In Five Years

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

     When Dannie Kohan is interviewed for a job in the most prestigious law firm in New York, the one she planned since she was a child to work at and is asked the proverbial question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” she knew exactly how to answer. Now, Dannie is one organized young lady. She’s a corporate lawyer, living with her successful hedge fund boyfriend, she’s young, smart and driven. She is also ruled by numbers. There is a number she counts to when she wakes up but before she opens her eyes, she knows how many minutes she will use getting herself ready in the morning, walk to the subway, to work, what age she will marry, how long the engagement will be. So, this question doesn’t throw her. She knows who she will be married to, where she will be living and which partner track she will be on, at this firm, mind you. Dannie is on control of her life.

       So when Dannie falls asleep in her bed and wakes up in the morning and finds herself five years in the future but next to a strange man in a strange apartment, wearing a ring that David didn’t give to her and not knowing how she got there, well, it was disconcerting. She stayed in the future for all of an hour but it was an hour she couldn’t forget and spent the next five years looking for.

In those five years Dannie becomes engaged to her David. David, who is everything any woman would want but darned if she can commit to the wedding. She’s busy, you know? So is David. And there’s that five year date looming closer and closer.

      And there’s best friend Bella, who is so opposite Dannie, but good for her in that way. Bella never had anything from her parents her entire life but money. There was enough of that to allow Bella to live the world with boy and man friends Dannie couldn’t keep track of. But Bella kept Dannie grounded and surprisingly one day announces she is moving back to New York and settling down as a gallery owner and where Dannie can’t find time for much else, she does have time for Bella. When one of them inhaled, the other exhaled.

      And then, with that five year date getting closer Dannie meets him.

      This is a story you can race through in one sitting or savor. You can ask yourself the same question and give serious thought to your answer. You can ask a friend and spend a morning over sweets and tea discussing your answers. But I’m quite sure you won’t fall asleep in your bed at night and wake up in the morning five years later in someone else’s. Or maybe?