“Echo, come set the table,” I heard Gram call, “Daryl will be here any minute.”
Echo grumbled something I didn’t understand, placed the note in the box, and after putting it back under the floor, she covered it again with the corner of the carpet. As I watched her, I realized this was a memory, but for the first time, I had no emotional connection to her, I didn’t feel her at all. For once, I was alone, completely alone in my own skin. Why the hell was this memory so different from the rest I’d had before. I was merely a third-party spectator. It was weird and felt off. When she stood up and spun around, we were face to face, and for a split second, I thought she might see me.
“You shouldn’t be here at this point in your life. It’s too soon,” Echo said.
I instinctively looked behind me, but no one was there. I was sure Echo was talking to me, that she could see me, but then she reached right through my head and pulled a hanger off the closet rail with a black shirt on it. I sidestepped through the closet door and waited, unable to shake the sense that something about this dream wasn’t right. She came out moments later wearing black yoga pants and a long black shirt that read, I’m a September baby that had an arrow pointing to her belly bulge.
“Echo,” Gram shouted with a definite tone of annoyance in her voice, “Right now, young lady!”
“I’m coming, mom; I just had to throw some clothes on,” Echo hollered and rolled her eyes as she headed for the door.
I followed her. Midway down the stairs, she stopped and grabbed the rail with one hand and her belly with the other. With a grunt, she said, “Okay, Okay, Eden, I smell the food too. I know you’re hungry, but please stop using my bladder as a punching bag!”
I cringed because I could only imagine how much that must suck. Getting hit in the stomach from the outside was bad enough but from the inside? No thanks!
“Echora Eden Garrows!” Gram sounded like she was losing her patience. It took a moment for me to realize the significance of what Gram had shouted. I hadn’t known that I'd been named after my mother. I watched as Echo straightened and hurried down the stairs.
“I’m here mom, no need to yell, I was just getting dressed.”
Gram spun to face her, and that’s when I felt the shift start, confirming my suspicions, this wasn’t a dream, but a memory sequence. It was the first sign that I was about to be pulled into a different memory. The sensation lacked the usual emotional presence I normally felt with a shift. It made the transition to the new memory disorienting.
“You have to promise Daryl! You can’t say a word to mom and dad, they’d kill me if they knew,” Echo said through pouring tears. She was standing in the middle of the bathroom, staring at my dad—who was wearing a Marine Corps uniform. I hadn’t known he’d been in the military. Why hadn't he told me that? It felt like he’d been keeping a secret from me, and my pride took a hit because of it. His features were youthful, but as his face creased with concern, it made him look older than he was.
“You know I can’t do that, Echo,” He said, crossing the floor and wrapping her in a tight hug. “It’s not what’s best for you.
“I don’t know what to do, how could this happen,” she sobbed.
He held her out at an arm’s length and hiked a brow. “If I had to guess, I’d say SOMEONE wasn't careful.” He took the home test from her trembling hand, examined it, and whistled, “Yup, that’s definitely a positive result. You have to tell Mom at the least Echo. She’s a retired OB nurse, and it won’t take her long to figure it out on her own anyway. She can take care of telling dad for you. Besides, you and that baby are gonna need prenatal care.”
Echo’s tears continued to fall, and fear had chiseled itself to her youthful features. “I can outsmart Mom any day of the week. She’s way past her prime, Daryl.”
Dad laughed and said, “Come on, Echo, our parents aren’t that old! I know we came later in life for them but that doesn’t make them old. It makes them smart.”
“Really, Daryl, they're knocking on 55s door! They’re almost senior citizens, less than a decade away from it.” The sass rolled off of her like a fog.
“Age aside Echo, you have to, at the very least, tell Mom.”
“Tell me what,” Gram asked as she walked into the bathroom, and dad spun around still holding the test in his hand.
“What—is—THAT,” Gram said, snatching it from his hand. She read the results and slowly shifted her gaze to Echo who was visibly shaking. “No—not my baby girl…”
I felt the memory shifting again, but before I could be pulled to another section of the sequence, I bolted upright in bed to the sound of Sara coughing in her sleep. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room before I left my bed and slipped out to the balcony for some fresh air. Sitting in one of the patio chairs, I tried to make sense of what just happened.
Echo?
Nothing, she didn’t utter a sound, but I could feel the complete chaos of her scattered emotions as I sat there. She knew what I'd just seen even if she wasn’t saying so. “Echo,” I exclaimed in a harsh whisper, “some answers if you please. I know you saw that too! Where’s Porter’s Field? Is that one of the baseball fields where we live? Danny wanted
