Page 41 of Wrong Cabin, Right Time
Sage’s face does not change when I explain my reasoning. She simply doesn’t care. She might be a heathen who eats whatever she wants, whenever she wants, but I’m not. I have my schedule, and that doesn’t apply only to time—it applies to every aspect of my life.
“Believe it or not, life is about more than data points and spreadsheets.”
“This has nothing to do with spreadsheets—”
“Just try one bite! That’s all I’m asking.” Sage shakes her head in exasperation as she holds the plate closer.
I roll my eyes. “You’re not going to shut up about this until I eat it, are you?”
“Of course not.” She smiles innocently as she nudges the plate closer.
Sometimes in life, you have to choose your battles. And right now I’m exasperated. Only to make her leave me alone, I sigh and nod. The smile on her face grows as I take the plate and hold the fork over the brownie before stabbing it in and loading a bite onto it.
She watches intently as I bring it to my mouth and let the flavors explode on my tongue. My normal diet consists of organic, whole foods with a myriad of protein vegetables and healthy carbs. I very rarely havesugary treats like this. The taste is incredible, and Sage can read that on my face even though I try to hide my enjoyment.
“Are you happy now?” I ask, handing the plate to her after only one bite.
She pushes it back against me with another eye roll. “Come on. I can see that you like it. Just live a little.”
I do as she says and eat the rest of the brownie. She smiles and happily eats her own as we take a seat on the couch in the living room. It’s 5:00 p.m., which means it’s time for the evening news, so I turn it on to watch.
The brownie leaves a strange aftertaste in my mouth that I don’t understand, and I think back to Sage in the store talking about the different brands. I see what she means now. I drink some water to force it away, but I can’t seem to drink enough.
After a while, my throat starts to feel dry, and I drink more water to quench it. My head feels light, as if I am floating in a pool on a sunny day with my eyes closed, letting life pass me by.
Sage leans against me, and I rest my arms on her, running my fingers through her soft hair as our gazes are glued to the TV. The evening news ends, and I realize I didn’t pay attention to a word they said. A nuclear bomb could be coming directly to Lake Lure, and I would be none the wiser.
A sitcom I’ve never seen before comes on, and I can’t help but laugh at the countless faux pas the main characters find themselves in. Sage and I both laugh uncontrollably as one of the characters gets locked out of their apartment and gets caught by the police while trying to sneak in through a window.
“That’s something you would do,” I say to her as I try to stop laughing.
It seems like we sit in silence for hours, but I know that can’t be true, because the sun is still up outside, and the show hasn’t ended yet. I don’t know why, but this moment is extending forever.
At one point I find myself staring blankly at the wall, a weird feeling arising in my body. “I can feel my organs getting soft.”
My comment sends Sage into a laughing fit. “I sometimes feel like my eyeballs are shrinking,” she says once she catches her breath.
She sits up and crosses her legs in front of her, looking at me with a warm smile on her face. “You said you were comparing our parents earlier. Why? What was so different about them?”
I open my mouth to reply, surprising myself. I stop, thinking that this is something I wouldn’t normally tell anyone. But I can’t explain it. I want to tell her. Right now I feel like I need to. Sage already knows so much about me; it makes sense that she know everything.
“Does it have something to do with what happened to your sister?” She grabs my hand and traces small circles along my palm as she waits for me to reply.
My heart aches, hearing her mention Leah. I try not to think about her if I don’t have to, but the sudden mention of her brings everything back up. The memory is at the front of my mind as if it happened yesterday. I relive it constantly, and I close my eyes while I try to fight it off.
“It’s all my fault,” I whisper as Sage squeezes my hand tight.
“What is?”
“Leah’s death.” I pause and open my eyes to look at her. She looks alarmed at my confession, and I feel the same pain I felt the night it happened all over again. “She was only twelve years old. She had her whole life ahead of her, and it’s all my fault that she was taken. I was just a kid. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“What did you do?”
I can’t tell if there’s fear in her voice or not. Sage already knows who I am, and she has accepted me. Why would this scare her now?
“We were driving home from school, and she was in the front seat next to my dad. I was in the back, angry that I wasn’t allowed to sit up front when she was. I called shotgun, but because she was older, my dad let her sit there. I was angry, and I was distracting my dad while he was trying to calm me down. He didn’t see the deer that walked into the road.”
Sage gasps and squeezes my hand in hers as she lifts the other to her chest. I can’t bring myself to look at her as I relive the story.
