached the place she had met the old woman, but there was nobody in the space she had seen her last time.

“Great… what if she sent me to 2029 and died of old age before sending me back?” yelled Audrey.

Something rustled further into the gap between the buildings.

“Hello?” yelled Audrey again, “Old lady, you’ve made a terrible mistake.”

Something moved towards her. A cat? No…

“What are you?”

The creature looked up at her. It was rather furry, bluish grey, and had the biggest eyes Audrey had ever seen by ratio of the size of its head. As she looked closer, she could see that it had a tiny mouth, an afraid expression, and was holding its tail as if it were some kind of security blanket. “I’m… I’m an Aberkerzki,” It said.

“A what? Like the movie?”

“If you like… I mean… I wrote the movie… so I guess… but the editors changed a lot so it’s not entirely accurate… I mean, I’m from a star system that actually…”

“Wait…” said Audrey, “you did this. Change it back… now.”

“Oh… I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t want me to. This is the first interesting thing that has happened to you in… in… ever.”

“How can you think that I want this? I don’t want this. I want my old life back… where… where nothing ever happens… and… and where everyone thinks I’m boring and fussy,” said Audrey as she dropped down and sat on the footpath in realisation, that really, a large part of her didn’t want to go back.

“See, you don’t want me to do a thing. You just hate that you don’t know what to do next,” said the Aberkerzki.

Audrey laughed slightly, as she wiped stray tears off of her cheeks, then asked, “What does all of this mean?”

“It means whatever you want it to mean. If everything in your past was gone, what would you do?”

“I’d… I’d learn to paint, I’d find some new friends… ones that didn’t say things that I really don’t appreciate hearing… and, I think I’d go back and study fashion design as I wanted to do, but nobody understood.”

“Miss? Miss?” asked a voice in front of Audrey.

She looked up. The old woman stood in front of her.

“You’ll be late if you talk any longer,” she said.

“What? Where is the Aberkerzki?” asked Audrey.

“The what?” asked the old lady with a sideways smile as she turned and disappeared into the gap between the buildings.