Lauren woke up the following morning wondering what the day would bring. She knew that a few things were happening that she could not get away from today. The first of these was that she had an exam that she had to watch over for the senior year at work.
After work, she was meeting up with Mary and the girls. She enjoyed spending time with Mary and was looking forward to the night. She started her morning shower sure that there was something else but she was not sure what. She went to the kitchen to make her breakfast. As was her morning routine she put on the radio to hear the news of the day before sitting down.
She went back to her bedroom to pick out her outfit for the day and seeing herself in the mirrored door of her closet the memories of the night before came flooding back to her. For the last hour or more Lauren had forgotten all about being Lauren Rodriguez she only remembered being Lauren Tran, a high school teacher.
She had almost lost herself in her new life. She hoped that the now-remembered meeting with her, Lonna, and Professor Black would allow her to remember her old life even if it would not give her it back. Lauren had reasoned that if she and Lonna could keep the memories of their old lives it would give them more time to find a way back to them one day.
She reached for her bag and found her license inside. She took it out slowly to find that once again it had changed.
Name: Lauren Tran D.O.B February 06 1992 Place of birth: Hanoi
“Chết tiệt, lại mất thêm bốn năm nữa” She said out loud although there was no one to hear her. Her twenties had passed by in a flash she thought. Now she was a thirty-something, from what Lonna had said a day or so ago she had almost reached the age that her former teacher had started the week at. She just hoped that the aging would stop after speaking to Professor Black. She got dressed and finished her makeup.
She took a good look at herself before leaving. So this is going to be me from now on she thought. Lauren Tran a 32-year-old Vietnamese woman standing there in the well-lit room wearing a white polka dot sweater paired with a sleek black pencil skirt. She could see her long hair cascading down her shoulders as she confidently posed in the mirror. She carried a chic white handbag with a chain strap, adding a touch of sophistication to her ensemble.
She tried to feel as confident as she looked but that wasn’t easy. She fetched her car keys yeah the car was a perk of what was happening. There have to be others she thought. She just had to look for them she thought as she headed to the car. She parked the car in her space in the school car park a short time later and walked away from the school. It was her turn to pick up a coffee for her and Mary this morning. She walked into the coffee shop across the street from the school and ordered their coffee.
Then she headed back to the school to start another day.
About an hour or so ago across town, Lonna had woken up and went to have her morning shower. She was looking forward to meeting up with Professor Black at lunchtime. Much like Lauren, she knew that the professor’s ritual would not return things to the way they were on Monday morning but it would give the two of them more time to find the answer they were looking for besides there was always Mrs. Sheppard who she was going to meet during her free period this afternoon. Maybe one of the books she had found would have the answer.
She finished her shower and went to do her hair. Unlike the day before she was not going to wear a dress today. There was no way that she was going to deal with the boys in her classes looking at her or rather her legs the way they had yesterday. So out of her closet came a black shirt and jeans.
Suddenly a memory came to her mind of a day not too long ago when she had worn this outfit. Although she knew that this was the first time she had ever worn this particular outfit still the memory persisted. She was sitting on a ledge in a park. wearing the same black shirt and jeans, that she had picked out this morning. She had also chosen a necklace that featured a pearl or a diamond. She had been thinking of wearing a necklace as part of her outfit for today. In her memory, it stood out against her outfit and added a touch of class to her look. It had been a relaxing afternoon in the peaceful surroundings of the park.
Strange although she knew that there was no way that this could be one of her memories she remembered it as if it was. Her mom had taken a picture of her sitting there if the memory was to believed. Not that she would admit it to her Mom she did like the picture, the one that was now sitting in her jewelry drawer. Her mom still took analogue pictures back then so it was relatively easy for her to hide it from her.
Lonna opened the drawer in question and found the picture with the necklace that she was thinking of lying on top of it.
Somehow Lonna knew that she had to wear the necklace along with the shirt and jeans. She came out of the memory back to the present day and went to take out her passport from the bedside cabinet. Just as she thought there had been more changes.
Name: ----------- Lonna Tran
Age: ------------- 18
Address: ------- 669 New Street Greenville
D.O.B ------------ March 29, 2006
Next Of Kin: --- Dalia Rodriguez (Mother)
Place of birth - Los Angeles
She looked at her face in the mirror to confirm her fears. She had lost even more of her heritage. She was no longer Vietnamese she was now mixed race. Part Vietnamese and part Caucasian, if professor black was not able to stop the changes with her ritual she would become fully Caucasian not that was a bad thing. She remembered her first time around in high school and some of the less-than-polite names that some of her classmates had called her. Since she had taken Laurens’ place in the world no-one called her anything other than her name. It was one of the things about the changes that she liked, that and getting younger.
She was now a teenager again, she had reached Lauren's age well at least the age she had started the week at. Was Ms Tran now 35? That was the age she had been on Monday morning. Being that old was something she could not imagine anymore, even though she had been just that five days ago.
She put on her sneakers and went to have breakfast with her Mom. She knew that she did not have to hurry this morning as Jake was coming over to give her a lift to school. Her Mom seemed to like Jake, well he was a step up from her last boyfriend in her mother's eyes.
Yeah, John had been a bit of a rebel a bad influence her Mom had said on more than one occasion. They had split up when his dad who was in the military had got reassigned or something and had taken John and his mom with him.
It had happened again, Lonna thought as she sat drinking her OJ she had a flash of another memory that was not her own. Whose could they be? She saw herself having conversations with her Mom about John and yet it was herself she saw. Then it hit her they must be Ms. Trans’ memories from before she had become Ms Tran. No, she was not Ms. Tran, she was Lauren the student she was Ms. Tran the teacher. Well, she had been at the start of the week but now she was having problems remembering that fact.
She had an idea to help her keep remembering this until lunchtime anyway. She took out her phone and set a reminder to go off during the morning at school well between lessons anyway. She timed it so that it would go off just before or just after a lesson. She hoped that this would be enough. She set the first of these reminders to go off just before her first lesson.
Then she heard Jake's car horn go off outside the front door “See you later Mom.” She shouted to her Mom who had only just got out of bed after a long night shift the night before.
