What Emma Left Behind

by Anne Spackman

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  The three girls spent the afternoon in the pool, playing games and taking turns jumping off the diving board until it was time to go home. Ana talked about how waterlogged her fingers were until she climbed into her mother's car.

  "Are you sure you guys don't want a ride home?" Ana asked.

  "No, our mom's gonna pick us up on her way home from town. She should be here in a few minutes. Thanks, anyway." Caera and Claudia waved good-bye and then sat down on the pavement to wait. Caera saw it as the perfect opportunity to get Claudia to tell her what was bothering her.

  "What's wrong, Claudia? For the past two days you've been acting really strangely, and you've hardly paid any attention to me at all. Come on, don't you wanna talk about it?"

  "I don't know, Caera. I've been having the same nightmare over and over and I don't know why. It... it feels like it's happening to me, but I know I'm someone else in the dream. I guess it scares me because everything about it's so... so real. And now I'm even thinking about it when I'm awake." It was getting late; the sun went behind a cloud and a cold breeze stirred. Caera didn't know what to say, until their mother's car pulled up.

  "Look, here's mom. Com'on, let's go." Caera said, clenching her teeth as she turned away.

  Claudia didn't know it, but something was bothering Caera as well, except Caera never let people know when something really scared her. As Caera walked to the car, the rising wind made her shudder. Or maybe, just maybe, it was something else.