Fiction Friday - The Reason (Finale to The Neighborhood and The Continuum)

This story is the conclusion of  "The Neighborhood" and "The Continuum". If you haven't read those first two parts, it will help if you check them out here (part 1) and here (part 2).
 

Colleen drew a bath as she talked. Willis watched her movements, not yet fully convinced he wasn't imagining things. The master suite looked the same as usual, and Colleen looked the same as usual. Their hug downstairs was the same as usual, but she'd disappeared once, so he didn't believe it wouldn't happen again.

"I'm really, so sorry this affected you at all. It's all my fault." She paused and hesitated near the hamper, in the end deciding to drop the pajamas she'd been wearing into the dirty laundry. They'd been worn the whole time she waited for his timeline to catch up to hers, after all. Sighing, she turned to him with a weary smile.

"I bet you're confused." The only response was a nod, so afraid he was that speaking would break the spell and he'd wake up in front of the TV downstairs. She nodded steadily back at him, checked on the water level in the tub, added some bath salts and bubbles, and returned to the bedroom. Noticing his lack of movement, she said, "It could take a while. You might want to pull the chair over to the bathroom door."

Willis complied, still saying nothing. The white brocade-upholstered chair was her addition to the bedroom suite, and had become visual white noise to him. Now, he moved some of her clothes from yesterday off the chair and onto the bed, and pulled the chair to the bedroom-bathroom entrance to sit comfortably. 

He sat and watched as she tested the temperature of the water,  then a thought dawned on him. "You don't have a bath every night. Isn't this a 'change of routine'? Will you disappear again?"

Colleen crossed back over to him, took both of his hands in hers to give a squeeze, looking deeply into his eyes with compassion. "It's okay." She went to get into the bath, moaning with delight as she did so. 

Her head resting back on the bath pillow, she closed her eyes and started talking. "First off, no. This is a deliberate change due to a change in situation. My whole day was lost, so the bath instead of shower is fine. Last night - no, yes, how long ago? whatever. The night I disappeared I was simply distracted and did each usual step out of order." She sank down to wet her hair and rose again. "Distraction and inattention is the bad part."

"For what?" She had told Willis she would explain, but so far nothing seemed explained. "I mean, you can't possibly be 100 percent attentive  to everything 100 percent of the time. I've lived with you." He offered a playful smirk, but didn't feel it.

"I'm a bit hampered by how much I can say. Your routines, for example, won't have any effect. You can change things up as you like."

"Well good. I do."

"I know." Willis watched his wife settle back into the tub, her head relaxed with eyes closed, arms resting on the sides of the tub. Her left hand, against the wall away from him, he could see was drumming a pattern of thought. That was her habit when she was weighing her words.

"Okay," she had come to a decision. "Some of us - I can't say who, but there's a word for us that begins with an 'I' and ends with an 'I' - please don't say the word out loud." The last part came out so fast that Willis didn't even have time to think the word "illuminati" before she continued. "This is harder to explain than I expected." A groan upward toward the shower head and she turned a tired smile toward him. "I'm one of the ones who can affect change by making change."

In the time it had taken for her to find words to scratch the surface of the huge subject she was trying to explain, Willis had found his voice. "You said this was 'only 22 hours'. What's happened before?"

"Nothing due to me," she was quick to reassure him. "Mostly, we just - live our lives. Certain routine actions indicate that all is well. Life and everything around is functioning ... as it should. Minor changes with intention don't effect anything. My guess is that someone else's evening routine was disrupted as mine was."

"Did you see someone?"

Colleen rocked her side-to-side against the bath pillow, clearly tired. "It doesn't work like that. I wouldn't know another person like me if we were standing in line together at the deli. No. Last night I went to bed as usual - well, not as usual - and when I woke up it was evening. For me. I stayed inside, and found myself downstairs in the chair where your timeline eventually caught up with me."

"But how -"

"By staying in one place, my time didn't move. I may have adjusted a few minutes here or there, as I wandered the house in confusion. The point is, I didn't disrupt anyone else's timeline, so my time was static. In this house. Until this house - and you - caught up with me." She grinned over at him. "All clear?"

Willis sighed his response. "Clear enough for me to go to bed, I guess."

"I love you so much. You know that."

"I know," Willis couldn't forget Hank's comment. "If you were gone for longer, I might've had a hard time convincing the police of that."

Colleen pulled the drain plug and rose from the tub, dripping with scented water and a few lingering bubbles. "I know. My heart hurt for you." Her wet arms were open, awaiting an embrace. Willis grinned, grabbed the nearest towel, and wrapped her in it, drying her as they embraced to begin a "welcome home" night to end all others.

It's FICTION FRIDAY!
Every Friday, a new flash fiction story, inspired by reader comments (as much as possible). Feel free to leave a prompt for future use in the comments below. This story was actually loosely based on a conversation we actually had at my home. It got me wondering, "what if?"

If you choose to join in for Fiction Fridays, post a link to your story below in the comments. If there's interest or participation, I may start suggesting prompts here for the following week.