Wherever Would I Be: Excerpt

Lucy blinked.

Then she blinked again, harder this time, certain that her eyes were playing a trick on her. But there he sat.

The man, seated behind a worn, dark walnut writer’s desk with thin, hand-carved legs, wore a chocolate brown dress jacket with a high collar and small puffs on top of his shoulders – the likes of which Lucy had never seen outside of a history book or museum. A line of golden buttons started beneath each shoulder and veered inward, meeting high on his waist and giving the illusion of broad shoulders and slim hips. Though when the man stood up, the illusion proved unnecessary. His light brown, high-waisted trousers, dotted and smeared with black ink from the fountain pen he held, accentuated his long legs. His eye-catching, out-of-place clothing hadn’t stopped Lucy in her tracks – but rather how she could clearly see the patterned wallpaper directly behind him.

She blinked once more, attempting to clear her eyes of whatever distorted her vision. Surely the man before her was not actually translucent. Surely this was some sort of trick of light.

He lifted the paper he had been writing on and carried it closer to the window to allow the sunlight to fall directly on it.

Through it?

He squinted at his work before giving a quick nod and returning to his seat.

Lucy reached her fingers up to her own hair, the curl and the auburn color with copper highlights almost a perfect match to the man’s.

Something felt familiar about him, which prompted her to take a step to her right, to stand within the frame of the door despite her heart racing as she did, begging her to flee. Something told her she didn’t need to be afraid of him, something more than their resemblance, but she couldn’t place it. She opened her mouth to speak.

“Lucy? Where’d you wander off to?”

Lucy peered over her shoulder at the sound of her boss’s voice, blood rushing to her cheeks, embarrassed that the man certainly heard and caught her intruding. When she turned back, however, the man had vanished, nothing in the sunlight but the dust hanging in the air.