Chapter 2
"What!
?" Victoria's hair bounced as she shook her head.
"There's no way I'd ever change my alarm, I love it!"
"But, last night when we were at the boardwalk, in line for that terrible ferris wheel ride," William moved his hands in the air, as if he could unravel the memories of last night for Victoria in her sleepy daze.
"The boardwalk?" Victoria rolled over and buried her face in her pillow, muffling her voice.
"We didn't go to the boardwalk last night, we had dinner at Sylvia's place."
"Dinner at Sylvia's?" William seemed confused.
"No way, we went on the ferris wheel, you have to remember - you nearly died!"
Victoria turned to look at William, she was doing that cute thing with her eyebrows that she did when she was confused; it was part of the reason William had fallen in love with her in the first place.
"Are you feeling okay?" She asked.
"What?
Yeah of course I am, I guess I'm just still a little shaken."
"I know Sylvia's pot roast is terrible William, but I'm sure you'll recover." Victoria put her face in her pillow and tried to go back to sleep.
"Victoria, stop playing dumb!
We went out last night to the boardwalk, like we do every Wednesday, we were at Sylvia's on Tuesday."
"Uhh..." Victoria's muffled voice came from the pillow and she turned to William, again making her cute confused face.
"Babe, today's Wednesday."
William now had a turn to make his own confused face as he reached for his cell phone and looked at the date.
"Oh..." He said, scratching his head.
"It must have been a dream..."
William described the dream he had to Victoria and she pretended to understand how real it felt, but he wasn't convinced she truly did; he stood up and got ready for his day, went to work, stopped at the chinese place down the street for lunch and drove home - feeling like he'd done all those things before.
"I just had the strangest day," He said as he hugged Victoria - he hadn't even taken time to remove his jacket.
"Oh yeah?" She asked, smiling at him.
"Tell me about it."
"Well...it just felt so familiar, you know?
Like deja vu or something."
"Oh?
"Oh? That's weird - I love when that stuff happens." Victoria grinned and pulled away from William.
"It's so cool, always makes you wonder you know?"
"Yeah..." William's voice trailed off as he recognized each event of the day from the dream he'd had.
He thought about the ferris wheel and dreaded the thought of going.
"I'm so excited for our ferris wheel ride!" It was as if Victoria had read William's thoughts.
He grinned half heartedly at Victoria as she bounced up and down.
They ate dinner, pasta - like his dream - then climbed into the car for the short drive to the boardwalk.
Victoria pulled William along toward the ferris wheel and he felt his stomach sinking, he noticed a familiar corner and as they turned it felt a young boy slam into him with his ice cream cone.
"Are you okay?" Victoria said to William as she wiped ice cream from his clothes and noticed the colour had drained from his face.
"Uh...no..." William said, grabbing hold of Victoria.
"I really don't feel well." He said, looking up at the ferris wheel as it loomed over the people on the boardwalk.
"Really?" Victoria sounded anxious, "I hope it wasn't the meatballs."
"No!" William reassured her, "It wasn't the meatballs I just...I don't feel like being on top of the world tonight."
Victoria stared at William, he could tell she was disappointed.
She looked down at the ground and in a slightly quieter voice she said:
"It's okay, don't worry about it.
We'll just go home and come back next week." She looked back up at him and smiled.
"Thanks, Victoria." He half grinned at her and they went home.
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Day 3,
William heard the fluffy pop song of Victoria's morning alarm and sat up in bed with a sigh.
He knew well enough by now that she wouldn't get up to turn it off on her own so he just reached across her and grabbed hold of the phone.
He struggled for a second to figure out how to turn the damn thing off and then the date and time flashed across the screen.
"What..." He said, shaking his head.
"Go back to sleep William," Victoria groaned as she hid her head under her pillow.
"Victoria, there's something wrong with your phone."
"What!
?" Victoria quickly sat up, eyes wide as she looked from her boyfriend to her phone.
"Please don't say that, I need that phone!
I don't have the money to get another new one, not now!" She put her face in her hands and shook her head in disbelief; she was always breaking her cell phone, or losing it, or dropping it in puddles; what ever the reason - she was buying a new cell phone every couple of months lately and she was feeling the crunch.
"It says it's Wednesday," William said, shaking the thing.
Victoria stared at William through her fingers for a moment.
Slowly she started shaking her head and threw herself back down into the comfy duvet.
"Yeah, of course it says it's Wednesday, that's because it's Wednesday."
William struggled all day to get the people around him to realize that it was Thursday, it must have been Thursday!
He'd just lived through at least one Wednesday, now it had to be Thursday!
But nobody seemed to believe him, in fact his boss sent him home early - convinced that he'd been overworked.
"You're home so early," Victoria rushed to William's side and felt his face for a fever.
"Yeah, I just..." William struggled for words then scratched his head.
"I don't want to go to the boardwalk tonight."
Victoria looked a little upset, "But it's Wednesday!
We always go to the boardwalk on Wednesdays."
"I know, but I'm not really feeling very good," William held on to his forehead and made his way upstairs.
"I'm just going to lay down."
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Day 10,
William pulled his car into his parking spot and looked up at his office building.
He paused before opening his door, waiting for the biker to ride past like he knew she would.
On his way into the building he said hello to the receptionist then closed himself up in his office.
As he sat at his desk he looked at the work that had been laid out for him.
The same work he'd done for nine days.
He couldn't understand why he was the only one who realized they were all living the same Wednesday over and over again.
"Hey William!" Ethan popped his head in the door to William's office.
Ethan worked in receiving and William already knew what he had to say.
"No, I'm not going to The Golden Dragon today." William rolled his eyes and looked down at the forms and paperwork he had to fill out.
He could almost do it all with his eyes closed now.