The Leap #BlogchatterBlogHop

She looked around quickly, to see if anything had been taken.

What she saw completely baffled her. Was it a state of surprise or shock, her mind wasn’t able to comprehend. The mere swiftness of the moment shook her very senses. She looked at herself, from head to toe, feeling her clothes. She was the same but everything around her was not.

The leather satchel that hung from her shoulder, across her chest, was there but her trolley was gone. She sighed in relief to see that her passport was still there in her bag but the loss of her luggage started to raise panic.

She turned around and the sight perplexed her. Where there had been trees some moments ago, there were now just tall skyscrapers piercing the sky even through the clouds. She had seen similar structures back home, she even lived in one. But these seemed different. The balconies were absent. Any sign of a person inhabiting inside there was gone.

She walked a few steps, searching for her trolley but in vain. She barely escaped getting hit by the car, twice. Wait, was that car moving by itself? She turned around to look closely again but the car was far gone by then.

What world I am in, she thought to herself.

Most importantly, how did I reach here?

She pulled out her mobile phone from her satchel, only to see no network reception.

She walked some more and found a seat on the pavement that seemed to be made of some recycled material which it proudly claimed. Her throat seemed parched and her eyes felt foggy. She closed them to think harder about the events that had taken place in the last few hours.

She remembered getting up in the early hours of the day and going for stroll by the beach to catch the sunrise. It was an unusual event to capture since she had always visited the west side of the country until then. The breathtaking sunrise, the sight of the sun emerging from the horizon was captivating, especially when she had always witnessed it hiding behind it instead.

With a victory glow on her face, she walked back to the resort. She quietly let herself in without waking her husband, who was still snoring softly in the bedroom. She kept looking at him from the distance, standing by the door, a smile catching up on her face. A few minutes later, the notification of a reminder on her phone broke her stance. She looked around and then started to gather things to pack up. Their vacation of a month has finally come to an end. The home was calling her.

A few hours later, after packing up and deciding the place they would stop for lunch before catching the return flight, he had walked out to complete the check-out formalities. She had followed him shortly after. Closing their villa’s room behind her, she dragged out the trolley.

She couldn’t remember what happened next and what brought her here. And where was her husband?

She got up frantically and started to run. Having run a few steps, she realized that there was no one around to answer her queries. Panic about losing luggage was now replaced with a greater panic about her missing husband. She pulled out her phone again but no change in the network yet.

It was then she observed, the phone showed the time as 5PM instead of 11.45AM, the time she had walked out of that villa’s main door. There was no way almost five hours had passed since then. It had only been a few minutes, she was sure of it.

She quickly opened the Calender on her phone. The expression on her face froze, and her eyes stared blankly at the screen which showed today’s date as 29^th February 2062. She has walked into a world Thirty years ahead.

Things made little sense to her as she remembered reading about the time portals opening at some places on the leap day. She never really believed in them until now.

With renewed anxiety she looked around quickly, to see if anything had been taken. Everything had been taken from her indeed because now she stood in a world that wasn’t hers.