Border Crossings: A Catherine James Thriller (37 page)

The light gives way and a perfect blue sky appears above us.  Grass tickles my feet as it pokes out between my toes and grows all around us.  The world takes shape around her and me as she holds my hand.  And in an instant we’re standing next to the creek where we both grew up.  I’m twelve again, barefoot in my favorite pair of overalls that I used to have.  My hair is thick and wild on my head and my body feels so light I could jump a hundred feet straight up.  There’s a cool breeze and it’s the prettiest day I can ever remember.  We’re standing on the bank of a creek hand in hand and she’s looking down into the water as it flows along.  I look, too, and I see that I know this place.  This is the place that has hidden in the back of my thoughts most all my life.  And then I know who the girl next to me is.  Of course I do, the obviousness crashing down on me.  I’m still happy, but I also feel tears fill my eyes and begin to run down my cheek.

She looks at me with sweetness, “Don't be sad.  I only wanted to come here to thank you.”  She holds me tightly and I‘m surprised at how real she feels next to me.  “You don’t have to cry for me, Sol, not ever again.”

I look at the creek, remembering how cold its waters could be.  “I kept seeing it in my dreams,” I tell her.  “This place was always following me.”

“I know.  But you can let go now.  I never wanted you to have to go through all those things, see all the things you have.”

“It’s been more than memories haunting me,” I say.

And in her eyes I can see that she does know what I’m talking about.  “I’m sorry I scared you.”

I remember the first time I ever saw a ghost.  It was my sister, Sarah.  “It’s all right," I tell her, "I know you didn't mean to."

“I was scared and I just remember wanting to find you, and then somehow I did.  I was in the dark, something trying to pull me away, but I wanted to stay because I didn’t know what it was or where I was going.  I just kept thinking about you, and how much I wanted you there with me.  You were the only one who still made sense to me.  It was like an onion, though, layers on layers from me to you, and I couldn’t get through them all.  I could see you, but you couldn’t see me.”

“But then I did see you,” I remind her.  She nods.  “I saw you, and I saw what he’d done.”  My tears were gathering, but like I’d done with that memory so many times before, I send them to a corner.

That was when it all began, with the ghost of my little sister finding me in the darkness.  Seeing her in the same dress she wore that last day makes me realize how different she’s become.  This is not the same girl I knew in life.  She’s not stuttering anymore and her words carry lucid thoughts she was never able to find in life.  She even looks like any normal girl.  She’s still Sarah, but she’s the complete Sarah I’d always imagined she could be, always hoped she’d become.  “You look so different now.  The same but not."

“You see me like you remember me, but also how I am now.  People don’t have to stay broken here.  This place can mend anything if you let it.”  She takes a step back and looks me over.  “You look like I remember, but also different in a way.  Have you been sad all this time?”

I don’t answer.  I thought about it all the time, even in my later years, but I got used to pushing it behind a closed door.

“It’s because of what happened, isn’t it?” she asks.  Still, I say nothing.  Sarah spins around in her pink dress.  It was handmade by our Mama.  “Do you remember it?”

I look at the dress and say, “Of course.  I remembered it and you every single day.”

She holds up her pink straw and blows on it with a smile to make it spin around.  The sparkles dance just like I remember, and she whispers to me, “It’s okay, Sol.  I know why you’ve been sad.  It’ll be better now, I promise.”
  Somewhere inside of me a door that has been locked for many years slowly creaks open, and Sarah and I both walk through to the place where I’d hidden so many of my childhood memories.

Thanks for reading. 
The Ghosts of Varner Creek
is also available in ebook format.