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Tori burst into tears. “I saw him running from the house. I could hear him screaming. I wanted to run to him, but Kyle thought we might get arrested because of the fire. So we took off. I wrote my parents a note and said not to look for us. And they didn’t. No surprise there.”
Luna handed Tori the box of tissues she kept handy for emotional readings. “And you have no idea what happened to your brother?”
Tori shook her head. “I have no connection with anyone from my past. It’s kinda sad. I had a best friend who I cut out of my life. I was afraid she’d tell my parents. As the days became weeks, then months, then years, I thought it was too late to reach out.”
She thought about Rita’s story and how similar it sounded to Tori’s. Luna wondered if that could be because they were part of the same story. It would be very bizarre, but synchronicity works that way.
“Give me a second, would you?”
“Sure.” Tori sniffed.
Luna pulled out her walkie-talkie. “Hey there. Do you have a minute to stop by?”
The voice crackled back. “Sure. I also have photos to show you.”
Within a few minutes, Rita walked into the café. A woman was sitting at a table. There was something familiar about her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Luna nodded. Rita gave Luna an odd look.
“Victoria?” Luna asked in a hushed voice.
The woman jerked around. No one had called her Victoria in decades. She froze in place. Rita too had stopped dead. “Vic? Is that really you?”
“Rita? What are you doing here?” Tori got up and ran toward her friend.
“What am I doing here? What areyoudoing here?”
The women sat down and covered most of the past twenty years in about an hour. They cried, hugged, and cried some more. They were tears of joy.
Luna also got weepy at the unplanned reunion, and then her walkie-talkie crackled. It was Ellie. Jimmy was in the building. He was wearing a hoodie and sunglasses. “Meet me in the atrium,” Ellie said.
“Ladies, can you both come with me?” Luna asked.
“Where?” Rita asked. Tori shrugged.
“Just into the atrium. Ellie wants to see us.”
The three women walked out of the café and saw Ellie speaking to a man who could have been mistaken for a burglar. Nathan was standing by, so they weren’t concerned. As the women got closer, the man stiffened.
Tori recognized her brother immediately in spite of his disguise. It was his stance. He always leaned more on one side and hooked his thumbs in his front pockets. “Jimmy?”
“Vic?” He gulped.
Victoria ran over and threw her arms around him. “J.T., I am so sorry. So, so, very sorry.” She was bawling at this point.
He held her close and rocked her back and forth. “It’s OK, Vic. I’m OK.” Tears streamed down his hidden face. “You actually did me a favor. The family they placed me with were very nice people. They got me counseling, where I learned to deal with the trauma. That’s when I began to make things with metal.”
Tori couldn’t stop sobbing. Luna jumped in. “Maybe we should take this inside.” She motioned for all of them to follow her into Cullen’s showroom. She led the way into the workshop. That morning, Cullen had finished putting the trunk back together with its shiny hinges and lock. “This is a big day for surprises.” She pointed to the trunk. “I believe this belongs to you.”
Jimmy was stunned. He stood there, silently taking in the events of the past few minutes. “How did you find out? And how did Vic end up here?”
“Let’s go back to my café, and we’ll start from the beginning. You know, the part where you had this delivered to my brother?”
“And the part where I found out about Luna because I was standing in the right spot in a grocery store I had never visited before?” Tori chimed in.
“This may take a while.” Luna chuckled.
When they sat down, Tori told the story of her wandering into a huge food store and overhearing a few women talking about a psychic at Stillwell Art Center. It was a pinnacle moment. Tori knew she needed some kind of guidance and believed it was divine intervention that had brought her to that place at that time.
Rita pulled out the photos she had brought to show Luna. “Here’s one of us with our mothers.” Rita smiled. “It was a good day that day.”
Tori picked up the photo and gulped. “This looks like a woman at a coffee shop who I apparently imagined.” Everyone shot her a quizzical look, and Tori explained how this stranger told her to be at a certain place at a certain time. It had ultimately led to a dialogue between her and her husband. When Tori returned to the coffee shop, they said they knew of no one who fit the woman’s description. Another inexplicable situation that had brought about a good outcome.
“Lots of synchronicity going on.” Luna smiled. “I believe this belongs to you.” She handed Tori the diary.
There was a moment of silence. Everyone was feeling the blessings that had been lost and now found.
Jimmy was the one to speak up first. “I knew Rita was here. That’s one reason why I was always hidden. I didn’t want to drag up the past. But now we are all together again, and there are no more secrets.”
