Brad awoke with a splitting headache and a heavy fog clouding his thoughts. he stumbled through the eerily quiet house confused as to why he feels hung over, he only had 5 or 6 beers last night and that was since early afternoon. "Honey, where are you guys?" he called to Sara. "It's Sunday right?" he mumbled, leaning heavily against the wall and barely able to open his eyes as the morning light was setting his head on fire.
"Hey Sara!" he yelled immediately wincing as even his own voice caused agonizing pain. "I need drugs" Brad decided, considering a 'hair of the dog' might be worth trying since he hasn't felt this bad since his raging college days, before he dropped out.
Blindly he felt his way to the bathroom and forced his eyes open to review the contents of the medicine cabinet. Grabbing the headache medicine he fought with the childsafe cap and dumped out four little red pills, he was after all pushing 250 lbs. Brad took all the pills and swallowed them dry, he replaced the drugs and shut the medicine cabinet door looking at the faucet unsure if he could trust himself to bend over without bashing his face in.
The sink was surprisingly cleaner than usual, no toothpaste accretion, no hand soap puddle under the dispenser, no open tubes of toothpaste left to fall into the sink with the cap nowhere to be seen. Brad braced himself and put his head to the sink taking 10 chugs of water which would have been a full glass, had he used one.
He stood back up and was immediately beginning to feel a little better after hydrating. He looked in the mirror and caught sight of his reflection. He looked so young! Like back when he married Sara 9 years ago! With a growing panic he forced himself to look around. The kids toys weren't littering the hallways, going to the kitchen there were none of the kid's dishware only adult plates and glasses. Looking out the window int the drive way there were strange vehicles, none of which was their SUV.
In desperation he turned around and tried to see the whole room, and only then did he realize the layout was all wrong. "Where am I?!?" It was then that Brad noticed the photos and he raced to them. They contained pictures of his parents and even some of himself but nothing recent, everything was from his childhood and late teens. None of him and Sara getting married and none of the kids. He went to the back door, hoping Sara and the Kids were playing in the back yard, His brain was dismissing everything that didn't directly lead to him finding his family. he had to find Sara.
He grabbed the door knob and squeezed tightly. "OW!" he pulled his hand back from the door and clutched it tightly. There was a deep but scabbed over wound on his hand. He tried to ignore it but somehow that alone was able to hold his attention.
Slowly over the next 4 minutes the fog cleared and Brad realized he was on summer vacation and he was at home, in his parents' house, and his parents were at work on a weekday...
It was like waking from a dream.