Five
Shut up, Casper.
Lucas Ditryk turned over in bed and groaned. The sun was already pushing its way over the houses of the Chicago suburbs and through his bedroom blinds, and as usual it was unrelenting in its insistence that the day should proceed as normal. Casper, too, seemed intent on getting the morning started. He meowed for the tenth time and finally launched himself up onto the bed, paws prodding into Lucas's ribs. Lucas sighed, half amused and half annoyed. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he could never seem to resist Casper when the cat demanded attention. Lucas rolled onto his back and scratched Casper between the ears. Casper squinted and purred and settled onto Lucas's chest.
Everyone always commented on what a giant cat Casper was, but his size was mostly due to excessive amounts of fluff, long snow-white fur that required a tremendous deal of care and brushing to keep it from becoming tangled and matted. When they first saw Casper at the shelter, Lucas's parents had tried to talk him into a more sensible choice. Perhaps he'd prefer a short-haired cat, or even better, a puppy. Casper was an adult cat even then— the shelter didn't know exactly how old, as he'd been a stray, but they thought he might be three or four. They didn't know anything about the cat's history, and Lucas's parents were worried that an adult cat might come with behavioural problems. They didn't want an animal that was going to destroy their house or pee all over the furniture. But Lucas had been twelve at the time, a very persuasive age. He insisted that Casper was the only animal he wanted, and that he was up to the task of brushing, feeding, and taking care of Casper. The shelter had called him Fluffy, but Lucas thought Fluffy was a girl's name. He'd already chosen the name Casper before his parents even agreed to the adoption, and after than there was no swaying him. They had formed a bond that couldn't be broken. Eventually Karen and Bill gave in, and they, too, grew to love Casper over time. Occasionally Casper would cough up a fur ball onto the carpet and Bill would grumble about wishing they'd got a dog instead, but in secret he liked Casper just as much as everyone else did.
Lucas stayed in bed a few more minutes and reflected on how Casper had been his best friend in the world during the past five years. He had kept his promise of taking care of Casper, had done all the grooming and taken care of arranging all the vet visits. He'd wrestled Casper to the ground and given him tablets when the vet prescribed them, and he'd even spent extra money out of his allowance every week so Casper could have the expensive food the vet recommended. The cat was spoiled rotten.
Lucas's parents weren't sure how healthy this close relationship with the cat was. Lucas was seventeen now, and they felt he was of the age where he should certainly be interested in girls more than pets. He did have one girlfriend for a short time during the previous school year, but that had come to a sudden halt when she came over for dinner one evening and it turned out she was allergic to cats. Karen and Bill had seen the look of horror on Lucas's face. The girl never came to the house again, and Lucas never mentioned her after that. Since that disaster, Lucas's new method of sizing up potential dates was to ask them right from the start if they had any cat-related issues. So far none of the girls he approached had ended up going out with him. He didn't care.
But Lucas was not socially inept; far from it. He played sports, track and field in particular, and he had a lot of friends both on the track team and in the sports that he participated in outside of school. And he was training for a marathon, which meant there was a whole other set of friends that went along with that. Lucas was well-respected and liked by his peers, but he wasn't particularly what you'd call popular. He was happy, though, and he had great plans for his future.
Lucas snapped out of his daydream as Casper's body suddenly went rigid, his eyes focused unwaveringly on Lucas. Lucas continued to pet the cat, but clearly something had come to Casper's attention. Lucas raised his head off the pillow and looked behind him, in the general direction that Casper was facing. There was nothing back there of any interesting, nothing moving, not even any sunlight on the wall.
"You're crazy, cat," Lucas said as he lifted Casper up and placed him gently on the floor. Lucas sat up and swung his legs around to the floor. He glanced at the clock on the wall. 7:35. He needed to hurry and get ready or he was going to be late for school. Lucas wondered vaguely why his mother hadn't come in to wake him earlier. She was usually pretty diligent about things like punctuality, and although there was nothing special going on before school this particular morning, no running practice or anything like that, Karen rarely ever let Lucas sleep in past 7:00 on a school day. Maybe she's not feeling well, maybe she slept in herself, he thought, and raised himself to his feet. Karen was prone to migraines and Lucas wondered if she'd stayed in bed this morning.
Casper followed right up against Lucas's heels as Lucas grabbed his towel and headed toward the bathroom. "Casper, what is wrong with you this morning?" Lucas asked. "If you're not careful you're going to get stepped on, and that'll end in tears for everyone," he added. Casper paid no attention, he stayed close to Lucas and even followed Lucas into the bathroom. "You're not going to like it in here, I'm going to turn the water on," he warned Casper. Casper jumped up onto the bathroom counter and meowed, his eyes still looking directly into Lucas's. "Well, suit yourself," Lucas said as he closed the bathroom door and pulled the shower curtain aside. "But once I get in the shower, I'm not coming out to open the bathroom door for you. You'll just have to deal."
Casper continued to stare. He didn't move.
As Lucas got in the shower and washed his hair, he fully expected Casper to start complaining. The cat didn't like to be locked in anywhere, and he especially didn't like any place where he might accidentally get wet. There had been a couple of ill-fated attempts to give Casper a bath back when he first came to live with them, but after a trip to the emergency room to stitch up a deep cut on Lucas's arm where Casper had scratched him, they gave up on trying to bathe him at home and started sending him to a professional groomer instead. Since that time, Casper had avoided the bathroom at all costs.
But this morning was different. Lucas rinsed the shampoo out of his hair and pulled the shower curtain back just enough so he could peek out into the bathroom. There was Casper, on the floor now, nearly pressed up against the bathtub and staring straight up at Lucas. "I don't get it, is something wrong?" he asked Casper. The cat meowed gently, but didn't budge. Lucas shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder about you," he said, and pushed the shower curtain back against the wall.
After finishing his shower and getting dressed, Lucas wandered into the kitchen to find his mother sitting at the kitchen counter, drinking her coffee and reading the newspaper. The radio played softly in the background. She looked like she was enjoying herself and didn't have a care in the world. Lucas looked down to see Casper sitting at his feet and looking up at him from the ground. His cat was clearly nuts and his mother had forgotten to get him out of bed. He wondered if the whole world had gone crazy this morning.
"Mom, why didn't you wake me up?" He asked.
Karen was engrossed in her paper and she didn't even raise her eyes— she simply muttered a vague "hmmm?" and kept reading.
"Hello, Mom? Earth to Mom," Lucas said, letting the irritation show in his voice.
Karen suddenly snapped her head around toward Lucas. "Oh, I'm sorry darling," she said. "I was just caught up in reading, I didn't mean to ignore you. Was there something you needed? Should we have pancakes for breakfast this morning, do you think? I was thinking pancakes and sausage. Your father's already gone out to play golf, he left a couple of hours ago, so it's just you and me."
Lucas was frustrated that his mother didn't seem to have any sense of urgency this morning. "Mom, why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he asked. "It's nearly 8:00 now."
Karen furrowed her brow and shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I just thought you might like to sleep in today, since you're always up at the crack of dawn, going for a run or whatever. I mean, what's the problem if you just take one morning out of the year to relax a little? I think you work too hard anyway."
"But Mom, today's not the best time to sleep in, because I'm going to be late for school," Lucas replied.
Karen blinked a couple of times and then giggled. "Darling, it's Saturday," she said, a warm smile spreading across her face.
Yes, the whole world is definitely crazy today, Lucas thought. "No mom, it's Wednesday," he corrected her. "Last night was the track meet, remember? Track meets are always on a Tuesday. That makes today Wednesday. Figure it out."
Karen laughed. Her son was always a little bit cloudy in the head first thing in the morning. "No, sweetheart, the track meet wasn't last night— we went to the movies last night, don't you remember? The film about the kidnapping? I guess that's why you're tired this morning, that damned film was so long we didn't get home until after midnight."
Lucas shook his head in confusion. "Mom, what are you talking about? We went to see that movie the week before last," he said. "Last night was the regional track meet. Don't you remember bringing the juice and cookies for everyone?"
While Lucas talked, Karen slowly turned her newspaper around so that the front page was facing upward. She stared at the date on the front and then held the paper up to show her son. "Lucas, look. Today is Saturday, Saturday the 3rd," she said.
Lucas walked over to the kitchen counter. Casper followed closely. Lucas gaped at the newspaper in silence for a moment, trying to grasp what he knew couldn't be true.
"Are you sure you don't want to go back to bed for a while, darling?" Karen asked. "I'm worried you're not getting enough sleep, and it's having an effect on you. A boy your age needs rest, especially with all the exercising you do.."
She's reading a paper from nearly two weeks ago, and I'm the one who needs to sleep some more? Lucas thought, but he didn't want to get into an argument first thing in the morning. Instead his kissed his mother on the cheek, told her that maybe she was right, he should go rest for a while, and he headed back to his room to finish getting ready for school. He nearly tripped over Casper as the cat trotted along in front of his feet, seemingly unwilling to part with him even for a second. "Casper, damn it," he mumbled as he hopped out of the way to avoid crushing the cat.
Doubt swirled through Lucas's mind as he packed his bag and got himself ready for school. He knew for sure the track meet had been last night, because he could feel it in his muscles this morning. But even if he was wrong about that, even if yesterday was Friday and they had gone to the movies, they certainly hadn't seen that kidnapping film last night. He was sure it was a couple of weeks ago when they saw that one. And he was positive today must be the 14th, because one of his marathon training buddies had his birthday two days ago, on the 12th. He remembered it specifically because James had been complaining that his birthday fell on a Monday this year, and he'd have to postpone his party until the following weekend because he figured no one would want to come to a party on a Monday.
Lucas shook his head and tried to think if there were any other clues that might clear up the confusion of today's date. Then an idea came to him. There's no need to question yourself or wonder about it, just check it online, that's what the internet is for, he thought. Smiling at his own brilliant idea, he sat down on the bed and pulled his laptop out from its hiding place underneath. Casper leapt up on the bed to sit beside him, meowing impatiently and looking out the window. "Mom already gave you your breakfast, I saw it in the dish," Lucas mumbled to the cat while he waited for his computer to boot up. "If you're hungry you should just go to the kitchen and eat and quit following me around like a shadow." Casper ignored the advice and hopped up to the window sill, still meowing. Lucas glanced back at him and said, "yeah, great idea, find some birds to watch to occupy your time." Casper sat completely still, his gaze unwavering from the window.
When Lucas turned to face forward again the desktop had appeared on the screen, but it was clear that something was wrong— the wallpaper on the computer was a photo that Lucas had trashed about a week ago, a silly picture of some kids going out trick-or-treating dressed as cats. Lucas liked Halloween and had left the photo up through the first week of November, but after that he thought it was getting a bit ridiculous and he'd looked online for some photos of late autumn instead. He'd replaced the trick-or-treaters with a picture of multicoloured fallen leaves, and since he rarely reused his wallpapers he just threw the old Halloween picture away. No need for it cluttering up precious hard drive space. But here it was now, right back on the desktop where it was impossible for it to be.
"Damned computer," Lucas grumbled. He ignored the wallpaper for the moment and looked instead at the little clock in the corner of the screen. It took him a minute to digest what his eyes were telling him. The black letters stared back at him unapologetically. Sat 08:06.
Okay, so his mom had been right about it being Saturday, but that was only half the problem— she also seemed convinced that today was the 3rd, and Lucas knew for certain that couldn't possibly be true. He opened his browser, thought for a minute about which site would have reliable timekeeping, and typed in the first thing that came to mind, the web address for their local television news station. As the page loaded, some headlines popped up, vaguely familiar stories that Lucas thought couldn't have been breaking news. Didn't that factory fire happen a while ago? he thought. And there it was at the top of the page, as plain as anything could be on this thoroughly surreal day: Saturday, November 3rd, 2007.
Okay, that's cool, don't panic, Lucas thought, and quickly typed in another address— cnn.com. After a moment's pause, the site loaded, and the same impossible date of November 3rd showed on the screen. Lucas spent the next few minutes trying several other sites, and they all told him the same thing, November 3rd. Lucas could feel his heart beating fast in his chest. He knew that what made the most sense was that he must be the one who was mistaken, but he was certain Monday had been the 12th, and that was now two days ago. He was sure of it. He closed the laptop and tried to collect his thoughts for a moment. Certainly there was something he wasn't remembering, but after several minutes of thinking about it he still came up with nothing. It just all seemed inconceivable.
"It's just as I suspected, Casper— the whole world's gone nuts," Lucas said as he slid the computer back under the bed. He crawled over to the windowsill where the cat was still perched. "But at least it's a nice surprise that it's Saturday," he added, "and Mom's going to make pancakes. If you're nice I'll share one with you." Lucas gently buried his nose in the cat's fur. Casper meowed again and kept staring out the window. Lucas could feel that the cat's muscles were still tense, like he was ready to attack at a moment's notice. He sometimes got excited like this when there were lots of birds in the trees. Casper was an inside cat and thoroughly enjoyed what Karen had dubbed "window hunting." Lucas smiled at the idea of what Casper might do if he ever actually caught something. Probably freak out and let it go and run away like a girl, he thought. His cat was beautiful, but he wasn't what you would call macho.
Lucas turned to look out the window, to see what all the fuss was about. "Casper, I don't know what your deal is this morning, but it's a gorgeous day and there's no reason to let some silly bir— uh, what the hell?..." His voice trailed off. He grabbed the cord next to the window and raised the blinds so he could have a better view of the scene he was sure he couldn't be witnessing. Finally he could see what Casper had been so agitated about. There weren't any birds in the trees this morning. Downstairs, in the yard below the window, were six cats, facing the house. They sat on the ground in the crunchy leaves, completely still and almost in a straight line. They were a mixed bunch, no two the same colour or size, and they seemed to be making eye contact with Casper, which Casper was of course reciprocating. A neighbour passed by on the sidewalk with her Rottweiler. The dog barked loudly and pulled at his harness trying to get to the cats, but they neither flinched nor acknowledged the threat. The woman pulled on the leash and the dog finally relented, but the cats didn't seem to notice. "This is too fucking weird," Lucas whispered to himself. "What the hell is going on with the world today?" He looked at Casper, but the cat continued to stare down at the front yard. Lucas swallowed hard and realised he was going to have to find the answer to his own questions today. Casper had his own troubles to think about.
