Ever since the accident, something has been off. First I started noticing little things, like houses that I thought were a different color, or that people's names changed slightly. My doctor said it was probably brain damage and that I was remembering things wrong. When I asked him if it was permanent, he gave no real answer. He simply told me it was too early to tell. He gave me some pills to help cope. I was probably just overreacting. A few weeks later, I started finding things much stranger. I realized that some of the streets I remembered were no longer there. My doctor’s name was Jon Davidson, but I remembered it to be Jon David. 

One day in early spring, my friend invited me to a barbecue at her house. I had some trouble finding the house, but eventually I found it. It was smaller than I remembered, but I couldn't really trust my memory anymore. My thoughts and words mixed together and the conversations were drowned out by my troubled confusion. I told my friend I had to leave early. I remember the crash perfectly, though. The accident was terrifying. My car flew off the road after I hit the guardrail and I hit my head pretty hard. I later heard that I was mere feet from crashing into a tree. After spending a few days in the hospital, I was discharged after that. It didn’t feel like I was there for very long, seeing as I had experienced such great head traumas. My memory is great. It was still great after the crash, but just false.

I went to the library. That place always helped me in times like these. I liked reading verses of the bible to calm myself. When I got there, the books weren’t in any sort of order anymore. At least I couldn’t see any order. Eventually, I found the black-binded book. I began reading it quietly, but aloud. I ignored the looks from the people around me. It was Genesis. I loved reading it, learning the religious take on how the earth and people were created. I lost track of time and I read the entire thing without taking any breaks. No one had said anything to me. It was like time had stopped. I stood, shaking my legs which had fallen asleep. 

“Hello,” I said to a librarian.

“Hello, how can I help you?” she asked kindly.

“I wanted to know why the shelves are disorganized,” I said.

She looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“They’re not in alphabetical order any more,” I added.

“I don’t think I understand,” she said in a voice that showed no emotion.

    I walked off to my house and it was late. That librarian was strange. I had a creepy feeling that the place where I lived was messed up, not just my head. I tried calling my friend but my contacts were blank on my phone. I could’ve sworn I had saved her number on my phone. I felt lonely and I fell asleep knowing no one was there for me. In the morning, I felt no better. I ate nothing, but went out on the street for a walk. I went back to the library. It was like I was drawn to it. It calmed me, but it also put me on edge, in a state of unfamiliarity of this strange new world I was in. The library had many people reading in it, but when I looked at the shelf, the bindings were all labeled as different copies of the bible. I looked around and all of the people were in deep study of the religious text. I read some of it and left. All of the librarians were gone.

    I started to freak out about it. What was happening to me? I looked for my friend’s house, but when I got there, the person who answered the door was an old man.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I live here! Who are you?” the man demanded angrily.

I walked off without answering. Who was I? I walked down to the river to skip rocks. I loved skipping rocks. I spotted one on the ground that was perfect. I tossed it, but it didn’t skip. I tried another. Still nothing. What was happening? It could be a fantasy of my mind, but those rarely last thirty years. I think that’s how long I’ve been here. I’ll never go back to the world where I once was, so this one will have to do. It’s crazy how a single change in my life has changed the world, well, at least my world.