Authors: Deanna Lynn Sletten
Annie assured him that it was fine. She wished him a happy life and said her goodbyes. Her voice sounded calm, but inside, her heart was pounding. Her eyes had changed color? Impossible.
Annie stood and strode to the bookcase in her bedroom to pull out the only photo album she had of her childhood. She sat on the bed and quickly scanned the pages of the album. Most of the photos were of her before her father died, and most weren't close-ups so she couldn't see her eye color clearly. Finally, she came upon a school photo of her in the fifth grade, taken just weeks before her father died. Annie pulled the photo out of the plastic sleeve and studied it closely. In the photo she was wearing an emerald green sweater, and her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The green sweater should have made her eyes a bright green, but the eyes that stared back at her were not green or even blue-green. They were hazel.
"We need to visit the cemetery and find out when Sara died," Annie told Cherise over coffee the next morning at the coffeehouse.
Cherise looked horrified. "What do you mean by 'we'? I don't need to go to any cemetery. I hate being in cemeteries. They give me the creeps."
Annie rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. There's nothing to be afraid of. I just want to find Sara's grave and see the date she died."
"Why can't you just ask William? Or Sandy? Why do you have to actually go to the grave and read the headstone?" Cherise shivered.
"I don't want to ask them. I want to see it for myself," Annie said. "I need you to go with me, okay? Please?" she added for good measure.
"Fine," Cherise said. "But I'm not happy about it. When do you want to go?"
"Now."
"Now? Like, right now?" Cherise practically screeched.
Annie couldn't help but smile at Cherise's reaction. "Why not? Your parents are here, and the breakfast rush is over. We can slip out, go there, and be back before the lunch rush."
"Fine," Cherise said grudgingly. "But you'll owe me big time."
Twenty minutes later, Annie and Cherise were walking down a path in the cemetery. Annie was only guessing that Sara was buried here, or at least she hoped Sara was. Knowing how close William and the kids were to her, Annie figured he wouldn't have buried her at a cemetery further away.
"What makes you think they didn't cremate her and place her on the mantel in an urn?" Cherise asked in a whisper as they walked along, reading the names on the headstones.
Annie hadn't thought about that. "You're not helping. Just read the names, okay?"
The two women walked cautiously up and down the paths of the small cemetery surrounded by pine trees. Many of the headstones had dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Annie was beginning to worry that this was an old cemetery and Sara wouldn't be buried here until she came upon a marble headstone that read
Sara Jane Grafton
.
Annie waved Cherise over to where she stood. "I found it," she said.
Cherise walked over and both women stood, reverently looking at the headstone.
"There she is," Cherise whispered. "It's really her."
All Annie could do was nod. She looked at the date of death on the headstone. March 8th, five years ago. Annie's eyes widened. "Oh my God," she said.
"What's wrong?" Cherise asked,
"Sara died on March 8th."
"I see that, but why is that such a big deal?" Cherise asked.
Annie turned to her friend, her face pale. "We both died on the exact same day."
Chapter Seventeen
On the drive back to the coffeehouse, Annie explained to Cherise what she'd meant about dying on the same day as Sara. Once again seated in a booth, fresh cappuccinos in their hands, the two stared at each other in shocked silence.
"What does this mean?" Cherise finally asked once the caffeine had kicked in and she finally had the nerve to speak.
"I don't know," Annie responded.
"If you both died on the same day, maybe it's Sara you see in the dreams."
"That's what I'm thinking," Annie said.
"Or," Cherise began, then stopped.
Annie looked up at her. "Or what?"
Cherise stared at her friend in wonder. "Or you are Sara," she said in a whisper.
Annie's brows furrowed. "No, of course I'm not Sara. How could I be?"
"Maybe Sara traded places with you. Maybe she kept her promise and came back, only as you instead of as herself."
Annie waved her hand back and forth in the air as if to brush Cherise's words away. "That's not even possible. I was Annie before the surgery, and I'm still Annie. I'm not Sara. I'm not anything like her. No. It's not possible." Annie hoped she sounded convincing because she didn't feel like she was convincing herself.
"What about the dreams?" Cherise asked. "What about all the things you knew about the house even though you'd never been inside before?" Cherise stared hard at her friend. "What about your eyes?"
Annie broke out in goosebumps. "All coincidences. I'm not Sara. I'm not." she insisted. But as the two friends continued to drink their cappuccinos in silence, Annie wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.
Sandy was just pulling out her mother's painting of Fairy Falls from the closet underneath the staircase when her father walked into the house through the front door. He spotted her and came over to see what she was doing.
"Hey, Sandy. What's going on?" he asked as he set down his briefcase and loosened his tie. He'd just spent the day working at the office in Beaverton and was tired from all the paperwork he'd done and the commute.
"I'm just pulling out this painting Mom did," Sandy said as she leaned the canvas against the hallway wall and pulled off the protective sheet. The painting practically came to life, its colors vibrant against the white wall.
"Wow. I forgot about this one," William said, staring at the painting in awe. "It's beautiful."
Sandy nodded. "Annie and I were looking at these last week, and I decided I wanted to put this one in my room." She looked up at her dad. "Do you mind?"
"Of course not," William answered quickly. "It should be seen and appreciated. It's not finished though."
"I don't mind," Sandy said offhandedly.
William studied his daughter's face and, for a moment, he saw traces of the teenaged girl she'd been before her mother died. Tentatively, he asked, "Have you ever thought of finishing it yourself? You're talented like your mother. I'm sure you would do a wonderful job."
"Yeah, Annie asked me the same question. I don't know, though. I wouldn't want to ruin it."
"I'm sure you wouldn't ruin it," William said. They both studied the painting in silence for a moment and while they did, William realized that Sandy had said Annie and she were looking at the paintings together. "You said you and Annie were looking through the paintings?"
"Yeah, last week. Before you two went out to dinner on Friday," Sandy replied. "By the way, where is Annie? I figured she'd be here tonight."
"She's at her place this week," William said, trying to sound casual. "We've both been very busy with work."
It was Sandy's turn to study her father. He was trying to act nonchalant about Annie's absence, but she could tell he was putting on an act. "Did something happen between you two?"
William slipped out of his suit jacket and laid it over the stair railing. "No, nothing's happened. We're both just really busy. Hey, why don't you let me carry this up to your room? Then maybe we can track down your brother, and we can all go out for dinner, just the three of us." He reached over to lift the canvas up off the floor, but Sandy stopped him by placing her hand on his arm.
"Dad, something's going on. I can tell. Either you tell me yourself or I'm going to call Annie and ask her."
William sighed as he straightened up. "There is nothing going on, Sandy. Annie and I just had a small disagreement, and we're giving each other a little space. That's all. In fact, I'm going to call her tonight to ask if she'd like to spend the weekend."
"What did you disagree about?" Sandy persisted.
"What is this, an interrogation?" William tried to joke, but the look on Sandy's face told him he wasn't getting away with this so easily. "Okay, fine. Annie found out one of her photo assignments is the same weekend as Sam's graduation. I thought she should try to reschedule, but she said she wouldn't. I'm just a little upset that she chose work over a family gathering." He saw that Sandy was going to protest, so he lifted his hand to ward it off. "I know, I know. I'm being selfish. I just really wanted her to be here."
Sandy pursed her lips. "Dad, you can't expect Annie to give up a good assignment because we have a family event. Her work is just as important as yours is."
"I understand that," William said, then added softly, "but your mother always put family first."
"Annie's not Mom," Sandy said in a quiet voice.
William nodded, then gently lifted the canvas and carried it up to Sandy's room.
Later that evening, William called Annie as he sat on the deck in the rocking loveseat. When she didn't answer, he left her a message saying he missed her and hoped she'd come spend the weekend with him at the house. After he hung up, he wondered if he should drive over to her condo and talk to her face-to-face. He hadn't lied. He did miss her presence in the house. He missed falling asleep with her at night and waking up with her in the morning. He missed her playful teasing and holding her hand as they walked on the beach. He missed having someone to eat dinner with, talk with, and he even missed just knowing she was there, working at the kitchen island while he was working in his den. After only a few weeks of being together, he felt as comfortable with Annie as he had with Sara after years of marriage. That alone said a lot about his feelings for Annie. He also knew that he'd have to change his way of thinking in order to make his relationship with Annie work. Sandy was right. Annie wasn't Sara. She was her own person. Sara had spoiled him. He knew that. But now it was time for him to stop waiting for someone exactly like Sara to come along and appreciate Annie for all that she was.
Annie looked at her phone when William called but didn’t answer it. She listened to his message, and he sounded sincere about missing her and wanting her to come over for the weekend. She missed him, too, and wanted to spend the weekend with him, but after all she'd learned this week, she wasn't sure what to think. She was still feeling hurt by his reaction to her missing Sam's party. She was also confused about her strange connection to Sara, the dreams, and her deep attraction to William. Annie had left the idea of a fairy tale romance behind the day her father died, and she'd never believed she'd fall in love so easily, so quickly. But she had with William. And even though Cherise insisted their love was fate, Annie resisted that idea vehemently.
"Coincidence," she said aloud to the silent room. "Everything has just been a coincidence."
In the end, Annie texted William that she had already made plans for a weekend shopping trip in Portland with Cherise so she wouldn't be able to spend the weekend with him. Then she texted Cherise and asked her to go shopping this weekend, so it wouldn't be a lie. Annie needed more time. Time to sort out the strange events that had occurred this past week, and time to decide whether or not she and William had a future together.
Sunday evening, William called Annie to ask how her shopping weekend had been. He was relieved when she answered on the first ring.
"Hi," was all William could manage.
"Hi," Annie replied.
"How was shopping?" he asked after a moment's pause.
"Great. We hit every outlet mall in the area and spent more money than we should have." Annie tried to sound upbeat, but the truth was she hadn't enjoyed herself. The entire weekend she'd thought of William and missed spending time with him. It also didn't help that Cherise kept bringing up William, Sara, and the entire strange scenario. Annie was happy to be alone at last in her condo, but she was lonely for William's company.
"I'm glad you had a good time," William said, trying to sound enthusiastic. Then, in a quieter voice, he said, "I missed you this weekend."
Annie's heart lightened. "I missed you, too."
William then began to tell Annie about his weekend with the kids, how Sandy had stayed home each evening, the three of them had spent time on the beach, and ate dinner together. He said that he'd even had a chance to play nine holes of golf with Sam today. Hearing about William's weekend with the kids warmed Annie's heart and made her miss them even more. She would have loved to have joined in on their time together.
"Do you have a busy week ahead?" William asked.
"No, not really," Annie replied.
"My week is kind of light, too," William said. "I spent most of last week at the office and caught up on all my paperwork and meetings." He paused, then said tentatively, "It's a nice night out. I'd love it if you'd come over tonight, and we could go for a stroll on the beach."