Small Differences
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "So you're not Jack," she said. It wasn't a question.
"You're not Sarah," he replied.
He went to the cupboard to get her favourite mug. There were two of them, so he grabbed both. Then he poured boiling water into them. "What kind of tea do you want?"
"Coffee," she said, but when he looked at her she was smiling the way that his Sarah did when she was being coy.
"Peppermint?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied.
With the mug in front of her she slipped both her hands around it as if to warm them. Her feet stretched out to rest on the rungs of the wooden chair across from her. He looked at her in her old Reebok sweater. For everything that was different, so much was the same.
"I loved you," she said to him while looking at her tea.
"You mean you loved him."
Enjoying this story? Don't miss the next one!
SUBSCRIBE TO DSF
"What's the difference?"
"I don't know."
"Neither does anyone else,” she said, finally looking back at him. “Things just come in, and no one knows how they're different. They just are and in ways so subtle the differences don't matter."
"Something else was happening from my point of view--on my side of the curtain, I guess."
“Are you worried about her?” She said, a note of panic had crept into her voice. “Was she expecting you to be home by now? Because if things are so similar, I’m not expecting Jack home. He’s--”
“What?” he said too harshly.
“Jack left me.”
They sat at the table in silence for a few minutes, holding on to their identical mugs of tea like anchors. The sun was setting, but neither of them got up to turn on the light.
He broke the silence first. “I didn’t leave her by choice, Sarah,” he said. Sarah put her head down and began to cry quietly.
“I don’t know how you got here,” she said through her sobs. “I know as much about how we’re connected to the other universe--to your universe--as anyone: nothing. But if you are here to stay, would you stay with me, Jack?” She lifted her head and looked at him. “Stay with me, Jack,” She repeated. Jack stood up and gently lifted Sarah to her feet. Then he held her in his arms until she stopped crying. By then the room had grown dark.
The End
This story was first published on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
We hope you enjoyed
Small Differences by
Tim Patterson.
Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.
Daily Science Fiction does not have a paywall, but we do have expenses—more than 95% of which are direct payments to authors for their stories. With your $15 membership, less than 6 cents per story, we can continue to provide genre fiction every weekday by email and on the website to thousands of readers for many years to come.
Support Daily Science Fiction
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):
Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.
4.6 Rocket Dragons Average
Please join our mailing list and
receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept
100% private):
