PARALLEL
By Abra Ebner
Copyright© Crimson Oak Publishing LLC
“It is not humanity at fault,
It is he who cannot accept the world that is to blame.”
– A.E.
From a Letter found in Patient #32185 Personal Effects, Boston Memorial Hospital
To whoever finds this,
My name is Max Mckay and if you’ve found this than I have died. There may be things about me that you will find strange, but if you could understand the life I’ve lived, then you will know more about the nature of my makeup. I loved a woman, plain and simple, loved her so much that I stopped at nothing to save her but that question I ask is from what? I am different from everyone, special, unique. Perhaps I am simply God’s creation, sent here to do his bidding, but perhaps I am the devil. Either way, I have seen that there is a pattern in this world and a fear so dark it could swallow the night. You cannot hope to erase all the wrong, only replace it with another. You cannot change your luck, you can only change events. My personal belongings will tell the story…
Statement from Dr. Ashcroft, Boston Memorial Hospital
August 3, 2009 11:56 p.m.
Agent Donnery: How did you know him?
Dr. Ashcroft: I met him at twenty-five.
Agent Donnery: But it say’s here that you’ve known each other since you were six? How is that?
Dr. Ashcroft: I met him a couple times for the first time if that makes sense. But from what I know I was twenty-five our very first meeting and he was twenty-seven. Think of it as a timeline, but you can jump from one place to the next, each place revealing something that has changed, each a parallel life of the one you were just in.
Agent Donnery: I see, so what happened? How and why do you believe, or I suppose know, all this is true? Tell me your side of it.
Dr. Ashcroft: It’s hard to believe, but my life was stolen from me. If I had known all along about what was happening, I suppose I would have tried to stop it, though it would have been hard. I have been lied to, led down a path that I no longer see as my own. When I was a little girl I used to think I was lucky, that all the great things in my life were God’s choice for me, but now I see that God had nothing to do with it.
Agent Donnery: So you believe all this?
Dr. Ashcroft: Of course I believe this, it was my reality. (pause) There is nothing left now but the stories of a man describing a life I thought was a faint memory, imprinted on my mind like a dream. When I think back I can remember it all, but it hurts too much to imagine and I still can’t believe that I fell for it, that I took the easier path and ended with a life that was false.
In the end, I suppose all I can do is live with the cards I have been dealt. I’m in love with my fate, the fate that took me on this parallel path into a place I was never meant to be. I only hope that grace can still find me here, and that I will be forgiven. After all, if God was no part of it, than I guess love is the devil’s creation.
Agent Donnery: I see, so you loved him too?
Dr. Ashcroft: Yes, I suppose that no matter what life, I would have always found myself drawn to him. It was fate after all.
Agent Donnery: Will you tell us how it happened?
Dr. Ashcroft: I can try.
Agent Donnery: (Pause) Here, these are his journals you requested, to help your memory.
Dr. Ashcroft: (Pause) Thanks, I (Pause) I’m sorry it’s just been a while, most of this I’ve never seen.
Agent Donnery: I understand. (Pause) We’ve tried to make sense of it all, but unfortunately it jumps around and it seems things may be missing, or are out of order.
Dr Ashcroft: (Laughter) Agent Donnery, I’m certain it isn’t out of order, that’s what you need to understand. (Pause) Here, let me begin.
abra ebner 