Women's World: Part Three

Linda rolls out of bed, stomach in knots for no good reason. The living room feels wrong, the light weird, like someone swapped the furniture overnight. She flicks on the TV and catches news anchor Diane Jones giving a report that hits her like cold water: something is off with the world. Linda sees it now. Everything around her is suddenly unfamiliar, even the house she supposedly lives in. She bolts out the front door. Her feet slap pavement, panic chewing at her ribs. She smacks straight into Leslie, who just blinks, utterly unfazed by whatever Linda is babbling about. Leslie shrugs and walks on. Linda keeps running until she spots Karen. Relief crashes over her. She spills the whole story, but Karen only gives her that look, the one that says crazy talk. Linda sprints home again. Back on the sidewalk, Leslie keeps replaying the weird flash she saw when Linda bumped her. One strange word stuck in her head. She types it into her phone. Nothing. Library it is. At the salon, Amanda and Tanya wipe down chairs after the last cut. Tanya gripes about her latest breakup, Amanda nods along while her heart does cartwheels over the woman she can never have. Then Tanya says something offhand and Amanda’s brain shorts out in the best way. Hope sneaks in with the confusion. Leslie dumps an armful of library books on her table and flips through them like she’s speed-reading a map that refuses to make sense. Answers aren’t here. She packs up and heads home to her wife. Linda steps inside her house and freezes. A tall blonde stranger is waiting on the couch, giving her the kind of smile that suggests she belongs there. Who the hell is this, and why is she smiling like she owns the place? Back at the salon, Amanda blurts it out. Tanya’s eyes go wide, then the surprise melts into something hotter. Fingers brush, sparks crack, and the day suddenly feels a lot less lonely.