couldn’t interact; obviously the other girl could.
Walking to where Leah stood, I noticed that the closer I got the less clear her form became. It was grainy like an old photograph. Tentatively, I reached out to touch her, but my fingers slipped right through her image. It was like moving through fog. For a moment, it dissipates, but then it settles right back into place, as if you’d never disturbed it.
I saw her face contort. She was crying. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, presumably to catch her breath, then she stood up. After taking three deep breaths, she took off running again.
Through her, I could see trees and shrubs flit by as she ran, though she never got out of my sight. She was running through the woods, my woods, and I guessed it was raining. She tripped over a fallen log once and then over a root sticking up, both times catching herself on her hands before she hit the ground.
I could see her dipping and bobbing over the uneven terrain, having run through the woods with Derek many, many times. A pang of longing stabbed at my heart, but I squelched it and turned my full attention back to Leah. She fell out of sight.
I searched the parking lot pavement for her, frantic that something had happened to her.
I saw her arms flailing. Then I saw her head briefly before it sank back out of sight. I saw water droplets fly from her fingertips as her arms thrashed and splashed. She’d fallen into water and couldn’t get out.
Panic thundered in my chest. And then I saw Derek, standing in the trees behind her, watching.
I raced back to the car and punched my home number into the cell phone. No answer. Though I wasn’t really surprised, what with the note I’d left and all, I thought there might be a slim chance Derek was still there. Next I dialed the Kirbys. Dina answered.
“Hello?” There was a hopeful note in her voice that tugged at my heart. No doubt she was hoping that I had good news about Leah.
“Mrs. Kirby, it’s Carson.”
“Have you heard from Leah?”
“No, but I, uh, I…” I trailed off. What was I supposed to say? That I’d had a vision of Leah drowning in the woods? That would certainly make an impression, just not one that would do any of us any good. Then it came to me. “I just wanted to know if you checked the woods. I mean, sometimes I take walks in there when I need to think and stuff.”
“No, we didn’t. That just- I don’t know. That just doesn’t sound like Leah, does it to you?”
“Well, maybe not, but if she was upset then…”
“We could check,” Dina said weakly, doubt evident in her tone.
“Derek could probably help look for her. He knows the woods really well, lots of trails and things like that.”
“Derek’s gone. He left day before yesterday. There’s no way to reach him now.”
I was struck speechless. I guess I had been holding on to some hope that I’d been mistaken and that Derek would find me when I got home and give me some logical explanation that would make it all better. Then he’d declare his undying love and I would do the same and we’d live…well, as happily ever after as we could, all things considered.
But the hollow reality was much more painful than I ever anticipated. My heart ached like a hole had been torn in it, one that was bleeding profusely. Even if I wanted to try and find him, I couldn’t. I had no way of reaching him. No one did apparently. No phone number, no address, no family to track him to. Just the Kirbys. And they said he was already gone.
Then a thought struck me: how had I seen him in the woods with Leah then? Was I seeing what had already happened this time?
“Carson? Are you there?”
Mrs. Kirby’s voice brought me back from my musings to the task at hand. “Oh, sorry. Well I can go look for her when I get back. Maybe I can find her if she’s not home by then,” I said, hoping to encourage Dina, but knowing deep down that there was a great likelihood that she would not return. “And, one more thing. Is it supposed to rain tonight?”
I knew she probably thought that was an insane question to ask in the midst of such a traumatic situation, but she didn’t