Maybe my wish had come true after all. Maybe I’d put everything in motion that night: Lexie’s illness, the way we’d grown apart, even her death.
“I shouldn’t have done what I did,” the little-me voice on the phone said.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
But really, it wasn’t. I wanted to tell my childhood self to hold on to her love for her sister, to not let anything petty screw up the bond they had.
I choked back a sob, felt tears prick my eyes, trickle down my cheeks.
“Who is it?” Diane asked, staring at me. “What’s happened?”
I opened my mouth, not sure what I would say. Me?
“But I killed the fish,” the voice at the other end said.
The fish.
Declan! I was talking to Declan.
“Declan, I’m so glad you called. How did you get this number?”
“You left it on our voice mail. I’ve been calling you.”
The phone calls had been Declan. Of course. It wasn’t messages from the spirit world or from some time-traveling version of my young self.
“I wanted to tell you about the fish. I tried telling the other lady, Karen, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Okay,” I said. “Tell me about the fish.” I could feel my mode switch. I was the professional. I was in control here.
“They weren’t who they said they were. They wouldn’t stop talking to me. Telling me things.Showingme things.”
“What kinds of things?”
I listened to the sound of his breathing, the static of the phone. But there was something else there: the sound of crinkling paper, of furious scribbling.
“Things I didn’t want to see,” he said.
I closed my eyes, trying to imagine what hideous scene he might be drawing: more nightmare fish? Me drowning, being pulled under?
“Who is on the phone, Jackie?” Diane asked, moving closer to me.
I covered the mouthpiece with my hand. “One of my clients,” I told her.
She looked at me in disbelief. “How would they get this number?”
“Have you ever seen things you didn’t want to see?” Declan asked.
Just then, out the window, I was sure I saw Lexie’s face.
Lexie looking in at all of us, smiling.
“I—”
Diane snatched the receiver, put it to her ear. “Who’s there?” she demanded. She shook her head. “There’s no one there, Jackie. Just a dial tone.” Her look said she thought I was crazy.
Maybe I was.
I checked the window again. There was no one there.
