Maybe Next Time

Emma wakes up facing the window. She hears a bicycle bell and sees sunlight through a crack in the curtains. She turns over, and Dan says hello. Emma scrambles out of bed, astonished, scaring Dan with her reaction. He invites her back to bed, saying she has time. She stares at him, confused, but is relieved he isn’t dead and glad to have him back. Then she looks at her phone and sees the date: Monday, December 3. Several text messages are the same.

Emma wonders if she’s having a psychotic episode: Everything is the same as yesterday. She gets the same messages. She wears the same clothes. She checks on the children, upsetting her daughter, and has breakfast with her family, thinking, “I couldn’t remember the last time when we had all sat together like this” (110). She’s disoriented but decides that she has been granted a miracle. She bangs on the bike as she leaves for work. Familiar text messages arrive, including Hattie asking about lunch.

On December 3, 2011, Dan’s letter reveals that he and Emma have separated and he’s devastated. He realizes he let his grief immobilize him and says he wants to do better: He wants to be the man Emma deserves.