I sniffed, vision turning pink for a moment with the tears. “She’s my family. I’d give my life for her.”
Aura broke up the moment. “Yeah, not necessary. Just come bar-hopping with me in Vancouver. We’ll get shit-faced, pick up some sailors….” I knew she was fucking with Steve, and based on his flared nostrils, he knew it too.
It was a good trip, I’d never felt stronger. I loved watching Aura in her element, eagerly researching details and taking copious notes in binders that I was required to juggle. But when we returned to the mountain and I watched her fly into Steve’s arms, watched him hoist her up, and how eagerly she wrapped her legs around his waist, I knew it was time to leave. It was their time, now. Steve had earned it.
Chapter 18: From One Life to the Next
In which there is a favor. A rescue. A Turning.
Aura…
“She’s gone.”
Steve looked around the bathroom door. “What?”
Dear Aura, (and Steve, I guess if you’re letting him read this.)
I’m not going to do the “poor orphan” story here. But suffice to say that you, Aura, are the first person I could call family in a long time. I always wanted a sister, and look! It only took getting kidnapped by my bloodsucking boss, you risking your life to save mine, and getting turned by said bloodsucking son of a bitch to find one.
I can never thank you for what you’ve done for me - both of you. I am eternally grateful, and ironically, not knowing when I’ll actually die makes the eternal part have some real weight to it. But you saved me.
It’s time for you two to pick up on that mad and passionate love affair that James and I blew right out of the water. You’ve earned your happiness, (although Steve, I would like to remind you that I’m happy to come back and use all those tricks you taught me on you to kick your ass if you don’t worship at the feet of this woman every day that you have together.) So … I’m heading out. I’ll go “discover myself” or “find my inner core of strength” or … whatever. But if you ever need me, I will be there before you can put the phone down.
I love you both.
Meghan
I held the paper in my lap for a long time, gently pressing the wrinkles flat and reading the words again. Steve sat silently beside me, letting me lean against his solid body. I sniffed once and looked up at him.
“Is this because we did it last night? Do you think she heard us?”
My taciturn beloved threw back his head and just howled with laughter. “Maybe not the first time. But the time on the kitchen counter is just below her bedroom and the time after on the deck? The sound really carries, sweetheart.”
“Oh, god,” I groaned, burying my face in my hands. But then I was crying and Steve put his arms around me, rocking me slightly. “What if I never see her again?”
He tried to soothe me, “She’ll come back, you don’t-”
“I knowyou’llsee her again,” I interrupted. “But time moves differently for your … the … you guys.” My tears streamed down my cheeks. “She could think about me, but it might be 50 years from now. I could be in a rest home somewhere. I may not remember her.”
Meghan…
Aura was wrong, of course. But while I checked in every few days, sent gifts from wherever I happened to be in the world, it was ten years before we were together again.
“I want you to come home.”
I was in Paris when she called, crouched on a steep slate roof and admiring the lines of the Seine River under the moonlight.
“What’s the big occasion?” I asked, “You and Steve getting hitched or something?”
Aura cackled. “Please, I own that man. I don’t need a ring.”
Laughing, I could only agree. “Okay, this is true. What’s happening?” I could feel the instant temperature change, even over Facetime.
“Steve is Turning me. I need you here to be with me. I need- I gotta see your face when I come back.”
Taking the redeye from Paris to NYC and then a direct flight to Portland, I spent the entire time going over and over Aura’s words.
“Cancer. Can you fucking believe it? Cancer! Me, the non-smoker, obsessive runner is the one to get lung cancer?” Her pretty face had crumpled. “Steve presented me with a proposal to join him in the Sinister Legions of the Undead pretty soon after we fell in love, but I never thought I could do it. But…” Aura had taken another gulp of wine, the glass handed to her by the giant hand of Steve, which blocked most of my screen for a moment. “It’s metastatic. It’s already in my liver and stomach. The oncologist kind of shrugged when I asked about chemotherapy or surgery. He shrugged, girlie!”
