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I was tightly gripping her arms, prepared to hug her and never let her go.
“You must have me mistaken for someone else,” the girl standing in front of me said, shaking me off of her.
I could tell she was lying.
It was Scarlett. I was sure of it. It wasn’t just the way she stared back at me with her look of recognition that let me know that this was my little sister. It wasn’t even the look of happiness that crossed over her face, quickly being replaced by an unreadable expression.
It was her voice. Her voice had a melodic ring to it, a sound that reminded me of the song that I heard the night Scarlett had drowned.
All of these years, I had lived under the impression that I had watched my sister drown, right in front of my own eyes, and I had done nothing to save her.
But no one had ever found a body. What if it was because my sister really hadn’t drowned? What if her body hadn’t been carried away and she had been alive this whole time? Maybe she had taken the opportunity to run away, tricking us all into believing that she had drowned. Had her life with us really been that bad that she felt she needed to fake her own death at such a young age?
“No. I know it’s you,” I finally said, continuing to stare at her. “You’re my sister . . . You’re Scarlett.”
I watched as the girl’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “I told you . . . My name’s not Scarlett. Now, leave me alone.”
I was instantly reminded of my sister’s last words to me. I told you . . . I’ll come inside in a minute. Now, leave me alone.
Before I could say anything in protest, the girl had already turned around and was quickly walking away from me. I watched as she disappeared under the boardwalk. I followed her footsteps, but I didn’t see her anywhere. She had disappeared into the dark shadows.
A hopeless feeling washed over me, and my vision became clouded with tears. It felt like I was losing Scarlett all over again.
I felt a strong hand come down on my arm and whirled around to find Tyler’s worried gray eyes staring back into mine. “Are you okay, Felicia?”
“I—I have to go,” I stuttered, running away from Tyler. I heard him call, “Wait!” but I continued running into the night, not once looking back at him as he continued to call after me.
I ran until I was in Gram’s driveway. There was a light on in the living room. She was home. I knew I couldn’t tell my grandmother about what I had just seen because one of two things would happen. I would either upset her, or she’d think I was crazy . . . just like Mom.
Was Mom really crazy, though? What if my mother had been right all those times when she went on pretending that Scarlett was still alive when Gram visited her? Maybe she was right; maybe she’d been able to sense that her daughter hadn’t died.
In fact, now, I was almost positive she was right.
When I went in the house, Gram was on the couch with an open book lying on her chest. Her eyes were closed, and she was snoring softly. I breathed a sigh of relief as I crept quietly to my bedroom.
Staring out the window at stars that looked like they were strung from the night sky, I made a decision; I was going to try to find Scarlett again. Maybe she had felt weird about being ambushed and questioned by me in front of such a big crowd. Maybe she would be honest with me if I talked to her one-on-one.
Somehow, I doubted it would be that easy to get Scarlett to admit who she really was, but one thing was for sure: I was definitely going to try.
*
I didn’t know what time I had fallen asleep that night, but the alarm clock seemed to go off earlier than usual the next morning. Sitting up in bed, I could tell that my eyes were swollen and puffy. I wondered if I had cried in my sleep.
When I went into the kitchen, there was a note hanging on the fridge with my grandmother’s neat handwriting in red ink. Went to Savannah today with Maureen. Be home late tonight. Love, Gram.
A sense of relief washed over me; I was glad that I didn’t have to face my grandmother just yet. It was hard to keep secrets from her. We normally told each other everything, but I really needed some time to figure this out on my own. Maybe if I could bring her back to the house with me instead of just blurting out that I had seen her, it would be enough proof for Gram that Scarlett was still alive.
When I got to my lifeguard chair, I had already begun to climb up the steps when I realized that it was already occupied. “Umm, excuse me,” I called up to the guy who was sitting in the chair. “You’re in my seat.”
The guy, who had dark hair and a perfect tan, leaned towards me and blew his whistle loudly, hurting my ears. “Excuse me. You’re blocking my view,” he replied in a deep voice.
“Technically, it’s my view, since it’s supposed to be my lifeguard chair,” I shot back at him. When he didn’t respond, I yelled, “Please get out of my seat!” I hoped that I didn’t sound like I felt—a whiny little three year-old who wasn’t getting her way—but this guy was seriously getting on my nerves.
Pulling off his sunglasses, the guy looked down at me. Studying his striking blue eyes, I came to the conclusion that I’d never seen him before. He hadn’t been there during Junior Lifeguard tryouts, so he must have been a lifeguard. That meant he had to be at least seventeen years old, if not older. “Are you Felicia?” the guy asked.
I nodded, my ponytail hitting against my shoulders. “Yeah, that would be me.”
“I’m supposed to tell you that we’re switching chairs,” the guy replied. “I was in the next chair over . . . number thirteen. It’s all yours now.”
Great. Of all of the numbered chairs that I could have been assigned, I end up with a number that’s notorious for being unlucky.
“Why are we switching?” I asked the guy, who had put his sunglasses back on and seemed to be looking over my head, at the beach. “Is there something over there I need to watch out for?”
“Nah, you’ll be fine,” the guy replied. “Just a personal issue.”
I stood there for a few moments, waiting for him to explain further. When he didn’t, I climbed back down and walked over to the empty lifeguard chair that was now mine. When I glanced back over at him, I could have sworn he was staring in my direction, but I couldn’t be sure because his dark-tinted sunglasses masked his eyes.
My area of the beach was mostly empty since it was still early in the morning, but the Georgia heat was creeping steadily upwards. I wished that I could take a dip in the ocean, but that was against the rules for lifeguards while we were on-duty. We weren’t even allowed to leave our chairs unless it was to help someone. So, instead, I retreated to my chair and watched the ocean from afar, longing to just dip my toes in it.
My mind was in another place when Tyler tied Bruno’s leash onto my lifeguard chair and climbed up the steps, plopping down on the large step that my feet were rested on. “Hey,” he greeted me.
“Oh, hi,” I said quietly. The words had already escaped my lips when I realized how disinterested I must have sounded to him.
“Real excited to see me, huh?” Tyler asked, raising his eyebrows, which were a shade darker than his light brown hair, at me. He tried to make his question sound playful, but I saw the pained expression on his face. I knew that he was crushed at the idea that I really might not want to see him.
“It’s not that I’m not excited to see you,” I replied, shaking my head. “I just feel a little embarrassed. About what happened last night.”
“Don’t be. But I was going to ask you about what all that was about,” Tyler said quietly, glancing up at me. A softened look had taken over his face. “You ran away from me before I could really make sure you were okay.” He paused. “Are you okay?” There was a genuine look of concern in his eyes. It made me feel bad about running away from him the previous night.
“I’m fine,” I replied. “At least, I think I am. It’s a long story . . . and you’d probably think I was crazy if I told you about it anyway.” Crazy was probably an understatement. He’d probably think I belonged in a nuthouse if he knew that I had seen my dead sister.
“Try me,” Tyler said, looking into my eyes. “I bet I know people who are way crazier than you.”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “This is pretty crazy. And it’s a long story that I really don’t want to get into while I’m working.”
“Okay, then, let’s meet up after you’re done working,” Tyler insisted. “Wanna meet me at the pier?”
“I, um,” I hesitated. Did I really want to tell Tyler about Scarlett? I hadn’t told anyone in this town that I’d even had a sister, but . . . maybe I should have. Maybe telling someone—even someone who I technically didn’t know that well yet—would make it easier for me to get through this.
I didn’t have time to make up my mind. Off in the distance, I heard someone scream, “Help!” Without thinking twice, I jumped down from the lifeguard chair and grabbed my flotation device.
As I ran towards the woman who continued to scream, the hot sand burning my feet, I felt my own panic taking over. This was the first time I had officially tried to save anyone, and all of the thoughts that had been stirred up within me about Scarlett lately weren’t helping me keep my nerves under control. What if someone else was drowning in front of me, and I wasn’t able to save them?
Racing across the beach, I reminded myself that I couldn’t think that way right now; I had to focus.
Once I was in the water, the waves breaking against my knees, I didn’t see anybody. I panicked, thinking maybe the woman had seen a shark.
“Everybody out of the water,” I shouted. As a few people scampered out of the water, I turned to the woman. “Ma’am? What happened?”
“My son! I turned away from him for just a second, and then he was gone,” the woman said, in between sobs.
I dove back under the water. As I scanned the murky depths of the ocean, memories of the night Scarlett had drowned flashed back into my mind. I remembered the blue explosion of light, and her body, so helpless, underneath the water.
When I came up for another breath of air, I saw a blur of something bobbing in the water. I swam closer and found a little boy trying to swim to the surface, but he was being pulled down by the force of a wave.
Grabbing his body protectively, I pulled him out of the water and carried him onto the shore. The little boy’s eyes were closed and his skin was pale; he appeared lifeless. Suddenly, everything we had learned in Junior Lifeguard training fled from my mind. Not knowing what else to do, I put my head near his mouth to see if he was breathing.
I didn’t hear anything. I screamed, “Someone call nine-one-one!”
With trembling hands, I began doing compressions, the same way we had practiced in CPR class. What they didn’t teach you in CPR class was how much different it felt to practice resuscitating a lifeless dummy than it felt to have to resuscitate someone in a real life-or-death situation.
From behind me, I could hear the boy’s mom crying and flooding me with questions. “What are you doing to him? Is he going to be okay? Are you going to be able to save him?”
I ignored her, focusing all of my attention on the boy. I hoped he would be okay, but the truth was, I really wasn’t sure. It’s not like I had any experience rescuing people . . . and with my luck, the first person I would have to save while I was on duty wouldn’t survive. I only hoped that the boy had better luck than Scarlett did.
After I had done twenty compressions (or was it twenty-one? I had lost count), a cough came from the boy’s mouth. A trickle of water ran down his cheeks, and his eyes popped open. “M-mom?” he asked shakily, glancing over at his mother, who smiled in sheer happiness.
“Michael! Oh, Michael!” the woman exclaimed, rushing over to her son and wrapping her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” She turned to me and, with tears in her eyes, whispered, “Thank you for saving my son.”
I beamed. My record of saving people was beginning to look a little better. Maybe this was turning out to be the right summer job for me, after all.
Tyler came over to me and, wrapping his arms around me, he whispered, “You were amazing out there!”
I looked up and smiled at him. “That was one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do. What time did you want to meet at the pier tonight?”
“How’s nine o’clock?” he asked.
“Sounds perfect.”