Crossing Over

Chapter 8

Cameron arrived at Andra's house right after lunch. Climbing the front steps he rang the doorbell and then waited patiently if not a little nervously for the sound of approaching footsteps.

Denise Morris opened the door, a warm smile lighting up her face when she recognized Cameron.

"Hi. It's nice to see you again. Come on in."

"It's nice to see you too, Ms. Morris." He replied stepping into the foyer.

"Just call me Denise. I hate formal titles. They make me feel so old."

"Okay, Denise," Cameron said chuckling. "Is Andra around?"

"Yeah, she's been expecting you. Just go on up. It's the door at the end of the hall." She answered gesturing in that direction.

"Thank you." He said, starting up the stairs. " And Cameron." She called after him. "Make sure to keep the door open."

"Yes ma'am, I mean, Denise." He said quickly correcting himself.

"Thank you."

There was no doubt that they were mother and daughter, Cameron thought. It amazed him that the two could look so different but be so similar. Cameron wasn't sure Andra realized it, but everything from how they walked to how they spoke was almost identical. It was a little eerie watching them together.

As he approached the top of the stairs, he heard the sound of music playing softly from the end of the hall. Heading in that direction he saw her bedroom door standing open.

Andra was in the center of the room, hands on her hips, staring up at the wall in front of her. Her long curly hair was twisted into a bun and she had pushed a pencil through it at some point. She wore light-colored blue jeans that flared out at the bottom, and a black fitted tank top. The hem of her jeans brushed the ground and covered enough of her foot that only her electric blue toenails showed.

Andra was so wrapped up in what she was looking at that she hadn't even realized Cameron was standing there. He looked past her to the wall and saw that she had tacked, what looked like, newspaper articles to the area above her desk. In the center of the articles, she had pinned a black and white photo of a teenage girl. He wasn't standing close enough to see what the clippings said, but he didn't need Andra to tell him who the girl in the picture was.

Leaning forward, he knocked on the door frame. Andra jumped and turned quickly, one hand flying to her chest, the color draining from her face.

"Cameron, you scared me to death!"
She said breathlessly.

"I'm sorry. I promise it wasn't intentional this time."

"It's fine. I guess I was just really focused. Although you do seem to be making this a bit of a habit." she said jokingly, still holding one hand pressed tightly over her heart.

"I would ask what all this is," he said gesturing at the wall in front of her, "but I think I already have an idea. This is about Savannah right?" She nodded but was silent as he approached and then inspected her handiwork.

"This is all the stuff I found online. The story you told me was on the right track, but there are some differences. You were right about Inglewood too. There's hardly anything in the local papers about how she died."

"That doesn't surprise me. What did you find out?"

"Well," she said turning back to the wall. "You were right about her being an athlete, she was voted MVP for her volleyball team more than once. She played basketball and softball too and from what I've found in old yearbooks it looks like she was also involved in several clubs."