The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Seventy-Five

Three more weeks passed, and then it was Thanksgiving, an American holiday I never celebrated before. No one on the reservation was celebrating it either, calling it a national day of mourning, but Charlie invited me over to have dinner with him. So I stopped at the grocery store to pick up items from a list he sent me with. Most of the things I needed was different kinds of potatoes.

But that's when I ran into Sam Uley. He was standing in the produce section, right in front of the potato display. I walked up next to him, picking up a bag of the root vegetables. He turned to see me, a crease in his forehead, but he didn't say anything.

"Hey," I said. I had been avoiding him still, a little wary that he'd suddenly remember my mistakes and decide I shouldn't be alive anymore.

"Hey," he said. His hand went to his head, his frown deepening, "Sorry, am I in the way? I'm just trying to remember what I needed from here."

"No, you're fine. Did you bring a list?" I lifted up mine as an example.

"No," and then his face dropped. "Emily made me one, but I think I forgot it at the house." Suddenly a kid ran up from behind me and rammed into Sam's leg.

"Dad, dad, can we get these?" His kid held up a box of pop tarts.

"Hmmm," he said, "I don't know, buddy..." he picked the kid up, "Don't run off again either. You know you're not supposed to do that."

The kid wiggled in his arms, lifting the box of pop tarts over Sam's shoulder and dropping it into a cart full of things behind Sam. The kid laughed afterwards again, "Madi's still hiding. You gotta find her."

"We brought her along too?" he asked, looking even more dismayed, now looking all around and across the store. "Where is she?" He lifted his kid up and into the cart, and then started pushing it away, looking for his daughter who was hiding. I think he forgot I was there, and I just stared after him, wondering if this was my fault. I knew it was. I knew the mind was fragile. Not something to mess with even if I could. But trying to help his memory would probably backfire, and it was best for him if I just didn't do anything. I looked back down at my own grocery list and finished shopping.

I tried to forget about Sam as I drove over to Charlie's, and even when we cooked dinner together, but he was always on the back of my mind. "Bella used to do most of the cooking," Charlie said, "Now Sue does it, but I've learned a few tricks over the years." But because Sue was on the tribal council, she was busy today, and wouldn't be back until later. "My grandma used to be able to peel a potato in one long strip."

I laughed and tried to do it, we had a competition on who could get the longest peel. I was there with him, but I wasn't. I kept wondering about what Paul was up to, what training was like, and if he had killed any vampires yet. He was allowed to call every once in a while, for an hour at a time, and I knew his deployment was coming up soon. He wasn't allowed to tell me anything about anything though. He'd say a lot of sweet nothings and I'd tell him how everyone was doing here, and that was about all.

There was a gap between us filled with unspoken words, despite the engagement. It was there the entire two weeks before he left. We never talked about how he was killing my own people. I couldn't exactly tell him it was wrong. They were vampires. Vampires killed people. And I'd never really talked to him about how that used to be me. And I let him go without saying anything about it.

The gap only widened as time went on. And today, while I peeled potatoes with Charlie, I felt the familiar tap on my shoulder of Renesme knocking, and I knew deep in my stomach the gap was about to grow even larger.

I let her take my body, and I turned around, and found myself standing somewhere else very far away from Forks Washington. I was standing before an old vampire. I could tell he was old by the dust in the crevices of his red irises, somehow settled on the inside of his eyes. They weren't as bright as they should be because of it, slightly hazy, more mauve than red.