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“SARAH! WAIT UP!”
Sarah turned around to find Simone running to catch up to her. She smiled when she saw her childhood friend, and she couldn’t help but wonder how it was that they all turned out living such separate lives.
When Simone reached her, Sarah threw her arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I’ve missed you ...” Sarah whispered, holding onto her friend.
“Sè, are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just, we’re going to grow up soon, and we’re all going to go our separate ways ...”
“No, we won’t, you’ll see ...”
Sarah took Simone’s hand as they strolled along the corridor just as their first school bell was about to ring.
“Sarah!”
She hastily turned around when she heard Margie’s voice behind her.
“You can’t tell Daniel about what you heard. Where did you hear it anyway?”
Sarah frowned and stared at a breathless Margie. “Hear what?”
“You know? The whole wedding planning thing ...”
“So, it’s true? I’m not going crazy?”
“You can’t tell them. My dad will go nuts when he finds out that I don’t want to teach. Please, Sarah, I don’t know who told you, but you can’t tell anyone!” Margie grew increasingly desperate when she pleaded with Sarah.
Sarah grabbed her hands, and stared at Margie in utter disbelief, “You have to tell Daniel! You don’t understand, you have to, Margie. His life, you telling him, you must tell him! It might save his life!”
“You’re hurting me, Sarah ...”
Sarah let go of her hands before she grabbed her by her shoulders, “You have to tell Daniel!” She yelled out at the top of her voice.
Margie was suddenly overcome by fear, when she noticed the deranged expression in Sarah’s eyes. “No. What’s the matter with you? I will deny it, Sarah, so just leave it! Drop it!” She turned away, and hurriedly made her way into her their classroom.
Simone frowned when she stared at Sarah who had turned ashen all of a sudden. “Sarah, what was that all about?”
Sarah lowered her head before she turned to Simone who in turn, frowned when she noticed the tears flickering in Sarah’s eyes. “What’s going on with you?” Simone was desperate to determine what it was that had so tremendously upset her best friend.
“It’s of no use, Sim, nobody believes me ...” Her voice trailed off when a restricting lump in her throat made its appearance, once again.
“Tell me, Sè ...”
She took Simone’s hand and gently squeezed it. “Not here. Meet me at the bookstore this afternoon, okay?”
“Sure ...”
Sarah smiled before she made her way into their first class of the morning.
When their bell rang for the first break of their school day, Sarah quickly ran out to the pavilion after grabbing a book she had kept in her school bag. She smiled when she read the title, “The Weeping Prince,” and remembered that it was a book she had begun to read, but could not quite remember finishing.
When she reached the pavilion on the sports field, she was relieved to notice that she was alone, and away from the chatter and bustling of the rest of the students. She quickly climbed a dozen steps, and sat down before she opened the book exactly where she had left off all those years ago.
She had barely begun to read, when Daniel’s familiar voice startled her. “Sarah? Simone said I could find you here ...”
“You’re not allowed to be here, what are you doing here?”
Daniel swiftly climbed the steps towards her and sat down beside her. He took her hand into his, and gently squeezed it, “I just wanted to say sorry about this morning.”
Sarah’s heart broke out into a flutter, before she smiled excitedly at him. “You believe me?”
He lowered his head and gently kissed her hand. “I think you believe it, but I think maybe, just maybe you might have dreamed it all?” He peered up at her and gazed into her emerald green eyes.
Sarah turned away from him, and for a moment, she was not sure what was real and what never was. She could very well be dreaming, but she knew, from the innermost core of her, that he had died. In her world, the real world that he too belongs to, he had died.
She had no idea why she was dreaming such a vivid and on-going dream. She had no clue why her dreams had taken her back to that specific year, but she knew that she had to try and save him, even if only in her dream.
She had nothing much left to lose, if all she was living in was a dream. “Danny, I don’t know whether it’s possible to dream in a dream. But, what I do know is that I’m going to make the biggest mistake of my life someday. I am going to leave Hazel Creek, and try to be better and do better. I won’t know about your illness, and I won’t come back until after. I wish I could change that. I wish I could change and alter my path and my choices, but all I can do right now, is try and change yours.”
“Sarah, sometimes we think that our dreams appear to us as warnings, but they’re not. They are just dreams. We have plans you and I. You will never leave Hazel Creek. I know you.”
“Daniel! Stop it! Ask my mother. As a little girl, I dreamed of going to the city and becoming a famous writer. Our plans will mean nothing because you, you will be dead! You are going to get sick and die. And you can stop it! You can change it, but you won’t listen to me!”
He let go of her hand, and lowered his head, unable to look her in the eye. He sighed, before he turned back to face her. “I know you believe what you think will happen. But, unless someone gave you some of their magic, you can’t predict the future, Sarah. I’m not going to get sick. I’ve never been sick a day in my life, Sarah?”
Sarah rose to her feet, and closed her book in anger. “The bell is going to ring! I have to go back to class!”
Daniel got up and grabbed her before she turned away from him. “I love you, Sè. I love that you worry about me, but I will never leave you. You’ll see ...”
“Yeah, and when you get sick, Danny, just know that no-one can save you, because it will be too late!”
Daniel felt a shudder rush through his heart when he heard the conviction in her voice. For a moment, he wondered if he should believe her, or at the very least, believe that she believes he will die. While watching her run back to her class, he could not discard the feeling of uneasiness that had suddenly, entirely overwhelmed him.
When the last school bell of the day rang, Sarah rushed out of her classroom, and quickly dashed down the road that led her to her mother’s bookstore. When she opened the old, heavy wooden doors to Fine Books, she was again reminded of how magical her mother’s bookstore felt to her. Each time she would walk through that door, she was sure she was stepping into a world of fascination.
She loved the smell, she loved the silence and she fully embraced the serenity she found as she walked through the rows and rows of books. Some new, and recently bought, and some that were hundreds of years old.
Sarah would keep what she called the special books in a corner somewhere, away from the public almost as though they were a hidden treasure. She would tell Sarah that the books that were leather bound and frail, were special, and had more than just stories to tell. She hated the idea that some stranger might come across them, and page through their brittle pages, with their unwashed hands.
“Hey mommy ...”
“Hello, my girl ...”
Sarah smiled sadly before she made her way around the counter to where her mother was standing.
“Are you alright, my lovey?”
Sarah nodded when her lower lip began to quiver. She could not swallow back on the tears that had begun to escape through the hampering lump in her throat, and when they began shimmering in her eyes, Cindy took Sarah’s hands into hers. “What’s wrong, my girl?”
She swallowed back before she quickly wiped the tears that were threatening to bucket from her eyes. “I, I don’t want to talk about it, mommy. Sim is coming to help me later on; can I just hide out in my reading corner for a bit?”
“Of course, baby. I’ve left you a sandwich. Here, I got this book in the mail the other day, and I thought you might want to read it. It was very special to my mother. I searched everywhere for it, and when I found it, I knew you must have it.”
Cindy handed Sarah a bulky, leather bound book that appeared scuffed and worn. She rubbed her hand over the binder, and smiled when she noticed the tiny ribbon around it. At that very moment, Sarah was sure she had seen that book before, and that her mother had given it to her once before.
She knew that she had begun reading it many years before, and she could clearly remember leaving it hidden on a shelf in her reading corner. She grimaced as she gazed at the title that was branded deep into the cover, ‘The Passage of Time.’ When she turned the book over, she stood as though frozen in time when she read the words carved into the leather binding,
‘For one moment in time, for one call of the heart and the mind to the soul, time is nothing. When the soul agrees that there might have been a fault in the stars, the heart, the mind and the soul will come together, and alter one moment in time.’
She began trembling slightly when she remembered reading those exact same words once before. Years before, when she believed in the magic of words. When she believed in the power of story book pages, and how she was convinced that her mother’s bookstore could make time stand still.
“Is this it? Can this be?” She whispered softly as she stood staring at the book.
“Can what be?” Cindy turned to face Sarah,
“This book, I mean ...”
Cindy took the book and pressed it against her, before she smiled at Sarah. “You know, my mother used to believe in the legend of magical books. She always used to tell me that each bookstore has that one mysterious book, meant for one special person. A book so spiritual that it has the power to change one single, heartbreaking event in one person’s life. My mother once told me how it could stop time, and give someone one more last chance. Nobody really knows the title of the book, or who the author is, but the story goes that there was once an angel that fell in love with an ordinary man.”
She paused to take in a deep breath, before she handed the book back to Sarah.
Sarah gazed down at the leather-bound book, before she looked questioningly up at her mother, “And then, mom?”
“Well, on their wedding day, she confessed her secret to him. She told him that she had fallen from Heaven, just to be with him. She said that she was not of the world, but that her love for him turned her into a human. He was horrified by what she told him, and accused her of being a witch. He left her standing at the altar after he disappeared, never to be seen again. The angel refused to give up on him, and lived out the remainder of her life in solitude while she waited for him. On her death bed, she performed her last powerful deed by adding the unexplained to all bookstores around the world where one book would have the power to take a broken heart back in time, and change the course of the future.”
“That is so sad ...” She kissed Cindy on the cheek before she quickly made her way into her reading corner.
It was barely an hour later when Sarah heard Simone’s welcoming voice, “Hey! Your mom said I’d find you here, what are you reading?”
Sarah closed the book and held it up to Simone. “Passage of Time, it’s supposed to be about a legend of time and some fault in the stars ...”
“Ooooh, fantasy! I love fantasy!”
“Yeah, I just think, well, I don’t really know? But, I think this is the book and that it’s all real?” Sarah placed the book down beside her before Simone sat down in front of her.
“What is?”
“Sim, I know this is going to sound weird, but please, please, just keep an open mind?”
“Okay ...”
“Do you think that it’s possible to go back in time? I mean, like a do-over?”
Simone frowned, before she burst out laughing. “That is impossible. You’d need a time machine, and one has never been invented.”
“Come on, Sim, don’t you think there is a kind of magic that makes these things happen?”
“No, I don’t, and you, you’re supposed to be the smart one, Sè.”
Sarah lowered her head, unsure of what to say next. “You’re going to be the town’s favorite hair dresser and beautician someday, Sim ...” Sarah whispered softly before Simone burst out laughing again.
“Funny girl! And you, Sarah, what are you going to do?”
“Well, it turns out that I write books, and I live in the city.”
“Yeah, right. You will never leave Daniel behind.”
“I did, Sim. I just had this idea in my head that I needed to become someone wonderful for him, so I left ...”
“Sarah, you’re honestly not making any sense?”
“Sim, please, you have to listen to me. I need someone to believe me. Daniel leaves with his family in December. They are going to sail to Spain for the holidays to spend a last holiday with his grandmother, but Danny, he comes back sick ...” She paused to take in a deep breath.
Simone gazed incredulously at her, as she listened to her best friend tell her about events that have not yet happened.
“Only, no-one knows that he’s caught this virus, Sim. It’s only in 1997 that he gets sick. And, they can’t cure him, and for three years, he suffers while they try everything to save him. But Sim? He eventually dies. In March of 2000, Daniel dies, and no-one tells me until you do when I come home eleven months later!” Sarah was unable to control the tears that had begun to torrent from her eyes.
Simone took her into her arms, and held her firmly against her. She was at once overcome with fear when she heard what Sarah had to say, but more so, when she realized that Sarah believed that it all had in fact, happened.
“Simmy, please, I need you to believe me? I can’t tell anyone else and Danny thinks I just dreamed it all.” She retreated slightly, before she stared at Simone who was clearly having a hard time believing her. “Sim, I know how this sounds! I know! I wouldn’t believe me either, but, I was at his grave yesterday, and today, today I woke up sixteen again? I don’t know how to explain it, Simmy, Danny doesn’t believe me.”
“You told Daniel?”
“I had to. I have to stop him from going to Spain, Sim!”
“Wow Sarah? I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but I know you, and I know that you believe it. Wasn’t it just a dream?”
“No, Daniel asked me the same question.”
Sarah grabbed the leather-bound book, and handed it to Simone. “Read this ...” She turned the book over and remained silent as Simone read it.
“For one moment in time, for one call of the heart and the mind to the soul, time is nothing. When the soul agrees that there might have been a fault in the stars, the heart, the mind and the soul will come together, and alter one moment in time.”
“Sim, I swear it, I didn’t dream it. Daniel is going to die, and there will be nothing any of us can do if he leaves for Spain! You have to help me!”
“How?”
“I don’t know? I have to speak to Anabel, and at least, I have to speak to Daniel again ...”
“Have you told your mom?”
“No ...”
“You should speak to your mom, Sè, she’ll believe you, and she’ll know what to do? You can’t go around saying these things, people will think you’re crazy!”
Sarah lowered her head before she took the book from Simone, and hid it on a shelf behind her, just as she had done so many years before.
“So, listen, we’re having a get together on the beach tonight. Daniel will be there, will you come? I know that Megan will be coming too?”
“Yeah ...”
“Okay, well I must run, nobody else dies, right?” Simone turned back to face Sarah.
“No ...”
Sarah took her school bag, and quickly made her way back to her mother, who had finished packing the last of the books away. “Sorry, mom. I promise I’ll come and help again over the weekend.”
“No problem, my girl ...” She turned back to Sarah and took her hands into her own. “Do you want to talk, honey?”
“Maybe later mom ... everyone is getting together on the beach, and I promised Sim I’d go ...”
“Alright, just don’t be too late, okay?”
“I won’t ...” She placed her arms around her beloved mother, and hugged her tightly. “I love you, mommy ...”
“I love you too, angel ...”
When she reached the door of the bookshop, she turned back to Cindy who was staring distraughtly at her. “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Can I write from the bookstore someday? I mean, can I write my books here and work here, with you?” Cindy walked up to Sarah, and placed her hand on her shoulder, “There is nothing in the world I want more ...”
“Thank you, mom ...”
“Sarah, what about the dreams you had of moving to the city and becoming someone big, important and wonderful when you were just a little girl?”
“I know mom, but it turns out that my wonderful is right here.” She smiled sadly before she hurried back home.
When she walked through the front door of their farmhouse, Megan swiftly ran up to Sarah. “Hey Sè, do you know if David will be there tonight?” David Dawson was a close friend of Daniel. Megan had lost her heart to him in primary school, and was anxious to get him to notice her.
“Yeah, I think so?”
“Oh good!” She screeched as she excitedly clapped her hands.
Before Megan turned away, Sarah grabbed her by her arm, “Megs?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t try so hard, sissy, David is going to marry you someday, you know?”
“Yeah, right!” She giggled before she hurriedly made her way upstairs. Sarah followed close behind her, before she ran into Robert.
“Hey Sè, are you feeling better?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, this morning? You didn’t seem quite like yourself?”
Sarah smiled miserably, before she turned away from him, “I’m fine, thanks, Robbie ...”
When she reached her bedroom, she placed her bag on the floor, and collapsed onto her bed. She laid staring at the ceiling, reflecting on all that was happening around her. “If this is a dream, why am I not waking up?” She whispered before she turned on her side, and closed her eyes, “If this is magic, why won’t anyone believe me? How am I supposed to change anything when no-one will believe me?”
She sobbed softly, before she opened her eyes and stared out in front of her. When she glanced at her wristwatch, she realized that it was a quarter to seven. She had fallen asleep, and when she sat up straight, she knew that she could not sleep in a dream, or dream another dream, in a dream.
She had no idea of what was happening to her, and she was not quite sure that she had wanted to be caught up in a moment, she could never change or alter the course of.
She was flung back into a time where it was expected of her to act sixteen again, when she was living her life as a grown, successful and independent woman only days before.
She was compelled to obey her parents and adhere to their rules, when her heart was that of a much older woman. Sarah realized that she had found herself in a moment in time she was not prepared to recreate, but a moment she had begged for.
She had beseeched the universe for a do-over, and she was given exactly what she had requested and negotiated for. She was given her one more last chance to do all she could, to change and alter a certainty that Daniel would die.
She had her wish and her return to before, to save Daniel, and to ultimately, save her heart. She knew that she could never tell anyone the truth, but that she had her one last chance to do whatever it took, to save his life, and hers.
She slowly made her way to her closet, and quickly pulled out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She untied her hair and left it to lay loosely down her back. She quickly grabbed a sweater, and hurriedly made her way downstairs. “Hey dad, have you seen Megs? Has she left yet?” She was in high spirits when she found her father in front of the television, sipping on his whiskey and dragging on his cigar. When she breathed in the aroma of his tobacco, she was once again, thankful to experience the little things that made their house a home while reliving the little things she had forgotten not too long ago.
“She’s in the kitchen with mom.”
“Thanks, dad.”
Sarah made her way into the kitchen, and found Megan and Cindy packing the last of the dishes away.
“There you are, I was about to leave without you.” Megan smiled, before she swiftly planted a kiss on Cindy’s cheek.
“You girls behave ...”
“Of course, mama, love you.”
“Sarah, wait up for just a second?”
“What’s wrong, mommy?”
“Nothing. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine, I love you, mom.” Sarah whispered before she followed Megan out to her car.
Cindy couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wide off the mark with Sarah. It felt to her as though her youngest daughter had grown up almost overnight. Her carefree ways and her untroubled days seemed to be a thing of the past. Cindy could almost see the world weighing down heavily on Sarah’s shoulders. She could not quite put her finger on it, but she was convinced that all was not well with Sarah.
She anxiously made her way into the living room, and sat down on the coffee table in front of Thomas. “Is it my imagination, or is something up with Sè?”
Thomas placed his cigar in the ashtray and sat up straight. “You see it too?”
“Yeah, and I mean, she must have told me a hundred times today that she loves me. Robert said the same thing earlier?”
Thomas folded his hands and rested his chin on them.
“She doesn’t want to move to the city anymore. She wants to stay here and write from the bookstore?”
Thomas shook his head before he frowned, “Maybe it’s just a stage she is going through, have you tried talking to her?”
“Yes, today at the bookstore. She just said she didn’t want to talk about it?”
He took Cindy’s hands into his, and smiled when he gently squeezed them, “She’ll come to you honey, she always does. Just give her time.”
“She is scaring me, Thomas. I have never known Sarah to become so withdrawn and sad?”
When they pulled up at the beach, Megan climbed out first, and excitedly made her way onto the beach, to David who was standing around a bonfire they had built only moments before.
Sarah sat in the car for a while longer, before she got out and made her way over to a group of girls that were laughing and chatting while seated on a blanket.
When she reached them, she smiled and quickly greeted the crowd, before she turned to find Daniel. When she saw him standing beside David, she turned around to make her way over to him.
“Wait Sè! Look what I found!” Simone shoved a photograph into Sarah’s hand, and giggled softly. It was a picture of Sarah and Daniel when she was a measly four years old, and he barely eight years old. Sarah smiled when she thought back to their childhood, and how she could barely imagine her life without him. “I’m going to show Danny!” Simone grabbed Sarah by her hand and quickly made her way over to Daniel.
“Hey, I’m glad you came ...” Daniel placed his arms around her, and held her firmly against him.
When she stepped back, Simone placed the photograph in Daniel’s hand. “Oh man, look at us!” Daniel smiled and looked at Sarah who seemed to grow sadder by the minute.
Before she could reply, Kimberly had made her way over to them. “Oh my, Sarah, you’ve always been ugly!”
Sarah glared at her, before Simone grabbed the photograph from her hands. Daniel turned to face Sarah, who had turned away from him. He frowned when he noticed her eerie silence, and once again, he was sure that Sarah was not herself. It would have been nothing for Sarah to rip into Kimberly, and entirely tear her apart. Sarah had never backed off from an insult, let alone a fight. Simone glanced over at Daniel when they realized that Sarah had no interest in retaliating against Kimberly’s rude insults.
“What’s the matter with you, Kim? Always a bitch?” Kimberly grinned when Simone approached her, ready to defend her friend’s honor.
Sarah grabbed her from behind, “Come on, Sim, let’s go.”
Daniel was enraged by Kimberly’s behavior, and reprimanded her at once, “Kimberly, I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Oh, come on, Daniel. What you see in her, I will never know!”
“You know what, you will never understand that I love her, and I always have, and I can promise you, I always will.” Kimberly turned away from Daniel, and nonchalantly made her way over to the group around the bonfire.
When they reached the blanket, Sarah turned to Simone, “I don’t really want to be here, Sim. I’m going to go; will you forgive me?”
“Yeah sure, are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just been such a long day. Tomorrow will be better, I’m sure ...”
As she waved Simone goodbye, Daniel hurriedly caught up with her. “Are you leaving?”
“Yeah ...”
“I’ll drive you ...” She smiled when he clutched her hand into his and squeezed it tightly.
When they reached his car, he opened the passenger door for her. Before she climbed in, she turned to face him, “Danny, let’s drive up to the mountain like we used to?”
“Okay, sure, but, we still do it all the time?” Daniel closed the door just as soon as she slid in, and made his way around the driver’s seat.
When he turned his car on, he took her hand, and gently kissed it.
They drove up to the mountain in silence. Sarah peered through the car window and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful their village lights shone and reflected onto the ocean.
She had missed those moments with Daniel. It felt to her as though she was feeling all the emotions she once fell for him, for the very first time. She was desperate to take in the sounds of the night, and the way he looked at that very moment.
She wanted to look into his eyes and remember the way he looked back at her. She was desperate to plunge into each moment she had with him, and take in all she had once taken for granted.
As they drove up to the spot they would sit and watch the village from, she couldn’t understand why she was so desperate to leave Hazel Creek, and swop their beautiful village for Queenstown. She missed their town. She missed the serenity, and she missed how uncomplicated it all seemed to her.
