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A ray of light hit Carmen’s face and she groaned. She turned her head into her pillow and settled back into the comforts of sleep. Light? Sunlight? Involuntarily, Carmen jolted upright. Vaguely, she remembered Shane spooning her to sleep, then getting off the bed to go outside. Her mother came in. Groggily she swallowed her medication, groggily she smiled as her mother cradled her like she used to… groggily she assumed that Shane was waiting for her outside. Shane.

She looked around the room and confusion overcame her. She was still in her old room, in her mother’s house. But it was daylight. Shane promised her she would bring her home. Shane promised. But… it was day, in her mother’s house. Her head span out of control. Her worst fears came rushing in. Did Shane leave? Abandoned her? Did she decide that she was too much of a hassle and left her at her mother’s? Was she gone for good?

Quickly, and quietly, Carmen got off the bed and made her way out of the room. The house was quiet, and peaceful. But she feared that as she was asleep, hell had broken loose. “Shane wouldn’t leave me, Shane wouldn’t leave me.” Her brain screamed, but evidence showed that Shane was nowhere to be found. Neither were any of her family members. At the moment, Carmen would rather believe that a meteor had fallen and everyone had perished, then to believe that Shane had left without a word.

‘That’s it, a meteor. No… maybe I am still dreaming, maybe I am in another dimension. Maybe I went back in time…’ Carmen tried all sorts of irrational excuses to ease her growing fears. But as she came into the kitchen, and spotted a note that her mother left for her. She knew that she wasn’t dreaming, she was alive and well, in the right dimension, and that Shane had abandon her.

‘Carmen, gone to take care of some things at the store. Will be back in a few.’ The note read in spanish.

No mention of Shane, or anything else. It’s almost as if it was like she never moved out, that nothing had happened. Her eyes traveled to the counter top near the sink, rested on top was a couple of pill bottles that Carmen recognized as her own. Nope, it was all real, she still had cancer.