The Summer We Came to Life

Chapter

34





“SAMANTHA. YOU HAVE TO FIND ME. I THINK you have to—You have to create me.”

Mina. I can hear you. Please keep talking. Don’t leave me.

“I’m not leaving you. I will tell you what I did. I was trying to comfort myself, so I built a world. But I want us to be in the same one, so I’m going to describe it. Okay?”

You’re getting softer again. Muffled. The light is shimmering.

“Shimmering is good. That’s what I saw, too. Samantha, listen. I’m sitting by the lake. The house that Jesse rented that summer. When Kendra was in love with Adam. You remember. I’m sitting on the dock with my feet in the water. The water is mold colored, but we love it because it’s warm. The dock is warm, too, underneath my knees. I’m wearing my favorite sundress, the one with the sunflowers. We were eleven that summer, but it’s easier to stay your same age, so picture me as you saw me last. Well, before I got sick. Can you see me yet?”

The water. I think I see the water. The light’s changing colors, sparkling like the diamond glints on waves.

“I’m sitting here splashing my feet, waiting for you. I haven’t made the trees, yet, or the house. The water goes off in infinity in front of me, but it isn’t scary. It’s beautiful. Behind me is the grass, green but scratchy because it’s summer. The sky is the exact color of Isabel’s eyes. The clouds don’t move, but I can feel the sun, warming my knees and my shoulders and the top of my head. My hair is long, down to the middle of my back. I’m just sitting here waiting for you, Samantha. Listening to the water.”