Happily Ever After

Sunday August 2, 2026

Jack and I are finally in a place that feels honest to god like a best friendship; it is still hard for me to process the whiplash of the last year. Being on your own after being so intertwined with another for eight years is jarring, exhilarating, scary, fun, and free but I miss laughing about weird inside jokes with someone at the end of the day. Today we are going to go on a hike together, as friends. I’m eager to take him to this waterfall spot I have been hearing about; I know I am safe in unknown terrain if I’m with Jack.

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“Look- the last thing I remember, we were in the water and you kissed me and lightning hit down. I came to, we were on the shore completely dry in different clothes. I woke you up immediately, of course, it didn’t take me long to put together my hypothesis that we are in another timeline. What that means, I have no clue, but establishing that as the basic possibility is helping me ground. We, we need to be..We need to be collected, okay? Does that make sense? Just lay low, I’m not trying to be a dick, just don’t do much about this until I can think further.

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Monday August 3, 2026

I cannot sleep, I have spent the better half of the night laying staring at the ceiling trying to process the large-ness of this all. The baby sitter should be arriving at some point this morning, Jack is going to call out sick to any meetings or calls on his calendar this week and hopefully that does not have too much of an impact on things. We just have to put our heads together and find a solution for what happened; a timeline jump seems most likely or some kind of alternate universe. It is like we are getting a look under the veil, a reminder to be thankful for our friendship and live free from regret wondering what could have come of us. Our kids are cute, it is a lot more work than I was ready for out of the blue. Mothering doesn’t feel as natural to me as I thought it would, it is a really alien feeling trying to connect with babies, it seems like they can feel that something is off- at least Anthony.

I cannot count backwards from 100 one more time, the clock says 5:15AM and my feet hit the ground beside the bed. Flipping on the walk in closet light I quietly close the door behind myself and take in the true differences between me and the version of myself who bought the clothes hanging before me. Banana Republic button ups in bright sheer colors, pair after pair of Madewell denim in varying shades, Lululemon matching sets hung with care. Who am I here? Jacks side of the closet is all high end fashion; All Saints, Y3, Kith. My clothes reflect the life of a mom who is busy with a packed PTA calendar, his reflect the life of a man frequently catching flights that take off before his family wakes for the day.

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2025-2026 journal begins at thanksgiving, which is when we bought this house. Jack surprised me with the purchase, he brought me here in the most romantic fashion with a blindfold on and no sense of direction. I had the passenger window rolled down, I wrote, I could smell the air getting fresher and I knew we must be gaining distance from the city. 2026 Gia was our New Year baby, Jack was present for her birth and his parents watched Anthony. Things seemed to really be picture perfect. I start to tear up remembering this is not my life, I do not own these memories or this happiness which I am not sure is real happiness more than it is a performance of modern success and nuclear achievement.

_

“Weird, I feel like I would have noticed the detail of a blinking tower but I was pretty focused on finding some tiny waterfalls for you.”

I think this is Jack being sweet, I smile in a coy way and say “my hero” as we walk toward the tower. We arrive at the bottom of this blinking tower, the shape of it like the eiffel but it is all steel and there seems to be electric current running through it. The top has a red, blinking, radar or signal looking thing that seems to monitor the totality of the woods. The tower is surrounded by a face covered in barbed wire with signs posted all around “NO TRESPASSING” “KEEP OUT” “DANGER” Jack takes notes in his notebook, turns around to me and says “I’m hungry.

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Tuesday August 4, 2026

I finally got some sleep. Knowing that we can use today to brainstorm after returning to the spot made me feel a sense of faith that we will figure out our way back to the right reality. 2 kids are all of the motivation I need to apply myself, work with Jack and find a solution. I can’t stop thinking of the riddle, Jack thinks it has no significance but I am not sure about that. Last night I met more of the neighbors, the one to our left is a single mom with 2 daughters and she is a busy Hollywood writer who I must drink wine with sometimes because she kept asking me about our next wine Wednesday which I had to find an excuse for tomorrow. The neighbor to our right is a single man, I haven’t seen him come or go much but I haven’t paid a ton of attention in general. Tonight we did say hi to one another when he was bringing his trash cans to the curb; he asked how Jack is and all I could say was “oh, you know him! Same old Jack” because I realized nothing I learned about myself in this timeline had anything to do with Jack, how I felt about Jack or how he felt about me. Our marriage seems so much like a shallow performance of love part of me wants to leave a note for myself telling her to leave him, but I think she enjoys staying and I am not here to judge as long as I don’t have to be the one living this pedestrian life of PB&J lunches and wine Wednesdays.

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Wednesday August 5, 2026

The days have become routine; I know it has not been many at all, yet I am already dreadfully complacent here. Today there was little new or exciting that happened but we decided that tomorrow we will go to the library, do some research. I’m so bored here I have nothing to write, it is interesting that there is a version of me who would write pages overflowing with love for this life of mine. I wonder if she is in my reality, feeling pity for the version of me who lives alone and avoids responsibilities at all cost; the version that spends her days as she pleases, hiking, painting, sculpting.

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Thursday August 6, 2026

We have to get out of here. I told Jack he needed to have this solved before the weekend and we are somehow no closer. The library did not happen today because Sarah called out sick today and tomorrow, surely this is as close to hell as I have ever been.

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Friday August 7, 2026

The baby cries much more throughout the day than I can handle, she is only soothed by me holding her and that leaves me totally bound to a leash like a dog. She can sense my stress I think, when we make eye contact we both look at each other rather alien still. Anthony is starting to get frustrated over us not knowing his bedtime songs, small nuances like his favorite toys or favorite foods or inside jokes. He is small but smart, picks up on the subtleties and he is a creature of routine who does not like diversion from the norm, of which we are unaware. Anthony asked Jack if he was really dad when Jack didn’t know his favorite meal was hotdogs and mac and cheese, instead serving him PB&J and apples for lunch like I had. Anthony was used to me making mistakes, it seems, he is forgiving of me and will say “silly momma” when I do something that doesn’t stick with his routine but he grows skeptical of Jack who seems to be the routine master of the house. No one goes in Jacks office, Anthony has to say goodnight to Gia every night and sometimes he wakes her which leaves me stuck with her on my boob until she is asleep again. I hate breast feeding, I really thought I would love all of this but something feels off about knowing Jack is cheating on this mother of two who must feel like a dairy cow most days with how these boobs swell up.

Since I cannot get in the head of myself in this timeline, aside from the vague journal entries, I still have no clue how we wound up with Anthony but it seems as if I have “the life” here. I have the husband who has the job and travels, the house and the car and the kids, the nanny and the name brand groceries, the quality clothes and a calendar full of pilates appointments. Everything here lacks depth, it is like I put my mind in water and froze it here- never to think again. Shallow as a splash pad.

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“Whats the plan?” I ask

“Let’s just take the same walk we did the first and second time, put our feet in the water. Maybe we can put the kids' feet in the water. I’m not sure, we just have to try somet-”

“Moma,” Anthony says

“Well goodmorning sunshine” I reply, getting out of the car to unbuckle his carseat and I encourage Jack to do the same with Gia. We lather the kids in sunscreen, too eager to spend time protecting our own skin as we begin our expedition. I have Gia in a front-pack we found in the trunk of the Mercedes and Jack has Anthony in a larger, toddler sized, backpack and we are both sweating under the clear blue California skies. It has to be 90 degrees again today, the lack of clouds makes the sun feel more intense but the cold bottled water and end goal are easing the pain.

We reach the point of the trash can where we saw the covered man and I said to Jack, “what do you think it means?”

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

“It has to mean something.”

“Yeah, it means that was a homeless person who is not in the same reality as u-”

“See? See what I mean? Maybe that man was out of his mind, all the more reason to listen to the riddle because things don’t seem so sane here do they Jack?”

Gia is starting to sweat, I take a break in the shade and use the cold water bottle on her head as we catch our breath.

“Almost to the water, 0.3 miles” Jack tells me, Anthony is occupied trying to grab the leaves above his head.

0.3 miles has never felt so long. We arrive at the shore edge eager to put our feet in the water. Sitting down we take the kids out of their packs and remove our shoes. I place Gias toes in the waterfall and say “waterfall” which Anthony starts repeating.

“Waterfall!” he says and Jack repeats to him, “waterfall!”

All four of us are sitting with our toes in the water, Gia is in between my legs and for a moment I can understand how this reality makes me happy. For a moment I forget that Jack is cheating on me, I forget that kids are exhausting, I forget that my life revolves around everyone except for myself and I feel at peace here in nature with the love of a nuclear family. Jack and I smile at each other, I think he feels it too.

“Kiss!” Anthony says, so we do.

Clouds roll in suddenly, we vividly remember this scene. Shooting looks at one another, we try to stay calm as Anthony says again “kiss!” We both breathe in, leaning forward we kiss and lightning cracks. We turn our heads quickly to see the signal tower lighting up, struck with force the water suddenly surges and everything goes black.

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“JACK!” I yell, shaking him ferociously, “Jack, wake up!” We are back on the edge of the water, it is grey and pouring rain and we are soaking wet. There are no more wedding rings on our left hand, there are no kids in our arms and no diaper bags or coolers to be found. Jack comes to it, he rises to a standing position too quickly and makes himself dizzy. Steadying on a tree he says, “we fucking did it” through gasps of relief.

“We fucking did it,” I repeat

We embrace and laugh miniacially before walking back to the car in the pouring rain, past the man riddling “as the story goes, the center doesn’t hold” we do not say a word the entire walk or the drive that follows. Jack drives me home, slowly and carefully through the hills. We arrive at my apartment, he parks the car and flips his hazards on.

“I think I get what the man meant. About the center not holding,” I said.

“Yeah, me too.”

“I’m glad this is the reality we exist in.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Jack & I never speak of the timeline switch ever again.