He awoke in his bed, laying there as he usually did.
Admiring the dawn piercing the lace curtains, spotlighting the period piece furniture of the bedroom of his large Victorian era home.
These were his golden years.
After stepping away from his profession as an architect for 63 years, he was known to take it easy.
Everyday he'd lie in bed for a short while after waking, and ponder the fruits of life.
Today was no different.
He thought, 'boy, is the light sure vibrant today.'
Today had a certain feeling to it, a feeling of extreme peace and tranquility, as if any subconscious anxiety had taken a vacation.
Seemingly out of reflex, involuntarily, he got out of bed and slid his loafers and robe on as he had done ever day prior for the last 8 years.
He made his way from his room, down the hall, and down the staircase grabbing the paper through the door slot before going to the kitchen to make himself coffee and breakfast like he usually did.
He without thought or reason, did his routine differently on this day.
Thinking nothing of it, he sat down and began reading the paper at his small kitchen table.
As he skimmed over articles he became confused, as things seemed to be different in the world.
The market was lower, it was apparently football season instead of baseball season as he recalled, there was talk of elections he had not anticipated for months.
He looked at the date at the heading of the paper and saw it was about 5 months ahead of what he remembered.
He glanced up at the calendar and saw it was also 5 months ahead.
He got up and went over to the calendar where he flipped the months pages back to find a place in the dates that he had last X'd out.
He thought, 'my son must have been here, and tried playing a joke on me while he came by to check on me.'
The calendar fell from the wall and he heard a gasp behind him.
He turned around to see his son in his robe and loafers, staring in shock at the calendar that just fell to the ground.
This is when he realized, 'I'm dead.'
© Sebastian Grey