Lost Echoes

31

Saturday, day of his date with Talia, he saw something in the paper that surprised and delighted and somehow disturbed him.

It was a photograph of Kayla.

She was no longer a kid. She was full-grown. Looked good. She was wearing a police uniform. A uniform for the town’s force. She was back.

She was in a photograph with a bunch of other cops, her eyes shining out from under her cap. Her hair was tied back. She had a big gun on her hip.

She was part of a recently graduated class. She was tops in her class, in fact. Said so in the article. Said, too, she had finished most of college while in high school. Some kind of smart-kid deal. Then she finished the cop training program.

Kayla had fulfilled her dream.

She had become a cop.

He thought of how it felt when he touched her that day so long ago, and how it had felt when she had leaned over and kissed him.

Branded him with her lips.

How she had smelled. So wonderful. Two pieces of a bigger puzzle. Missing hunks of the universal pattern.

Kids, he thought.

We were kids.

By now she had most certainly found love. May even have a kid. She was piecing someone else’s puzzle.

And there is another thing.

There’s Talia.

Lovely, Talia. Goddess on earth.

I have a date with her.

Woo-hoo.