Living Again

Part 9

At the sound of her name being called Kristin stopped and turned to look at David. "Do I know you?" she asked.

"Don't you remember me? I'm David."

"Oh, you're the man looking for me the other day. No, sorry. I don't think I've ever seen you before."

Her face showed no recognition of him. He tried again. "We knew each other in Brisbane a long time ago. Think back."

She was getting annoyed. "I don't need to think back," she snapped, "I've never been to Brisbane. I don't know you, leave me alone."

"Come on," said her friend taking her by the arm, and they quickly walked off up the platform.

"Wait," he called and ran after them.

"If you don't leave us alone, I'll call security," threatened Kristin's friend.

"No need for that," David said. He reached into his pocket, pulled out an envelope and held it out. "I'm going now. Just please read this, it's very important. Please."

Kristin hesitantly took the envelope. "All right, all right," she said and stuffed it into her handbag. Then she continued along the platform and boarded a carriage without looking back. Her friend gave David a suspicious look and walked off also.

David slowly walked back to the main concourse. Would she read his letter? Would she remember him after reading what he had written in a heartfelt attempt to bring back her memories of Angela?

The train rolled swiftly through the darkness of western New South Wales. Kristin had finished her shift and went to the train crew car where she shared a cabin with another girl. She lay down on her bunk to relax after a busy afternoon of serving passengers in the lounge car. Then she remembered the envelope the strange man had given her at Central station. She removed it from her bag and opened it. It contained a single sheet of paper with handwriting on it. She unfolded it and started reading.

"Dear Kristin, you may not remember me at first, but please read this.

"I knew you a long time ago in a different life. Your name was Angela Morley. We lived together in Brisbane, you worked in a clothing store and I worked in a research lab. We loved each other so much. Remember our walks by the river, coffee in our favourite coffee shop, watching movies at the cinema, our walks on the beach at the Gold Coast. Remember our friends Paul and Rachel. We were going to be married in October. Then the accident, the car which ran into you. I've missed you so much. Please try hard to remember. I know this sounds bizarre, but it's true. You lived another life as Angela. I promise I won't bother you again, but if any of this sounds the slightest bit familiar to you please call me."

There was a phone number and David's signature.

What a ridiculous letter, she thought. I lived another life before this in Brisbane? This guy is obviously living in some kind of weird fantasy. He needs serious help. She screwed up the paper and threw it in the bin.

At that moment her bunk mate Kylie came in. "Hi she said," and tossed a CD onto Kristin's bunk. "Have a listen to this before you go to sleep. It's a new music CD for the lounge car. I grabbed it on my way out. It hasn't been played yet. See if there are any good songs on it."

"Okay," replied Kristin. She looked at the cover. "Hits from the eighties? Did any good music come out of the eighties? Oh all right, I'll listen to it." But first she read a magazine for half an hour.

Then when Kylie climbed into the top bunk, Kristin loaded the CD into her portable player, adjusted the headphones, turned off her light, closed her eyes and pressed the play button.

The first song sounded vaguely familiar. A man and a woman were singing.

"Islands in the stream, that is what we are, no one in between, how can we be wrong, sail away with me to another world...."

Halfway through the song she was singing softly along with it. When it finished, she pressed the repeat button. The song started again, and as it played she experienced flashes of familiar events in her mind. A sunny day walking by a wide river in a city, entering the door of a coffee shop and ordering a coffee to go, running along a beach, lying side by side with someone she loved in a darkened bedroom. As the song continued a man's face briefly appeared, then was gone. Then she was walking arm in arm with the same man on a warm evening, the light in the sky, then the sound of a crash and a car coming at her. A name formed in her mind. It repeated itself over and over. Angie. She sat up with a start. The song finished. She pressed the stop button and sat there in the darkness for a long time. She was trembling and there were tears in her eyes as she reached into the bin to retrieve a piece of paper.

David had been watching a late night movie in his motel room. It finished just after midnight, he turned the television off and prepared to turn in.

His mobile phone rang. He picked it up and looked at the caller's identification. Caller unknown.

He pressed the answer button, "Hello."

There was silence. He tried again. "Hello."

Then after a pause a voice half whispered his name, "David?"

He half choked her name, "Kristin?"

"No," she was crying, "it isn't Kristin, it's Angie."

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