by Eden Winter
It couldn’t have been a coincidence. My premonitions made sure that I understood that.
I heard a knock at the door. It was Isabelle.
I was so glad that she was there. Spending one more minute alone while considering different conspiracy theories was not my idea of a fun afternoon.
Tangerine pitter-pattered toward the front door and moved around in circles. She meowed until I opened the door.
“Samantha, how are you?” Isabelle said in her usual sweet voice. She sounded very chipper, and she looked it too. Her hair was flowing free instead of how she normally had it with half of it tied up while the bottom half remained loose. She was wearing a top that had big blue polka dots on it and a pair of tight dark pants. I looked down at the T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans that I had chosen to wear and cringed. We had plans to go for a walk, and she still managed to look so pretty.
“I’m okay,” I said. It wasn’t a lie.
“Hey TanTan,” my sister said. She scooped up my cat and started kissing her face and her legs. Tangerine looked at me as if to protest and tried to wriggle free. Isabelle eventually put the poor thing down.
“You seem like you’re doing well,” I said.
“I am. Malcolm has been helping me through it. It wasn’t as frightening as my mind was making it out to be. It was unexpected, but we all managed to come out unscathed and now a bit more cautious about road safety.”
I resisted rolling my eyes at the mention of Malcolm. It sucked because I really liked him, but ever since I could have sworn I heard him call me ‘bunny’, I didn’t care for him at all. Peter told me to trust no one who wasn’t in my family, and he was right. Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted Peter either.
“You bet. We’re safe and sound and that’s all that matters,” I said. I forced a fake smile.
“That’s all that matters,” Isabelle agreed.
*
The walk was much longer than I had anticipated. It must have felt like an eternity because I was going to tell her everything. My nerves got the better of me, and some of our walk was spent talking about Peter, Malcolm, and Mr. McLarry, and going to see our parents in a few days since our mother was back from her trip. The thought of our whole family being together excited my sister. She enjoyed positive connections so much.
I had to admit I was excited about the thought of all of us being together too. Not because it would give me a chance to ask my dad some questions, but because I could associate new memories with all the memories of my family.
Don’t get me wrong, I had some marvelous memories, but they had been tainted by Alex. I pulled away from my family because I didn’t think they understood me or what I was going through. I remember telling my mother that she was trying to sabotage the most important relationship in my life. She didn’t argue. She was like Isabelle, always trying to be calm and rational. It was my father who had spoken up about the abuse I faced and how I was distancing myself from my family. I didn’t see them much at all after that.
So, I had a chance to make it right this time. It was impossible for things to go back to the way they were, but now we could create new and better memories that had nothing to do with that terrible time in my life. I vowed I would never choose someone over my father, mother, and sister ever again.
The sky was a dull pink that changed into purples and light blues. There weren’t that many clouds in the sky, and the view of the setting sun was spectacular, especially against the dark green of the treetops and the grass all around us. Isabelle and I were still walking through the park when I saw the bridge off into the distance.
“Let’s go this way,” I said. There were far more people in the park on that day. Most were seated under trees or sitting on the edge of the lake. A few had formed small walking groups, and they were walking in line and having long gossip sessions.
Isabelle and I seemed to be the only ones who were having a leisurely stroll through the park. I needed to feel relaxed if I was going to say what I was about to say. The bridge was getting closer to us, and I hadn’t brought anything up yet.
“Izzy, I want to talk to you about something,” I said. Isabelle’s expression changed for a second—maybe even less than a second. There was pain and fear in her eyes, but then the look on her face changed back to its usual beautiful expression.
“There’s something that’s going on with me. It’s a lot, so I’ll explain as quickly as I can. I hate keeping things from you, especially given our history, but I know that this is something I have to talk about because I don’t know what to do, or where to go from here, or what’s going on,” I said. Since there were people close enough to hear us, I tried to whisper, but my words came off like a panicked hissing.
“Oh, my goodness, Sam. Are you pregnant?” Isabelle said. She covered her mouth with both of her hands and she gasped.
“What the fuck? No!” I said. I recoiled. The last thing I needed was a child. I shivered a bit and shook my whole body as if it would get the idea of having children off of me.
“I wanted to talk to you about something new that’s happening to me. Something secret,” I whispered.
“Oh,” Isabelle said. “Do you want to go somewhere that’s a bit more private?”
I nodded. My sister took me by the hand and squeezed.
“Okay, deep inhale,” I did so, “and a deep exhale.”
By the time I finished the exhale, the two of us were standing in the middle of the bridge. It was a bridge entirely made out of stone. You could see the individual rocks and stones that were fitted together to form the bridge. It had a short wall on either side of it that extended from one end to the other. The walls on the bridge were comprised of a stone that was a bit lighter in color. It was such a beautiful little bridge. There was no one else on it. Isabelle looked around. She had such keen senses, and she would have known if anyone was close enough to disturb us, or worse, hear what I had to say.
“I don’t understand how you’re able to teleport without completely freaking out,” I said. It still took some getting used to. She didn’t do it often, but she did it more when we were children. It was fun to play with our powers then, but Isabelle had gotten a lot more practical since then.
“It’s something to get used to. It’s easier when you can picture exactly where it is that you plan on going. Now, what is it that you’d like to talk about? I hope it’s not any bad news,” she said. Her eyes widened slowly with concern. For an optimist, she seemed to think about the worst scenarios first instead of the best ones. Maybe that was on me. I couldn’t remember having so many pleasant conversations with my sister since before either of us had met Alex.
“I don’t know what it is. I’m going to just ramble through it. I hope you can save all your questions and comments for when I’ve finished,” I said.
“Of course. I’m always here to listen. I’ll wait,” Isabelle said. I probably didn’t even need her to save her questions. She was always over attentive. She wasn’t going to interrupt me anyway.
“Okay, here goes,” I said with a sigh. “I discovered I have a new power. I can’t quite understand what it is yet or what it means for me now that I have it, but… I’m a bit clairvoyant. I can’t slip in and out of a vision, but they come to me at strange times and then they come true soon after. It’s never a long situation either, it’s always something brief. And, for some reason, most are connected with Peter. I’ve only had about four of them so far. What I don’t understand is that the power keeps evolving. At first, I would get so dizzy for a while before I could see anything, and then when that was getting a bit easier to handle, I found out—the terrible way—that I could have a vision in a dream.”
I wracked my brain for any other things to say about it. I knew there were many questions to follow, and I wanted to cover as many bases as possible while simultaneously remaining rather vague.
“Oh, right, there are some times when I get that slight dizzy feeling but no vision comes. I figured out it meant a vision was going
to come true soon. I think that’s the only real thing I know about it. I think that might be it. Any questions?” I said.
“So many,” Isabelle said. She looked like she had stars in her eyes. She was grinning from ear to ear.
“Should I ask all of them at once, or would you prefer I ask and then you answer?”
“The second one might be easier on my mind,” I replied.
“All right. When did they start?” Isabelle asked.
“I would say about two or so months ago,” I answered.
“What did you mean when you said that they involved Peter?”
“The first one I had, I saw him before I had even met him. That was how I started talking to him in the grocery store. I saw him in a vision, and not knowing what they were, I tried to start a conversation with him. The next one was just a wall of fire, but he saved me from it,” I paused to reminisce. The fire itself was terrifying, but the fact that he had been there to save me filled me with some happiness.
“A wall of fire?” Isabelle looked terrified when she asked me.
“It was an accident. Something caught on fire outside a club and Peter was there to keep me away from it.” I sounded way too nonchalant for someone who had almost burned to death.
“That was you? I was reading that in an article in the newspaper.”
“Yes, but I’m fine. And I had a vision about being in Peter’s apartment. So, they all are connected to him in some way or another.”
“And you said there was one that was a dream? Was he in that too?”
My sister knew all the right questions to ask.
“No, he wasn’t in the premonition. But he happened to be there when the vision came true…”
“Do you mean…?” Isabelle mouthed the word ‘sorry’ because she had cut me off. I didn’t mind at all. I replied with a nod of the head.
“You knew we were going to get into an accident?”
“No, of course I didn’t know. It was a dream I had. I didn’t know I could dream some premonitions. I invited Peter to come along so I could prove it to myself that it was just a dream. He wasn’t in the vision at all. Having him on that trip with us made me feel at ease. But… but then the dream came true anyway,” I said. Saying it aloud made me relive the fear I felt when I was thrust out of one dream and into the outcome of the premonition of another. It was always difficult retelling stories about people and situations that made me uncomfortable. One thing I knew I couldn’t do was tell her about what Malcolm had said to me once his pickup had stopped spinning.
“Have you had any more dreams?”
“No,” I replied just a little too quickly.
She folded her arms across her chest. She may not have believed me, but she knew me well enough to know if I was keeping something, then there was an important reason behind it. I was hoping nothing would become of my dream with the fish of Cesar, and I would never have to tell her about how weird that was.
“Who else knows about this?” asked Isabelle.
“Well, Peter knows,” I said. I was going to tell her as much as I thought was necessary. I wasn’t going to worry her, and I wasn’t going to give everything away.
“You told Peter before you told me?” Isabelle sounded hurt.
“I only told him because he could see me…”
Isabelle shot me a confused look.
“Get this. When I have visions where Peter is actually in them, he turns and looks at me. I mean the me that’s having the vision. He can see a feint ghost of me. And when the visions come true and I’m really there with him, I catch him taking a quick look at where it was I must have been standing when I had the vision in the first place. Dad says that means it’s because we are joined in some way. Peter and I have a unique clairvoyant-clairvoyee connection,” I said.
“Dad knows?” Isabelle’s voice had raised several octaves. She went from looking hurt to being full on upset.
“He only knows because he was there when I was having a vision. He was the one who told me what it was.”
“How?”
“He said that great-gam had them—that they were such a rare occurrence in the family that they weren’t expecting someone else to get them so soon after great-gam.”
“So, what you’re saying is that the human side of us is the side that gave you this gift?” Isabelle asked.
I nodded.
“Did dad say anything else?”
“Not much else. He said that stuff about Peter, but I was too much in shock to ask him any questions that could have given me any real help. I should have taken you with me. You have such a clear head when it comes to asking these questions,” I said. Isabelle smiled wide without showing any of her teeth. I wasn’t trying to butter her up. I was being completely serious. I could have been farther along if I had just told Isabelle what was going on from the beginning.
“Is there anything else about this I should know about?”
“Nothing I could think of,” I said with sigh. I looked away from her and faced the lake. I rested both elbows on the ledge of the side of the bridge. I clasped my hands around opposite elbows and leaned over to peer down into the dark blue water below.
I was pensive. I was weighing the pros and cons about what had just transpired. I thought about talking to my sister about the fish of Cesar. If I really did want or need her help, it would have been wise of me to tell her about that dream and get her thoughts on what any of it meant.
I opened my mouth, prepared to speak even though I was still unsure, and then I paused. In the water below was a gold flash. It was so brief that I wasn’t sure I had seen anything at all. I did a quick shake of my head as if that was going to somehow make me focus better. There was no longer a gold flash of light below the surface, but now the water was doing something very peculiar. There were giant bubbles forming directly below where I was standing. I had never seen bubbles so big. The water was becoming a bit violent, but only in that one spot. Yet, I could hear no sound. There was no gurgling or churning of the water. I moved my head as far out and as low as I could possibly get it without having to climb onto the ledge and look right into the water or having to dive in to get the best view. The bubbles were now forming into a whirlpool. It wasn’t a terrifying whirlpool, but if I fell in, I was more than likely going to be sucked into the water. I moved back a bit even though there was no way I could possibly fall in.
And then it occurred to me that no one else was seeing this. Isabelle was busy pacing about on the bridge like she was an insidious mastermind who had an idea or a trick up her sleeve. The other patrons in the park were busy with their own lives. I was the only person looking into the lake. I looked out and all around at the water, but it was all calm. The only part that moved was the water right below me.
Then, as suddenly as the water had started churning, it was all still again. It wasn’t a coincidence. I was meant to see that gold flash and the bubbles below the water’s surface. Someone was trying to send me a message. For some reason, I wasn’t afraid of what I saw. It wasn’t that I was getting used to the freaky visions that were happening to me, but after seeing that gold streak in the water, I had a strange sense of calm all over me. Why the hell was the water doing that? How was I supposed to know what to do with the whirlpool and golden light I had just seen?
It occurred to me just then that there may have been someone who was able to help me. I wouldn’t have to tell them anything or give away any details about my life. I could just call myself curious and that could be a good enough explanation. I knew that there was someone who knew about the fish of Cesar, and if that was what I just saw bubbling below the surface of the lake then there was a chance that person knew what it was I needed to do.
But I didn’t have his number. I would need to get it. I was itching to leave now. I had some reading I needed to catch up on, and now I had a phone call to make. There was a chance I was one step closer to figuring all this stuff out.
“Hey, I’m actually pretty tired, and I have
work in the morning. Do you think you can take me home?” I asked. I pulled Isabelle out of her walking trance.
“What? Oh, of course. But we have more to talk about. I want to help you through this. Please don’t be afraid to call me or tell me anything. I always want to hear from you, and you know I won’t ever judge you. You know that, right?” she said. She took my hand then. I thought we were going to teleport, but instead we were both walking hand in hand off the stone bridge.
“I know, Izzy. I do know.”
*
I arrived home to Tangerine purring angrily at me. I forgot to leave her food before I left. I went into one of my kitchen cupboards and got out a large bag of cat food. I filled up her bowl and watched her eat. Her head bounced up and down as she nom-nom-nom’d, and she looked up at me and purred with gratitude.
“Anytime, kitty,” I said. I left the kitchen and Tangerine bounced behind me. She was a very independent cat, but she had been following me more often lately.
I got to the living room and plopped down on my couch. I used my feet to take off the shoes I was wearing, and I stretched my whole body out. It was comfortable and soft, and I instantly became tired.
“No,” I whispered as I shot my eyes open. There were things I needed to do before I fell asleep. I didn’t want to be unprepared if I went to the lake again to live out the dream I’d had about the fish. I was still so confused about how the premonitions worked.
Tangerine hopped onto the couch beside me and then to the thin dark wood console table to the left of me. She stood on top of the book I had been reading earlier, and she made the tiniest squeak of a mew.
I reached my arm over and waited for Tangerine to get off the book before I picked it up and opened it to where I had placed the bookmark. I groaned and adjusted my eyes so I could take a better look at the words on the page.
‘The fish of Cesar is said to have been a direct descendant of Bythos, one of the fish-centaurs (or Ichthyocentaurs) that had been responsible for saving Venus and Cupid as they escaped the clutches of the storm-giant Typhon. Though the fish of Cesar has no known name, it is known by its distinct appearance. It is the color of the sea with glowing scales and fins that are said to be made from pure gold.