by Dean Murray
She rolled her eyes and raised her index finger to him in a gesture saying, “Just a minute,” then she walked over to where I stood. I handed her the phone.
In a theatrical tone she protested into the phone, “Mom, you didn’t say you wanted me to pick Zack up today. I’m at the mall with Lauren. Why can’t you or dad get him?”
I endured a long silence as the dispatcher was talking directly to Rachael. I kept my eyes on Paul the entire time, making sure that he made no sudden movements. He really seemed not to sense anything was out of the ordinary. Within minutes three police cars were pulling into the parking lot. Without so much as a word or a glance in his direction, Rachael tugged on my shirt sleeve and began walking farther away from her handsome friend. I heard her say, “Yes, they’re here now, thanks.” Rachael disconnected with the dispatcher and handed me the phone.
Bewildered at what had happened in less than five minute’s time, “Wow, Lauren, when you’re right, you’re right. The car is stolen and the person they think stole it is the suspect for a double murder.”
Rachael and I stood in an awkward silence waiting to see if the police needed to talk to us. She didn’t look up from the pavement for a really long time, then in a hushed tone, so that anyone outside of two feet from us wouldn’t hear, “How do you do that?”
“I don’t know.” The hair on the back of my neck was tamed again, and I was relieved that the whole incident had ended so quickly.
“Maybe we could get you in a circus side show or something.” I quickly looked in her direction to catch her smiling. Evidently the fear was short lived, and she had accepted these events as a normal occurrence. Even though this was the most acute use of my perception she had ever witnessed, I believe she was aware well before today that my senses were very sharp. We watched as a policeman slammed Paul up against a police car, searched him for weapons, handcuffed him, and escorted him to the back seat of a squad car.
It looked like we wouldn’t be needed for anything, so I thought we’d be able to escape back into the mall without so much as a wave, when a policeman did finally walk in our direction. He asked, “Which one of you is Lauren?” I identified myself, and he followed with, “Miss, I’m not sure why you thought to call the emergency line when you did, but I wanted to tell you, your instincts are amazing.” I didn’t know what to say.
“When I got the call from dispatch, I heard your name, then I saw your name come across the computer screen in my car. You’re the same person who was shot at Tasty Burger a few months ago, right?” I nodded shyly, expecting that he might think I was involved as more than a victim in both incidents. Realistically, what are the odds that the same person would be involved in two completely different criminal acts as simply a bystander only a few months apart?
The officer continued, “You are like a one person law enforcement agency.” His broad smile beamed, as he took my hand to shake it. “If you’re interested, I believe we can get the chief to waive the waiting list and get you into the academy in the next session.”
Never having considered a job in law enforcement, the idea seemed exciting. “I hadn’t thought about it before, but I’ll think it over,” was all I could manage to say.
“Fair enough, but I want you to know that I know veteran cops who don’t have the instincts you have for criminals. Just keep us in mind. The dispatcher already has all the contact information for both of you. The city attorney may phone you if your testimony’s required. And Lauren - I wouldn’t be surprised if this hit the media. You are becoming our poster child for crime prevention.”
“Oh no, I don’t want to be involved. Can you keep me out of this?” My voice was pleading with him. My parents completely freaked out about the TV crews asking for interviews after the robbery. I could just imagine what it would be like if they found out I had anything to do with helping catch a murderer.
His voice was solemn, “Sorry, Lauren, but your name went out over the radio. Anyone with a police scanner knows that you phoned this in.” He paused for a second and then offered, “I can give you a lift home and try to get there before any of the news media knocks on your parents’ door. I actually got assigned to your house for crowd control when you were in the hospital after the shooting.”
“No, that’s okay, I’m not ready to go home yet.”
The officer handed me a card with his name and phone number, “If you ever need a police escort, give me a call.” I thanked him, and he walked back to his police car.
Rachael and I walked slowly back to the mall. She was talking a mile a minute, but I was only catching every few words. My mind was in a different place. What had Rewsna told me when she wouldn’t let me follow her off the bus? “Keep to your path.” Emotions flooded in as I realized that she had known this was going to happen. She wanted me at the mall. What would have happened if I hadn’t followed my path? I shuddered when I thought of the possibilities.
“Hey, Rachael, could you give me a ride downtown?” I realized, after saying this, that Rachael had been in mid-sentence; I had just cut her off.
“Uh, sure, where to?”
“I need to go to the market. I just need a ride there. I can take the bus home.” I’m sure through her constant babbling that she was thinking about how close she had come to real danger today.
We drove the twenty minutes comfortably, not in silence but not wrapped in a gripping conversation either. I hadn’t mentioned anything to her about my dreams about Max, meeting Rewsna, or any of Rewsna’s advice. It would have taken longer to explain all of these events to her than we had time for. I had always considered Rachael one of my closest friends, but as far-fetched as most of these events were, I wasn’t ready to share them with her yet.
She pulled up to the curb just outside the market, “Okay, here you are. You’re sure you want to wander around alone? I don’t mind keeping you company.” Her look was hopeful, and it hit me that she was still a little freaked out about the mall.
“No, I’ll be fine. I just need to look for something at a vendor I saw a while back. I still haven’t found your graduation present.” I knew that would keep her from feeling like I was ditching her.
“Oh, me neither! We could just buy ourselves presents and tell each other what we got?”
Her practical suggestion elicited a laugh from both of us.
“Oh, go ahead, just make sure I can return it! Call me later.” Rachael drove off as I started walking through the market. I wasn’t certain that I would even see Rewsna, but I needed to try. She had been dressed like one of the sweet grass basket weavers, so maybe I’d get lucky.
I walked up one side and down the other of the entire market. I saw venders selling fragrances, t-shirts, baskets, jewelry, candy, but no sign of Rewsna. Every few feet I would stop, look at something and scan the area for her. When I didn’t see anyone familiar or anything that heightened my senses, frustration set in. I needed to talk to her. She had to be here. I closed my eyes and stood still for a long moment imagining her face as best I could, focusing on details like the loose fitting clothing she wore, the style of her hair and how it fell easily at her shoulders, her eyes the one time they made contact with mine on the bus. After visualizing her for several long moments, I silently thought as clearly as I could, “Where – are - you?”
The answer was almost instant, “I told you not so loud! I’m behind you.” As I wheeled around, across the narrow street I could see Rewsna sitting at a table in a coffee house, near the window. Relief swept over me. I gave a wave and went directly over. When I got inside the café, she had a piece of coconut cream pie and a bunch of scrabble tiles in front of her.
“Rewsna, I’m so glad to see you. I was worried I might not be able to find you.”
She answered me, but not with her voice; she was speaking telepathically again, “Lauren, I know you’ve got a lot on your mind, I can hear it, but I have already answered all your questions that I am able to.” She had the tiles laid out in front of her in various words, almos
t the way you would expect to lay out words if you were playing an actual game. No one else shared her table, and there was no board, just the tiles.
I sat across from her in the other chair at her table. I was trying to ignore the tabletop as she moved the letters around in circles and kept creating new words. I asked, “You didn’t tell me how to unlock Max. Can you give me a clue?”
Speaking out loud, “There’s no specific process. Each soul and their human mind is different. As you get to know each other better, you’ll figure out what his key is.” I looked at the tabletop and saw that she had just assembled five tiles. They spelled H-E-A-R-T. As she was talking to me she took away the T and said, “Sometimes your mate will hear,” she replaced the T, “With his heart. You are the only one who can make him remember. Just keep doing what you are doing.”
“But that’s just it: I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Your skills are even sharper than I gave you credit for; very impressive the way you kept Paul from leaving today.” Rewsna had switched subjects so quickly, I had hardly noticed.
I couldn’t help but ask what I’d been feeling since it happened, “You knew I was going to meet him, didn’t you? That is why you wouldn’t let me follow you off the bus earlier?” She didn’t answer, but for the first time since I had met her, I was able to read her the way I could everyone else, and that was exactly why she made me stay “on my path,” to the mall.
“Your love,” again she had the tiles L-O-V-E “for the others around you will,” she moved the tiles and added an additional E-V “evolve to meet your destiny.” E-V-O-L-V-E was staring at me from the tabletop. None of what she was saying made much sense.
I looked back at the tabletop to see her playing with five new tiles. Before she could give me any new message, her lips didn’t move but her voice was clear in my head, “Lauren, you know what you must do. I know you will figure out how. I wish you luck, but I don’t believe you will need it. You do not have to seek me out; I already told you, I will be watching you.”
“Rewsna, I feel so strange, as if you are the only person I can ask questions. If I share any of this with anyone else I know, they’ll think I’m nuts.”
“Precious Lauren, you are more sensitive than any soul I’ve met. You see things clearly that others wouldn’t notice if it reached up and slapped them in the face. You don’t need me. The answers to your questions are inside you and with your soul mate. Make him understand the question, and he will give you the answers you seek.”
I knew that our meeting was over, so I thanked her, out loud, of course, and stepped out of the cafe. I hadn’t really learned anything new, but my feelings were confirmed. It’s as if everything is predetermined, but free will results in different outcomes. I looked at my watch and realized it was already two o’clock. I was supposed to meet Max at three, so I made my way to the bus stop across from the library.
The bus let me off right in front of Max’s apartment complex. I was the only one getting off, and no one was getting on. I made my way out the back door and onto the sidewalk. I felt someone watching me immediately, but the indicators of danger or fear didn’t accompany the sensation.
Chapter Fourteen
I looked across the street and there was Max, walking in my direction. I picked up my pace, so we wouldn’t do some sappy greeting in the middle of the street like something from an old movie.
We met in his parking lot and embraced, heat welling up within me, his touch just as electric as yesterday. “So tell me, why is it that I wake up, turn on the news, and see a picture of you being broadcast to the world again? You’re the lead story on all the local networks, did you know?”
“I’m what? Oh crap! I forgot to warn my parents. They’re going to be ticked off if television news crews park outside the house again!” I reached into my pocket and called my house; Mom picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Lauren, where are you? What happened?” From the panic in her voice, I wondered what the news agencies were saying? It really wasn’t all that impressive. As far as I knew, Rachael and I hadn’t been in any imminent danger. I relayed the events of this morning to her as calmly as I could, trying to downplay my role. “Rachael is fine and the guy was arrested hours ago. I’m at Max’s apartment. I’ll be home after he goes to work.”
“All right, but trying to get to the front door will be as bad as Toys ‘R Us on Christmas Eve.”
“Wonderful. Tell Dad I’m fine.” We hung up and Max was staring at me.
“So you caught a murderer this time?” Max’s tone was thoughtful, but his eyes were full of excitement.
“Can we go inside?”
Max spun around, took my hand, and started walking.
As we made our way into his apartment, Max sounded exhausted. “I should be angry with you; I dreamt of you for hours and woke up feeling not so very rested.”
I could feel my face flush. I leaned my lips to Max’s ear and whispered, “I’ve missed you. I hope all your dreams weren’t rated-G.” Now it was Max’s turn to blush.
“No, not all of them. You know, I was much more put together before I met you.”
“What?”
“I’m worthless. I burned my toast. I forgot to put grounds in the coffee maker. I put my dirty dishes in the dishwasher full of clean dishes. Do you want me to go on? I’m so preoccupied with you that I can’t function anymore. Here I was hoping you were just as much of a blundering idiot, and I turned on the television, only to find out you helped catch a murderer!”
“It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“Right, because all three news stations ran out of interesting things to report?”
“It’s been a slow day.” We had only been together for less than forty-eight hours, and I already could hardly remember him not being a part of my life. Maybe because he had been a remote part of me for years? I’m sure that my dream that I’ve had, the restaurant, the hospital, meeting Rewsna were events that were really all supposed to happen just the way that they did. Rewsna told me I was the only one who could unlock Max.
I remembered watching a show about patients with amnesia, in which their doctors and family members just talked to them about what they liked and disliked, to help unlock memories tucked away. “Max, what’s your favorite thing about me?”
That gigantic smile that I love took his entire face, “Honestly?”
“No, lie to me. Of course, honestly!”
“The way it feels like I am holding an electric fence when we touch.”
“You feel that, too?”
“I feel it, but more than that, I’ve felt it enough times now that I anticipate it. But I’m much more interested in your adventure at the mall today. What happened?”
I struggled with how much to tell Max. At what point would it be sensory overload or would he think I’m a head case? I settled on, “Before I go into all that, can I tell you something that is a combination of hard to believe and borderline crazy?”
Max nodded without apprehension. “That night of the shooting, was there any recognition at all when you saw me?”
His expression was puzzled. “I don’t know how much of the ride in the ambulance you remember, but you asked me that night if you looked familiar to me. The truth is I felt like I knew you, but you really didn’t look familiar to me. Why, did we meet before?”
“Yes and no. This is the part that sounds a little crazy, so hopefully you can keep an open mind.
About four years ago I started having dreams, very vivid dreams. I never shared them with anyone. They were kind of my little secret because they seemed so impossible to believe. Max, I’ve dreamed of you.” I certainly didn’t want to go any further; this information alone would be enough to scare away nearly every guy on the planet.
Max seemed to take my confession in stride, “What kind of dream? You mean like déjà vu?”
“A little, but not exactly. It was kind of a weird one where you told me that we would meet after I had done somet
hing courageous. I know it sounds crazy, and I wouldn’t bring it up at all, except that I met someone today who knew about my dreams. I never told anyone any of this; I want to know what you know about me, about us?”
When Max looked in my eyes, I wanted to melt. Please don’t let him think I am a lunatic. “Lauren, I dreamt about you today - a lot. While I was away for those few months, a day didn’t go by that I didn’t think of you, but I didn’t have any vivid dreams of you before we met. The person you met today - that was the murderer?”
“No, this was before the mall. Her name was Rewsna. She knew all about you and me, the shooting, and even made me go to the mall. She told me to keep to my path.”
“You mean like a psychic?”
“No, she was more than a psychic. She knew about the dream I had about meeting you. She talked to me like I should know more about you than I do. She said all the information I needed was locked away in your mind, and I just needed to unlock it. So without sounding anymore crazy than I already have, how do you suggest I unlock your memories?”
“Unlock my memories of what? I don’t understand. How would I have memories of us from before we met? What all did she tell you?”
I relayed a condensed version of both conversations to Max. I didn’t think, no matter how amazing he was, that Max could stand to hear that he was my soul mate on day two of our relationship, so I edited that part out. He nodded enthusiastically when I told him about the different roles each of us has.
I shared with him what Rewsna had said about Seth and how he had confused his role with me, which made Max laugh. “Lauren, you can’t blame him for trying. I can’t imagine another person on earth who would hold a candle to you, maybe neither can Seth. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably rail against the powers of the universe as well.”
“That’s just it, everything she said made perfect sense. Someone committing to the wrong person doesn’t make the world come to an end, it just makes them miserable. She talked how people weren’t seeking out the people they were supposed to be with.”
