Story Snippet 1

The man finally got up and crossed over to her. He questioned, "Carolyn?"
The woman answered, "She is my Grandmother, though there is some family scandal about it all."
"Of course; you are still so young... Is? Then, she hasn't passed on?" He sounded pained as he asked.
"She is living either in Georgia or Louisiana, though I forget which. My mother didn't allow us to get close to her while we were growing up; there was some unpleasantness there." The woman wondered at how easy it was to speak to this man; there was absolutely no anxiety. She knew she'd seen him before.
The man looked thoughtful a moment and remarked, "Your mother? Is she as beautiful as your grandmother was?"
"Yes sir, my mother has always been lovely. And so much like her mother that no one ever questioned them as sisters; Carolyn's parents adopted my mother. She didn't know until she was 23, married and had 3 children of her own. They might never have told her if they hadn't thought she was dying of cancer." She had no idea why she was telling this man all of this; who was he and how did he know Aunt Carolyn?
The man winced. Concerned creased his wrinkled brow as he asked, "Cancer? She did come through it alright then?"
The woman realized that from their conversation it might seem as though Mom had passed. "Yes, that happened when I was just born. Mom pulled through that one just fine; it was thyroid cancer. Unfortunately, she has recently been diagnosed with multiple myeloma and has been given about 10 years to live."
The man looked panicked and shamed. He brought his eyes to hers, his own now filled with tears and said, "What is your mother's name and how can I find her? Please, I am her Father."
The woman smiled lightly; that was it, that was how she knew him. "I knew I'd seen you before. Her name is Gwendolyn." It was all she could say, and she knew it sounded odd.
The older gentleman's face contorted inquisitively. "How could you? Where?" He stuttered and stumbled over the words considerably.
"I have seen you before in visions, I just never knew why." She knew this must sound ridiculous, but it had simply come tumbling out of her mouth as she thought it.
"And now you begin to remind me of my grandfather..." He started somewhat severely until the woman cut him off.
"Family will always call out to family." The woman was startled, she was not speaking; her body was speaking, and she was listening from somewhere just above her own head. "Our spirits call out to one another across time and space. We have known each other in lives past and will know each other again in lives yet to come. You will never truly be apart from your family, as your family will always be a part of you." The voice ended and she felt herself pulled back down and into herself. She was suddenly in control of her own body once again and it was like a glass of ice water in the face: she drew in breath sharply and brought her eyes to focus on the poor man in front of her. His expression was something akin to horrified. She was instantly descended upon by acute feelings of embarrassment at having had something like this happen unbidden and in public.
The man's face slowly softened into wonder. He quietly remarked, "My Grandfather spoke those exact words to me when I was just a young man. Much too long ago for you to know, and no one else was likely out in the desert with us that night either."
The woman was only half listening; she had pulled out a small notepad and was writing down an address, phone number, and email address for the gentleman. When finished she extended the paper to him. "I'm not certain, but I think you might do best to email my Mom first. She's been through a lot in life and I think she would appreciate the private moment it would allow her to absorb the idea before responding to you." The last of her statement must have broken into his thoughts because only then did he reanimate and take the slip of paper from her. He looked down at it and asked, "Do you think she'll have time in her ten years for me?" The woman looked up from her embarrassed fumblings with her disheveled pack, the calm and ease of speech suddenly returning to her. "Most certainly so."