Unknown encounter

Unknown person

I hiked up a hill with a few of my close friends as I enjoyed the view and the cold breeze against my skin. We were in a nature reserve somewhere in America. I was confused, I wondered if this situation was realistic or make believe. It felt like time could stand still as I watched over this mesmerizing landscape. As we descended down the other side of the hill, through some tall trees, we came across a river with crystal clear rapid flowing water. I gazed across the river only to see a figure emerge from the luscious green foliage on the other side. I turned to my friends to ask if they saw him only to realize when I looked back that he had reemerged with a pink knitted blanket. I shook my head and gave the other side another look only to see that he was gone once more. I gave up on that thought and kept telling myself that it must have been a deer or another animal.
Later that evening, we set up our tents near the river bank, slowly, the sun began to set so myself and Julia went to collect fire wood to get ready for the cold night. While I'm sure everyone else was having a great time with their conversations, I couldn't stop thinking about the guy from earlier, I felt like I was missing something...someone. I felt like Julia realized that something was wrong, she looked at me with a concerned look and started to speak...

Julia~hey pri, you ok?
Pri~yah, I'm gr8
Julia~you seem distant, you know you can tell me right...
Pri~it's weird and...hard to explain. I feel like something...or rather...someone is missing...
Julia~wut? But we're all here *she sounds nervous*

Julia looks at me, concern and worry in her eyes. She changes the subject and we start walking to the waters edge. I gaze across, searching for the outline of the mysterious figure...holding that pink blanket, only to look at emptiness...as empty as my soul felt at that very moment. I soon refocused on Julia who I realized was staring at me intently, obviously trying to figure me out

Julia~So...everyone is going to sleep soon, wanna head back to camp?
Pri~yeah, I'm extremely tired after all the hiking today

   I fake a smile and take one last glance across the river, no figure in sight, I laugh to myself knowing that in my old age, I'm gonna be a handful considering the fact that I'm only in my mid twenties at the moment. I ran to catch up to Julia who was half way there already. "Wait up!", I screamed.
   We walked back to the camp grounds only fifteen minutes away from the river bank. When we reached back everyone was looking tired considering the time it took for us to arrive at this picturesque river side hide away.

Shanaz~I think it's time we all take a rest
Julia~Makes sense to me, I'm dog tired
Pri~Same, I've been so confused today
Julia~what do you mean Pri?
Pri~ *i take a long pause*
Pri~ Are we even real...?
Shanaz~ ummmm...clearly Priyanka has been drained of her sanity and needs a long desired rest after our voyage...
Julia~ Yeah, maybe we should all get a rest from this fresh air, I think it's doing something to our electronic controlled minds *she laughs to herself 'heuheuheu'*
Atikah~A rest sounds good to me. Good night peasants!!!

   With that, Atikah and Shanaz head off to their tent arguing about the peasantry, leaving Julia and I to sit and watch the fire.

Julia~let's go to sleep, you look exhausted
Pri~ Trust me when I tell you I SOOO AM!!
*We both laughed on our way to the tent*

In the tent
   Its been twenty minutes since we were laying in the tent and I soon hear Julia faintly snoring. In her sleep she whispered 'Yugyeom stop hitting Mark with a bat, it's not right for you to just come here and beat people'. I knew she was sleeping EXTREMELY strong when I heard that sentence escape her lips. During my thoughts on Julia's dream, I hear the crack of fire. The realization then hits me that I didn't put out the camp fire and that it could potentially start a forest fire. I leave the tent as silently as possible trying my hardest not to wake juju from her bias dream heuheuheu
I zipped back up our aqua blue tent and walk towards the campfire. It was still giving off a dim light but it was slowly fading away as it died down. Since the fire was now out and I couldn't fall asleep, I continued my walk until I reached the river bank. I gazed across the river as a slight mist turned into a fog and I could no longer gaze upon the other side of the river. Suddenly, I saw a boat crossing the river. As the boat came nearer to me, I realized that within it was the figure from earlier on that day.
He stopped his boat directly in front of me on the river bank , my mind now realizing that time had slowed down...almost...frozen. The rapids of the river now stud still in front of me, almost resembling a lake. I looked up into the strangers eyes and I wasn't afraid or worried, I sensed a comfortable and familiar aura around him...almost as if we had met once before but not recently, like a distant memory from my teenage years. He stepped out of the boat and walked up to me, his hazel brown eyes now staring into mine.

Stranger~ If only you knew how long I've been waiting to speak to you, how long I've dreamed of seeing your face again...
Pri~ I've never met you...yet I feel like I've known you for a long time...
Stranger~ All will be revealed in time. I am your close friend, we used to date, we were together and then...we were...one...?
Pri~ how can I trust that you're speaking the truth?
Stranger~...I can show you
   
    The stranger looked into my eyes, pain and sorrow visible within his deep brown irises. His eyes told me a clear story that was blurry all at the same time. He walked back to the boat with a slow pace, returning with the blanket from earlier. As he walked closer to me, I realized that it was a baby girl swaddled in the blanket. As she slowly woke up, I looked at her face, her features just like mine but when her eyes opened, she looked just like...him

Stranger~ this is our daughter, her name is Rosie. Though she's a year old, she's still very fragile
Pri~ she's beautiful but I think I would remember having a child...

    He placed the child in my arms and smiled sweetly at me. His smile could calm anyone who didn't know how to 'read' people but I...I could see right through that smile, I saw how fake it was, he was faking it to please me, he was faking happiness and I could see it. His perfect smile, tarnished with a type of depression that was within him, I could feel his sadness

Stranger~ I hoped you would remember us after the incident but it seems that you haven't yet reawakened your memories of us. I didn't want to burden you with the knowledge of knowing Rosie and I existed...
Pri~ how would knowing my child and 'husband', I presume, burden me
Stranger~ I am your husband he chuckled
Pri~...how long have we known each other?
Stranger~ Around 10 years, I guess, we met when you were seventeen
Pri~ and what incident are you talking about...?

    I looked down at my daughter and looked back up at him. As I gazed into his brown eyes, admiring their beauty, my memories of him slowly returned but he himself began to fade from existence along with little Rosie. As he faded, he took her from my arms and came closer to me

Pri~ what's happening?
Stranger~ your memories are returning, you're remembering...
Pri~ Wait...where can I find you tears slowly began streaming down my face
Stranger~ you'll find me in your own time, you'll remember me when I'm gone
Pri~ what does that mean?
Stranger~ you'll soon find out, my love, just be aware...I love you

    He faded away completely, faded into nothing...then I heard something...someone...a faint whisper

Stranger~ my name is...
Pri~ you're name is what?!?!?!!?

    With that last sentence, he was gone and after he left me, time went back to normal, a bullet of memories hitting my head, the memory of a hospital bed surrounded by friends and family, slowly blacking out, slowly waking up...slowly fading, slowly recovering, then, a funeral for two people, a feeling of depression...sadness...pain...disbelief  that my two loves, my husband and daughter were killed...murdered by someone who was never caught. The memory of the break in, we didn't lock the door, we forgot to lock the house...they shot the dogs, they stole our belonging, they suffocated my daughters cries, beat me until bones were Brocken and  shot my love...right...before...my...very...eyes, then, everything went black and I was crying alone. My will to live, taken from me...
    I kneeled down on the river bank, the world spinning around me and tears not crying a puddle, or a river...tears crying an ocean for the loss of the two people I just met and then...I heard a voice

Stranger~ don't cry, stop dreaming, wake up...my love

   And with that...I woke up. I was fifteen years old and all I could think about was that stranger. The handsome stranger wearing his white shirt, black long pants and dress shoes...his hazel brown eyes staring into mine, his dark hair and his bright loving smile hiding all that sadness, my love, if only I knew his name...