She was short, a little under five feet tall, with flat brown hair and a smooth face. Her chin was round, her eyes brown and she wore dark glasses. As small as she was, she had plump legs, full breasts, and long arms. She wore a red blouse and blue jean shorts.

“My name is…” she began.

“Jane,” I said. “I created you.”

“You’re wrong, Leo,” Jane said. “You can’t create anything at all.”

“But I did,” I said.

“There’s nothing new under the sun,” she said and waved her hand. “Why do you think you created me?”

“I was alone…”

“You’re never alone,” she said and sat next to me.

“What do you mean, never alone?” I asked. “Look at this mess in here. I have no reason to clean it up because I have only myself to impress and there’s not much sense in that, is there?”

“Let me take you to a new place.”

And in a dream state, we sped through the vacuum to an apartment in the city that was so clean and neat I made sure I knocked a hard cover book to the floor.

“Knock it off,” Jane said squeezing my hand.

“I did,” I laughed.

“Please, they can hear and see us,” Jane said.

In the room was a man who looked a lot like me under the covers with a woman who looked nothing like Jane. My eyes grew wide.

“See yourself in this fantasy?” Jane whispered. “That woman isn’t me but someone you know quite well.”

And so she was. My dream. My fantasy. But she was real. My neighbor, classmate, co-worker, friend. Flesh and blood. There we were right in front of me and Jane. As we hid, we watched the two get out of bed and stumble slightly to the bathroom. The woman turned on the shower.

“At least you’re good for something,” the woman said, her voice filled with feminine sarcasm.

I watched myself frown and remain silent.

“What about the bills?” the woman asked after making sure the water wasn’t too cold or too hot. 

She walked back to the bedroom with me stepping timidly past her to the bathroom looking into the foggy mirror.

The woman’s body was perfect.

“Are you going to shower with me or just play with yourself in there,” she said bringing two towels back to the bathroom.

  Her biting tone smashed into my skull.

My other self stepped meekly into the shower when the woman did. I was about to tell the woman to go fuck herself but Jane put her hand over my mouth.

“Why can’t I?” I whispered.

“Because you can’t disrupt this fantasy,” she said. “The pattern has to continue.”

“I never fantasized about a woman like that,” I cried.

“But you did,” Jane said. “And this is what she’s like. She’s what’s in your thoughts.”

“Bullshit,” I said loudly.

“What’d you say?” the woman said in the shower.

I heard a slap and my other self stepped out of the shower and walked to the bedroom with a red mark on his face.

“Shit,” I said quietly.

My other self looked up as Jane and I sneaked around the corner.

“Shut up!” Jane whispered wildly. “We have to go now.”

I screamed.

  I was back in my room. Jane was gone and all that was left of her was a hastily drawn pencil sketch.

Cold sweat ran down my back. Enough of this wild imagery, I thought.

  But I had to write down everything I saw.

While writing I felt a presence in my room. Before long Jane was there cleaning. She reshelved books, records, tapes, discs. She sprayed tables, furniture, and counters with a potent cleaning fluid, wildly rubbing the cloth back and forth. Like a sped-up motion picture she emptied hampers into laundry baskets, placed dishes in the dishwasher, and then vacuumed the carpet.

I waited for her to slow. I longed for her to speak. Periodically she stared at me, her eyes wide with annoyance. The vacuum cleaner whirred by my feet like a cat teasing a mouse. Jane’s look became more apprehensive and disgusted.

“You can stop anytime,” I said.

“I don’t appreciate you bringing me back after what happened,” she said. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

“Think of it this way,” she said. “I’m that uncontrollable part of your imagination that literally has a mind of her own. Why your thought processes made me who I am, I’ll never know.”

“Why’d you clean?”

“That’s what pisses me off more than anything. Don’t make me clean your mess. Do it yourself.”

“How can I make you do that?”

“Believe me, you have the ability.”

I sat in my chair and thought about the implications. What’s going on? I didn’t understand how Jane could keep coming into my reality.

“I won’t pretend I understand this, but what exactly can you tell me?”

“Let me show you another place,” she said and took my hand.

This time we came to a place in the country. The house we stood in was a small three-bedroom, single story affair with a huge front and back yard. I saw two people in the living room from where we stood. The two people looked incredibly like Jane and me. 

“What’s this?” I whispered.

“I can’t tell you,” she said and turned her face away from me.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“We need to go outside,” she said.

She took us to a small grove of trees behind the house. Then in a flash of realization I remembered what this place was. I’d written about it a hundred times in my journals and even used the place setting for some of my stories.

  “Is this my possible future?” I asked.

“Getting the drift?” Jane said.

“I don’t get it. You’re nothing spectacular as far as looks go. You’re much shorter than what I prefer as far as a lover or girlfriend.”

She looked hurt by this.

“This is all your doing,” Jane said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is you’re responsible for all this.”

“Is that bad?”

“Ask yourself that question.”

After giving her a frustrated look, I tried to take her hand. She refused so I walked to the house with Jane following me. She warned me what’d happen if I did anything rash.

  “This is what you’ve been leading me too originally.”

“This is all your decision,” she said.

I knocked on the door and waited for someone to come to the door. When my face appeared, I almost ran away. But I stood my ground.

“Hello,” I said.

And we were both back at my apartment.

“I thought you’d never come to,” Jane said.

“You’re still here,” I said.

“That’s right,” she said. “I never thought you’d seriously choose me though.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but I thought to myself, it couldn’t be that bad.

“If you’re real, come sit by me,” I said.

Jane sat next to me and kissed me.

“So it’s plain Jane for you,” she said.

“I guess it is.”