The pen on the other side of the table tapped constantly against the cold wood beneath it. With it, Natalie’s legs bounced, restless and anxious.

“So, Nathan.” The interviewer said. “Tell me about yourself.”

In the past, Natalie had never been one to struggle with that kind of question. She always aced it without a hitch.

Now, of course, things were very different.

“Well, my name is Nathan Parker.” Was that necessary or was she just saying that to remind herself? “I grew up in a quaint little town near the outskirts of Middletown, New York, and it was there where I had my education.” Natalie paused a while as she recalled a crucial detail she learned about Nathan’s life. “I was a boy scout for most of my childhood, all the way from Tiger Cub to Eagle.”

“Oh really?” The interviewer asked, intrigued.

“Yes.” Natalie nodded, relieved she remembered.

“Were you in the Order of the Arrow?”

Natalie was stumped. She had no idea what that was. Damnit, why did he have to ask that? She couldn’t have possibly memorized every last detail about Nathan’s experience in Boy Scouts. What was she supposed to say?

“No.” She replied with as much confidence as she could muster.

“Oh.” The interviewer said. “I asked that because my son is a Boy Scout, and he got inducted into the Order of the Arrow a few weeks ago. It’s pretty cool. Can you believe they’re trying to get rid of it? Something about cultural appropriation or whatever.” He chuckled at his own comment. “But, I’m getting off topic, sorry. Let’s get back to the interview. So, what was your eagle project?”

Now this, thankfully, Natalie had memorized. “I built a pretty large building on my school’s baseball field. It had a concession stand, storage room, and announcement room on the second floor. I have a picture if you want to see it.”

Natalie grabbed a photo from her folder and passed it to the interviewer.

“Huh.” He said. “It actually is two floors. Must’ve been a pretty ambitious project.”

“It was. Took a lot of time. Basically every weekend the start of my junior year was spent on it.”

“Was it hard work?”

“It was work.” Natalie answered. “Work in the hot sun, you know how that is.”

The interviewer nodded and passed back the photo. He said something afterward, but Natalie didn’t pay attention to it. She just focused on the photo again, reminiscing over something she didn’t even remember happening. In the center of it was a sixteen year old Nathan, along with some adult men and a few other boys she remembered from high school. The building behind them looked pretty impressive, and she couldn’t imagine how much time it took to put together. She tightened her grip on the photo. In her reality there wasn’t any two-story building overlooking her old high school’s baseball field. Obviously because Nathan was never there to build it, all thanks to the man whose teenage self stood beside him in the photo, wearing that stupid, stupid grin.

Natalie calmly exhaled as she stored the photo back into her folder. The interviewer finished talking about whatever it was they were talking about, and finally, they could continue the interview.

***

Natalie turned the car out of the parking lot without uttering a word.

Well, it could’ve been worse. At least she didn’t end up looking completely clueless. Aside from the moment where she had to admit that she, or Nathan rather, didn’t graduate college, she thought she did pretty well.

Natalie sighed and pulled out onto the main road. She took a last look to where she had just been, and didn’t even try to ignore the growing frustration within her.

That was the best place she could find for work. After a whole week of sending in applications, that was one of the only places that would accept her.

Home Depot, of all places.

She forced her head away and turned into the nearest exit.

***

She didn’t go back home immediately. She wanted to at first, but before she knew it, she found herself driving on the road cutting through her old high school.

From what she remembered in her reality, the whole place looked identical. It still had a small campus that could be entirely walked in ten minutes. It still had a track and football field that looked better and of higher quality than everything else around it. And the school itself was still a tiny, rough looking building completely unappealing to the eye. The same exact shithole she knew from her time there.

The only difference was the huge two-story building next to the baseball field.

Natalie pulled into the parking lot right next to it. With no one out yet for practice, she had a clear view of it.

It looked… very good.

Natalie picked up her photo of the project and put it up to the building.

Nathan had made a real, material benefit to the world from his existence. What the hell did she have?

***

When Natalie finally got back to her apartment, she went to the refrigerator and took a swig of her potion. She had been trying to conserve it the best she could, and it looked like she was doing alright. It had only been a little over a week since she got back, and it was still well over half full, probably over three quarters as well, enough for the next few weeks.

What would she do when it was done though? Not having those dreams every single night was a huge relief. It was about as nice as the taste of the potion itself, which actually did taste like cherry. Mostly like cherry lemonade, strangely enough. It was sweet, and more than anything else, it worked.

That whole week she had only a single memory recovered in a dream. And it wasn’t even a big one.

Didn’t mean it wasn’t an awkward one though.

***

“Nathan! Come out to the living room, I need your help.”

Nathan turned to his side at the sound of Astian’s voice. He had been cooped up in the bathroom for an hour after another massive dumping episode. Just like the last time, he swore his feces was full of bizarre colors. He didn’t want to actually check it out, because that would mean leaning down into a toilet filled with shit, so he tried to convince himself a second time that it was just the lighting.

If it weren’t for the fact that his hair looked even longer than it did yesterday, he would’ve been golden.

Nathan went out to the living room and saw Astian opening a large box on the couch.

“What did you order?” He asked.

“Nothing.” Astian answered. “This is one of my sister’s boxes. She told me it’s her clothes.”

Astian sliced the last of the tape off and opened the box. When he did, he stared at its inner contents blank and motionless.

“Well… those are definitely not her clothes.”

Nathan stepped forward and took a look inside. The box was full of pads and tampons.

“Did she send the wrong box?”

Astian stood back up and got out his phone.

“I’ll send her a text.” He said. “You go unload those into the bathroom cabinet.”

“What? Why?” Nathan asked, but Astian had already left the room.

Nathan turned back to the box, leaning down and laying his hands on its sides, examining its contents. He sighed and picked it up, taking it to the bathroom.

He didn’t know why Astian didn’t just return the box, but at the same time, if his sister had already packed it, then it probably wasn’t worth the trouble.

Then again, why would she pack them so early in the first place? It didn’t make sense.

None of this made sense.

As Nathan opened up the bathroom cabinet and loaded the sanitary products into it, that same, nagging sensation that something was very, very wrong reared its ugly head once again.

***

Sat down, his back against the fridge, Nathan looked at the potion in his hand.

He took another swig of it.