A Turn of Fate

[BlueEyedLady]

Have you ever woken up to find you don't know where you are? I don't mean the way you do when you have slept really hard and wake up from one of those dreams that seem all too real. I don't even mean the way that it happens when you get so drunk you wake up next to someone you don't realize you met and wonder what happened between the both of you.

I don't mean waking up, blinking and letting things hit you gradually until you realize that you are in your own bed, staring up at a familiar ceiling and warm and cozy and safe.

That's not what I mean. I wish I did. Hell, I would have opted for the 'waking-up-to-a-stranger-in-my-bed-and-wondering-what-had-happened' senerio instead of what happened to me this morning.

Let me go back to yesterday, because as far as I can tell, that's when things started getting weird. And I mean really, really weird.

First, I have to introduce myself. Or who I used to be. Don't worry, you'll understand once I explain my story. And, if you do, let me in on that understanding, will you? Cause I haven't a clue.

I work, or worked, as a personal secretary in a large corporation. I am, or was, a good secretary. Very organized, very effecient, very dutiful to my job and my boss' needs.

I was also a bit timid in things both business and personal. Okay, I was shy and awkward, a real doormat. For everyone in my life. From my father who used to call and ask for money I couldn't really afford to give him to support his drinking and women habits to my mother who would call and keep me on the phone for hours complaining about my father who she had divorced several years ago because of said habits and then I would have to go into work looking like something the cat drug in.

From my boss who would have me cover for him while he went golfing or for long lunches you could tell he drank instead of ate and who had me do his work so he could go to such activities to my boyfriend who made every demand on me possible and then would go out and leave me alone when he felt like it for a 'night out with the boys'. Yeah right.

I was a doormat, alright. I never said anything to any of them. I just nodded and said yes and went along in my life. Until this morning.

Yesterday I had decided to treat myself out to lunch. My boss was actually in his office so I didn't have to do any of his work and thought I might try a small cafe I had been wanting to go to for a long time while I had the chance. It was a nice day so I decided to walk since the place was only a few blocks down from the building I worked in.

Just before I got to the cafe, I saw a little shop I hadn't noticed. On the window was an advertisement which read:

Not happy with who you are, what you're doing or the path your life is taking? Come in and see what we can do for you.

I laughed to myself. What could they do about how my life was? Noone could do that but me. And I couln't seem to bring myself to do what I knew I had to do to change things.

Underneath the advertisment I saw that the place was into things like palm and tarot readings. In fact it advertised for predictions of the future as well.

I hesitated a minute and then shrugged and went in. Why not? I was curoius and what harm could it do? Boy, I wish I had known then what I know now. Which isn't as much as I'd like, by the way.

Inside the store was kind of dim with shelves that had everything from Tarot cards to incense, candles and books. I was looking around at everything when I heard a woman's voice by my side. I jumped about a foot in the air and whirled around.

"Well, well," A woman whose age I couldn't determine was smiling at me. "Come to have your fortune read? Or do you need to walk a different path? Yes, I can see it in your eyes, My Dear, you are not happy. Not happy at all. Well, I have just the thing for you then."

Moving away to a counter that was worn and stained, she reached under and took out a book, placing it on the counter and motioning for me to come near. Hesitantly, I moved over and looked at the large tome which had strange words and lettering which I couldn't read.

"Ahhh," The woman said, pointing to a page,"Here we are! Just the thing. Read this, go on, read it out loud, Dear."

I looked at her questioningly but did as she said. The words were unfamiliar but I managed to stumble through them with her help. By now I figured that the woman was a kook but I was too nice to say so.

When I was done, she nodded her head, closed the book and put it under the counter again. "Yes, that should do it," She said with a smile and held out her hand. "That will be twenty dollars, please."

I blinked at her, I couldn't believe it. Twenty dollars to have me read some mumbo-jumbo from a book? I wasn't going to pay it! I was going to walk right out that door and go to my lunch if I still had time and she could get some other sucker to pay her for nothing.

~Sigh~ You guessed it. I didn't walk and I did pay her and then I was ushered out the door with a promise that everything would look different in the morning.

The rest of the day was like any other. I came in late from lunch, got chewed out by my boss who took off for an extended lunch date, stayed late at work to finish his work, got home to the answering maching blinking and messages from my father, mother and boyfriend which I dutifully listened to before switching off the machine, fixing a cold dinner and going to bed.

The next morning, this morning I woke up and stared at a ceiling that wasn't mine. For one thing, it was higher than the ceiling in my small apartment and I was looking at it through a sheer canopy top. Before I could get my bearings, I looked around the rest of the room and saw nothing but rich and elaborate furnishings. I wish I could tell you what I was thinking and feeling at that moment but I have to admit that my mind had ground to a halt. There was nothing but blankness. Until the call came.

As I was laying there wondering where the hell I was, if I was still asleep and dreaming or if I had just gone crazy, the phone by the bed rang. I jumped then and scrambled across to the other side of the bed and stared at the phone like it was the cause for everything around me. It rang and rang and then it stopped and the answering machine picked up.

Carla! A male voice came booming over the machine making me jump again and scoot almost off the bed. You bitch! Haven't you made enough money off of me yet or are you trying to drive me into the poor house. I just got the call from your lawyer and I am not paying anymore damn alimony to support your spending sprees In fact, I'm coming over there now, in spite of the warning of my own lawyer, and we are going to get this hashed out right now and I'm not leaving until it is.

The phone on his end slammed down and I jumped the rest of the way off the bed and onto the floor, my heart beating wildly. What the hell was going on here? My name isn't Carla. It's Felicia and I"ve never been married in my life.

Scrambling to my feet, I moved to the vanity which was piled with boxes of jewlery and make up and looked in the mirror. All I could see was me looking back. Same dark brown hair, same hazel eyes. And I heaved a sigh of relief. Well, at least that was something reassuring. I think.

But I still didn't know what was going on. At that point I didn't know if I wasnted to know. How did I end up in this place? And where was Carla? Whoever she was? Well, I wasn't going to wait around and find out. I was getting out of here.

Looking around for my belongings, I found I couldn't find any. I couldn't go out in the pajamas I was wearing whick, to my distress was somone elses sheer scrap of a thing. I hoped Carla didn't mind me borrowing some of her things. I would have them cleaned and sent back as soon as I could but right now I was getting the hell out of here and back home where I belonged.


OOC: The plot to this story is that something HAS happened to my char as well as another woman. They seem to have switched places. Both will have gone to the fortune teller for thier various reasons and both will wake up in someone else's lives.

They will still look like themselves and act like they always do but everyone around them will still think that they are the other person and will act like they are as well.

I need somoene who can play Carla who is a gold digger and pretty wicked and scheming. If any of the ladies wish the part, please, post here and let's play. It should be fun.

I also need a male to play the part of Carla's husband, who has pretty much been taken for all he's got. He still has alot of assets but Carla has the better lawyer and she contiues to have her sights set on his bank account.

And I need a male to play Felicia's boyfriend who has been decribed in the post so far. Getting himi and Carla together should prove to be fun. Whether they hit it off and scheme against Felicia and Carla's ex is up to whoever takes the parts. I just want to have fun.


Any Takers?

 

[Shimmerotica]

Carla's Hubby-Martin

It took me a few minutes to compose myself after slamming the phone down. Had I just threatened Carla? A cold slick sweat broke out on my forehead, to accompany the molten lead feeling in my guts after the phone call with her fucking lawyer....
I went towards the front door and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked like shit, dark ugly circles under my grey blue eyes, blond hair uncombed and wild on my head...I took a minute to compose myself and peel off my sweatshirt, how the fuck did it get so warm?
-inhale exhale, gotta keep my composure, I can't let her see me like this, can't let her see weakness-
I bounded down the steps and jumped in my Imprezza, at least I still had a nice car. There was little traffic and I made it to Carla's in no time.
One last gut check.
-knock knock-
-c'mon c'mon I know you're there- I mumbled to myself
-knock knock- A little harder
it sounds like someone running around in there.
-BOOM BOOM-
-OKAY for fuck sake Carla open the Goddamned door!!!-
I was still dealing with the amazement of what I had just done when the door hesitantly began to swing open.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

OOC: Thanks for coming on the thread. We may have a lady to play Carla in Felicia's life. *crosses fingers* We do need a good male writer still for Falicia's boyfriend.

IC: I was halfway through the clothes in the closet when I heard banging at the door. I must have jumped five feet in the air, clutching some clothes to my chest, trying to find something not too expensive to wear because I really couldn't afford to replace anything so fancy. Unfortunatly, the woman who did own this aparment had no 'averager' tastes.

Grabbing a robe from the bed which did little or no good because it was as sheer as the nightie I was wearing, I threw it on and went to the door. The banging was still continuing and I was afraid to open it. When whoever was on the other side, please don't let it be the man from the phone call, saw me, he would notice I was not Carla and I would probably be arrested. That was all I needed.

Opening the door just a bit, I peeked out at the man standing there and had to swallow hard. He was very good looking but very, very angry. I didn't need a fortune teller to know that.

"Um," I said hesitantly,"Sorry, but C...Carla isn't here right now. Can I leave a message and have her get back to you? I...I'm not sure when she'll be back..."

God! I must sound like an idiot. Babbling on to this stranger who had come looking for someone that was certaintly not me. When he aksed me why I was here, what was I going to tell him? Even I wouldn't believe the story I knew was the truth. Maybe I wouldn't be arrested. Maybe I would just be locked up in the nut house after all of this was over.

 

[plainjane]

Carla

"What the hell happenned"? I asked myself. Did that goddamn husband play a trick on me or am I in the apartment that that guy that picked me up last nght brought me to?

There was the answering machine blinking. I played the messages and some woman claimed to be my mother. My mother is dead. Then some asshole wanted me to loan him $100 and he said somethng about paying me back for the last 100, but I couldnt figure out what he was talking about.

I found my way into a bathroom and nothing was mine. There was a toothbrush but mine is red and this was blue. Fuck it. I used it anyway to get the tate of his cum out of my mouth.

Where the hell was I?

I tried on some of the clothes. I couldnt wear the dress he ripped off me last night. It was in shreds and so was my bra and I hadnt even worn panties.

I found some slacks that I could get into, but they were tight, This little thing was petite and I'll bet cute as a button, but a sweatshrt in a drawer completed my ensemble.

Where was my purse? I'll bet the asshole stole it, with my money, credit cards and car keys. For that matter where was my car. I knew I parked it out on the steet in front of the place he took me to, but lpooking out the door it was gone too.
No money, no credt cards, no car. What was I going to do?

I did what I often did.

I went out on the street and the first guy that tried to pick me up, I asked for $50 and he gave to to me. I took him back to wherever in hell I was and fucked him, and then got him to drive me downtown and leave me off on a street corner near my own apartment, and I walked home,. The doorman let me in, and loaned me his master key to get into my apartment. It was empty, but just as I remembeed having left it last night, but my purse wasnt here either, and the bed had been slept in. The covers were all askew and there was a pair of soiled panties under the bed, and they weren't mine.

 

[ferryrider]

Frank

I put in call to my girlfriend Felicia to tell her Iwas going ouit with the guys tonight, to a hockey game and then out on the town.

She didnt answer so I left a message oin her voicemail. She didnt call back. Either she was out lkate herself, or she juyst didnt give a damn what zi did, so when I got home after the bars closede, I just went to sleep.

I called her again in the morning and got no answer so I just left for work, wondering where in hell she was.

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin-Carla's Hubby

You know after being married to this money grubbing bitch for so long you would think there would be nothing she could do to surprise me. Yet there she stands covering herself ackwardly with one of this wispy robes that at one point in time turned me on to no end...trying to bullshit me or something....whatever her plan was it gave me enough backbone to actually confront her.

-Listen Carla I dunno if you've taken to sniffin glue or smoking crack but cut the bullshit alright...you tell that good for nothing sack of shit you call your lawyer the next time he bloddy well acuses me of being greedy I'll give him my fucking size ten right up his geriatric ass...-

What the fuck is wrong with her, she's cowering....

-c'mon no response from the ice cunt herself-

Then the worst possible thing happened she shifted her arm and her glorious little nipple...
mmmmm, memories...

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

My mouth dropped open and I couldn't say anything. I didn't know if I wanted to say anything. This man was furious and he thought I was someone else. But I wasn't Carla...I was me...Felicia!

In frustration, I raised my hand and ran it through my hair forgetting all about the robe which promptly fell open exposing everything. I swallowed hard and tried to think what to say to him. I wondered if he would even listen.

"Listen," I said in, what sounded to me like a very weak voice, so I cleared my throat and tried to speak again. "I...I don't know why you think I'm this Carla person. My name is Felicia Howards. And I don't know anything about a lawyer or anything else you are talking about..."

Taking a deep breath, I rambled on,"Please, just let me get dressed and I will be out of here. I don't know how I got into this apartment but I can leave and you will never see me again."

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

I stood there, dumbfounded, for two reasons: she insisted on playing some little charade, and the gorgeous curve of her breasts and smooth silky skin of her belly and thighs and-
God I could feel my self losing that edge of rage...I had to get it back or I was lost again...
"Listen Carla, or Felicia-" I said as sarcastically as I could muster "whatever fucking game you're playing at I want none of, and trust me if for one second I believed that if I let you leave here I would never see you again..." I could not finish that phrase.
Looking back I am never sure if it was the un-carla look in her eyes or the all too familiar Carla look of here sweet sensuous body that halted that thought mid frame.
I turned away, I had to turn away or I was going to step one step closer to her, even closer to a ledge with a fall I could not hope to survive. Instead I lashed out and smashed that fucking ugly cone shaped vase she kept by the door, and I was about to start stomping on the goddamned thing in frustration when I felt a hand tug almost calmingly on my arm...

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

I jumped, holding my hand over my mouth to prevent a scream when he knocked the vase down. I had had experiences with anger with my boyfriend but there was something here that was different. He seemed...hurt...and, as my dad always said, I'm a sucker for a sad story.

As he turned from me, something inside of me went out to him. I had been used by more people in my life than I cared to count and it seemed like Carla, whoever she was, was doing the same to this man.

Putting a hand on his arm, I spoke without thinking. "No, please...I'm sorry if I upset you. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry if you think I'm this Carla you were looking for. I think...well...I think she really hurt you and you seem like a nice person. Well, I guess you're a nice person when you're not angry..."

My voice died out and I bit my lip looking for something to say. "I...I have to get dressed. Carla can't come into her apartment and see me like this. But...we...we could go to breakfast somewhere and you could talk...everybody says I'm a good listener."

I sighed inwardly. Now he really would think I was a fruitcake. And what was I thinking? Having breakfast with a man who thought I was someone else when I should be getting back to my apartment and work. Work! Oh, God! I was going to lose my job!

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

"What the fuck is going on here?" I said to noone and with all malice seeming to have escaped my body. Carla still had her hand on my arm and was looking at me so expectantly and so timidly as if she expected me to tear her chest open and eat her heart...
-she's playing you man!!!- the thought kept racing in my mind
I was no longer sure. Carla had never said or done anything remotely relative to this in all the time I had known her. Never.

And there was something in her eyes, behind the tears brimming, behind the fear...something I had never seen before.

"I-I--uh.." I was lost, for the first time I think in my adult life i had control in a situation that involved Carla.

"Christ go get dressed," and she was gone.

The blood was pounding in my temples..."I am going crazy."

I then did what every strung out, about to be divorced, confused moron does, I began to clean up the vase I had smashed and waited...

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

I scuttled into the bedroom and looked through the closet again. I bit my lip in indecision. Everything was so damn expensive! Holding my breath, hoping beyond hope I wouldn't have to replace the clothes I was about to put on, I grabbed a silken white blouse that buttoned down in front and a pair of black slacks. Simple but nice. And about the least costly thing in the closet. And that wasn't saying much.

Hurrying over to the vanity, I sighed and applied some of Carla's makeup to my face. Oh, well, if I was wearing her clothes and...omg shoes!...back to the closet for a pair of low heel, black sandals and then out to the living room again.

A bit breathlessly, wanting to leave this strange apartment, I said in a rush. "Okay...all done...can we go now?"

Then I groaned. I had forgotten.

"No! Wait!" I said, smacking my forehead with my hand,"I forgot. When I woke up this morning I didn't have any of my things. Not my purse or...anything! We have to go by my apartment so I can get some money for the resturant."

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

Watching Carla was odd, she was almost...cute...and Carla was never cute. Cold, calculating, seductive yes...but never cute.

I was half tempted to tell Carla that of course I would pay for breakfast because I knew that is what she was angling for but I decided to bite my tongue. Besides, I enjoyed this feeling of superiority, and even if it didn't last, I was damn glad I was on top for once. I decided to call her bluff about the "other apartment" and let things ride.

"Okay, lets get gone then-" I almost fucking complimented how good she looks, even dishevelled. I better watch that or the ball will be in her court again.

I held the door open and she practically ran into the hall, "You know I hate those fucking ugly shoes.." why the fuck did I say that, I mean i did, but hey I may as well use the spine while I have it.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

I heaved a sigh of relief and moved out of the door. I was going to be gone from this place now and I would be back to my old life again. Now why didn't that thrill me at all?

As I scooted out the door, I saw him look at me and thought he might have a glint of approval in his eyes. Why that mattered was another unanswered question that I was too afraid to answer.

Before I could move down the hall though he commented about my shoes. Looking down at them I couldn't see anything wrong with them. In fact, to me, they were kind of cute. But my unending need to please had me walking back through the door of the apartment I had just recently run out of and into the bedroom, calling over my shoulder to him.

"One minute and I'll change them," I said and was in the closet again. Kicking off the black shoes, I found a pair of closed-toed low heeled ones and slipped them on.

Coming back out of the bedroom for what seemed like the thousandth time, I stood for his inspection.

"Are these okay or do you want me to change again?"

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

I stood in the hall, and I know my mouth hung open as I watched carla 'bounce' of al things back into the apartment. It was as if what I said mattered.

I was scared. Down right petrified at the thought .

She came out into the hall with a glorious rosy glow to her cheeks. She modelled the shoes for me, I liked these ones a lot but they were still in the low heel class that I abhorred. But I stayed mute. HA! I didn't trust myself to speak.

I nodded, stupidly I imagine and she ducked out into the hall, as I closed the door I could not help ogling her swaying little bum as it passed me. And of course she turned and there was that wierd moment of guilt, denial, whatever....

"Shall we go then? You better lead the way" I cringed inwardly hoping it didn't sound sarcastic. My brain instantly repelled the idea, why the fuck not moron I said to myself she's taken everything from you...
But-
But all she did was smile, as if in relief, and thats when our eyes met, something I had been trying to avoid.
There it was again.
That something else.
That NOT Carla something else.
Holy fuck was I scared as I followed her to the street.

When we reached the street the odd game continued, as she stood right beside my car, the one she chose for me, she asked in the cutest most timid way possible if I had a car.
If I wasn't so smitten I would have laughed in her face.
Again all I could do was nod.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

I stood in the elevator with him, trying not to get too close. I didn't want him to think...God only knows what he would think...I could feel the heat in my neck from when our eyes met and I kept thinking I had to be crazy.

Of course I had to be crazy. I wasn't in the elevator with a strange man. I didn't wake up in a strange apartment and everyone was not thinking I was some woman I never met before.

Actually, I had had a nervous breakdown and was now in a mental hospital where nice, friendly nurses were feeding my IV tube with a wonderful drug that was giving me this weird, but nice dream. That had to be it.

When we got to the street I turned around and looked for my car. Of course it wasn't there. So I asked him if he had one and, giving me the strangest look yet, he nodded and pointed to the car I was standing by.

Turning, I gasped and smiled. It was a beauty.

"Oh! That one," I said with a laugh,"Wow! You have great tastes." And I waited for him to unlock it so I could slide into the passenger seat.

As he got in another thought struck me and I cleared my throat to get his attention.

"Um," I began as he started the car. "I don't know you're name."

 

[plainjane]

Carla/Felicia

I didnt know what to do. I was used to being the ex-wife thast spent her day working over an ex-husband and living off his money.

When the phone rang and I picked it up it was some office wondering why in hell I wasnt at work and was I sick.

I didnt know. I must have been sick - at least in my head because I didnt even know I had a job bujt I explained that something wierd had happenned and i didnt know where I was. I sked for directions to get to the office and I would appear.

I got in to some clothes that fit and seemed appropriate, and wen out and grabbed a cab. I walkked in and everyone crowded around wanting to know what was going on and I couldent tell them. Then some guy came out and told me he was going to lunch and he wanted a;ll his work done by the time he returned.

After he left I asked one of the other girls who he was and was told he was my boss. How wonderful, I thought, and asked where i weas supposed to be, and they directed me to his office.

There was a seretary's desk there, with the chair neatly pushed undeer the desk as if I had left for the night, and piles of papers and files on top. At least whe I opened the desk drawer there was a key with a naetag "Felicia" and an address so I guessed it was for the apartment where I woke up.

In his office there was an out basket overflowing and an in basket with more stuff, and of course I had no idea where to start,. I barely even knew trhe named iof the company.

I didnt knoiw how to turn on the computer, and thyen of coursem, didnt know the passwords so couldn't accomplish anything. I juyst sat in his chair, put my head down on the desk on my arms and went to sleep until I heard a loud shout telling me to get off my ass and get to work.

I looked up and it was the guy they said was my boss, and i stood up and told him I didnt have a clue where to start.

"Closed the door, Felicia", he said. When I did he locked it and told me to take off my clothes. I thought I had just put them on but I did as I was told. Then he pushed me down onm his big leather couch and started trying to make love to me.

That I knew how to do, and after he got undressed and climbed on top of me, he started fucking me, and right away told me "you arent Felicia. Who the hell are you?"

I told him I was Carla and he could fuck me any time he wanted to

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

I didn't answer her right away, two reasons, I hate talking when I'm in the car and well I was still debating as to whether or not this "act" was sincere.

"My name-is...Martin" Fuck that sounded robotic. "Martin Williams"

I looked over at her and she was just nodding, a tempting lock of hair fell forward and she unconciously and so gracefully tucked it away.

"And you are supposed to be my wife, well almost ex-wife, Carla-"

Where the fuck was I going with this? Did I actually believe her?

"But you are way to drop dead cute to be her," That was the truth but if it was Carla she hated to be insulted. All this woman did was blush.

I let the silence hang for a minute because I could see her trying to formulate a response. For the time being she gave me directions towards one of the poorer sections of town, I guessed we were heading to her apartment.

I was about to break the silence, maybe to comfort her because she seemed to be struggling more than me, but then her luscious lips parted and she began to speak.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

"Right there," I said pointing. I had wanted to speak earlier, to talk more than give directions but he hadn't seemed to want to talk so I had tried to respect his silence. The whole short trip I had wondered what he was thinking. After that last comment I didn't know. I blushed again just thinking about it.

We pulled up in the parking lot and I got out. I didn't have my key with me but I always hid an extra one under the flowerpot on the porch. I know it's lame and anyone could guess it but no one had broken in yet. Willie, the manager, was a faithful watchdog. He and Teresa, his wife, owned and managed the place and were some of the few people I could actually call my friends.

Walking up to the apartment, it was on the first floor, I bent down to retrieve the key when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Stop right there! What do you think you are doing?" It said.

I jumped and whirled around, my hand to my heart. "Oh! Willie!" I said with a smile of greeting. "It's you! I was just going into my apartment. I seem to have lost my key."

Willie didn't return my smile. In fact, there was a suspicious look on his face that I saw only when he was chasing off people who didn't belong there and when tenents came up with bad excuses for late rent.

"Look lady," He said in his no-nonsense voice,"I don't know who you are but this is Felicia Howard's apartment. And I know here very well. You are not her so just step away from the door and go home. If you're her friend than I'll leave a message for her to get ahold of you but she didn't tell me anything about a friend coming over and getting into her place so you aren't going to be able to do that." He paused and gave me a glare. "At least not while I'm around."

I looked at Willie dumbfounded and struggled to speak. I felt like the sky was going to fall any minute and wished I would come out of this lunitic hallucination if that was what it really was.

"Willie," I said in a strangled voice,"It's me, Felicia."

He just stood staring at me, obviously not buying it.

"Look," I said, thinking maybe he was playing a joke even though that didn't sound like Willie,"Let me go in and get my purse and I can prove who I am." This all seemed unreal and I couldn't think of anything else to do to remedy the situation.

"You don't have to," Willie said, pulling out his wallet,"If you want a picture of Felicia, I have one right here. It was taken at our last tenent's barbque."

Opening up the wallet, he folded back the pictures and thrust it out at Martin and I with what seemed like a slow motoin gesture. Staring down at the picture, I tried to focus, to see what was there but something inside me said that if I looked, my world would change forever.

Finally I was able to blink and focus and my knees almost buckled. Sitting at the picnic table, smiling and waving at the camera, in the same exact spot I had been sitting that day, was a woman I didn't recognize. She looked nothing like me. But Willie was tapping the picture and saying,"That's her. So, you see, I'm not going to buy this bullshit story of yours and you can just have this gentleman take you out of here and, if I see you around without Ms. Howards telling me it's okay, the next people you talk to will be the cops."

My gaze swung up to Martin, who was looking from the photo to me. There wasn't any recognition on his face for the woman in the photo. Somehow I knew it had to be Carla. Or the woman who used to be Carla. Somehow, in this crazy delusion, we were living each others lives. The thought made me actually waver and reach out in Martin's direction.

I heard him tell Willie something but I couldn't hear what it was for the rushing sound in my ears. The world was dimming and I knew that, at any second, I was going to go into a dead faint.

I felt arms around me then and I was being supported back to the car. I numbly got in when he opened the door and sat me down but I didn't say anything. I just tried to breath and not pass out. The world I had known had gone crazy and was totally out of control. To paraphrase Martin, What the fuck is going on?

 

[plainjane]

Carla

My boss knew that whatever was going on, he was going to have to do some work. Otherweise it simnply wasnt going to get done. Al;l I coulkd do in the office was take care of him sexually and that I was most willing to do.

He sat at his desk and me at his feet, with his cock in my mouth as he returned some phone calls. Finally he told me to get up and he started gowing me what he didand what I needed to know to help him.

Then he asked if I could type. When he said yes he showed me his compouter and word processor, and explained how it was setr up and told me to get started. With a piule of stationery at my side I typed. It wast like the old days with a manual typewriter, but it was close. My secretaria days were long behind me, and after a few letters I asked "can we just get back to sex? I like that a lot better"

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

I felt as though my mind was splitting apart. Here was this woman, who looked exactly like my wife. Yet she acted completely opposite of Carla. My mind rolled and pulled, years of mental, financial and in recent times physical abuse is all I had endured from this woman, and now this cuteness this sweetness, this innoncence emanating from her.
With all my being I was beginning to lower all of my defenses, yet there was still that nagging part that told me it was a trap, she's luring me in again and I was going to get crushed-

My reverie was broken by her saying "Right there" I pulled in and was glad to see the relief on her face. I followed wary and curious as to where this was leading, and when she reached under a flower pot to get a key as if it was the most natural thing in the world, my first thought was, "My God, all this time she's been fuckin schizo...explains a lot."
Fear was starting to resurface when a commanding voice said "Stop right there! What do you think you are doing?" Boy the fun just never ends.
I watched, rapt, as Carla and this man, obviously the super, bantered about the validity of her claim to be this Felicia chick. It was when he reached into his back pocket and produced his wallet that the clouds began to roll in as if a storm was passing across her mind, visible in her eyes.
Instinctively, I stepped forward a half step and I galnced down at the offered picture that the super was tapping incessantly, it was the picture of some trashy looking broad, I had never seen before, and it confused me, as if I was supposed to recognize her.
"-people you talk to will be the cops." That half caught line grabbed my guts and Carla looked at me with a lost desparation.
The storm passed in her eyes again but did not pass, her eyes dimmed and rolled and her arms flung out toward me as she staggered, I laced my left arm around her slight frame pulling her tight, holding her upright.
"Okay, okay big shot, that's enough...we're outta here." He began to say something I knew would be in order to claim a victory over us, "Listen, you really do not want to push this after the day I've had so turn your strutting little ass around and enjoy the remainder of your day."
I left him standing there goggling for a response, my focus was now on Carla, I scooped her up and escorted her to my car. I flung the passenger side door open and piled her gently inside.
She was shaking.
I knelt down and brushed the hair back from her face as gently as I could,
"Hey, it's okay, c'mon, relax" I held her face in my hands, " It's alright, somethings going on but-"
I ran my right hand down her arm, and pulled her head to my shoulder with my left...
"Hey, relax we'll figure this out together-"
I didn't know who was crazier her or me, but at that moment her despair was breaking my heart.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

I burst into tears the moment my head was laid on his shoulder. I couldn't help it. I had never experienced such gentleness before. Before I always had to be the doer, the one everyone wanted to depend on...okay, use...and his soothing voice and soft touches were the last straw for me. The dam broke.

I don't know how long I sat there shaking with my weeping but I know that I didn't want to move out of his protective arms. If I could I would have stayed there until everything that was happening resolved itself. It wasn't going to but it was a nice thought.

When I could finally find my voice, I spoke, my words muffled in his shirt, my tears soaking it.

"I'm not crazy...I'm not!" I said though I had my doubts myself. "I...I'm Felicia...H...H...Howards! And I live here and I know Willie and Teresa! I babysit their kids for Gods Sake!"

A new round of tears made it so I couldn't speak again. I knew this man, this gentle man probably tought a trip to a padded room was in my future and I didn't know what I could do to change his opinion. I didn't even know why it would matter that I did change it.

"I have twenty-six years of memory from Felicia Howard's life. And I don't even know anything about Carla Williams! How is that possible if I am Carla?" Was my next round of breathless statements when I had calmed down enough to speak again.

"I have a father who borrows off of me all the time, a mother who complains about my father and a boss who is an asshole," I giggled at that. I had never said that to anyone before though I had often thought it. "And I never do anything out of the ordinary. Never. I go to work, I come home, I...I deal with my boyfriend who is a drunk idiot," Again a giggle. Somehow being Carla and not being Felicia was either making me nuts or giving me a taste of freedom I hadn't dared to sample before.

I shook my head against his shoulder. "Never do anything out of the ordinary," I mumbled again. "The last spontanious thing I did..." I stopped. The last spontanious thing I had done was go to the fortune teller. That book! The 'spell'! Could it have actually worked?

Jerking my head up off his damp shirt, I looked at him straight in the eyes. "The fortune teller!" I said knowing he didn't know what the hell I was talking about. "Could you take me there? She can sort all of this out! I know she can!"

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

I just held her and she began to cry on my shoulder, yet again another NOT Carla thing to do.

I stayed mute, and let things run their course. Suddenly, a torrent of words and emotion poured out of her, then as suddenly as it started it was reduced to crying on my shoulder. Moments later it was another outburst, somehow this was exactly what she needed to right herlself.
She spoke to me of this poor soul that she "used" to be and I was getting overwhelmed,
"I have twenty-six years of memory from Felicia Howard's life. And I don't even know anything about Carla Williams! How is that possible if I am Carla?" My first instinct was to tell her that she did not want to know about Carla Williams life, but then again why in the Hell would she want to go back to the life she was living?
I stiffled an inappropriate giggle only to find her giggling while crying.
suddenly she sat bolt up right and dug her perfectly manicured nails into my tear soaked shirt-
"The fortune teller! Could you take me there? She can sort all of this out! I know she can!"

I believ that there are no words to adequaetly describe the absolute and utter incomprehension and confusion I was dealing with. but I could not allow her to see me doubt her, for I did doubt her, though, to be fair I was doubting me more than her.
"Listen I would love to to take you down whatever yellow brick road you think we need to travel on to sort this out. And when we get there remind me to ask the good old wiz where the fuck my brain is cause its somewhere out there right about now." It was my turn to chuckle. I could feel her eyeing me not knowing if I was serious. Then I put on my business face.
"I will take you on two conditions little miss, one we go get some goddamned breakfast first all this insanity makes a growing boy hungry..." she nodded expectantly as if waiting for the dealbreaker...
"Two, give me some idea what the fuck I should call you." I kow it was inappropriate but the tension got to me and I let out a great big barrel laugh, and I couldn't stop....
"I'm sorry...I-" I looked at her through tear clouded eyes hoping to God i had not offended her...

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

I looked at him stunned, not because he was laughing but because he wasn't dragging me into the nearest looney bin and tagging me with some mental disorder. Actually, if what little I knew about his relationship was right and if everyone thought that I was her than putting me in a hospital and having me declared mentally incompetent would solve all his problems.

But, instead, he was not only not doing that but he had agreed to help me chase down what could very well be an illusion. Though I still couldn't figure out which life would turn out to be delusional.

Soon, though, I couldn't help but join in with his laughter. It was infectious. He had that kind of laugh that caught on in a room full of people and made everyone feel upbeat.

"I...I don't know!" I said, though my own belly laugh,"I really don't freakin know who I am or what you can call me..." I shook my head. He had hit the nail right on with that question. The big one. Who the hell was I?

Wiping away tears of laughter, I said,"Well, since everyone thinks I'm Carla, I may as well answer to that. It will save alot of questions and I think I have enough people thinking I'm crazy."

I shrugged. "But my nickname is Poppet." I made a face at him, daring him to laugh at it. "My father gave it to me when I was little. Called me his little poppet. But my friends, what little I have, call me Mouse." I sighed. "Because I skitter away as soon as a challenge presents itself. Like a mouse."

Sobbering, I looked at him. "But I can't do that now, can I?" I said knowing the answer. "But...if...well, if you really will help me get through this...I know...I just know that things will be alright."

Then, impulsively, I threw my arms around him and kissed his cheek before hugging him tight.

"Thank you for being here. I don't know how I would have gotten this far without you."

 

[Shimmerotica]

Martin

To my great relief she was not offended and actually joined in the laughter, which was a delicious thing to see.

She began babbling in a way that was all her and that I was beginning to enjoy. I just nodded and smiled and then she began to thank me-

"But...if...well, if you really will help me get through this...I know...I just know that things will be alright."

-suddenly I was in high school again feeling the heat rise in my cheeks, I started to stand to break that goofy feeling I had when she lashed out, and for a split second I panicked, but that was all washed away by the feeling of lips on my cheek and the suprisingly strong hug she grappled me with. After she spoke I akwardly returned the hug, caught halfkneeling and half sitting, which off balanced me just enough that my body crushed against hers.
We both paused there caught tangled together in the rising heat in the interior of the Imprezza, all other sounds thoughts and my breath stopped.
that moment hung there, expectantly, that slight calm before a zing of lightening touches down.

I leaned forward and nuzzled her nose with mine.

"I think I'll call you Poppet."

It was enough to stall, not break that moment.

We carefully extricated ourselves from our comprimising position, righted ourselves and were soon heading of to a McDonalds drive thru. I was hungry, but I knew we could not delay her- no OUR quest to find some light.

"Well, seems I know about you, what d'you wanna know about me?" I tried to flash her my "winners" smile but I am not sure how successful it was with half an egg mcmuffin falling out of my mouth.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Felicia/Carla

As we pulled out of the apartment parking lot, I could still feel his body against me and, instead of making me uncomfortable, it was a source of comfort that I dearly needed.

I tried to put it out of my mind, at least in the background as we pulled in and he bought us breakfast. The smell as I unwrapped my own hit me and my stomach growled. I took a big bite in order to calm it and chewed with a sigh of pleasure. I hadn't realized how hungry I really was.

I looked over when he asked what I wanted to know and I sputtered a laugh around my own mouthful at the sight of him trying to eat and talk at the same time. I didn't know why but just being with him felt good.

Swallowing my own mouthful, I answered. "Everything!" I said expressively,"I want to know everything about you. And about you and Carla and how you met and why things went bad between you two." I hoped I was not treading where I was not wanted. But...

"If I'm going to be Carla, I need to know these things." I added lamely, not knowing what else to say.