Redemption

Every breath she took sped up the panging beats of my heart. The sound of her breathing was the only sound that filled the bedroom other than the ticking of the wall clock that ticked down my last moments here. 

Waves of pale blond overlaid her deep blue satin sheets. Her hair reflected the ember of a flickering candle, like the sun setting fire to the ocean.

I stood in a corner, the farthest position in the small room I could be from her. I wasn’t afraid of waking her. She couldn’t see me unless I wanted her to. I just couldn’t bare the nearness of her.

Time stood between us, time and really bad luck. Which two weeks ago I would have cursed the world for, but so much has changed for me since then, because of her. I only regret that this is my last night here.

She released a sigh, my body trembled at the sound, reminding me of the first time I heard her voice. I was on a mission of sorts, one that I had arranged to redeem myself for past transgressions. I wasn’t doing such a great job, and the fact that they didn’t give me a time frame in which to do it didn’t help me on my quest.

The first time I saw Allison she shook my soul, and I no longer hated the predicament I was in, I knew that everything in my life had lead up to the first time I held her in my arms.

Just four months ago I was a normal teenage boy, going to school, the quarter back of Cross high, I was popular. I could be with any girl I wanted, and I could do anything I wanted to do. Teachers despised me because I was rude, arrogant, and loud, but they kept that to themselves because they needed me.

I have a feeling now that my parents never had a clue just how bad I really was. My Dad only praised me, and my Mom could never believe that her only child was a hoodlum.

“Luke.” Her voice startled me. “Are you there?”

 I brought one foot forward making myself corporeal. “How do you always know?”

Allison smiled when she saw me. She unwound the tangles of hair from her neck and pulled herself into a sitting position on the bed. “I can feel you even in my sleep.” I wanted to hold her close at those words, but I still felt uncomfortable in her room.

“Is there something that you needed to tell me or are you just being creepy stalker guy?”

I sat down next to her blanket cradled feet. How do I begin to tell her that this is our last time together? How do I begin to tell her that after I’m gone she won’t remember me?

My eyes must have given me away because she reached out and grabbed my chin forcing them to look into hers. “What? Tell me,” she demanded.

I stared into the flickering votive when she released me. “I will be gone by morning. I don’t know exactly when, but Darien told me tonight was my last night here.” Darien is my, well I guess you could say Guardian Angel, though I felt he never actually guarded me or helped me in any way. He generally left cryptic messages and found enormous humor in my dilemma.

I chanced a look into her eyes. The flame from the candle made the whites shimmer as tears threatened the corners of her eyes. “Please don’t cry, we knew this day would come, and soon.”  

Allison shook her head chocking back her sob. “I know, I know, but I just thought that by this time you would differently know, where…” she broke off. But I knew what she meant to say, where would I spend eternity?

“Well there wasn’t a moment of clarity you know, an AH HA realization that I had done what they asked,” I said. This only worried her brow into the middle of her forehead more. I could tell she was going over things in her mind, but the truth was there was nothing more either of us could do.

“What did Darien say? What were his exact words?”

I stood up and paced her room. “You mean other than the usual, hey are you still here bull?” She gave me an impatient look, not happy with my sarcasm. “Sorry, he said exactly, that my parents had decided to pull the plug. The Doctors had finally convinced them that I would not recover, and well, that he couldn’t tell me the specific time but that it would be sometime tonight, possibly early morning, that I would definitely not see another sun rise.” 

The room felt suffocated. I knew there was no time to make up for what I had done in my life. I only wanted this time with her, something to sustain me wherever I ended up.

She tossed the covers off swinging her legs over the bed. “So he didn’t say anything about what all you have been through this past month? All the people you have helped? He didn’t leave you with a feeling of where you would go?” she asked, her eyes pleading to hear something positive. 

“Not a word.” I sat down beside her, resting my hand on top of hers. I wanted to keep the memory of her warm skin with me forever. 

“Well we can’t sit here just waiting,” she said slipping her hand from mine then walking to her closet.

“Ok, where do you want to go in the middle of the night?” Allison didn’t respond. “Allison?”

When she refused to answer I knew her intentions. “No I don’t want to go there, there’s nothing we can do. And besides what could you possibly say to my Mother? Hey I know your son is in a coma but he visits me in Angel form and well you can’t pull the plug because he hasn’t redeemed his soul to get into heaven yet?” Although the door to her closet was closed I could imagine her face scowling behind the door.

I began again when she still said nothing. “Besides, you know the rules, we can’t interfere that way. That’s grounds for immediate dismissal, to you know where.”

She reemerged wearing jeans and a cream colored sweater. She put on her cord jacket and tossed a scarf around her neck. “Yeah I know, we are not going there, I don’t think I could restrain myself anyway.”

I watched as she sat and tied her thick combat boots. “Then what is so urgent that we need to rush out at 11:30 at night to do?” I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. “All I want to do is spend this time with you. Curl up in bed and hug you till they pry my arms away.”

“Will you just trust me?” she asked as she stood, extending her hand to me. I hung my head and accepted her hand. How could I refuse her?

The winter moon, full and bright hung in the starless night. It illuminated the light flakes of snow feathering the ground. We walked fast, not hurried, but rather to keep our blood pumping in the February air.

"You know we could have taken your car, or at least a cab if you didn’t want you parents to notice your car missing,” I said tugging her hand to pull her closer to my side.

“It’s not that far I promise,” she assured me.

We trailed off the sidewalk, frozen leaves crunching underneath our feet. Naked tree branches covered by ice grew closer together above our heads. When I saw the rot iron gates coming into view I knew where she was leading me and I stopped, not wanting to go any further.

She gripped my hand tighter, turning to look into my eyes. “You have to do this.”

“Allison,” I said, my breath puffs of white. “I can’t. There’s nothing I can do about it now, and I don’t want this to be my last memory.”

She wrapped her arms around my waist, bringing herself into my embrace. “Yes you do have to do this. You have to explain to him that it was an accident, you have to ask for forgiveness.”

“No, I…” she cut me off.

“Yes, you have trusted me this far, trust me once more. It will set you free I promise. Then we can go anywhere you want.” She batted her long lashes. 

Of course she was right, she was always right. The person I am now admitting that a seventeen year old girl was right would have punched the old me right in the face four months ago. “Why couldn’t I have met you five months ago?”

“There’s a reason for everything, I believe that,” she said, her ivory skin glowing in the moonlight like she was the one with temporary angelic power.

We passed by gravestones topped with fresh snow. “You’re walking like you know where we are going,” I said.

“I have a confession, after you told me about Cable I came here. I was going to tell you, but I knew one day that you would come with me.” Allison peaked up to see if I was upset. “Are you mad?”

“No, honestly I suspected as much from you.” I gave her a half smile. 

I stopped right behind her. She reached behind her back fanning her hands so I would latch onto them. Then she brought me directly in front of the grave stone. Brushing the white fluff from engraved writing I read, “Here lays Cable Jackson, loving son and the worlds' most devoted brother”.  I squeezed my face into a pout when I read the girl’s name under Cables.

“What’s wrong?” Allison said.

I shook my head. “Nothing, I just didn’t know he had a sister. I bent down to finish dusting the fresh snow from the tombstone. “What’s this?”

Allison knelt down beside me. “It looks like a letter.” She took it from my hands and unfolded it.

“Maybe we shouldn’t read it.” I reached out to take it back but she stood and walked in the other direction.

“It’s from his sister, Angela, she mentions something about school and a grant that didn’t go through,” Alison continued, “about a project they were working on and that she can’t finish without him. So she won’t be able to get into college now that he’s gone.”

I turned from her and paced in the opposite direction. Not only did my stupid prank kill Cable, but now my actions have ruined another life too. I wanted my Mother to pull the plug right then and end the overwhelming guilt that was overtaking me.

Allison jogged over to wear I hid under a tree. “Wait, listen to this. She goes on to talk about her illness, and how the school was only going to let her in the college because of Cable. He had made it a condition to get her in with him. I guess the college wanted him that bad.”

My mind went back to seeing Cable in the hallways. Walking by himself, always too busy or self important to bother with anyone else, I had assumed that he was just a stuck up nerd who thought he was better than everyone. That is why I and Paul had planned the prank in the first place. To bring him down a few pegs. “God, I understand now why he was so consumed with school and his project; he was only trying to get his sister into college.”

Her face dipped. “It was her dying wish.” She let the letter fall to her side. “Oh Luke I’m so sorry, I should have never brought you here. There’s nothing anyone can do, it was an accident.”

Her words normally were comforting when she told me this, but at this moment knowing what I had done to this family burned inside my chest and the guilt consumed my soul.

Allison walked back over to Cables grave and placed the letter back where it was. After a minute of staring blankly at it she turned to me with eyes wide. “Wait.”

“Wait what? What is your little brain stewing about now?”

“I have an idea, do you know what classes Cable was in?” she asked, her voice urgent.

I stood under the frozen tree rubbing my jeans for warmth. “Yes, I guess he had a lot with me, why?”

She didn’t say anything as she took my hand and lead me through the iron gate.

The school parking lot was empty at this time of morning and half the pole lights were burned out which added to the vacant feel. We had doubled back and got Alison’s car. With sunrise only hours away the temperature was plummeting at a fast rate.

I didn’t know how much longer I had, and I wanted to spend my last hours, if I had hours, with her. But she convinced me that only I could help her with what she had planned and I couldn’t deny her. She wouldn’t remember any of this after I was gone, so whatever we could do to help Cable’s family had to be done now she told me.

The red bricked building was ancient, and we knew the security system was outdated also. We parked behind the building and made our way over to one of the windows near the gym. 

“Alright, I will be right back to unlatch the window for you,” I told her, kissing her forehead softly. I decorporealized so I could moved through the wall. When Darien had first told me in the Limbo reality that he was bestowing me with some of his powers, I had mocked him. But I secretly took back all the things I said at times like this.

The inside of the gym was dark and felt damp and musty. At least they had left the heater going over night. I looked through the window to Allison and nodded to her as I unlocked the window.

“I don’t know what you think we will find,” I said. “They have probably cleaned out his locker and given his parents all his stuff from here.”

The corner of her lips tugged into a half smile. “Well there are some files you can’t get rid of that easily, um, like computer ones.” Her eyebrows rose as to convince me that this was a revelation. But I still had no idea what her plan was. And we were running short on time.

I mystified myself once more to unlock the door to the science lab for Allison. “Ok, this was his station over here.” I pointed to the computer desk that was adjacent from the one I used to use. Memories flooded back as I walked over. The boy who ruled the school was no longer present here even in my new form.

The hum of the computer booting up filled the lab. Allison anxiously tapped her foot staring into the blank screen. I stood behind her and bent down to wrap my arms around her shoulders. Soon I would not be able to touch her when I began to fade, and every second I could touch her, mattered that much more.

I whispered into her ear. “Are you going to tell me what we can possibly do to help Cable now? Not that I’m pessimistic, but I don’t think he will benefit much from us snooping through his files.”

Allison leaned her head against mine, her hands finding my forearms. “Luke I’ve seen you do amazing things this past month. Things that no one could possibly do. You know things about people, I watched you gaze out and tap into their minds and into knowledge that you couldn’t possibly know in order to save them.”

“Cable isn’t here, Allison.”

She patted my shoulder as the screen lit up. “I know, but his sister is.” She scooted forward and hit enter on the keyboard. “Ok, do your thing Angel Boy!  This is cable’s account, hack into it please.” Her last words sweetness lingered in the air around me.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. This time it was harder. Before, with others, they were always near me, within reach. Cable was no longer here not even a part of the world anymore. And thoughts and guilt of his death clouded my judgment. “Is it working? I can’t tell.”

“Keep going, the encrypted password is starting to appear on the screen.” I concentrated harder trying to block my own pain out and replace it with the thought of doing something, anything for Cable to make up for what I had taken.

“Luke, just remember he was not the only one to suffer from your prank. You lost yourself to coma, stop torturing yourself.” Her words rang in my ears as if she knew the battle raging in my head. “Ok, you did it, we’re in.”

I almost collapsed with exhaustion. Although Darien had given me some power to help along my quest, I was not a real Angel. And I could feel the loss of these powers and I knew that my time here was almost up.

Scrolling through Cable’s last entries, Allison located the project that he was working on. “Wow, University of New England, he must have been super brainy,” she said.

“Yeah, I guess he was. What am I supposed to do with this? I had a straight 2.0 grade average. I don’t even know what this project is about?”

She stood up giving me her seat. “I have faith, Luke; I know you can finish this for her. Cable would want you to help her, I know it.” 

“Oh, wow, yeah I have some super powers but this is way above what I am capable of.” I shook my head refusing the seat in front of the screen. “I wouldn’t even know what to focus in on.”

I looked down at the screen trying to summon something inside me, but the power felt far away. I looked back to Allison who was staring wide-eyed at me. “What’s wrong?”

“Luke, look at your hand,” she said.

Oh, no, it was happening already. I could see the keys right through my fingers. I was starting to disappear. “Allison, promise me, promise…”

“You're not gone yet, stay with me, we still have time. What if this is what you were meant to do, help Angela, what if this is the AH HA moment? Luke, stay with me, focus please! I don’t want to lose you!”

I looked back to the screen, numbers and patterns that meant nothing to me. I gripped my hand open and close forcing myself to feel and I closed my eyes praying to give me just a few minutes more. Darien said that when it was time I would go back in my body. And that my soul would leave from there, I only needed minutes more, but it was hard to concentrate through the panic.

“I’m here,” I said. “I’m still here, I’m not leaving yet.” I willed my fingers to stay solid, shutting my eyes to concentrate on the project, something about nuclear science, if I was going to finish the algorithm I would have to understand it first.

Number and codes flashed over my eyelids, swarming around my brain like a smart hurricane. Then the answers came, my brain computing faster than my fingers could type.

“Luke,” Alison said after what seemed like forever. “You can stop I think it’s finished.” She rested her hands on my shoulders, her touch brining me back. “You’re shaking.”

When I opened my eyes I could see the progress of my, or rather, Cable’s work, I waited for the moment, the one that would tell me my fate. But nothing felt any different; I was still barely here, my powers fading at a rapid pace.

“I don’t think it helped.” I stood and walked to the window that overlooked the white parking lot. Sunrise was only an hour away; I had sat at that desk longer than I thought. “Nothing happened; I wasted my last night with you on this and for what?”

“I can’t believe you are saying this,” Allison said. “After everything you�"we�"have been through, you still haven’t learned a thing.” She inserted a disk and started copying the file. “I really believed you were doing these good deeds because you were truly sorry for the life you led. That you wanted to become a better person, not just so you could get your soul into heaven. I mean, yes, that’s ultimately why, but honestly I thought you would want to do it because it’s the right thing to do for people.”

“Allison, I did want to help those people, but I guess it wouldn’t have mattered to me before what happened to me, but now, now that I have met you and I could lose you forever, never being able to see your face, hear your voice, see your sweet smile, all I could think about these last two weeks was that if I’m not good enough for them, for God I guess, that my hell would be the place where I spend eternity without you.

I’m sorry I’m not the most virtuous person in the world, but even heaven would be my hell if I couldn’t be with you.”

Allison placed the copied disk in a clear blue case and walked over to look out of the window with me. “I’m not going to remember you after tonight, am I?”

Her eyes shimmered in the moonlight, tears glassing over them. I turned and embraced her. “Just let me have this moment to carry with me.” 

 “I love you Luke, no matter what, I believe in you and you truly are a good person,” she said taking my hands in hers.

I pressed my lips to hers, taking her in. All of Heaven and Hell faded away and I was lost in her kiss.

I was there with her, and then I wasn’t. My body felt as if I was somewhere else, bright and indoors. The hospital.

“Luke!” Her voice sounded distant, like she was yelling to me from the end of a tunnel. “Luke, stay with me, we have to go to Angela!”

I willed myself back. I looked down at my hands, my arms they were becoming transparent, and I felt weak and distant from my own mind. “NO! Not now, let me finish what I started!” 

I was in the science room again. “Ok, I don’t have any time left, we have to go now.”

When the freezing winter air hit my body, it sent a shock through my system that knocked me down. Allison knelt down to help me back up and we scurried to the car. 

Inside her Honda, she cranked the heat all the way up. “We have to get to Angela’s house; do you think you have enough strength to get the address?”

“Honestly I don’t think I have enough strength to just sit here without falling over, but yeah, I can try.” I had to do this, if this is what was going to be my redemption, the only way that I would ever see Allison again, I had to focus. “24 Sycamore, it’s four miles that way,” I said pointing to the left at the fork in the road.

“Ok, well, I hope there are no cops out, just hold on Luke, this has to be what you were meant to do; the reason Darien came to you in the first place.”

I shook my head. “He is a real Angel, why wouldn’t he just do this himself?”

“I don’t know, but just be thankful that he did give you a chance, I just hope this is what you were supposed to do.  How are you feeling?

“Faded, weak, I don’t know. I just hope that I get to see my parents one last time before I completely go, even if I am in a coma, one last chance to open my eyes.” Allison gripped my hand. “I wish I could tell them how sorry I am.”

She smiled. “I think they know. And one day you will tell them yourself.”

We rounded the cul-de-sac and found Cable’s house. Lights were on, even this early in the morning, and I hoped that everything really would be alright once Allison gave them the CD. “OK, I’m too weak to go with you, just knock and try to explain it in a way that doesn’t sound crazy.” Normally my humor brought a smile to her face, but the exhaustion in my voice only made me sound helpless.

“I don’t want to leave you, not now,” she tried to argue.

I lifted my hand to her face, my thumb tracing the side of her cheek, imbedding it into my memory. “I don’t have the strength, but I promise, I will fight to stay here ‘till you return.”

I watched her make her way up the driveway, every step she took away from me slammed pressure onto my chest, and I felt like I had to force my lungs to take a breath. I turned my head away from her talking to the woman wrapped in a long white robe and concentrated, on a rose bush in the middle of the yard. There was something strange about this one bush; there was a bloom on it, even in the middle of February. The harsh frost of the winter morning threatened its pedals. 

I watched the tiny rose being plucked by a hand and then I followed that hand lazily with my tired eyes to the culprit who would dare pick such a beautiful flower. Darien.

Panic flooded my body as I watched him bring the rose to his nose. I grasped for the handle, not knowing where I would run, but to run away just the same, but my fingers only passed right through it. 

Allison turned back to me with a wide smile stuck in mid formation on her face as she saw the panic on mine. I looked from her to Darien back to her. I wanted to escape the car, run to her, but I also didn’t want Darien anywhere near her. His tricks and schemes were fine for me, but she was the only pure precious thing in my life, or afterlife, and after I was gone I couldn’t protect her from the things in this world.

Darien sneaked a peak toward Allison then sneered in my direction crumpling the rose. I watched helplessly as she ran in slow motion back to the car, trying to get to me because she knew I was almost gone forever. When Darien opened his hand again the once beautiful flower was ash in his palm, and with satisfaction he blew it across the yard and it swirled around Allison’s frozen form.

 At the last moment, I willed myself back into the world of the living and forced the door to open. I grabbed Allison in my arms, turning her away from Darien, peering over her shoulder at where he had stood a moment before. He was gone. 

 “What?” She ran her hands through my hair. “What’s wrong? We did it, why did you look so freaked?”

I was focused on her but still looking around for him in the yard. “I saw Darien. He’s come to take me back.  I still don’t think what we did help, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again.”

I took her by the hand and lead her away from the yard and away from her car. I knew I didn’t have any time left, but the mortal in me still felt like running, hiding from him if I could. We stopped just inside the woods across the street from where we parked and I knelt down on my knees, the exertion took over my body.

Allison dropped down beside me as if she too had no more will to stand. “No, it’s too soon, it’s too soon,” her voice shook. “I only just found you.”

I cupped her cheeks in my hands with what strength I had left. “I love you, I promise you Allison, no matter what, you will have a great life and I will keep that thought, the thought of you and how special you are with me no matter where I am.” I clung to her, as if she were a gentle gust of wind that I might inhale.

“I don’t want to forget you! I love you Luke, I will always remember that. How could I forget all of this? You?” She shook her head.

“No matter what you will go on and I love you for that, I love you, thank you for everything, you have given more than you could ever know and I will hold onto that forever.” 

I pressed my lips to her forehead, closing my eyes, when I opened them I saw through the trees the rim of the sun peaking in the morning sky. I looked into her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and I kissed her soft lips for the last time. Then there was nothing but darkness.

“Hey, wake up sleeping beauty.” 

I was still lost in the darkness but for some reason now I was aware of it. “Hey, I said open your eyes,” a voice called out.

I felt sore. My body felt swollen and numb, thick, like I was molded into wax. Then it occurred to me, I was alive. I opened my eyes, the brightness of the room hurt them and I quickly shut them again. But I forced them open because I was shocked to see that I was back in the hospital bed. And instead of seeing it through a knocked out body, I was actually awake and could move my head. 

I forced my eyes to focus on the person standing above me. “Darien?” He grinned down at me. “Why am I awake? I thought they had already pulled the plug? Or is this some cruel joke, one last glimpse before you take me to hell?”

Darien shirked his head, tossing his golden wave of bangs from his eyes. “Whoever said anything about hell? You teenagers are so melodramatic.” He laughed.

I looked around the room searching for my parents, then searching for the machine that was keeping me alive, but couldn’t find either. “What is going on?”

“Well you know life is a funny thing. Miracles actually do happen sometimes, and it seems according to today’s paper,” he said unfolding the gray paper, “it looks like another one happened just yesterday morning.”

I took the paper from him and skimmed the article about a miraculous coma patient recovery. “I don’t understand?"

“You keep saying that.”

“I thought that I could only make it into Heaven or Hell? How am I here?”

He swiped the paper back from me and leaned against a wall. “My job is to tell you what you need to hear in order to�"” he tapped his finger to his chin, “motivate you.”

“Yeah, well you could say I was motivated all right. You suck!” I pushed myself up on the bed. “Wait, you’re really saying that I can stay? That I am really alive?”

“Yes, did you actually think we were so cruel? I mean, come on Luke, you can’t really get into Heaven based on good deeds. You were forgiven a long time ago, all you had to do was ask.” Allison’s words came back to me.

I shook my head. “So what you’re saying is you really just wanted to punish me?”

“Well yeah, you were a really bad person before all this. Now just look at you.” He winked.

“What about Allison? Where is she? Is she ok? Does she…”

He cut into my string of questioning. “Nope, she doesn’t remember a thing. I can’t allow mortals to walk around with this kind of knowledge, that would be very irresponsible of me,” he said sardonically.

Fear for the first time settled in my stomach. “But I know.”

“Yeah, I am going to have to remedy that.” He started walking back toward my bed and me.

“No, you can’t just do this to people! Allison, I won’t remember her!” My voice shook with anger. “And besides, everything you’re saying that I learned, all through this, I will forget it all and I’ll go back to being the same as I was before.  Then all of this will be for nothing!”

He placed his hand on my forehead. “That’s the funny thing about the soul, kid, it doesn’t forget. And besides, I’ll still be your Guardian Angel, so there’s no worry. Trust me, I have your best interests in mind.”

I rolled my eyes, then shut them against his touch. “Yeah sure, no worries there.” And with a hardy laugh from Darien, the world went dark once again.

“Ok, I got the last box,” I yelled back to dad. He was helping me move the last of my stuff into my dorm. I actually ended up graduating after all, and after everything that had happened last year, things had changed a lot. I brought my grades up and decided to do something else with my life other than football and girls.

The guy that had suffered the most from the “prank gone bad” had a sister. And after she thanked me over and over again for her acceptance into college (I still don’t understand how I had anything to do with it) she forgave me, and I spend a lot of time with her. My counselor Darien says it’s good for the soul. He says I have to get rid of my guilt and focus on my future, so that is what my attempt at college is all about.

“Well, I’m meeting your Mother back at home after she gets off of work,” Dad smiled at me. 

“Then we will be back here to take you out for a celebration dinner. How does that sound?”

I nodded my head. “Awesome. I’m just happy I don’t own that much stuff!  Those stairs, man.” I laughed.

After I hauled the box up four flights of stairs, I was thirsty. I still hadn’t bought anything to eat or drink for my room and decided to go down to the lobby and get some water. I was counting change and trying to go down the steps at the same time when the quarters slipped from my hand and rolled through the lobby.

“Crap.” I squatted down to pick them up when a hand reached underneath my view to hand me one that I had missed. “Thanks, I’m such a…”

Her smile stopped me in mid sentence. Then she finished for me. “Dork, klutz, guy?” her light laughter filled the lobby and my heart.

I ran my hand nervously through my hair. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Thanks.”

She shook her head, nodding off her put down. “I was just joking. I’m the same way, especially now that I’m away from home.”

I felt my eyebrows raise. “Oh, you go here too?”

“Yup, this is my first year,” she said. A twinkle lit her eyes.

“I’m sorry, I know this is corny movie stuff, but have we met before?” I waited anxiously for her to roll her eyes and retort with some kind of a blow off, but instead she just stared back at me with a questioning expression.

 “Um, you know I don’t know, you do seem familiar somehow,” she said, her long blond hair bouncing as she nodded. Then she stuck out her hand. “I’m Allison.”

I took her hand in mine, and when I touched her skin, a wave of heat and electricity shot through my body, for some reason I never wanted to let her go. “Luke.  It’s nice to meet you.”

© 2010 Trisha Wolfe.  All rights reserved.

Author's Note

Published in the spring issue of The Crows Nest Magazine