“Oh, no, honey. No one has a baby here,” Janette said, still smiling but a note of sadness in her voice. “You bring your baby with you. Either you have one or you don’t.”
“What?” Cadence asked, pressing down harder on her abdomen. “But... I want one.” She didn’t feel like that had always been the case, but seeing Aislyn talking to her child, she knew in her heart she also wanted to be a mother, to have a beautiful child and speak to him or her as if they were the most important person here. Because they would be.
“Sorry, dear. Unless you brought a baby with you here, you can’t have one. But there are lots of other people’s babies you can hold.” Jordan looked sympathetic as well, but not sad.
“I don’t think I brought a baby with me here, did I?” Cadence couldn’t remember seeing one.
“Sometimes they don’t arrive right away. Give it time. You may have one yet.” Janette’s smile was back with all of its force, and Cadence returned it, still patting her stomach. She was sure she was meant to have a baby, just like the woman who shared her last name.
Aislyn stopped again when they reached her. “Oh, good. You can meet my baby now. This is Aarolyn.”
Cadence was already smiling before she stepped around the stroller so she could see inside. The little girl was sitting up, grinning and cooing, poking her fist in her mouth. She was beautiful with her red hair and light complexion. And those eyes! What beautiful blue eyes she had. They must’ve been the most beautiful eyes Cadence had ever seen. Blue and sparkly, clear and yet deep. “Her eyes!” she exclaimed, covering her mouth with one hand. “They’re so beautiful!”
“I know,” Aislyn gushed. “She’s the most perfect baby here.”
Cadence agreed. “Really, she has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, more beautiful than I could ever imagine.”
“Thank you,” Aislyn said, and Cadence looked to see if her eyes were also blue. They were not. They were green. Cadence wasn’t surprised they didn’t match the baby’s because she thought she would’ve noticed before. It would be hard to forget eyes like those.
Only... only she had forgotten, hadn’t she? Hadn’t she seen eyes just like those before? Someone she knew before she got here had eyes just like Aarolyn McReynolds. And that name, it sounded familiar, too. Didn’t it? Why did it sound like she knew that name? Why did she think Jimmy looked like someone she knew? And why did she think she needed to have a cat—no not a cat, cats. She needed cats....
“Cadence, sis, come on! Please! Open your eyes! I’m so sorry I couldn’t catch you.”
“Come on, kid. Don’t you dare leave me. I can’t handle it. Goddamnit, kid. You can’t die!”
“Cadence, please breathe... I can’t keep pumping your heart for you! You’ve got to do it yourself. All of your organs work now, just... come back. I’m so sorry I couldn’t get to you on time.”
“Cadence, please, come back to me. God, I love you so much. I need you to come back.”
Come back, Cadence. I can’t do this without you—we’re a family; I need you. Do it for me, for our baby....”
“Baby!” Cadence’s hands were on her abdomen again, her eyes wild as she looked from Aislyn to her grandparents. Perplexed, they stared back at her. “I do have a baby. I have a baby. And a husband!” A thousand thoughts hit her all at once as her heart seemed to race in her chest. “I don’t need cats—I need Cass! I have a sister named Cassidy!” She grabbed ahold of her grandmother’s shoulders, but Janette just stared at her blankly. “And... Elliott—he’s Jimmy’s brother, isn’t he?” She couldn’t remember how she knew that. “And... Jamie thinks this is his fault, but it’s not. He loved Ellie, and she left him to be here, but I can’t do that to him. And... and... and....” She turned and looked at Aislyn again, remembering now why they had the same last name. “You were his first wife, and he loved you so much.” She looked at the child cooing in the stroller. “Both of you. I promise you, I love him more than anything in the world, and just because you can’t remember him, that doesn’t mean that the love you shared was any less true.”
Aislyn shook her head, her pretty face scrunched up in confusion. “Who?” she asked, bewildered.
“Aaron. Our husband. Yours before, and now mine.” Once again her eyes shifted to the baby. “Your baby’s father—my baby’s father.”
Aislyn was still lost, but Cadence couldn’t explain further. To her grandparents, she demanded. “I have to go back.”
“Go back?” Janette echoed and then scoffed. “You can’t go back. There is no back. You’re here.”
“I don’t want to be here anymore, Grandma. I’m sorry. It’s lovely here, and I’m so glad I got to see everyone, even though I didn’t get a chance to talk to Jack. But that’s okay. I’ll come here again someday. But not today. Today, I need to go back. There are people there, people who need me, people who love me, people that I love. I have to get back to them. Now.”
“Honey, even if there was a way to go back...” Jordan began, but Cadence couldn’t stand around and wait any longer, without being sure where she was going she took off running, hoping to find the field again, the one where she’d first opened her eyes. Maybe if she could find it, she could figure out a way to get back to her life, before it was too late. If she found the field, and her baby was there, she had no idea what she might do. Her child deserved a chance to live, and she wasn’t going to let Daunator or anyone else take that away from either one of them.
Blindly, she tore down the streets, dodging people and bicycles, stepping around large flower pots when crowds wouldn’t part, ignoring the calls from friendly people inquiring if she needed help. She ran until her lungs were burning and her legs ached, until she thought there couldn’t be anymore town to run through, and still she ran on until she could go no further.
Collapsing in exhaustion with tears burning her eyes, Cadence jammed her fists into her thighs and doubled over on the ground. Her lungs ached from exertion such that she could hardly suck in a breath. In fact, as she lay there on the ground, she realized she wasn’t breathing at all. The pain in her lungs increased to a white hot fire. She rolled to her back, doing her best to suck in air, but none would come. The sky above her, a brilliant blue, the same shade as the eyes she’d been seeking, began to blur, brightening and losing its color as Cadence fought to pull in a breath. No longer able to keep her eyes open, she let them fall shut, expecting blackness but instead finding herself blinded by a brilliant white light and then nothing.
