Time to change

“This is not to be forgotten Keeli. Pay attention. In here is the secret to it all.”

Keeli had a feeling in her bones. This was the time it would work. It had to. Everything was set in an exact replica of Image 17. The child’s bike had been hand painted in the same faded red colour. She had gotten the paint professionally matched. The set was constructed in an old warehouse that she had convinced a farmer to lend her. Image 17, was burned into her mind, but she checked the print anyway; a bike leaning against an old barn wall, with a Child’s mottled green coat on the floor. The sunlight drifted in from an unknown window or door. The only thing missing was the apple sat atop the post in the back corner. She had missed it so many times before, hidden in the shadows. But now she was convinced she had made the perfect replica, all she had to do was place it on the fence post and that would be that.

She thought back to when Mr Invisible had first showed her the Images. Her grandad had always been a mysterious figure to those around him. He came and went as he pleased, appearing and disappearing with out word or explanation. That ‘Bloody Mr Invisible’ muttered by her mother one christmas, had stuck. He didn’t seem to mind. But then when she was just 15, he had appeared one afternoon, flustered, demanding she followed him and to not speak a word. They had ended up on a quiet street down town. He had turned into a grotty alley, taken out a key, opened a metal door, and entered into the dark. “This is not to be forgotten Keeli. Pay attention. In here is the secret to it all.” He said, before flicking the light switch on. When the dim light sputtered on, Keeli had been amazed; row upon row of pictures, all identical sizes, that covered the wall, Top to bottom. All depicting a different scene. There were no faces, but for some reason she felt like she instantly recognised some of the scenes.

“There is a pattern K. You have to find it. Search, replace, duplicate, whatever you need to do. Each picture is a key, no, a moment, and you have to find that moment, be in it, in order to change.”

“To change what?” Keeli asked in confusion.

“Well to change everything. Now I need you do something for me. It is vitally important. You need to be here at exactly 12:45am. Tonight. Come sit here.” He gestured to a stool in the middle of the floor. “Now cross your right leg over. Good. And look down at the floor. And put this on. He handed her a red dress. Please.”

“But What’s going on? What’s the matter?”

She had promised him faithfully. Something in his desperate story convinced her there was a reason for all this. But by 11:00 she was scared, tired and worried about what her parents would say. She left and went home.

Mr Invisible was never seen again.

But now was her chance. After all these years. She had finally cracked it. She knew now what he was trying to do. The exact moment he was trying to create. And she knew how she could redeem herself. Forgive herself for those years of unanswered questions and what ifs. All it would take was one apple to complete the moment. And then it would change, everything would change.

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