Two Lives

Fiction

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Brevin Townes slipped into an alternate reality one morning while walking his dog. There was no reasonable explanation as to how or why it happened; he was here, then he wasn’t. Chips, his dog, sat on the sidewalk when Brevin vanished. The dog waited for his best friend’s return.

Somehow, Brevin had become a baseball icon – a legend – in this new world. He was older, thirty-eight, to be exact, with no family, no kids, but he had everything else imaginable. The world was at his fingertips. Brevin had eclipsed the 500-home run club and lived a life of luxury and fame. This new world was nearly identical to the one he was living in prior to this “slip” into obscurity. Brevin believed this version of his life resulted in the different choices he had made along his journey – a “what if” scenario played out.

It blew his mind. Perhaps he never met Melanie while at college. Perhaps after being drafted by the Cubs, he went on to pursue baseball, not the athletic scholarship at Clemson.

But the longer he lingered here in this new universe, the longer he was away from Melanie – from his children. They were his life now. He didn’t need penthouse suites, home run records, and an ungodly amount of money.

He needed his family. And he knew he needed to get back.

As if being granted a wish, he found himself on the cracked sidewalk standing next to Chips. The dog leaped up and nearly knocked him over. Brevin laughed as tears streamed down his cheeks. He spent a few minutes holding his dog and taking in the view of the sleepy, 6:00 AM street he lived on.

“Come on, pal,” Brevin said as he guided Chips home.  

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Thank you so much for reading “Two Lives” — I hope you enjoyed it.

Do you ever wonder where your life might have ended up based on the decisions you made? I think we can all pinpoint a handful of pivotal life choices that helped guide us to where we are today.

Take care, thanks for being here, and have a great weekend!

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