The DJ rocks. I’ll just start with that. Pretty much everyone is dancing, and I have to hand it to Carrie Amernick and her Senior Social Committee sisterhood, because the place looks amazing.
I’m glad I’m invisible and unbumpable in the future, because I’d never be able to make it across the dance floor without getting pummeled by every jumping, dancing, slamming member of the senior class knocking me over otherwise. Now it’s great. They pass right through me, and I get to check everyone out.
I laugh when I see Mom and Glen in a corner. They’re just off the dance floor, on a patch of carpet where they won’t get pummeled. I guess they’re chaperoning. Mom does a fairly decent job with the hip-hop moves, but poor Glen is like a puppet. The fact that Mom seems to find this charming stuns me, but I guess it bodes well for their future.
A slow song starts, and while Mom and Glen and several other couples pour into each other’s arms, nearly everyone else clumps off in groups to cool off and hang. I find all my friends. Ames is with Paul Northrup, a guy I know from English class; Sean’s with Reenzie; Taylor’s with Drew; and Jack and Tom…
“You’re holding hands!” I scream. “I’m so happy for you!”
I hug Jack even though my arms go right through him and I only stumble forward, but I don’t care. I’m that happy. And I’m even happier when I see J.J. and me. It’s four months from now and we’re totally together. Near-Future-Me is tucked there under his arm, and we both look blissfully happy.
“So?” I ask the group of them. “Tell me everything! It’s spring—you know where you’re all going next year! Are we close? Will we see each other in school?”
I’ve jumped enough to know that nothing I say in the future makes any difference at all. They can’t see me and they can’t hear me. Yet miraculously, I see Future Me’s eyes go wide for a second, like something just clicked inside her head. Is she remembering her past, when she was me and I was her and I asked the question? I don’t know, but she jumps in and changes the conversation so we’re all talking about college and where we’ll be in the fall. Reenzie and Sean’s plans haven’t changed, but Taylor’s going to Northwestern, where they have a great theater program, and Drew transferred there, too, so they’ll be together. Jack got a full scholarship to CalArts based on a graphic novel he’s apparently been writing and drawing since middle school, so he’s set. He won’t be anywhere near Tom, who’s going to school in Maine, but they seem cool with it.
As for J.J. and me, we’re going to two different schools, but they’re both in Boston, so we’ll see each other all the time.
Fast music kicks up again and my friends and I pile out to the dance floor. I watch us and I can’t help but smile. We all look so…well…peaceful and happy.
“Autumn.”
I hear the man’s voice clearly behind me, even though the music’s very loud. I assume he’s calling Future Me, but she doesn’t even register that she heard anything.
“Autumn.”
The voice is closer now, but Future Me still doesn’t turn. And there’s something very familiar about the voice.
“Autumn.”
He’s right behind me, but I’m suddenly shivering all over and I’m afraid to turn around because my heart will literally shatter if I’m wrong. I bite my lip and turn, and the whole world stops.
“Daddy?”
It’s him. My dad. His dark hair. His tan skin. His brown laughing eyes and smiling face and he’s right there in front of me!
“Daddy!”
I throw my arms around him and they don’t sweep through him like smoke. My dad is here. He’s solid. He’s holding me tight and rocking me back and forth and my face is buried in his chest and he feels like him and smells like him and sounds like him and I’m crying and laughing and I can’t stop any of it.
“I don’t understand,” I finally say. “How are you here?”
“The zemi,” he says, pointing down at the locket clutched in my hand. “You know what it does, right?”
“Holds a little piece of someone’s soul?”
Dad nods. “Just like in the diary and the map. I was there too. But look.”
He nods back to my fist. I open it and look at the locket. It’s smooth on both sides. The zemi is gone. I grin.
“Where will I find it next?” I ask. “Something in my college dorm room, maybe?”
Dad’s still smiling, but there’s something sad in his eyes and he doesn’t answer. I feel a pit start to open in my stomach.
“You will come back in something else, right?”
He shakes his head. “You don’t need me anymore, carina. It’s time for me to move on.”
“No!” I wail. “I do need you! I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know if Reenzie’ll be okay at Stanford or if Drew will get into some kind of horrible accident…and I’m going to a whole new school with new people! What if they don’t like me? What if I miss home? What’ll I do if I don’t have you there to help me?”
Dad looks down at me, his eyes full of love. “You’ll do fine,” he says. He brushes my hair out of my face and smiles. “You know why I named you Autumn Falls, right?”
I’ve heard the story a million times, but I want to hear it again from him. “Maybe.”
He laughs. “I named you after my favorite season. Twice. Because I knew just like it, you had the power to bring peace between extremes.”
“Peace and happiness to my little corner of the world?” I ask.
“Exactly.” He shakes his head, like he’s as amazed as I am that we’re face to face. “You were a little girl when I left you. Now you’re all grown-up. You’re so confident, so caring, so wise. I’m so proud of you, Autumn. You’re everything I knew you’d be and more.”
“If I am, it’s only because you’ve been helping me.” I fling my arms around him and hold him as tightly as I can. “Please don’t go.”
He hugs me back. “I won’t. You might not have me in an object, like a diary, or a map, or a locket, but I’ll always be with you, and I’ll always be smiling at what I see.”
Dad pulls back just enough to touch his forehead to mine. I stare at his face, trying to etch it into my mind so I never forget a single detail.
“I love you, Daddy,” I say.
“I love you too.”
He pulls me close again, and I hug him as tight as I possibly can, tight enough to hold on to him forever….