THE PAST

It was so dark, she could see nothing else than darkness. A bright light hit
her, blinding her vision. She followed the path that led to a door. Opening the
door as quietly as she could, she saw a girl who looked a lot like her on a
stage. The girl had a huge Cello, playing Vivaldi’s ‘Summer’.
Suddenly she heard a familiar voice,“Oh Anne! My dear child, where have
you been the whole time? Thank god you are safe.”
She was shocked, “Who are you? How do you know my name?”
“What do you mean? I’m Catalina, Oh please tell me you are joking!”
The lady replied with tears in her eyes.
Anne took a long breath and quickly opened her eyes.
“Oh, it was a strange dream”.
Anne was a 16 year old living with her parents, in the outskirts of London.
She’s the only child to her parents, they loved and supported her a lot. Anne
appreciated music and art. She loved herself more than anyone else, and was
determined to achieve her goals. She had no limits.

It was a Monday. As usual, Anne woke up early, made her bed, did her
morning routine and started making her breakfast. Her parents were out on a
business trip, she was all alone. She got ready for school, it takes about a 30
minute ride from her home to the school. As soon as she got there, she rushed
to the locker as she had to do her math work. When she opened the door and
took her books, she found a strange paper. It had a note written in it-
“Meet me in the library after class”. Anne wondered, “Huh? How am I
supposed to recognize who this is without a name? Quite Strange”.
She asked her friends about this. One of them said, “It must be a boy or
someone that needs help in studies. You should definitely go there after class.
Good luck!” Anne was still creeped out by the note. She listened to her
friends and decided to go for it.
After the class she went to the library. It was a huge library with different
varieties of books, a perfect place for book lovers. She got inside and walked
slowly to take the book, ‘Cosmos’ by Carl Sagan. She loved Physics and
Astronomy so much. Anne decided to sit there and read the book rather than
waiting freely. Time went so fast and she didn’t seem to notice it. It was
already past noon. She had classes and was almost late. She loved the book
so she decided to read it after class. “Can I take it for a day? I’ll surely return
it back tomorrow”. The librarian said yes, a bright smile formed on her face.
She thanked the librarian and walked out. After coming into the class her
friends asked, “Did you meet the person?”. Anne was so confused. She had
almost forgotten everything. Suddenly she replied in a high pitched tone- “Oh
my god! My bad, I forgot about it. I was so lost into reading the book. But I
think the message definitely wasn’t for me. If it was, then the person
would’ve come to me. Well, no one did. They probably placed it in the wrong
locker”. Then they got ready for the class. Anne had to keep the book that she
took, into her bag. She took a quick glance at it, “Wait, what a miracle? This
was not the book that I had taken.”. Anne was so confused. After class she
again went to the library. In front of the entrance she found a pink gemstone,
“I am pretty sure that this is a Topaz. Who left this one here?”. The moment
she touched it, she started feeling so dizzy and fell unconscious on the floor.

After a while she regained her consciousness. “Wh- What time is it? Where is
my watch? I have to return this book as soon as possible.”
To her, it didn’t feel normal. Her heart was beating so fast and it felt like she
was running out of breath. Anne started looking for the library, but it was
nowhere to be found. The whole place looked unfamiliar. She sat there
crying, “Why does it only happen with me? Where did I go wrong?”.
Suddenly the book in her hand started turning its pages on its own. Anne was
so creeped out. It stopped on a page with a photo. She took it in her hand,
carefully, “This is a beautiful family indeed. But what does it have to do with
me?”.
It was a photo of a little girl, with her parents, and a lady who looked like her
aunt, or maybe a maid. She was holding her pet dog in her hands. Smiling
widely, they all looked really happy. But the maid and the girl looked so
familiar to Anne. “Do I know these people?........ Wait!”. She just realized her
dream, “the girl with the big cello, and the maid Catalina? What is
happening?”. A voice behind her started talking, “Anne? My dear where have
you been? I missed you” It felt like a girl’s voice. Anne refused to look back
as she was not sure who it was. She asked- “ Who are you? Where am I?
What do you want from me?”. The girl started sobbing, “I’m your sister,
Margaret. Oh dear Anne I knew you would live to see the future, but our
p-parents….. and I’ve already left the world, but I am still happy you
escaped!”.
“I’m not your sister, kid you have probably mistaken me for someone else.
And what’s up with your parents? I did have a dream about you, who is
Catalina?” Anne asked.
It was Anne’s biological sister indeed. However she seemed to have lost her
memories.

This had happened 12 years ago. It was a big day for her family as their older
daughter Margaret was going to perform in a big event. 7 year old Margaret
was very talented, especially in music. She had great taste in classical music.
Her parents supported and appreciated her interests. Her younger sister
‘Anne’ was just 4 years old. For her age, she was also a gifted child like her
big sister. Only 2 hours were left for the performance. They were all excited
for Margaret’s performance. Although her mother had a bad gut feeling, they
ignored it and wanted Margaret to perform happily. Finally, she was on stage,
her parents, friends and everyone were hyping her up and cheering for her.
The happiness didn’t last long as the maid noticed that Anne was missing.
She didn’t inform Anne’s parents about it because she didn’t want to ruin the
happiness, so the maid decided to search by herself. The performance was
going all well until people started hearing gunshots, the maid heard people
screaming. She started to panic and her only aim was to find the child and
keep her safe. She ran through the concert halls hoping to find the little kid
alive. Finally she saw her, standing in front of a door, on the other side of the
door, it was complete darkness, a hand pulled her in and immediately shut the
door. The maid, Catalina was in tears, “My dear child, please come back, oh
my god what is wrong with me I could’ve saved you”. Tears ran down her
face like rain. She ran back to the concert hall for Margaret and her parents.
Almost everyone was shot. She ran to the stage. Margaret was laying on the
ground with blood dripping down her cheeks, she wasn’t dead yet, “Catalina,
I love you so much, I am going to heaven, with my parents. Take care of
Anne and tell her that I love her, Goodbye”. And then, she was no more.
Catalina couldn’t breathe, she was sobbing, she couldn’t control her tears.
Her teary blue eyes, showing guilt, she was blaming everything on her, “I
could have saved you all. What did I do to deserve a life like this?”.

When Margaret narrated this story to Anne she fell on her knees, crying so
hard, wishing she could turn back time and fix all of the things. “So the
parents I’m living with aren’t my real parents? I-is there any way to f-fix
this?”Anne stuttered.
“The pink topaz that belonged to our parents, miracles are said to have
happened by this rare gemstone, it is a sign. You should definitely save
yourself and us”. Margaret said helplessly.
“I was 4 years old. How do you think people are going to believe a dumb 4
year old, and how can you say that I should save them? The way you talk
makes me feel guilty, it was never my fault. You should have listened and
trusted your mom’s guts. Stop blaming things on me”. Anne was angry and it
showed. Afterall, Anne felt worthless and didn’t want to live like this
anymore, she wished she could erase it all from her head. She still felt the
urge to save her real family. “I have to do this,” Anne told herself. She took
the stone in her hands and wished to go back.
She was back in the dream, a girl with cello, playing Vivaldi’s summer. She
thought of running but decided to wait for Catalina as that was supposed to
happen. As expected Catalina came running. Anne could hear violent
screams and gunshots. Catalina picked her up, kissed her on the forehead and
ran with her in one hand to save the other child. Luckily they got her on time
and the maid ran out of the hall with the 2 kids. They waited for hours until
the parents arrived. They never came back. Anne was still happy that she
saved her sister but sad at the fact that she couldn’t save her parents. After
everything was over, people were still crying and sobbing because many had
lost their loved ones. Margaret whispered in Anne’s ears, “ I knew you would
do it, we did it together, Thank you”. Anne realized that when she got angry
at Margaret, her soul followed her to the past to make things right.
Catalina decided to take care of the kids for the rest of their lives. When they
were back to the future, Anne was 16 and Margaret was 19. The whole
history of Anne changed, she had a different personality now, but still had the
book in hands. Then she remembered about the photo in the book. Turning
the pages carefully, she got it, but there were only the parents now. She
realized that it showed photos of people who don’t exist in the present.
Margaret’s photo had disappeared from there. Everything made sense to her.
She was grateful to be born as Anne with her older sister being Margaret.
19 year old Margaret came to pick her up from the school as she was so late.
“What’s up with this book?” Asked Margaret.
Anne replied, “This world can hurt you, it cuts you deep and leaves a scar,
things fall apart”.

-Rithika Rejeesh