Anna yawned as she woke up. She listened to a Carrie Underwood song blaring from her radio as she looked around her room with her eyes open just enough to make everything hazy. “What?” she thought when the radio guy announced it was the tenth. It was supposed to be the eleventh. She lazily pinched her arm, trying to wake herself up thinking she was still dreaming. Anna knew it was the eleventh because she could make a list of everything she did yesterday. On the tenth, she had all of her monday meetings, and during her coffee break, had talked to her co-workers about their weekend. Anna pinched herself again. Now, assured that she was in fact awake, Anna moped over to her closet. She stared in confusion at her pink blouse and black skirt. Anna knew she hadn’t done yesterday’s laundry yet, but there it hung in her closet, skirt free of creases and her blouse free of coffee stains.

Anna’s mind was frantically thinking what could be wrong. She checked her phone, the newspaper, the television, and asked her husband, John. It was all saying the tenth and all the the same news as yesterday. Anna sat in a frightened awe at her breakfast table as the weatherman announced the sixty percent chance of rain for the morning. Finally, Anna broke out of her trance, and thought to herself “It won’t rain all day until around 6:30.” She decided there was no other option than to wear the blouse she wore yesterday, and act like yesterday was a dream. Anna nervously got dressed, kissed her husband goodbye, and headed off to work. She was with the same cab driver she had yesterday, or today?

When Anna got to work, she headed to the coffee room to get her first cup. She was very careful and stepped away, knowing the machine would splatter everywhere as it heated up. It did not get on her blouse today, since she took the precautions to stand far away. She sat through her first meeting listening to her boss, Lindsay, describe things from last week that she already knew. Anna patiently waited for the meeting to be over so she could get to work. Finally, she got to her office to check her computer. She opened her documents and groaned in frustration. Of course all of her reports and papers were gone. She took a deep breath and remembered the work she did before, at least it would be easy to remember it since she already typed it once.  Her ideas from yesterday were flying back to her like an airplane to a base, as she started to type.

Hours later, Anna sat back and looked at her papers that she has finished in record time. She thought of things that had happened to cause a ruckus in the work place. Her friend, Sarah, lost her papers when her computer shut off. Anna walked past Sarah’s office and told her to save her drafts. She then sat in her office thinking of what else went wrong.

Anna thought of the 2:00 meeting that they were scheduled to have. Lindsay had decided that we were going to cut off the Dawn clothing line in some of our businesses. There was an outrage on the evening news about it. Anna knew this was her chance to get a promotion. If she could stop her boss from cutting the line, Lindsay would praise her once it turned out to be a bonus for the company. Anna was so excited she could hardly eat the cold meatloaf she had packed in her lunch. Finally, the meeting came around. Anna went extra early since last time she couldn’t find a seat, and had to stand.

Once the meeting started, they casually discussed the usual weekend reports.  When Lindsay approached the front, Anna’s stomach started to churn, and all of Lindsay’s speech was distant and blurred.  When Lindsay approached the part of her speech about cutting the Dawn Clothing line, Anna stood up and protested it. She confidently stated all of the negative points that were said in the evening news, and showed how the sales in their other stores might be predicted to decrease. All of her peers nodded in amazement by Anna’s knowledge, Bill, her colleague mumbled, “Overachiever.” . Lindsay stared at Anna with her thin lips pressed together tight, then said “We’ll discuss this tomorrow, Anna be in my office after the meeting. Now on to the next topic.”
The meeting went by very quick and Anna walked quickly to Lindsay’s office, worried thoughts filling her head. Lindsay was upset. She told Anna she doesn’t like people who disrupt her meetings and give opinions without being asked. She told Anna to resign, or she would fire her.  Anna wouldn’t resign, she loved her job. Glaring at Anna, Lindsay asked her to collect her things and go home.

Anna got home from work earlier than usual, her husband, John, was surprised. “Easy day at work?” he asked. Anna broke out in tears and explained everything to him. He had a hard time believing it. How could she live the same day twice and have it end differently? At the end of her story John was amazed, and knew Anna couldn’t be lying. He made warm soup for her since she was upset. Anna gladly ate the soup, warming her down to her toes. She then went to bed early, exhausted by a confusing day. She prayed that she would not have to relive this day again.

Anna slept in until 8:15, waking up to have breakfast with her husband. She cooked him cheesy eggs and crispy bacon since she didn’t have to get ready for work. 8:45 rolled around, Anna was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the paper. She thought about what she would be doing at work now, already one hour of work would be done. Anna started to get her husband’s brief case ready, trying not to think about it. Her husband shouted for Anna to come to the living room. She scurried to him wondering what could possibly be wrong, only to have her jaw drop. Breaking news was on the television. An airplane had crashed into the twin towers, the towers she worked in. Frantically, Anna called her friend Sarah. She didn’t answer. Anna Called Lindsay, there was no answer. Anna started to cry in fear for her old co-workers and friends. Her husband held her as she cried, only saying one thing, “Maybe you were meant to re-live yesterday.”