Page 24 of A Future To Remember

“Well, when you think about the craving for a grilled cheese sandwich, does anything else come to mind?”

I closed my eyes and inhaled a steadying breath. I had to allow my mind to fill in some of the blanks without pushing too hard. “Tomato soup,” I said, opening my eyes again. “I like grilled cheese and tomato soup. Together. And I have this whisper of a memory from when I was a kid where I was really cold…like it was winter, and I’d been ice skating till my hands and feet were numb with cold…and when I got home, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, and I felt warm again. And…happy.”

Cash’s lips broke into a toothy grin. “See? That’s a memory, Maddy! You found a bridge.”

“But I can’t remember anything visual. Like, I don’t know what our kitchen looked like, or my parents, or if I have siblings. It’s all so fuzzy.”

“It still counts,” the sheriff insisted. “Remember, little bridges between the islands are the goal. They’ll start to connect after you find enough of them.”

“Here you go!” Wanda announced, setting down our plates loaded with a grilled cheese sandwich, a cup of chili, and thick-cut fries. My mouth watered. I picked up one half of the sandwich and took a huge bite, then closed my eyes and allowed my mind to drift.

For a few seconds, nothing came to mind other than the delicious taste of gooey cheese and buttery bread, but then there was this fuzzy outline of something. Something I couldn’t really pull forward, but I had the sense of him. That man. The man I knew I was heartbroken over.

I couldn’t picture him, but there was something…a scent. “Gio.”

“What’s that?” Wanda asked, but then she immediately added, “Uh-oh. Here comes trouble.”

I opened my eyes and found both Wanda’s and Cash’s attention now turned toward the front of the diner. I swiveled on the barstool to look, and on the other side of the large window, shuffling by, was a lanky young man of about nineteen, skinnier than seemed healthy, with pale skin, golden blond hair, and the look of someone who’d never caught much of a break in his short life. He was wearing a letterman jacket with a big “E” sewn onto the front, and under that he wore a hoodie that was two sizes too big.

He entered the diner, and Cash turned back to his lunch while I took in the newcomer.

He nodded to the owner. “Wanda.”

“Levi.”

He nodded to Cash as well. “Sheriff.”

Cash waved over his shoulder. “Levi.”

Then Levi’s eyes fell on me, and so many images formed in my mind’s eye that I found myself blinking hard, trying to see more out of my eyes than my mind. Which occurred to me to be a little insane.

Levi nodded to me. “Total stranger,” he said, with a hint of a grin.

“Lanky nineteen-year-old with a heart of gold,” I replied, like we went way back.

His eyes widened, showing that I’d surprised him, but he rewarded me with a big, beautiful smile.

Incredibly, I felt like I knew the young man more than anyone here could believe. I knew he was strapped for cash, and so worried about it that it occupied his almost every waking thought. I knew he was lonely, aching for love, which would find him soon enough. I knew he hated living in Evansville, and he’d be making his way to Southern California before the year was through.

And I also knew that he was being bullied. Brutally. I didn’t know by whom, or why, but Levi had a proverbial bull’s-eye on his back, and that troubled me more than I could say.

I also knew he was famished. But maybe that had more to do with the way he stared hungrily at my lunch.

“You got any work for me, Wanda?” he asked, his voice hitching slightly.

“I got dishes,” she said, motioning with her head toward the back. “I’ll give you fifteen bucks to clear up from the lunch crowd.”

He nodded and began to head toward a hallway behind the cash register that I suspected led to the dish room, but I called out to him to stop him.

He turned back to me, and I removed the cup of chili and the half of the sandwich I’d bitten into, then I got up from the counter with my plate and walked over to him. I pointed to the half of my grilled cheese that I hadn’t yet touched and the fries and said, “I’m full. You look hungry.”

Levi licked his lips but shook his head. “Nah. Thank you, ma’am. But I’m good.”

He was anything but good.

“Levi,” I whispered, “my name is Maddy. I’m new in town, so I don’t know all your local customs, but I think that wherever I’m from, when someone offers you the first meal you’ve had in a while, you accept the fucking food.”

His eyes widened again, but he also licked his lips before glancing nervously over my shoulder toward what I knew were the curious—if not disapproving—eyes of Wanda and Cash. I cleared my throat to call his attention back to me and lifted the plate a little closer to him. He stared hungrily at the offering and his stomach gurgled.