As I Close My Eyes (4 page)

The air of the cabin never changed. It smelled like damp wood and musty sheets, just like every other time I had been a guest over the years. We wouldn’t be inside too much anyway since our main focus was hiking, swimming, and maybe a little shopping in town.

“
What did you bring to wear to dinner?” asked Shannon as she opened the red door and stepped inside.

“
Shoot. I forgot about dinner,” I replied.

“
I figured, so I packed you a dress.” Got to hand it to Shannon. After nine years, she knew to bring a backup suitcase just for me.

“
Let’s go for a swim before we eat,” Shannon said as she checked her reflection in the mirror over a dresser just outside the bathroom doors.

“
Sounds like a plan to me.”

We quickly unpacked and put on our suits, preparing for the mile walk to one of the many waterfalls of Tallulah. It was always so much darker in the woods and I greatly appreciated the quiet walk, only passing campers and a park ranger along the way.

A dirt path just inside a wall of trees took us over a small wooden bridge that would eventually lead us to the first of the falls. We couldn’t wait to settle into where the descending water met a pond, turning it into a Jacuzzi-esque oasis.

As I stepped carefully into the first pool of water, warm bubbles hugged my shoulders and I asked Shannon a very important question. I was dying to hear her answer. “What do you think you’ll do about Brad?”

“
I don’t know. I think I’m gonna let him see what it’s like not to have me around for a few days so he knows how much he’ll miss me.” 

“
That hasn’t worked before, Shan.” I knew this weekend would end with apologies on the phone and a speedy drive back into Brad’s arms.

“
Let’s stop talking about me and Brad. When are you gonna find yourself a nice southern man?”

“
I don’t want one. I’m perfectly happy with my life as it is.”

“
Oh, come on. Don’t you think it would be nice to have someone next to you? Someone who can melt you into a puddle of pleasure like a true southern gentleman should do.”

“
Ewww. I don’t want to be melted into anything,” I said.

This particular spot at The Falls was a place Brad, Shannon, Eric, and I always came to when we visited. We usually didn’t say much here since the sound of the plummeting water thundering into the pools below was too loud to talk for long. This time, however, as our bodies were immersed in the warm water, we did manage to talk about Shannon a lot. How she missed Brad but was still really mad at him; how she hated her hair and wanted to chop it off ... it went on for about an hour.

We sat in the water for over two hours before we realized the sun was setting and it was probably time to get back so we could make our reservations.

Walking with towels around our waists, we got a few honks along the way, none of which were for me. I was sure of that. Shannon and her perfect breasts had a way of attracting everyone who saw her. Plus, my oversized nose and purple eyes weren’t particularly appealing at the moment.

We quickly stripped off our suits and got into the dresses that Shannon had brought along. She laid out five options on the bed, which made me wonder how long she was planning on staying here. Of course, I didn’t fill out the dress she had picked for me with my size A chest, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

After an hour of Shannon prepping herself, we got into her little Beetle for the second time that day and made our way to the restaurant with our mouths watering for the best calamari in Georgia. When we were seated, we ordered two glasses of sweet tea and finally relaxed. It became apparent that this weekend would help take my mind off the pain of my face.

We talked about our first year at Gainesville State College for a while before our entr
é
es were served. At the moment the waiter set down my plate, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a breathtakingly beautiful couple walk into the foyer of the restaurant. The man was the most gorgeous person I had ever laid eyes on. His dark brown hair, so dark brown it was almost black, was pulled back into a small ponytail at the bottom of his neck. I normally wasn’t attracted to men with longer hair, but he had a mysterious way about him - somewhat like a European college professor mixed with boy-next-door good looks. The candle on the table lit up his bright green eyes and I watched him pull his phone out of the gray vest he wore and set it on the table. Something was oddly familiar about him.

My attraction to this stranger felt stronger than anything I had ever experienced before. When I took a moment to take my eyes away from him, I saw a beautiful brunette, who was just as stunning, sitting across from him.

Everyone in the restaurant seemed to know him and a few guests stopped to make small talk. The glances between the beautiful couple seemed a little awkward. They were too new to be husband and wife or even boyfriend and girlfriend. Maybe this was a first date?

“
Dani. Dani.”

“
Oh, sorry. Do you see that guy who just came in?”

“
Yeah. So?”

“
There’s somethin’ about him.”

“
What are you talking about?” asked Shannon. “He looks ten years older than us.”

I was overcome with irrational jealousy. Why was he with her? That should be me. A whispered voice in my head told me our paths had crossed sometime ago, but not just in passing. We had been something once. I knew it, yet quickly dismissed the odd feelings I had towards this stranger.

Shannon and I finished our meals in silence because I couldn’t stop watching him. Watching his knife cut a piece of steak, then following the path of the fork to his mouth. Chewing. Chewing. Drinking the dark beer he ordered and wiping his upper lip with the cloth napkin on his lap. I know those lips. I’ve looked into those eyes.
How did I know him?
The room stood still for the entire dinner with flashes of black passing by as waiters and waitresses hurried to their assigned tables.

I desperately wanted to go over and say something to him, but I knew I’d appear completely insane with my face the way it looked and the obvious - I really had no idea who he was. What would I say?

“
Let’s go,” said Shannon as she signed the check. I got the feeling she had said that more than once and I hadn’t been paying attention. Our entire dinner had come and gone while I sat, having only eaten a small bite of my food.

“
Geez, where are you tonight?” she asked.

“
I’m here. I’m just
-
I don’t know. I have to find out who he is.” Shannon was at a loss for words.

As we began to drive away, I stared out the passenger window, trying to get one last glimpse of the mystery man through the candlelit windows.

We got back to cabin #10 without saying one word. After we put our pajamas on, we crawled into our respective beds in silence. It felt like hours before I actually closed my eyes. My mind raced with images of his perfect face while desperately trying to place us together in some previous scene in my life, almost like when detectives on television ran through images of perpetrators on a computer looking for a match to a killer.

*  *  *

A man in a small wooden boat approached us with the distant fire in the background. Rowing faster and faster to reach us as quickly as he could. With every stroke of the oars, his face became more recognizable. He was the same man I had seen in the restaurant tonight, only oddly dressed. Wait
- h
is attire looked like ours. Some sort of Victorian-era dark suit. And he had a mustache, unlike the man at dinner. But I couldn’t mistake those eyes. Or those lips. Was I dreaming about the man I saw in the restaurant? I was acutely aware of my surroundings and all of my senses were heightened. I couldn’t ever remember being able to smell or touch things in my dreams before, but in this dream I could. Like it was more than just a dream. I ran my fingers along the boat’s edge and felt splinters of wood sticking up in some spots. Taking a deep breath, the smell of the fire in the distance seared the inside of my nostrils. I touched my face, but it didn’t hurt when my fingertips felt my nose.

What was I seeing? What town was I in and what year was it? I must be dreaming. Damn, I hit my head hard. He was yelling something, but it was hard to make out with the commotion at the shore. Soon his calls became clear.

“
Caroline!” he yelled. “You’re alive!”

“
We’re here, Robert! We’re all fine,” yelled the tiny blonde woman.

So that was Robert.

Chapter 4

The sound of the shower woke me from the dream. It took a moment to realize I was back in the present. I reached over the piles of blankets bunched up next to me and grabbed my glasses from the nightstand between our beds. A bottle of painkillers sat at the edge and I knocked it on the floor as I blindly reached in the dark.

“
Hey, girl,” said Shannon as she exited the shower, opening the heavy, patterned curtains on the way. “Glad to see you up and moving. You were mumbling something about a Robert last night. You have some crazy sex dream about that guy from the restaurant?”

“
No, I was passed out. And I do not talk in my sleep, thank you very much,” I responded with a hint of insecurity.

“
Well, whoever you were talking about last night sure sounded like someone I’d like to meet. Get your shower, then we’ll head down to the breakfast room for some yummy waffles.”

“
Not sure if I can keep them down.” It was as if the dream had taken out all of my energy and left me nauseous.

While I soaped up, music from the radio resonated from the room as Shannon dressed. It never took me long to get ready for anything. After a few minutes in the shower, I got dressed and again, threw my hair up in a messy bun.

We walked over to the main house where a complimentary breakfast was served to the guests staying in the cabins. The shower helped a little, but I still couldn’t be sure I would keep any food down. My face still throbbed and I could tell I was more swollen than the day before as I touched my nose.

After pouring a cup of coffee, I attempted to make a waffle with the batter and waffle-maker that sat on a long table. Since I never really woke up until about an hour after I actually got out of bed, I failed to read the instructions on how to make the best waffle and burned it to a charred square. It took one of the hostesses almost fifteen minutes to scrape off the charred bits of batter from the waffle-maker. I quickly sat down at the small table Shannon had claimed for us. The only thing I could stand to eat was a banana.

“
That’s all you’re going to have?” Shannon asked.

“
Yeah, I know. I usually eat a lot more but I’m not feeling the greatest this morning.”

Shannon finished her meal while I took my last bite and we left the quaint little room.

“
Ready to shop?” asked Shannon, while she dropped the keys to her car in a puddle near the driver’s side door.

“
Sure,” I replied, hoping we’d see Mr. Mysterious from the night before in some random store.