From the Other Side {Chapter 1}

“Yes, Mum…yes, I will cook the chicken…and make the salad…and cook the bread rolls…okay, Mum, you know I will! Yes, okay, see you!” Beep, went the phone as Emily Gregor hung it up.
Okay, so for a chicken you need…breadcrumbs and garlic…that means you go to the pantry…Emily thought to herself.
Opening the pantry door, she searched the shelves for the items she needed.
Bang! Emily jumped back, and turned around to see if she could figure out where the bang was. “Ow!” This time it came from the cupboard. She gave an exasperated sigh. “Okay, Maria, you can come out now!” Her little sister was ALWAYS hiding in the pantry. But no Maria Gregor came out of the pantry. Emily sighed and got down to move the items.
Okay, this is getting slightly freaky…I HEARD those two noises from the pantry, yet there is no one there…no, it’s not freaky, it’s damn freaky!

After a few minutes of silence, Emily heard no more noises. She breathed a sigh of relief. Turning around and walking to the counter, she started making the stuffing for the chicken.
“Hey Mum! I found the jelly!” Emily froze. Where was that voice coming from? She shook it off, thinking it was her imagination. “Mum!!” Emily laughed, thinking it was her imagination, yet was a bit scared of where these voices were coming from. “Yes, dear?” Emily jumped, and dropped the knife she was using to cut the vegetables. That voice wasn’t like the first one. It sounded older. Like someone’s mother.

She bent down, and picked up the knife, and carefully put it back on the counter. She then went and stood in the middle of the kitchen, hoping she’d hear those voices again. “Oh Mummm! Do I have to??” Aha! She had heard the voices again! Creeping along, she came to the pantry. She was certain she heard them. Moving some of the clutter that was piling up on the bottom shelf, she could hear someone humming a tune…on the - opposite side of the wall? Being brave, she tapped on the wall.

The humming stopped. Oh, my, gosh; they can hear me! “Yeah, who’s there?” the voice responded. Okay, this is really, damn freaky! “Umm…can you hear me?” she spoke to the wall. “Hello, hello? Yes, I can hear you! Hey, let’s see if I can see you, what’s this…” Emily was having trouble controlling her breathing. This is really weird now, really weird. She could hear some movement on the other side of the wall, and then suddenly she heard the person scream. “Hello? What is wrong!?” She could hear deep breathing from the person on the other side of the wall. “I…I can see you!” Emily was shocked. “But, how can you see me? I can’t see you!” Emily was getting slightly excited. “Uh, I just saw a little knob underneath the shelf above me, and I twisted it, and a sort of trap door came out…” Emily peered underneath the second to bottom shelf of her pantry, and gasped as she found a similar sort of knob. She started twisting it, and a trap door fell down. Suddenly, she saw a face. And it wasn’t a picture. It was a real, live person. “Can you see me?” the person asked. “Yes, yes, I can see you!” Emily exclaimed. A smile lit up the other girl’s face. “So, tell me, as much as seeing you through a wall is freaking me out, what’s your name!?” Emily laughed. “Well, you better believe it that talking to YOU through a wall is a freaky! Oh, well, my name is Emily Gregor, and you are…?”
“Carrie…Carrie Reynolds. Nice to meet you.” Carrie was about to put her hand towards her to shake Emily’s hand when she pulled back. “Do…do you reckon we could touch each other?” Emily thought hard. “Well, who said we couldn’t try?”

Raising her hand to the open space, Carrie raised her hand too. Emily felt a touch, and so did Carrie. Suddenly this current seemed to go through her. Oh, heck, what is this! Gregor, stop feeling so weird! The two girls pulled away.

“Oh my goodness…” said Carrie. Emily let out a shaky laugh. The two girls took a couple of minutes to recollect what was happening. Without Carrie noticing, Emily looked at Carrie’s house surroundings behind her, but getting curious when Emily saw a very old looking television on the table behind Carrie.
“Hey, what’s that on the table behind you?” Carrie turned around. “Oh, that? That’s a TV, silly!” Emily was bewildered. “But hello, that TV is so out of date!” Carrie looked offended. “Out of date? No way! That is the latest design of the smallest TV! Cost us fifty dollars…argh, I know, expensive, but our other one had blown up!”

Emily was getting scared. That TV? New? Fifty dollars – expensive? What world is she living in? Emily shook it off. Maybe they are poor or something. “So, why were you calling to your Mum for jelly earlier?” Carrie laughed. “Oh, that, we were making dessert; it’s my big brother’s 20th birthday today, and we have been flat out…making food, dessert, doing decorations…oh yeah, that reminds me – I have to go check the paint soon of this awesome banner me and my little brother have been making. It’s on yellow cardboard and it says ‘18th June 1954 = Eric John Reynolds’.” Emily was on the verge of passing out. Hang on, she said the banner says 18th June 1954…the date of when her brother was born, and he’s turning 20…that means the year would be 1974…but how can that be! The year is 2006!

“Hey Carrie, what’s the date today?” Emily asked curiously. Carrie replied immediately. “Why, it would be the 18th June 1974!” Emily took in a sharp breath of air. “Carrie, did you say…1974? Didn’t you mean to say 2006?” Carrie let out a large laugh. “2006? Oh my goodness, that’s like another…32 years!” Carrie said doing some quick mental arithmetic. “No, silly, I said 1974.” Emily shook her head. “But how can that be? The date is 18th June 2006, yet you’re saying it’s 1974!”

It was Carrie’s turn to be bewildered. “Are you trying to tell me that you’re…you’re in the future!?” Emily shook her head. “No! It’s not me who’s in the future…you’re in the past!”
“But how can that be!?” Carrie shot back. Carrie shook her head in disbelief. “Look, wait a minute.” Carrie ran off, but soon returned with a calendar in hand. “See, this calendar clearly says 1974! And see, the 18th June is clearly circled here!” Carrie said, pointing to a circled date on the month of June in the year…1974. Emily was having trouble comprehending. “No, hang on a minute,” and she ran off too, coming back with calendar in hand. “See, it’s 2006! And here is the 18th June…oh, that’s right, I have tennis practice today!” Carrie was gaping. “Oi, Carrie…oh Carrie…are you gonna lose that ridiculous look on your face or is the wind gonna freeze it?” Carrie was shaken from her trance. “I can’t comprehend this, Emily! Either I’m in the past, or you’re in the future! Which one is it?” Suddenly a “Carrie!!” was heard from a far room in Carrie’s ‘world’. “Hey, look, Mum’s coming…we’ll talk tomorrow, hey?” Emily barely got a “Bye” out, before the space which had Carrie’s lively, talking face in it was now just a bare space in the wall.

Emily shut the trap door and fell back, breathing unsteadily, and the perspiration building up on her face. She had the same questions Carrie did. It was either Carrie in the past or herself in the future. She couldn’t decide which one. Surely it’s Carrie in the past! She exclaimed to herself. All she knew was that on the other side of the wall of the Gregor’s pantry, there somehow lived a girl named Carrie Reynolds…who lived in the past, 32 years ago. Which was right? Which was wrong? Was she in Emily’s imagination? Or was she just from the other side…