Rainbow at Midnight

“This doesn’t make any sense,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “The time is right, but you’re not. I mean, I know you. I know everything about you, but I don’t. I even talked to you before our last show.”

Sitting in her family’s heirloom rocking char, she smiled apologetically and shrugged. An idea flashed in her mind.

“Howard? You did say that was your name?”

“Most just call me ‘Howie.’”

“Call the number you reached your fiancée at this evening. Use my phone.”

Howie picked up the princess phone beside him. He was hesitant to dial the number, not sure of what he would find. He raised his eyebrows in curious surprise when a man answered. He was told he had reached the wrong number when he asked to speak to Amber Sue.

“I just don’t get it,” he said, becoming more confused. “I’ve called this number twelve times each day for the past year.”

“Do you have a picture of her?”

“Of course,” he said, removing the wallet from his back pocket. “Here she is.”

Amber took the wallet and inhaled deeply in shock. She was looking at a picture of herself. The woman in the image had short brown hair, dancing eyes, and a mischievous smile. She knew she had never taken that picture.

“Good God,” she whispered, looking at him, her eyes wide with fright. “It’s like an episode of ‘Star Trek.’ The one where Kirk and Spock are sent to a parallel universe and their doubles from that dimension are sent in their place.”

“That’s one of your…her,” he corrected himself, somehow beginning to understand, “favorite episodes. If this is what happened…” he grinned, afraid of the answer, “are you the good or evil Amber?”