Connected

Chapter 3

I get home from work, go to my room, shower, then lay on my bed for about an hour, and do absolutely nothing. By about 6, I drag myself up out of bed to try and work on my speech due next Friday but fail miserably. Our grandparents come over for supper around 7, and it's...interesting. I love my grandparents, but they can be a little overbearing. They are always asking my brother, Andrew, and I about our Counters.

"Do you still have your Counters?" "How much longer do you have?" "Don't worry; you'll meet your soulmate soon." "Hopefully, we will still be around when it happens."

That one is a little depressing, but that's pretty much the entire conversation throughout dinner. I mean, I don't blame them, we are all anxious for the moment that our Counters will hit 0, but every time they come over, it's the same questions and same response each time. It is not our fault that the times are as long as they are; the Threads decide that. Grandmother and Grandfather met when they were 17, married when they were 20, and had my Dad when they were 25. The conversation at dinners is the same old "how is work" here or a "how is so-and-so" there. However, after dinner, my parents, Grandmother, and I all move to sit in the living room to talk while Grandfather and Andrew decide to play a game of chess at the table in the kitchen

"So, Lily, how is Mia? Has she met her soulmate yet?" Grandmother asks, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, actually, she met him yesterday evening, his name is Skylar, and he's super nice," I say, looking at the mug of hot chocolate in my hands.

"Were you there with her, or did you meet him later?" she asks, that knowing tone in her voice.

"Yeah, she practically dragged me along," I laugh.

The interesting thing about Grandmother is she had this "gift" too, well up until she met Grandfather. Once she met him, the "gift" disappeared with her Counter. She once described it as a really cold breeze washed over her after she met him, then it was gone. She told me before that since then, she feels as though she's missing something but can't quite place it even though she knows exactly what she's missing. Grandmother found out that I had this gift when she took me shopping for my 8th birthday.

We were walking down the street in the shopping district when I heard the voice. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned in circles, trying to find the two people. Back then, I couldn't understand why I felt the way I did; like I was being watched or like I had lost something really important. I just knew that when I found the two people I was supposed to, that panicking feeling would go away. Finally, when I found them, I ran up to one of the women dressed in a suit, who later told me her name was Jane, and told her that she should talk to the store owner, now knowing her name is Elli, inside the shop across the street. Of course, Jane thought I was just being a stupid kid and waved it off, not thinking anything of it.

When Mom took me back to the district the next day to exchange a shirt for a different size, both of them were walking out of a shop when Jane came over and hugged me and thanked me. Two years ago, when I was 16, I got a wedding invitation from them, and last month I got to meet their twins, the most beautiful little boy, and girl pair. At the time, after I had talked to Jane, Grandmother took me to one of the cafes nearby and explained what was happening and why I got the feeling I did. She has been the one who has helped me learn about this "gift" and how to use it. She also helped me come up with methods to ease the anxiety I felt when I heard the voice. When I told Mia about the "gift," Grandmother helped explain it so she wouldn't completely freak out.

"What was interesting, though, was Skylar found out about everything pretty quickly after we dropped Mia off. He lived in the same direction, so he walked with me back toward Rose park and was confused about how I saw him before she did. These two guys were in the park at the same time, and the voice distracted me, so I really couldn't avoid it," I say, thinking back to last night.