As Daniella watches the planes take off one after another, she is relieved to be back at the airport. Yes! Daniella Spencer finds herself once again awake at Gate 3. There is a peaceful silence jubilee flowing through her body as this area is the only place familiar to her at this point and time. She checks her phone screen as she has done before and takes notice of the time. It is 6:09 am.

"Boarding should be starting soon if I am at the right zone..." Daniella remarks to herself out loud.

She glances around her in the hopes of spotting anything out of place or out of the ordinary. But no! Everything seems to be in its right place. No sign of giant unanimated or animated teddy bears, no sign of fog anywhere... no sweet-smelling aroma coming from any other distant place. Nothing at all! No child carrying any unusual toys or items! No flight attendant behaving out of the ordinary! And no, she is deciding not to even venture into any of the cafes or restaurants... especially Starbucks! She decides to stay put where she is. No adventure until she safely lands back home! Everything is as it should be in perfect order.

Before she knows it, it is time for boarding at Gate 3.

"Good morning passengers. This is the boarding announcement for flight 77X. We are now inviting those passengers with small children and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time. Thank you."

Daniella sets a timer on her phone for ten minutes. In the past, she would do this right before she would meditate, but she instead stares into the dark, moody clouds and thinks back on her flashbacks... specifically Sweetheart and the slashed suitcase. A stain of guilt begins to spread throughout Daniella's consciousness, which is, unfortunately, is interrupted by:

"This is a final boarding call for passenger Daniella Spencer booked on flight 77X. Please proceed to gate 3 immediately. The final checks are being completed and the captain will order for the doors of the aircraft to close in approximately five minutes time. I repeat. This is the final boarding call for Daniella Spencer. Thank you."

"Whoops." she observes. "You would think that I would get better at paying attention to this... But am I surprised by this? No... not really." Daniella smiles, takes a long deep breath, gathers her belongings, and calmly boards the plane. She paces her breathing all the way to her designated seat onboard Flight 77X. Finally, something is going smoothly as it should.

"Hmmm. Strange. No text?" observes Daniella.

Daniella pulls out her phone and opens up her messages. Nothing. She quickly types up a short message.

Daniella

Hey! Babe! Just boarded.

She stares at her screen. Nothing. Her foot begins to tap.

Daniella

I'll text you when I land! Love you!

She quickly turns off her phone. She watches The Stewardess walk past her. They exchange polite smiles, but The Stewardess walks on by. No child, no bears, no jump scares, no champagne, nothing. Perhaps she used up all of her Business Class privileges.

Once the plane goes into taxi, Daniella grabs her purse and pulls out her notebook. As she goes through her bag, she quickly realizes that she has no pens... Not that her pens mysteriously disappeared, but that she probably chose to not pack her pens in fear of security confiscating her stuff. She does have her house keys and a copy of her car keys out of habit, so there's that. She grabs the attention of The Stewardess. 

"Excuse me? Is there a pen or any writing instrument I could use?"

"We have crayons... but that's about it. Is that okay with you?"

Daniella has a massive flashback of a red paper plane note written to her in crayon. She smiles at the thought. "Actually, that'd be great. Thank you!"

Within a few minutes, The Stewardess hands her a box of crayons. "You can keep it by the way."

"Thank you!"

Daniella turns her attention back to her notebook and begins to summarize each of her encounters so far:

1. Luca basically ghosts me... or we never knew each other? Luca sends first text although he later seems to not know of it????

2. We can't call or find each other. Luke = Barista at home airport. "Enjoy & Reset" = His Starbucks message. I fall asleep at Starbucks. 

3. Flight delayed. I go to Starbucks. Luke = Barista at departure airport. We chat. He has to "reset" the machine. I purposefully fall asleep = reset. I got a text. Luca sends the first text.

4. Upgraded to Business class. two kiddos. I drink a few glasses of champagne (3 or 4ish glasses). I meet Luca. He has a giant teddy bear. I fall asleep. teddy bear = sweetheart? L sends first text.

5. I make a run for it and try to switch flights. Everything rewinds. Dragged back. Child with teddy bear. Teddy bear = Sweetheart? Child = creepy. L sends text.

6. Upgraded to business class (again). Stewardess is with the child who scares me. Child is with Sweetheart. Child is also called "Sweetheart"....??? Luke = sexy millionaire (i think) who invented the RESET app. L sends text? Turbulence. I hit my head while trying to tie shoes. knock out/black out.

7. I'm at home. Luca is travelling. I sent the text L usually sends. Roles are completely switched. Room and house are too clean. pepe silvia episode. Lightning strikes the car.

8. Empty airport. Sweetheart = giant talking bear who is very very real (to me) who feeds me. v sensitive. only refers to me as "Daniella Spencer". we fight(ish) a couple of times. nasty flashbacks of bad behavior at airports. We move and travel around the airport. shoves me from the moving walkway. the moving walkway is neverending. lots of fog. we find exit, fog blocks vision, hits head.probably ran into wall or door?

9. Wake up at the airport. red paper plane with hand written note in crayon: "WAKE UP DANIELLA SPENCER" so it has to from Sweetheart??! I freak out, i fall.

10. I wake up at train station. red plane station. agent thinks i have amnesia. i get taxi, traffic on bridge (considered unusual). i leave taxi and sprint. also gets hit by car. kicked in shin by the child at security lines. i swear and fight with everyone. sprint across airport. miss flight. faint.

11. ...?????

"#11?! Already?!"

Daniella stares at #11 on the sheet. She looks around the plane. Nothing is out of the ordinary. Like at all. Everything is calm and smooth. Too calm. And too smooth. "Hmmm.... what are you up to now, Universe?"

She braces herself for turbulence. Nothing. A part of her wants to lean down and adjust her shoes, but a part of her does not want to play with chance.

As the plane completely lands, Daniella is weirded out by the lack of... drama? To be on the safe side, she rips out a page of her notebook and shoves it into one of her pockets.

As she exits the plane to collect her luggage, Daniella pulls out her phone and opens up her messages. She realizes that none of her messages were sent. She types up a new message:

Daniella

Here! Just landed! See you soon babe! 😉

That message also fails to send. As she sighs at her messages acting up, a female voice from the intercom interrupts her thoughts:

"Would Daniella Spencer come to Cargo Pick up Services, please? Daniella Spencer for Cargo Pick up Services, please? Thank you."

Daniella raises her eyebrow at the announcement.

"What are you up to now, Universe?"

Finding her way into the cargo pick up area a few minutes later, Daniella is told that she has to sign something prior to seeing the item. After a few minutes of polite argument... or debate as Danielle would label it, she signs the form and the service workers pull out what looks like a... crate???? Once they unlock the crate, a large Golden Retriever excitedly barks and runs out.

"Are you f**king kidding me?"

"WAIT WHAT? Um I'm sorry, that's not my dog-" exclaims Daniella as the dog happily jumps on her with his tail wagging erratically.

She turns to the Cargo Services representatives and tells them in a calm slow tone "I. Am. Sorry. But. This. Dog. Is. Not. Mine."

"Well Miss, let me go over the papers one more time... please bear with me..." A voice announces right behind her. She turns around and comes face to face with the most comforting facial expression she has ever seen on an older man.

"OMG this older man looks exactly like a poster child for Santa Claus!" she exclaims to herself internally.

She watches as the old man fusses with a pile of documents from left to right. He wrinkles his beard then fusses again with more papers in another pile from right to left. Daniella watches him attentively and wonders why the man does not simply use the computer right in front of him to speed up the process.

"Why not just use the computer Sir? It would speed up finding the source of this mix-up, I'm just saying..."

He stops for a few seconds, looks straight up at her, squints his eyes, scrunches his beard, smiles then resumes his actions.

After what feels like a lifetime to Daniella, the old man raises his left hand and shakes a pink sheet in front of her: "EUREKA!"

"Yes, eureka Mr..." Daniella repeats back in an attempt to mimic him.

"Young lady, I have here the answer to your mystery!" he says as he hands her the pink sheet.

Daniella hurriedly grabs the sheet and after carefully reading it, she freezes with eyes wide open.

"But I don't understand! I don't remember signing any documents remotely close to that... ever! This is obviously my handwriting that has filled out every part of this document yet I don't remember doing it! Am I going mad? Is this what it feels like to experience a nervous breakdown? It can't be! No, it seriously can't be that! All I know is that I have been stuck in this thingy thing for who knows how long..." But of course, she can't say that to him out loud. If he knew who she was, he would have said something as soon as they met. But to Daniella's knowledge, the old man and everyone else standing at the Cargo Services do not seem to know her at all.

As she indulges in her mental monologue, commotions around her feet demand her immediate attention. Apparently, this dog can't tolerate being ignored for too long.

"Pretty, pretty please don't slobber all over me." she silently whimpers to herself. The dog pants as he seems to be extremely fixated on Daniella's face. For the first time in a few seconds, Daniella chooses to look into the dog's eyes... strangely enough, there is something about the canine's eyes that feels comforting... and almost... familiar.

"This dog seems to know you very well Ms. Spencer!" she hears the old man say with a big hearty smile. She can still hear his voluminous voice fill the space as he walks away laughing. The strange oddness of this new situation unfolding before her is not lost to her.

Again, Daniella can't help thinking about Santa Claus as the man nods to her and motions her to welcome the dog in her arms and walks away. 

His paws exert his strength onto her upper thighs, forcing Daniella to maintain her balance. She tries to get the dog to remove his paws, but the dog is freakishly strong. As she tries to nonverbally reason with the dog, Daniella notices his dog collar. As she crouches down, the canine complies with her movement.

 She takes a closer look at his dog tag: "LUCA".

As she says his name out loud, Luca the golden retriever licks her cheeks causing Daniella to cringe.

"Ah. So that's what the Universe is up to! What in the world?"

To Be Continued... 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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