Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Dan was 37 years old and had been married to Sam for six years. He had graduated from university with a, first class, degree in mechanical engineering and had been recruited into the automotive industry immediately. He was tall and dark, but not handsome. He was attractive in that he was witty and charming, but his nose was a little too big and his grin a little too wide.
Samantha had been a friend of a friend and they had found themselves moving in the same circles. She became oblivious to his physical flaws as she fell in love with the wonderful person Daniel was. She was a natural when it came to computing and coding and she was always in demand. She liked contract rather than permanent work and particularly liked a bit of trouble shooting on a rogue system.
Their lives progressed from dating to marriage and then to the birth of their first child Grace. Dan and Sam had changed their lifestyles as they now had a child, but were happy with their lot. Their days of nightclubbing and partying were, mostly, gone replaced by more family-oriented activities. When Sam had become pregnant again, they were delighted. The scans had shown that they were having a boy and that would make their family complete.
The fairy tale ended in tragic fashion. Sam was rushed to hospital in the 37th week of her pregnancy. The pain in her stomach indicated that something was very wrong and the baby boy had been stillborn. Dan and his wife named their dead child Alex and spent a few hours with him before saying goodbye. The next few weeks they were united in their grief.
As time moved on, life had to be lived and each of them dealt with their loss in a different way. Sam talked about Alex every day. She would unpack all of the baby clothes she had bought for him and then fold them up and put them away again. She would cry every evening and at random times throughout the day. Grace was only two years old and she was becoming anxious and unsettled.
Dan still felt the loss of his son acutely. He was not however going to display his distress to the world. He had to go out to work and provide stability for the family. He had cried many times in the weeks after the tragedy but he couldn't do it anymore. He had to try to guide them back to normality, for Grace's sake.
Sam constantly relived the loss of Alex and tormented herself about what she could have done differently. Dan had listened to her and reassured her that she was blameless. He had listened to her and nodded. Then he hadn't listened to her at all. She was torturing herself and he couldn't stop her. He didn't want to be a party to her misery.
There were arguments and recriminations and once the discussions stopped the chasm between them widened. Dan had wondered more than once how they would get past this trauma. He was concerned about what would happen if they couldn't move on. Were they even still in love?
They had struggled on for the next two years. An uneasy truce was being observed which saw civility and kindness when Grace was around and silence when she wasn't. It was an existence and neither of them was happy. Dan and Sam hung in there in the hope that at some point things would get better.
Now he was sat in a hospital designated District 31. The whole place seemed to have been caught in some time warp. Everything was different. People wore clothes which had been out of fashion for years. His wife had arrived to visit him looking like she had stepped out of an old black and white movie. Then she had talked about their children Grace and Alex.
He thought he would be comforted by a visit from his wife. Dan would see her and everything would be resolved. Instead, he had become more convinced that he was somewhere other than the world he knew. What did that comment mean? Was his son alive in this place?
He was now contemplating the idea that his son had not died at birth. This information and all the other peculiar things whirled in his brain. He could not dwell on the question of whether Alex existed. That was one torture he could not subject himself to right now. When he got out of hospital things might become clearer.
Dan was tired and stressed. This was not a dream he was sure of that. There was too much detail and it had gone on for too long. He felt himself becoming numb as he could find no way to cope with his bizarre circumstances. He needed to shut down for a while. He had been injured and he had to get better and regain his strength.
When the nurse visited that night, Dan asked her for some more NL15. He had to get some sleep and this drug would help him. He was told that a doctor was required and he asked why.
"Can't you give me the medicine?" The poor woman looked genuinely shocked and said that only doctors could dispense drugs.
One more anomaly in this strange new life. He got his dose of NL15 and then Dan spent a pain free, but mostly sleepless night tossing and turning. Waking up, he quickly looked around and found that nothing had changed. How he got here and how he could get back were troubling questions.
In the morning he ate kippers. He laughed and then cried a bit as he ate his anachronistic meal. He wasn't at all sure that he would be able to deal with whatever the rest of the day brought his way.
The nurses and Dr Frobisher regarded with him with looks of concern. Dan wanted to get out of the hospital and to do that he had to convince them that he was getting better. As he had his check-up, he made his excuses.
"This episode has shaken me up a bit. You're right, once I get home, I will be able to relax properly. Time and family life are what I need." Dr Frobisher was glad that his patient was calming down.
What would be waiting for Dan as he left the hospital? His wife was out there, but what about other friends and work colleagues. Did they have a role in this world? There was so much he didn't know. He was both terrified and excited about what he might find. One thing at a time. He had to get out and then he could discover more about this new life and how everything worked.
He had studied engineering, so he knew that there were absolute certainties in life. There was cause and effect. There was science. Chemical elements and mathematics. Whatever universe he was now in the same principles would apply. That knowledge was of comfort to him as he faced so many other uncertainties. For now, he was waiting for whatever shock would come next.
Dan had been told that a car was being sent to pick him up. Sam had apparently dropped off some of his clothes, what would they be like, and after one final chat with Dr Frobisher he would be released back into the world. An orderly entered the room and delivered a large package which was wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string.
When he had eventually managed to wrestle the parcel open, he found an outfit not dissimilar to the one which his doctor wore. He put on underwear, but not the vest, and the shirt. He put on the suit including the waistcoat and felt slightly ridiculous, He examined the tie which was supplied but could not bring himself to put it on.
Dr Frobisher was back shining the torch in his eyes and then patting him on the back. He shook Dan's hand and looked into his eyes.
"Any problems and you come back and see me. In fact, come back and see me at some point however you feel." He looked concerned and sincere and Dan appreciated that there was someone he could turn to in this new existence.
Dr Frobisher was more than a little concerned about his patient. Daniel was confused, but there was something else. Unusual artefacts had arrived on the person of Daniel Ellis and the doctor had removed them for safekeeping. At some stage, he hoped, the injured man would return to the hospital and maybe offer an explanation for these items. He did not want to push Daniel while he was in his fragile state to remember his strange accident.
A man in a black suit and cap knocked on the door and then entered declaring that he was the driver. Dan was led outside and he looked around desperate to see his environment and get his bearings. The hospital building had a hint of Art deco about it as did the gardens which were laid out in front of it.
The car which was waiting was black and very plain. The style was reminiscent of a small hatchback from the eighties but he could not identify it. There was no badge or model name on the car and no ornamentation. Inside the vehicle the seats were leather. The controls and pedals were recognisable and as the driver set off Dan was pleased to see that things appeared to work in the same way.
The only branding of any kind, that Dan could see, was a logo in the middle of the steering wheel. A silver metal oval with the letter W over the letter G inside of it was prominent because everything else in the car was plain black.
"W G" Dan said out loud as he read the plaque.
"OWG" The driver said "One World Government. The doc said you had a head injury, but no one can forget that." Dan decided to stay quiet for the rest of the journey.
He looked out of the window as he was driven down broad roads lined with shops. The architecture ranged in style from what he would consider Victorian to the concrete minimalism and brutalism of the sixties and seventies. He saw only a couple of much older buildings, which were the only clue that he was still living in the same area.
Dan found his journey rather surreal. The frame of the window through which he was looking made him imagine he was watching a film. He recognised some landmarks, but there was a lot more countryside in the distance than in his version. His version? He had yet to give this phenomenon a name. It might just be good, old fashioned, madness.
The urban sprawl which had occupied this space before was gone. There was a town but it was not how he remembered it. Reading, Berkshire, which is where he was, had changed beyond all recognition. The fields and countryside which had been built on many years before on his earth, were untouched. This much infrastructure could not have been removed whilst he was in hospital for two days. The suspicions first aroused when he had awoken, were now becoming more solid. Weird clothes and an odd feeling had given way to most of a town disappearing.
They were moving into more residential areas. They hadn't gone very far but it had taken time because they were travelling so slowly. The houses were similar with the odd one being of a different era. Occasionally he saw one of the black cars parked on a driveway but most were empty. All of the cars looked exactly the same. During the trip three vans passed and all of them were the same model. They were black with a small OWG logo on the side.
Dan's house, as he remembered it, was a Victorian end of terrace property. The inside had been drastically altered and was mostly open plan. He and Sam had, of course, kept the period features, a fireplace, ornate coving and ceiling roses and had blended them with more modern décor. As he approached his street he wondered what he would find. What was considered modern in this world?
The car pulled up outside of his house and he was pleased to see a vehicle sitting on his drive. Dan knew it was his home from the number, but it didn't look how he remembered it. The front garden he recalled, was covered in block paving with a couple of pots with some sad looking plants in them. Neither he nor Sam was particularly green fingered. Now it was a lawn surrounded by shrubs with a drive to one side.
Dan climbed out of the black car. He walked past what appeared to be his car and would have loved to open up the bonnet and have a look at the engine, but that would wait for another time. He walked to the front door of the house which was his, but not his. He realised that he didn't have a key, but this became a moot point as the door was opened by a maid. That was definitely new.
"Welcome home sir, I hope you are feeling better. Mrs Ellis is out with the children she will be home soon."
There it was again, the word children. Dan felt unsteady on his feet as he realised that he was about to meet the son who had died in the other world. He had thought of everything and anything for the last few hours to avoid the hope that Alex was really alive.
The anxious maid wanted to usher him to a chair, but he wanted to look around his home. Seeing what was different gave him a new distraction to focus on. The wall which divided the main living rooms was back in place. The kitchen was separate and bore no resemblance to the sleek, high gloss and chrome interior of before. There was however an Aga and it struck Dan that his wife had always wanted one of those.
There was a television in the corner of the living room, but it was a square box like the ones from the 1950s. The light fittings were retro chrome and rather nice. There was wall paper in a pale green colour complimented by darker green curtains and cushions. Not what the Sam in the other place would have chosen.
Occasional tables stood next to the leather armchairs and on top of each one was a doily. Dan had never thought that he would ever be in the presence of a non-ironic doily. The maid, after sitting him down, had left the room and now she returned with a cup of tea. For the first time he looked closely at her and he knew her face. It was Phyllis who ran the accounts department at the company he worked for.
"Phyllis?" He tried and she replied "Yes sir."
Dan could remember leaving the house two days before but that was all. He was definitely not in the same place any more. His wife was here and Phyllis, who was someone else he knew. Sam was still his spouse in this world but Phyllis had a completely different role. Why were there such big discrepancies between the two worlds? He now knew that he was not in the same place he had been a few days ago.
Their conversation was interrupted when the front door opened and Phyllis left the room. Sam entered and regarded him nervously.
"How are you?"
"Much better. Grace and…"
Sam told him that they were just taking off their coats and shoes and then they would be in. Grace walked in holding her younger brother's hand and Dan let loose a loud sob.
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