THE MOMENT
"Shhhh, it's going to be okay...," Debbie consoled the sobbing stranger with an arm around his shoulder. The pair of strangers sat on a lobby bench; and, the small crowd that gathered for his meltdown dispersed.
"How?" Brandon asked. He sat hunched over with his elbows on his knees staring down at the sunlit checker carpet. "No one knows me," he shook his head to himself. "Not you, not my boss... even my parents never heard of me. They never had kids." It had been a frantic 15 minutes for Debbie, but she tried to put herself in his shoes.
It started when the elevator door opened. The handsome, blonde stranger saw Debbie and immediately leaned in for a kiss on the lips. After some violence on her part and questions on his, he pulled out his phone and dialed.
The conversation started out easy enough, but after spelling his name half a dozen times he shouted, then hung up. He called another number. The second conversation was shorter and more polite, he had tears streaming down his face when he hung up.
"Oh!" Debbie said suddenly as a stray thought solidified. Brandon turned in time to see her slap her forehead with her palm. "Duh, Debs," she said to herself. When she noticed she had Brandon's attention she pointed at the lobby wall across from them. A large corkboard was covered with pinned flyers and colorful inquiries.
"Huh?" Brandon asked. Debbie stood from the bench, crossed the hall, tore off a white and red flyer, then returned to give it to Brandon.
"You'll be fine," she said. Instead of sitting down again, she gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder then walked into the just-opened elevator.
"Hey, where are you-," Brandon stood when he noticed Debbie disappear into the elevator. She pointed downward at the sheet in his hand.
"Use that to get home," she said. Then, she waved as the elevator door slid closed. "Good luck!"
"Get home?" Brandon asked the stainless steel doors. He held the sheet up to take a better look. A red pair of scissors served as a logo at the top of the page with text:
"Are you lost? Friends and family don't know who you are? You're not crazy! Somehow you ended up in a universe you don't belong in. NO PROBLEM! Scan the QR code on your phone and get a ride home free of charge. Easy as that, courtesy of Sharp Development."
"It can't be that easy," Brandon thought as he pulled his phone out again. He paused before scanning the code. "It's a joke!" he thought. "It's too convenient that this flyer was here. It's gonna do something to my phone when I scan it," he chuckled to himself. He grew convinced it was an elaborate practical joke involving his girlfriend Donna, his boss, and his parents.
"Here I go, scanning the flyer," he said aloud to an empty lobby. "Because I believe I'm from an alternate universe and this is how I'm going to get home. Because that's how things work in this universe I guess," he added for comedic effect. He hoped his tone would inform any would-be jokers that he was on to them.
"Taxi?" A sudden voice behind him made Brandon jump. He whirled around to find a dark-skinned teenager with a pair of afro-puffs on her head; one on each side. She kept her distance from Brandon and smiled. "You got here accidentally?" she asked.
Brandon nodded, but was confused. He looked around the lobby for a sign of dimension-hopping tech, but there was nothing. No machine, no wires, no glowing doohickies. Just a random teenage girl.
"I'm Britt," she said and extended a hand.
"Brandon," he said and shook hands.
"Alright, I got your frequency. Are you ready to go home now, or was there anything else you wanted to do here?" she asked.
"I'm ready now," Brandon said. A part of him still expected his girlfriend to show up laughing her head off. Britt took both hands and wiggled her fingers at the air. A tiny black dot appeared in the air then swelled. In seconds it was as big as the elevator doors.
"C'mon, let's get you back home," she said, then walked into the black hole.