Zoo (32 page)

Kale shakes his head.

“
You sure?” Kai
asks.

“
No. I’m good. Thanks,”
Kale responds.
Why?!

Kai shrugs and turns back to me. “Okay.
Well, let’s get you fixed up.”

Pinot tosses over
something else before Kai even has to ask for it. “This is a
Healer. Lift your arms up and turn around slowly.” He holds the
metallic wand a few inches above my skin as I spin. It heals my
skin as it hovers over it. When it’s done, I thank him, but
internally I wish he could have repaired the rest of me as well.
I’ll have to heal slowly back at home—the normal way.
Blah.

And I wish Kale would let him heal his face.
The cut above his eye looks terrible.

Kai tosses the Healer back to Pinot and
turns to face us. He taps the watch that is surely hiding under his
white suit. “It’s time. Ready?” he asks. Then he smiles at both of
us.

SAYING GOODBYE

“
You’ll be fine. Don’t
worry. Look,
we’re
here. So everything must have worked out.” Josephine offers
me a warm smile and then hands me my book, which is now bone dry.
As I thumb through the pages, I discover that it looks just like it
did when Cat first gave it to me.

“
Thanks,” I say as I close
the book. I hug her one more time before we leave. Then I lean over
and hug Kai. We’ve all said our goodbyes, except Kale and
I.

“
Wait,” Kale says to Kai.
“Will we remember each other? Will we remember this place? You said
that I talked about dreams, but do you think I really remembered
and didn’t want to say too much?” Kale asks some very important
questions that I hadn’t thought of.

Panic rises within me as
turn over each question in my head. I have worries of my
own.
How will we find each other if we
can’t remember? I want to remember him. I have to remember him. I
love him too much to forget. Don’t I?

“
We’re not sure,” Kai
answers honestly.

“
Then we’re not going,”
Kale cuts him off.

“
Kale. Wait. Let him
finish.” I pull him closer to me.

“
Based on the stories
passed down and the fact that you ended up together after living so
far apart, we think you will remember. Plus, we’re counting on the
fact that you do, because if you don’t, you’re going to have a real
issue with the extra body, Emma . . . ”

The pod-body!

An alarm starts to blare, making it hard to
hear the rest of what Kai is saying. He starts to motion toward
Stephen, the portal. Time to go.

I throw my arms around
Kale’s neck, not wanting to ever let go. He wraps his around my
back, but doesn’t squeeze too hard, remembering my injury.
Screw my injury. I can’t get close
enough
.

We kiss like we’ll never see each other
again. We hold each other’s faces and stare into each other’s eyes,
trying to memorize everything about the one we love. I have to
remember his dark, beautiful, almond shaped eyes, the tattoos that
are etched into his tan skin, the way he knows exactly what to say
and how to be with me, his soul, our love—I need to remember it
all. We kiss again, but more sorrowfully like we’ve already lost
each other, even when evidence of our future is standing only a few
feet away. I can feel Kale doesn’t want to let me go either.

“
I love you,” he whispers
in my hair.

“
I love you.”

***

When I was little, my family took a trip to
the beach. We made snow angels in the sand. My mother named the
three of them, “Love, Hope, and Faith.” I was Hope. I am Hope. I am
hopeful that everything will be the way it was meant to be.

I let Kale pass through
the portal first.
I can’t call the stupid
thing Stephen. Sorry.

He disappears from me, but
I know that I will see him again soon. And I
will
remember him.

“
What about my clothes?” I
ask before stepping through.

“
The tack will take care
of that as well,” Kai answers. “Oh and Emma, thank you for
believing me.”

“
I knew it was you.” I
smile at my great-great-great-whatever-grandson and granddaughter,
and then I step into the portal . . .

HOME

I’m seat-belted into the driver’s seat and
dangling from above. I’m also lying on my stomach on the ceiling of
my overturned car. The “other me” is a lifeless pod-body sent to
take my place in death, and she looks like crap. I may joke, but it
actually gives me the chills to see it lying there below me.

Pod-body.

I remember!

I reach out and jab the thing that looks
like a thumbtack into the fake me. The flesh starts to bubble.
Pieces of the body start to crumble and flake away. Then the whole
thing goes up in a big puff and blows away, sending tiny bits of
dust riding on the wind.

I look down—I mean up. My old clothes have
spontaneously appeared on me. Not bad for a little tack.

Back in the year 2013, there are people
jumping out of their cars and screaming. My engine is steaming and
the radio is still on. It’s going up and down in volume in spurts.
A man with glasses and a potbelly is on his hands and knees,
looking into my car. He calls from the passenger side, “Are you
okay?”

I nod yes, not ready to talk just yet.

“
Can you crawl over to me?
I’ll pull you out.” He lifts his head for a second and hollers,
“Somebody call 911!”

I struggle to unbuckle the seatbelt. When I
finally get it unfastened, I drop to the ceiling with an awkward
thud. The impact sends pain throughout my chest. A gasp escapes my
lips. As I try to push past the pain, I attempt to move forward,
but there’s glass everywhere. It cuts my palms and stomach as I
pull myself across it. I make it to the opening of the broken
window where the man has taken off his button-up shirt and cleared
the rest of the glass away. He’s coaching me along, “That’s it.
Just a little further. Good girl. You got it.”

Lastly, the man instructs
me to roll over onto my back. As he grabs me under my arms to pull
me out of the car, I reach for my favorite purse that has an old
book peeking out of the opening. I’m pulled away from the smoking
vehicle, just in time for it to catch fire. The gathering crowd’s
screams sound like sirens wailing.
Oh,
there are sirens as well
. Emergency
vehicles swarm the area.

I’m strapped onto a stretcher and loaded
into an ambulance, smiling the whole time. They think I’m in shock,
but I’m not. I’m remembering.

THE

FUTURE

MY FUTURE. OUR FUTURE.

Kale and I didn’t take into account that I
was taken six months earlier than he. So, when I finally find his
contact information and call him in Hawaii, he won’t know who I am.
I won’t tell him what happened to us, because I will be afraid that
he will think I am a crazy person. With a heavy heart, I will tell
him I dialed the wrong number. It will be difficult to get through
the end of my senior year without any contact with the man I
love—but I will make it.

I will skip my senior trip to Paris and
instead move early to Hilo, Hawaii where I will get a scholarship
and go to the University of Hawaii. I will “accidentally” run into
Kale on the beach one day, and like before, he will be instantly
drawn to me. We will fall in love all over again, and it will be an
exciting new beginning.

One morning, Kale and I will travel down to
the beach so he can surf. While I read a book and relax, he’ll
catch some amazing waves. He’ll also have one huge wipeout that’ll
have me on my feet and at the water’s edge in seconds. When he
finally emerges from the aquamarine water, he will return to me as
the same man I have always loved, but a man with another lifetime
of memories. He will finally remember me . . . us.

He will walk toward me on
the sandy shore with a fresh cut above his eye and a bruised lip. I
will start to gasp, but then realize that I’ve seen the same wounds
on him once before. And when I look into his eyes, I will drop my
book in the water and not care, because I will know that the day
has finally come when
he
sees
me
. I will cry as he kisses
me.

In school, I will earn a Masters degree in
Marine Biology. I will focus on rescue and rehabilitation. Sending
animals back into their own environments, after I help them, will
be truly rewarding and exactly the opposite of what happened to me
in a past life.

My parents will miss me, but will be so
proud of their successful daughter. They will remain married and
fall in love with each other all over again after I leave the
nest.

Kale’s huge family will welcome me with open
arms. They will forgive me for being terrible at the family
bar-b-que sports. Kale will open his own surf shop and school. He
will be hugely successful—because who doesn’t love Kale? He will
also teach me the art of surf, and I will actually became pretty
good at it.

We will spend many nights lying on the sand,
stargazing, and holding hands. Eventually, we will marry at a small
ceremony, barefoot on a deserted beach with our parents and close
friends there to support us. We will name our son Kai and our
daughter Josephine Hope.

I will give Kale a very
beautiful and very expensive wristwatch on our
30
^th
wedding anniversary, which he will pass down to our son. My
precious book,
Emma,
will go to our daughter. And at the end of our long lives, we
will die peacefully together in our sleep. Neither of us will have
had to spend a second without the other.

About the author:

I write Young Adult Fiction, mostly
Dystopian/Sci-Fi novels with a splash of romance and a hint of
sarcasm. I'm also a graphic artist, wife, mother, and Red Vine
lover. I grew up in the Deep South surrounded by bayous, magnolia
trees, crawfish, and great people. My culture is a huge part of my
life, and you can see some of those details in my writing.

Zoo
, is my second YA novel. I’ve also written another YA novel
called
Exalted
.
Look for it if you haven’t read it yet!

Thanks for reading!

Connect with me online:

facebook.com/author.tara.elizabeth

authortaraelizabeth.com