I ran into Blue again the other day while I was in the library doing research for work. I was learning about new plants I could bring into the region. You know… for The Mission.
We chatted for a while and then played some chess. Blue is easy to talk to and she listens really well. I tell her that I finally got to go to Sulani, but it was for work and that I only got to take a few pictures of the beach in a distance.
“May I see the pictures?” she asked, and I showed them to her. we both decide that it would be a good place to go on vacation someday.
A few days later, something amazing happens…
Aleah randomly showed up at my house… er, tent.
I was busy working with the plants when she arrived, calling my name from a distance as she jogged over to me!
“I found you!” she called out.
“You were looking for me?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said and explained that she had felt bad because of the way she’d treated me the other night at the Talent Show. The ‘other night’ had been months ago. It hadn’t gone well, and I just assumed that she thought I was a creeper.
I told her as much and she sort of shrugged. “Maybe I did. Look, Caden,” she said, “you surprised me by knowing things about me I haven’t told anyone before. About my family in Glimmerbrook, for example. It’s not exactly something I advertise out here.”
I had forgotten that about Aleah, because when we’d been together, we hadn’t hid what we were.
“I looked you up, afterwards,” she continued. “You’re Caden Caine, from the Caine family.”
I nodded. There was no sense in denying it. Besides which, I didn’t want to.
“And… you’re kind of cute.” She kissed my cheek.
I offered her a second rose, this time not a store bought one, but one from my garden. She accepted it and gave me a hug.
We didn’t hang out a lot, like we used to in the first go-around. I had a job this time that took a lot of my attention. She did, too. But we texted a lot, and phone calls. It wasn’t quite the same in a way that I couldn’t put my finger on. But I was desperate to have her in my life again.
Finally, I risked asking her on a date.
It didn’t really go well at all. I took Aleah to what used to be our favorite restaurant. She kept waving and talking to this guy at another table, and basically ignoring me.
When it was over, I went home feeling rejected all over again. How could be happening to me? Why weren’t Aleah and I connecting like we should have been?
I didn’t get far in my self-pity when I was suddenly pulled up into a beam of light.
The Celestials who took me informed me that all things were not as they seemed and that I needed to be focused on the task I had been given, not on recreating something which had ultimately been lost. The ripples I’d made by the changing things had created different outcomes. I wasn’t the exact same. I couldn’t expect everyone else to be the same.
That meant Aleah, too.
I was dropped off, angry that they had taken me, and even more upset because it seemed like I was being forced to give her up. This was not something I wanted to do.
Still reeling from the message of the Celestials, I decided to try one more time with Aleah. Make it work. Show them I knew what I was doing.
I invited her out to a lounge in the city. We hung out at the bar. I introduced her to my sister, Dawn, who just happened to be there. Then we hit the bubble blower and tried out some of the flavors.
Later, we ordered drinks and sat and talked.
“Look, Caden,” she said, and I knew that I wasn’t going to like it.
“Please, don’t,” I begged her.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think this is going to work out.”
“Why not?” I hadn’t realized I’d said it out loud until she looked at me funny.
She explained to me that felt a pull to be with me, but when we were together, everything felt off. Being from Magical families, she said, we both should know that when things feel off, they usually are.
“I think you should forget about me,” she told me, and my world came crashing down around me.
She got up and left, and it was all I could do to keep from crying then and there.
To make things worse, Dawn saw it all. She approached and sat down with me. “Caden…” she asked. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t… I don’t know how to explain,” I told her. I wanted to cry.
“C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
I let my twin walk me out of the lounge and then we went home. Sitting on the grass outside my tent, I found myself telling her everything… about my old life, finding and marrying Aleah, having two children named Daphne and Ean. The cowplant… Aunt Diana…
At first, I was afraid she would think I was crazy, but instead, she just nodded along.
“I felt it, too,” she said. “I woke up the morning of our birthday and felt the oddest, strongest sense of deja vu. Like I’d done it all before. I always feel it the strongest when I’m near you. “It must be because we’re twins.”
“Must be,” I agreed. And then I sighed. “But it’s not working out with Aleah. She’s not the same, and even though I love her, it’s breaking my heart.”
Dawn was quiet. She’d heard everything there was to hear. Now, I could tell she was putting it all together. Placing a hand over top mine, she said words I hoped I’d never hear, “you need to let her go, Caden. You said it yourself; she’s not the same. She’s not your wife.”
Aleah wasn’t my wife. Not anymore, not ever again. I couldn’t recreate that magic.
I didn’t want to move on, but I had to.