Alex surfaced sluggishly from sleep to the sound of Sonny and Cher on the radio. "So put your little hand in mine, there ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb..." He blinked blearily at the clock—06:00—before reaching to hit the snooze button and rolling over to face his wife, Lisa, who was just starting to stir.
Suddenly his eyes opened wide. Staring at Lisa, he bolted upright, screaming. He tried to back away, but he was tangled up in the blanket and only succeeded in falling on the floor. When he ran out of breath, he heard a high-pitched scream ending in a thud on his wife's side of the bed.
He cautiously peeked over the edge of the bed, to see his wife doing the same thing from her side. Hesitantly, he said, "Lisa?"
"Alex?"
"Is that you? Are you really here?"
"I...I think so?"
"But, Lisa...you died. How...how is this possible?"
"I don't know. I just...I don't know." His wife's cornflower-blue eyes filled with confusion. "I remember it. I remember dying. I remember that pickup running the red light, and there was an awful noise, and then...nothing. Next thing I can remember is waking up here."
Alex's heart ached at the sight of a tear starting to trickle out of the corner of her eye. Carefully untangling himself, he came around the bed to sit beside her on the floor, holding her tight.
She sniffled, saying brokenly, "What's happening?"
Suddenly the radio came back on, snooze time over. "Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another lovely Sunday!—I'm sorry, Monday. Seems like my computer doesn't want it to be Monday either, hey? Let's go to our lovely meteorologist Evie for the weather report..."
He rubbed her back soothingly. "Well, first things first. Let's go get breakfast."
In the kitchen, he grabbed the ingredients for pancakes, her favorite comfort food. But as soon as she saw the jug of milk, she tensed. "Didn't you give the last of the milk to the neighbor yesterday? He said he was out of milk."
As if on cue, they heard a knock at the door.
Glancing at his wife, Alex stepped forward to open it, Lisa right behind him. Outside was his neighbor Jack from across the hall, standing with his fist raised and a confused expression on his face.
"Listen, mate, this is going to sound really strange, but...have you been having deja vu? I could have sworn I came over here to borrow some milk yesterday, but it's gone from my fridge now."
Eyes wide, Alex silently held up the jug of milk. The three of them stared at each other in consternation for a moment. Then Alex stepped back, inviting Jack in with a quick tilt of his head, and they all headed for the big-screen TV.
Lisa reached the remote first. As they all found seats, she hit the power button and switched to a news channel.
A rather frazzled-looking news anchor, wisps of blond hair escaping from her bun, was saying, "So that's it, folks. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it seems like the world has been reset. Everything that happened yesterday...never happened."
The trio could do nothing but stare at each other in stunned silence.