Part 44 (1/2)
”Sitting in a park where make-believe comes true, you could almost convince me G.o.d does exactly that. I wish He did.”
”What if it's true? Not a wish? That our lives are written down, recorded, everyone's life?”
”Like some cosmic yearbook put together by the supreme being of the Universe?”
”Something like that.”
”I love your insanity. One of the countless reasons I'll love you for eternity.”
The scene ended and melted into Cameron taking a call on his cell phone as he recorded a voice-over with Brandon.
”I want us to go to Oregon. We need to go soon. We need to look for something, find something there.”
”What?”
”Something I saw when I was a kid.”
”What? The thing you saw when you were ten? That thing?”
”Yes. To see if it's real.”
The scene s.h.i.+fted once again and Cameron watched the scene from the day Jessie gave him the stone. The day she died.
”I want to show you something.”
”It's beautiful. Where'd you get this?”
”When I was a young kid. It's Native American.”
”And these markings?”
”They told me it's a kind of language.”
”What's it say?”
”I have no idea.”
”It's cool; I like it.”
”You need to have it.”
”This stone means something to you.”
”I need to give it to you just in case.”
”Just in case what?”
”I'll tell you when I get home, I promise.”
”Just in case what, Jess?”
”I will always be here, you know.”
”Are you sure you don't want to stay here today? Hang out, you and me?”
”Good-bye, Cameron.”
”You sure you're all right, babe?”
”I love you. Remember.”
”What is it?”
”Fine, I'm fine. So are you. Always.”
The scene on the surface of the pond s.h.i.+fted once more and the final moments of Jessie's accident played out in front of him.
”Promise you'll find it.” Her eyes closed. ”No tears, Aragorn.”
”No. You can't leave me, Jessie.”
”I have to. It's going to be all right, I promise. I love you, Cameron. Always and forever.”
A moment later he vanished from the scene but Jessie remained. There was no blood and her face was more radiant than he ever remembered it. He couldn't tell if she was still in the airplane or somewhere else, but a moment later the scene changed again.
A man in a white T-s.h.i.+rt, his back to Cameron, sat on the stern of a sailboat, sun streaming down on him, wind whipping through his thick dark hair.
A s.h.i.+ver shot down Cameron's back as the man spun to face him. It was his father. Young. The way he looked when Cameron was a little boy. A ma.s.sive grin broke out on his dad's face, and he threw his arms wide and spoke to the sky.
”All my memories, You've stored them for me, Lord.” His dad was so full of joy it seemed to shake the rigging. His dad was so full of joy it seemed to shake the rigging. ”Draw Cameron to Yourself. I long to see him in eternity. And let him know I'm so proud of him, okay?” ”Draw Cameron to Yourself. I long to see him in eternity. And let him know I'm so proud of him, okay?”
Cameron shuddered as tears threatened to spill onto his cheeks.
The scene s.h.i.+fted and when the images came back into focus, he again looked at the top of Mount Erie in midsummer. But the colors were brilliant, too full to be from earth.
A woman sat with her back to him, looking out over the farmland and lakes and Puget Sound to the south. The wind tousled her hair, as if fingers were lifting it off her shoulders and setting it back down.
Jessie.
She turned and her gaze seemed to be searching for him, her eyes like diamonds, throwing off light. Was she older or younger than when he'd last seen her? Both maybe. Cameron couldn't tell. She laughed and somehow he heard it in his head.
”When I come to You and he remains, tell him it's okay. In a way he won't doubt. Let him know I'm where I'm supposed to be. And that I want him to join me. Not now. Not for a long time. But in time. Help him to seek, to choose life in the years that have been recorded for him on earth, and might he always love. Always and forever.”
Jessie's face melted into the water and only the mirror image of the mountains surrounding the lake remained.
Cameron slumped back off his knees to the ground.
”I'd forgotten. Every one of them. She'd been trying to tell me all along.”
”Are you okay?” Taylor stood next to him.