An Unexpected Meeting

It was a warm evening, the sun bearing down on me, like a lion over its prey, getting lower and lower as it set. I watched the lake ripple with movement as the birds flew from the water and went home for the day, and I gazed at the light show on the water's surface, sparkling like crystal.

Sitting on one of the lush grassy banks, I ran my fingers over the blades, a small smile appearing at the corners of my mouth as it tickled my fingertips. I was losing myself in my thoughts when a girl spoke next to me, though I hadn't noticed her there before.

"Beautiful isn't it?" She said dreamily.

"Yeah, it is." I replied.

"I come here all the time. My parents and I walk through the woods over there with our dog, Spot, and just sit here and watch the sunset every night." She looked behind her and to the right, and when I followed her glance, I saw a middle-aged couple and a dog that was apparently called Spot. They looked over in our direction, they seemed to look straight through me. What was I, invisible?

Then their dog came pounding over, a little fluffy one, and began to sniff the grass where I was sat. It seemed that the dog couldn't see my either but it was like he knew someone was there. This became apparant when it looked like the dog was sniffing through me, like I wasn't physically there. I shrugged it off, I must be seeing things I thought as the dog pounded back over to his owners.

"I'm Alice by the way." She continued, her focus back onto me.

"Serena." I replied.

"Hey, nice name," She complimented, "Are you here own your own?"

"At the moment yes, but someone's collecting me soon."

"Oh, your Mum...?" She asked knowingly.

"Yeah," I started, "You could say that."

There was a pause, but not an awkward one, more of a comfortable one, but soon we couldn't stop talking.

"Can you skip stones?" She asked, reaching into her pocket and revealing a flat stone.

"No I can't," I replied, reaching behind me to find a flat stone in the gravel path, "I've never been able to. My parents tried to teach me but it would just sink." I laughed.

"Well I'll teach you," She said as she stood up, "Hold the stone flat, bend your knees, and use a sidearm toss to throw it to the water." She threw the stone and it skipped along the water a dozen times, before it sunk in the lake's murky depths.

"Come on, have a go," She continued as I began to stand, "And try to get it to touch the water at about a 20 degree angle."

I did what she told me, though I had a feeling that it wouldn't work; and I was right. It sunk on it's first bounce, well I wouldn't say a bounce, more of a 'plop'.

"Awww, bad luck," She said, "You just need practice that's all. I'm just going over to see my parents, my hay-fever is kicking in and it can get quite bad. I'll be back in a minute, keep practicing. I know you'll get it."

She smiled as she ran towards her parents, and I smiled when her dog jumped up at her, barking like crazy. I picked up about six stones this time and continued practicing, though each time it sunk when it hit the cool water for the first time.

As she came running back, I threw another stone, and was astounded when it bounced across the lake a few times.

"Hey, you're getting it!" She said.

"A lucky throw I guess."

She laughed, "You're not very optimistic are you?"

I looked at her, care-free and happy, she wouldn't understand. "My past has made me pessimistic," I started, memories flooding back to my eyes, but I couldn't continue. I just laughed, "Are you OK now then?"

"Yeah I'm fine. It's just, when it gets bad, it's really bad." She smiled. She seemed to have dropped the previous issue.

"Anyway, I have to go. We have this family dinner to go to and I think we're already late. It was nice meeting you, maybe I'll see you here again."

She held out her hand, and went to shake it, but my hand slipped right through hers. I stared at her confused, but before I could say anything, she smiled and said "Goodbye Serena," while running off to her parents and her little dog called Spot.

"Goodbye...Alice." I said, still shocked. What had happened? The only explanation left was that I had died, my spirit talking to the people that could see me. But that couldn't be possible, could it?

Then I remembered, it all made sense. How Alice never touched anything that I could. And Alice's face, I'd seen it before, and her parents, Spot too for that matter. I knew her voice as well. Then, as the memories flooded back to me, tears formed in the back of my eyes. I'd blocked out the truth, the past, through grief and some memory loss.

Alice was my sister, her parents were my own, and Spot...he was my dog. We always came here in the evenings, walking our dog and watching the sunset. Alice and I used to skip stones together, and I never learnt to until just now. Alice suffered from a serious asthma attack on an evening much like this one, we rushed her to hospital.

Our car was found crashed into the side of a truck, everyone died instantly except for me, though sometimes I wish I had. I was left unconscious, with heavy concussion and a broken foot, and I could hardly remember anything. Then, over the next few weeks as my foot began to heal, I started to remember bits and pieces, though I couldn't remember faces.

"Serena!" Called someone from the distance.

I turned around and saw Angie, my foster Mum in the distance. I walked towards her to return to my home of 3 weeks, and as I walked, I heard my family's voices in the wind, my dog barking amongst them, saying the goodbyes they never got the chance to say.