THE MOMENT
“Where have I seen her before?” The question hung in Daryl's mind for almost two hours while helping the nice couple. He happened to be home when the moving truck arrived, and he'd always made an effort to be neighborly. He walked over to introduce himself and offer a hand in unloading, and they happily accepted.
John, the husband, introduced his wife, Leah, and their pre-teen son, Johnny, and they all got to work. John and Daryl worked to unload the heavier furniture while Johnny handled the small stuff, and Leah was directing every incoming item. Daryl had plenty of opportunities to see Leah from several different angles, and each time she looked more and more familiar. Short, straight red hair, and a face full of freckles smiled at him every time he carried something into the house. John and Leah looked younger than Daryl, and he looked about 50. They seemed to be in their 30s, and that unconsciously limited Daryl's mental search as he scoured his memories for where he might have seen her. Wherever he knew her from, she looked exactly the same, so it had to have been somewhere recent.
"This your first time in Sharptown?" He asked John while backpedaling with one end of a sofa. It was cheap and light with black fauxleather, but awkwardly bulky. He needed to enter the house backward with the thing at an uneven angle because that was the only way to get it in.
"For me and the kiddo," John nodded. "Leah's from here." He answered as she was guiding them to the back wall of the living room.
"I've never been to Sharptown," Leah smiled with a friendly laugh and shook her head. "I was, however, born in Springfield," she added. That didn't seem right.
"Huh?" Daryl was more surprised than he should've been, but, he was already invested in the idea that they were a young family. "The City changed its name 30 years ago when Sharp Development arrived," he said. He needed to bring the memories to the forefront of his mind as he processed their claim, and he realized something. He was glad they'd set the couch down already because he took a moment to really study the woman.
"Wait a minute...," he chuckled as he finally made the connection. "You look identical to a woman who vanished 30 years ago, except you haven't aged a day," he grinned. "Leah Richardson, right?"
"Nu uh," she shook her head with a smile and held her hand out to show off the ring. "Mrs. Leah Connor, these days. But, yeah. That was me," she nodded.
"Wow, it's an honor," Daryl replied. "You brought us Sharp Development, and the multiverse." He was too thrilled to bother with kicking himself. Along with the multiverse, Sharp Development brought all kinds of technology to their Earth, including youth-restoring longevity treatments. He'd used them himself to reflect a much younger age than his 100 years of life experience. Naturally, it made sense that the very first person from their Earth to meet Sharp Development also used the same technology.
"All I did was wander into an alternate universe accidentally," she shook her head. "Once the company brought me back, everyone was talking about the multiverse, and no one really reported I was found," she shrugged. "So, I traveled the multiverse, met a handsome man, and decided I wanted my family to be raised where I grew up. I'm honestly impressed you remembered me," she added with a smile.
"Accident or not, your disappearance changed the world...," Daryl shrugged. "...and, I got to enjoy my life a lot longer because of it, he chuckled as he gestured at her. "I guess a lot of us did, huh?"
"You mean you're 30 years OLDER than you look!??" John asked suddenly with a shocked expression.
"Oh, I..," Daryl began apologizing immediately, but Leah stopped him.
"Don't listen to that senile old man," she giggled, "He's 110."