Page 83 of Echoes

“But it did?”

“I think so. Something happened.”

“What?”

“I opened my eyes, but I don’t remember closing them.” Violet took a deep breath. “And then, I wasn’t in the garage anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is the part that matters, Rach. And, God, I hope it doesn’tchange things with us because it’ll sound like I’m making it up, but it’s not made up. It’s as real as we are, and I know that now. I didn’t know it for sure then, but I know it now.”

“Know what now?”

“I was in a hospital room, wearing the same thing I had on in the garage. The hospital looked different, too. I didn’t understand it at first, but it looked like it was… really advanced. I saw machines there that I hadn’t seen before, and I’d spent so much time with my mom and grandmother in the hospital that I felt like I knew all the machines that come standard, if you know what I mean. Anyway, there were two old women there. One looked like she was sleeping at first. The other one was holding her hand and crying. At some point, I figured out that the one in the bed was already gone, not sleeping, and a younger woman walked into the room to tell her mom that they needed the room or something. They talked, and it became clear to me that the older women were her mothers.”

“Sorry. I’m confused.”

“So was I,” Violet said. “But just hang in there for a second, and I’ll explain what this has to do with us.”

“Um… Okay.”

“The older woman talked to the woman in the bed and told her that she loved her. They had wedding rings.” Violet looked down at Rachel’s engagement ring. “And one of them had a scar on her hand.”

Rachel looked down at Violet’s hand, taking in her scar.

“You–”

“Yeah,” she said when Rachel said nothing else. “The woman said some more things to the woman in the bed, and she got up and met her daughters in the hallway.”

“Daughters?”

“They were adults, and they were twins,” she explained. “Two girls. Dark hair. Blue eyes.”

Rachel tilted her head in the very Rachel way, but she didn’t say anything.

“I heard someone in the hospital call the older woman by her name, and the older woman called the dead woman bymyname.”

“Hername?”

“They called you Rachel Bailey-Armstrong.” Violet squeezed Rachel’s hand. “And you were the older woman who had just said goodbye to me.”

“What are you talking about, Violet?”

“Right before I met you that day when you interviewed with Mark and we had our first real chat in the elevator, I pressed that button, and I saw a vision of my future. I had no idea who you were, and I was in shock and disbelief. Then, I was shocked even more because there you were. You were interviewing at my company and your name was Rachel Bailey. You had the same eyes as the older woman in the vision except hers were a little faded with age. I knew when I saw you, Rachel, that it was supposed to be you and me.”

“This is…”

“Crazy, I know. I know how it sounds. But I swear to you that it happened. It was real. I have no proof of it other than what I know I experienced and learned in that vision, but I couldn’t have just made it up. I didn’t know your name the day you sat by me while we waited for our interviews. No one said it.”

“You’re telling me that you think you saw our future?”

“Yes,” she said, letting it sit there for a moment.

“And you die in it?”

“We all die in the end. I was older. So were you. It’s not something that happens tomorrow. It seems like we had a long and happy life together.”

“But you die, Violet?”