The Man In The Wind (14 page)

       He leaned in and kissed her. “I had a friend who believed something like that. Maybe not about me specifically, but in general. And she thought that people could be reincarnated and found again by their old friends.”

       “Tell me about her,” Lily said, but in a gentle voice without jealousy. “Was she pretty?”

       “She was beautiful. She had hair like this, like yours.” He ran his fingers through Lily’s hair, and she leaned back against him, setting down her drawing.

       “Did you love her?”

       “Well, I might have, but then she said, ‘Don’t tell me you love me. That’s stupid.’ So I didn’t.” Lily laughed. Then the smile faded and her voice got solemn.

       “She’s gone now, isn’t she?” He nodded, and she didn’t look, but she knew. Her fingers threaded their way through his. “Did you believe her when she talked about things like that? Because maybe you will find her again someday. There’s no way to know where a spirit goes until we become one ourselves, right? So if you live long enough, you could see her again.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “I hope you do.”

       Rai picked up her hand and studied the way their fingers laced together. He looked at the smooth, even part in Lily’s hair. For a moment, he closed his eyes and analyzed the feel of her body against his. Was it even possible for one moment to feel so much like another that it actually transported him back in time? Would he accidentally call her Iris next time they were in bed together? He sincerely hope not.

       How was it that he could feel so much as though he had lived all his life with one woman? He had thought that immortality was about being able to accept change without suffering, to endure the pain of loss without breaking. But perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps, as one who had lost his life so early, there were parts of it he was still missing even after working so hard to reclaim it. He didn’t know. He couldn’t say for sure. Some of his questions would never be answered, because he would never die. And he would have to press on against the current forging a new life each time he lost the old one.

       He brushed his fingers against the nape of Lily’s neck, underneath her hair. She closed her eyes, and as he leaned in to kiss her forehead, she smiled. Reclined in his lap, her skin dappled by the sun, she whispered something he didn’t quite hear, something he did not ask her to repeat. There were things, he had learned, necessary things, that were lost in translation during the gentle moments like these, and he felt it was best to let them be. Because who says they need to be said during this life? Who says they need to be said at all? Rai knew that for a man like him who was deprived of the luxury of mortality, time was no longer an issue. If there was a chance that he missed in this life, he’d find it in the next, and the next after that. If there were things he forgot to say, or wanted to say and never got to, then he’d just go searching the world for her, and when they finally met, she would answer his age-old question.

       Have I found you?