You are soon to find out

For an hour or so you are back to your boring life, you check in and out books, accept deliveries and generally take an eye on the customers. You had the mom's list of books ready on your desk, but as she was busy on the foreign literature section you had decided not to disturb her until she was ready. That's what brought you out of your bubble. An hour had passed, but the books were still there.

You move to the kids section, but the two children were not in sight. You take another round, until you finally find her. She is sitting at your desk, the one you vacated to take over Samantha's job when she went M.I.A.

Even stranger the woman is sligthly different. She is now wearing a formal shirt with a brown suit on top, and her mom jeans are now a long brown skirt. Her tired expression still present but now it seemed colder, and is accompanied by squared glasses. Her brown hair is longer, and tied in a perfect updo.

When she sees you staring she looks up at you with a so what expression, but you are still too stunned to act.

You stay frozen, hit with the implications of what had actually happened. You consider if it's an elaborate joke, made of multiple layers. But the more you think about everything the more you think the more you take psychic damage.

"Earth to Samuel! There are customers! Who am I kidding, I have to do all the work here. And these school books? Why have you taken them out? You know you shouldn't move things if not needed, right? Who do you think will have to clean up your mess after? Bah"

And with that she is already moving to put away the work you had done for her.

You took a minute to run to the restrooms and wash your face, then you call Ronald, your boss, hoping for something to actually make sense.

"You know you shouldn't disturb me friday mornings, what do you need?"

"Sorry Ron, hey. Has Sam told you abything about taking the day off?"

"What do you mean? You are Sam!"

"No, no... Samantha, not me"

"Who? What are you talking about? Listen, I'm quite busy and whatever you are doing it's not as clever as you might think. Don't forget to tell Francesca about Carel's books, they should be arrived by now."

And he hangs down, without a bye or anything. Still stunned you take a look at your numbers, until you manage to find Samantha's one. You find this Francesca's woman too, and you know for a fact that you didn't have it before. You are about to call your apparently ex-coworker when you hear a knock.

"Samuel, if you hide in the bathroom instead of doing your job, I will have to write a formal complaint to our boss."

Not to make the situation any worse you decide to text a simple "Hi" to her and see what happens.

As you go back you see that the woman, Francesca, has taken her place at the main desk, and soon you are back at the smaller secondary computer cataloguing and responding to mails. Your mind however is running at hundred miles an hour to look for a way to fix what you had done. Had you erased somethings from existence? What had actually changed?

"Hey... Fr-Francesca?"

"Yes, Samuel?"

"Where have your kids gone?"

"What do you mean gone?"

"They were here an hour ago, weren't they?"

"Are you sure you are okay? Do you have a concussion? They're at the kindergarten, like every morning"

The new librarian goes up to you and touches your forehead while looking you in the eyes with scrutiny. For just a moment you manage to see the motherly warmth behind the new bossy exterior that had formed. Oh, shit. The screen on the watch has lit up again.

"No, no signs of concussion, if whatever you are doing is to create an excuse and take the day off, think twice."

You manage a fake smile, then discretely take the watch off and stuff it in a drawer. You have created already to much damage.