The Girl Who Borrowed Tomorrow

Ese lived in Troup County, in LaGrange.

She had a problem. She was always early. Early to school, early to church, early to everything. Her mother would say, "Ese, why are you wearing tomorrow's uniform today?"

One afternoon, she went to the old library on Main Street. The librarian was sleeping. On the table was a book with no title.

She opened it. Inside, there was only one sentence on each page.

Page 1: "Today is Tuesday."
Page 2: "Tomorrow is Wednesday."
Page 3: "You can borrow it if you want."

At the bottom was a small button that said PRESS.

Ese pressed it.

Suddenly it was Wednesday. She was in Wednesday. Her friends were talking about a test that she hadn't read for, but now she was already in it. She failed.

She ran back to the library. The book now said:

"Yesterday is Tuesday."
"You are in Wednesday."
"Do you want to borrow Thursday too?"

She pressed again.

Now it was Thursday. She missed her best friend's birthday on Wednesday because she skipped it.

She kept pressing. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. She was borrowing all the tomorrows, thinking life would be faster and easier.

By the time she looked up, she was 30 years old. In the same library. The librarian was still sleeping.

She opened the book. It said: "You have borrowed 17 years. Would you like to return them?"

Ese cried. "Yes!"

The book said: "You can't return time. But you can re-live it - slowly this time."

She blinked and she was 11 again, back on Tuesday, in the library.

The book was gone. The librarian woke up and said, "We dey close oh."

Ese walked home slowly. Very slowly. For the first time, she noticed the cracks in the sidewalk, the way the pine trees smelled in LaGrange, the way her house number looked.

She never arrived early again.

She arrived just in time.