CHAPTER 15
Cemetery by Auld a′chruinn, Present-Day October
The earth under Sean’s feet turned to mud as he made his way toward the cemetery. All he’d been able to do for days
was to keep Payton company here in this rain. His brother flat-out refused to leave his position by the Five Sisters
stone. Because even though they had now found the memorial stone that they blamed for Sam’s disappearance, they couldn
’t figure out a way of following her.
Whether the legend had killed Sam or it had just ripped her from this place and time, they did not know. He had tried to
convince Payton to take it easy on himself, preserve his energy, and sit and wait for updates in the nearby village—but
Payton wouldn’t hear of it. No, his pigheaded brother insisted on using the last bit of his strength, exposing himself
to the elements, and holding out to his dying breath. Sean knew that this was also Payton’s form of self-flagellation.
He wanted to punish himself for bringing this situation on Sam in the first place.
Sean didn’t know how often in the last few days he had thought how easy it would be if Vanora’s curse were still in
effect, having robbed them of all their feelings. But her curse had been broken since last summer. Their feelings were
back, along with all their pain and remorse. He couldn’t stand to see his brother suffering.
Sean stepped through the cemetery gate. His eyes went first to the mighty obelisk that had distracted them from noticing
Sam’s disappearance until it was too late. Then he turned his attention to the cemetery wall—and stopped. Eyebrows
raised, he approached Payton in bewilderment.
“Are you all right? Or have you completely lost your mind?” he asked.
Payton looked like the epitome of misery: wet, dirty, and with his skin drawn and pale. Still, he was laughing so hard
that tears streamed down his face.
“Payton?” Sean insisted as his brother ignored him, holding his stomach with laughter.
Despite the muddy ground, Sean sat down and patiently waited for an explanation. As Payton came up for air, he struggled
to keep his attention on Sean. With beaming eyes, he grinned from ear to ear.
“Oh yes, you are definitely crazy!” Sean confirmed.
“Pog mo thon! You don’t know anything!” Payton defended himself.
“Because you won’t speak up, goddammit! Tell me, what is it that you find so amusing?”
Payton smiled. “I have found her, Sean.” He tapped his forehead with his finger. “In here. She made it! She’s alive!
”
Sean stared at him and raised his arms in disbelief.
“What the hell are you talking about? What did you find?”
“Why—Samantha, of course! I remember her. It’s only a scrap of a memory, but it is as vivid as if it happened
yesterday! I’m telling you: Sam has traveled back through time! And she’s found me!”
Sean frowned. That he had serious doubts about Payton’s sanity was clearly written on his face.
“What kind of a memory? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand it myself, Sean! I was just sitting here hoping she’s still alive, praying for her return,
engulfed by feelings of guilt and remorse. But then this image flashed through my mind!”
Payton had jumped to his feet. He flailed his arms excitedly as he continued.
“So then, all of a sudden, I saw her before me—you know, like a memory. She was wearing a dress like one of those poor
peasant women at Castle Burragh. I saw her stumbling, and I caught her. Also, she had terrible BO!”
Payton burst out laughing again, and tears streamed down his face. “It was the night when Father lay wounded in McRae’
s cottage. Don’t you remember? You must have seen her, too!”
Sean tried to recall that night. Many of his memories had paled over the course of the centuries. The curse having
robbed them of all feelings, memories had also become secondary, unimportant, because there was no joy or happiness in
them. Still, it sounded impossible that he would have met Sam way back then.
“No, Payton—I’m sorry. I can vaguely remember that time, but not Sam…no…I don’t remember her at all. Are you sure?
Maybe your mind is playing tricks on you? Some kind of wishful thinking?”
Furiously, Payton kicked a rock. “Of course I am sure! How could I have forgotten about that? I remember how I had to
laugh when she came up panting and wheezing from the lake!”
Payton closed his eyes as he recalled the scene.
“I was so confused when I saw her standing before me all clean and with her hair all wet. And because I couldn’t place
my feelings, I just left her there. I just walked away.”
Shaking his head, Payton sat down on the wall. “Thinking back to that moment now, I think I fell for her right then,”
he said.
“Well, for the life of me I cannot remember ever having seen Sam before. So you think she is alive and that she’s
found us—but what now? Do you remember her telling you that she came from the future? Don’t you think she would have
mentioned a minor detail like that?”
Payton put his hands on his head. That was exactly the point. He remembered nothing but that one moment by the
lakeshore.
“I don’t know, Jesus!” he barked. “Until about an hour ago I couldn’t remember that evening at all!”
Payton was frustrated that Sean didn’t act too happy about his newfound memories. Sean didn’t seem to understand that,
whatever happened next, Samantha had at least made it safely through her journey through time. And she had found them.
That was all that mattered right now.
Suddenly Sean came up with a start and slapped his thighs. “That’s it!” he exclaimed. “She is rewriting your
memories! You remembered it so suddenly because you are living through that moment right now—I mean you have lived
through that moment…if you know what I mean! Sam is changing your memories.”
He broke a twig from the brush by the cemetery wall and crouched to draw something on the ground.
“Look here. If this”—he drew a long, straight line—“is time—our life from then until now—then all we really have
are our memories of the things we see and the people we meet during that time. But here”—he drew an arc from the point
he had called now back to the center point on the straight line—“is when the change starts. Sam comes into our, um,
already lived life, and changes it. Because of this, we now also remember this new path through life as seen through
that particular point.” He drew a second straight line, parallel to the first one, which ended in another endpoint
called now. “So, I think you are right. She made it!”
“In that case, I hope we don’t start having memories of her getting her pretty head cut off,” Payton whispered,
feeling exhausted. He sent a quick prayer up to heaven.