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“How long was I asleep?” I ask. Did I miss Cameron coming back to pick me up? I don’t know what he’ll do if he gets to the pick-up point and I’m not there. Is he going to worry? Is he going to go back without me? I just don’t know.
I don’t know anything anymore.
“Not long enough,” Donald says. “It’s not even suppertime.”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
“In a hurry?” He asks.
“You have no idea.”
“Try me.”
“You aren’t even a little surprised to see me?” I ask, looking at him. Time has been good to Donald. He’s got the same bright eyes as he did all those years ago, and his hair is longer and sprinkled with grey now. He was young when he left the village. We all were. I was just a kid when he left, and now I’m a woman. And he…well, let’s just say the age difference doesn’t really matter when you look like that.
“I’m surprised you came into my damn cave without permission,” he says. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners?”
“Didn’t your mother teach you not to be a dick to people you haven’t seen in ten years?”
He pales a little.
“What?”
“Wolves and penguins, Donald! Did you forget who I am or are you just not pleased to see me?”
He doesn’t say anything, instead staring at me with a mixture of confusion and pain on his face. That’s when I realize what’s happening. Donald has been hiding in this cave for ten years. This is where he’s been. He’s been up here, alone, and he thought I was breaking in. He thought I was here to damage his solitude.
He thought I came to bother him.
Well, I did, but not in the way he thinks.
And then I realize something else.
I’m an adult now.
The last time Donald saw me, I was a gangly, awkward kid who hadn’t even gone through puberty yet. I was the epitome of a late bloomer and the last time I saw him, my brother had just died. I was young and scrawny and hadn’t filled out. My hair was shorter and I had crooked teeth and pimple-specked skin.
I’m a woman now.
I’m a full-grown, adult woman who has an attitude and opinions and curves.
Does he really not recognize me?
He stares at me for a long time. His eyes search mine.
“How do you know my name?” He finally says.
“I know a lot more than just your name, Donald. I know you grew up in Fablestone and you were always the smartest kid in the clan. I know you had big dreams and high hopes. I know you left to become a doctor because you thought it was one of the most noble and wonderful things you could do. I know you traveled the world helping people.”
“How could you possibly know this?” His voice is a whisper, but I’m not done talking yet.
“I know you came back, Donald. I know you came back to your family, to your clan. I know you couldn’t stay away forever. Not when people needed you the most. I know you did everything you could, but you couldn’t save him.”
Now I’m crying, but I’m not through. I have to stay strong. I have to stay brave. I have to be honest and blunt and get everything out because once I really start sobbing, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to stop.
“I know you tried to save my brother, Donald. You did your best. I know it. You fought with everything you had, but you were just a kid yourself. What were you? 26? 27? You’re the best, Donald, but there was nothing more you could have done for him. There was more wrong with Trey than anyone could have understood. The autopsy revealed that later, but you were already gone. You couldn’t have saved him, Donald. What he had…it was incurable, but there’s something you can do now, Donald.”
He’s staring at me with tears streaming down his cheeks, too, and I know that he remembers me now.
