I really need a coffee, page 1

Derek Harnik really needed a cup of coffee. He did his usual routine to get ready for work and jumped into his car. Rather then take the highway, as he usually did, he decided to take some side roads that would lead him past a Starbucks. Making a right turn onto Lake Ave, the Starbucks finally came into view.

�Ah, finally, blessed caffeine,� he thought to himself as he pulled into the parking lot.

As he put his car into park, there was a bright flash of light.

Derek Harnik really needed a cup of coffee. He did his usual routine to get ready for work, but something seemed too familiar. As he was shaving, he nicked his chin. Before it happened, however, he seemed to know it was going to happen. Thinking about this for about a minute, he dismissed it as D�j� vu. He jumped into his car. Rather then take the highway, as he usually did, he decided to take some side roads that would lead him past a Starbucks. Making a right turn onto Lake Ave, the Starbucks finally came into view.

There was a bright flash of light.

Derek Harnik really needed a cup of coffee. He started to do his usual routine, but realized that today, it seemed far more routine then it ever had been. Even down to something so simple as getting out of bed, it all felt like he had done this countless times before, exact same movements, etc. He did, however, notice that these thoughts seemed unfamiliar. He was a down to earth guy, and had never become paranoid or thought there was a lot more to the world then met the eye.

These new thoughts were alien to him.

He started to dismiss them as he walked to his front room�s picture window. He just stood there and stared. For some reason, the whole landscape seemed alien. He had lived here for over 20 years, and there was nothing new about the place. Mrs. Woodsworth still had the peeling paint on her gutters. Someone was going to have to do something about that. No doubt she�d call Ned, the local fix-it man who was all too gracious with his time. Looking down the street, he saw Nick and Mort Quill getting onto their bus for school.

Yet there was something�wrong about the place. He couldn�t place his finger on why it looked this way to him. Examining every minute detail, including the patch of crab grass he hadn�t been able to get rid of for the last 5 years, everything was the same. So why these unsettling feelings?

He gave up, checking his watch. He was going to be late, he better call in to work before he left. No time for Starbucks this morning, he�d have to have some of the wretched Folgers they served at work. That stuff always tasted like battery acid, especially since they never cleaned out the coffee maker.

He started to walk away from the window when something stopped him. He couldn�t say what it was. It was like an itch in a corner of his brain he�d never used before. It just tugged him back to the window.

He slowly walked back to the window, looking at his watch. �Shoot, I�d already almost be at Starbucks by now if I�d left on time,� he thought to himself.

Then he looked up, and his whole life changed. His mouth dropped open. He couldn�t believe what he was seeing. Surely everything he had learned in school, everything the media had told him, and every thing he�d ever read or seen, was wrong. This proved it.

As soon as he regained his senses, he ran to the telephone.

FLASH

To be continued...?