Ping - From the Apocalypse (10 page)

Chapter
Nineteen

The Good
, the Bad, and the Impossible

(July 15th,
Year One, PA)

Kate decided not to wake Jack, who’d fallen asleep in the living room chair, reading. She wanted a refreshing evening walk and dug her toes into the cool sand, strolling toward the shore. Then swishing into the water until only ankle deep she waded all the way to one of her favourite spots.

It was
a boulder on which she could relax quietly and meditate, about half the size of a small car. It would have been completely under water during high-tide but now it was resting on the wet sand.

Lingering
several yards out from it, allowing the ocean to lap gently against her calves, she admired the pink and orange clouds off to the west. Who would have thought it possible after everything that had come about to be happy? Yet, she was. Deeply immersed in her thoughts of Jack and the opportunities that lay ahead of them, she felt unexpectedly joyful, even to be admiring such a view.

There was now
a radiant ball of fire below the clouds, half of it reflection; a path of gold shimmered all the way across the cascading waves. The sound of her name from behind her brought her abruptly back to alertness.

“
Katie, is that really you?”

She
turned to view an image that would stay in her memory forever. There, bathed in the warm honey-glow was a tall figure standing near the boulder. Kate’s breath caught in her throat as she gazed ahead of her in astonished disbelief.

S
plashing through the ocean and out onto the wet sand until only a few feet away from the figure, she was suddenly at a loss for words.

“
You look like an angel with a halo of light over you,” said the woman.

“Ping?”

The woman laughed. “It’s Sarah! Don't you recognize your own identical-twin?”

***

They could see Jack through the front window when they came up the steps together. Kate opened the door and stepped inside.

“I was just about to come searching
for you,” he said from the other room, unable to see them at the entryway. “Were you down by the water? It’s dark out.”

“Sorry
, I uh… kind of got distracted,” Kate said, moving past the dividing wall for him to view her from his easy chair. He removed his reading glasses and gazed over at her, resting the book down on his lap.

His brows raised
. “You look like you’ve got something up your sleeve,” he said. “What’s up?”

Even after their repeated hugs and greetings, tears and laughter and long conversations filled with explanations and
more questions, Kate was still welling up with unbridled joy.

Jack’s eyes were wider than she had ever seen them
. “What… why do you have that strange expression?” he stammered.

There was only one way to break it to him. Giggling, she finally blurted,
“Don’t get up, okay?”

S
uspiciously, he wrenched his neck to try to peer around the corner. But she could see he was flushed and about to jump out of the chair.

“
Wait!” Kate giggled. “Listen to me. Remember I mentioned someone I called Ping?”

“
Maybe,” he muttered, his thick brows pushing against themselves.

She nodded at Sarah who came out from her hiding spot and stood beside her
. Jack gaped at them both. Then he collapsed into the chair his limp arms draped over the side. His hand came up slowly and he slid his fingers back through his long bangs. “Holy shit!”

“Jack, meet Sarah.
”

“She looks exactly like you!

“She's my sister, my identical twin.” Kate put her arm around Sarah’s shoulders.

“Hi Jack.” Sarah
beamed nervously, lifting her hand in a quirky kind of wave.

He stared at them for a moment
. “If it wasn’t for her hair…” he mumbled. The colour had drained on his poker face.

Kate
gazed at Sarah’s brown shoulder-length hair. Now that they were in the light she could see that he was right. Sarah was a reflection of herself.

“
Oh my God, I just can’t get over this. We haven’t been together since we were three.” They held a long embrace again, tears flowing down their cheeks.

Then
Kate went over to Jack, sat on the arm of his chair and began massaging his shoulders.

Sarah laughed, wiped her eyes, and
waited while the two of them stared at her a bit longer.

“Do you believe me
now?”

“She's your sister,” he said flatly
as if that obvious fact was impossible.

“Take a look at her. Can't you tell?”
Sarah chuckled. Poor Jack looked so confused. She rubbed his back harder and then took his hand.

He turned and peered up at Kate, his forehead still creased.
“But, how did she find us?”

“
We’ve been communicating with each other,” Sarah explained gently.

“Telepathically,” confirmed Kate. “But I still don’t get how you managed to hone in on me so quickly.”

“Oh Katie… I think it was just sheer luck. We happened to have been to this place a couple of times, oh, years ago. It was our only two holidays. Your descriptions reminded me of it, they felt the same… but it was really just a guess.”

“
And I really believed you were dead,” Kate said, still holding Jack’s hand. “I called you Ping all this time though. How could I have been so dense? It was so blatantly obvious who you were. I guess I was in denial.”

“
But I had a feeling it was you, Katie,” Sarah said. “It seemed possible that you could have survived if
I
did. It was only when I followed you down to the beach that I knew for sure. Could tell even from a distance.”

“After you were
abducted, I spoke to Ping almost every day for a long time… was it really you Sarah?”

“
Of course it was. Lillie — the woman who took me in her car that day, didn't like it when I said your name, so I used to hide in the closet when I talked to you. I could see you right there with me.”

Kate
let go of Jack’s hand and rubbed the tears from her eyes. “I tried to tell Mom, but she couldn't take it. I can understand why now. That's the reason I began to call you Ping.”

Sarah had come into the living room. She sat down on the couch opposite to them and sighed.
“But eventually we stopped talking altogether. Until after the plague.”

Jack suddenly stood up. He paced over to the window
and back again, dropping back into the chair.

“Jack, I'm so sorry, this must be
such a shock. It is a very long story, but, I told you before what happened to Sarah, remember?”

Both Sarah and Jack were looking tense now. “I think we could all use a drink,” Kate said quietly. “How about some wine?”

They were all too emotionally charged and it was hot in the beach house. They needed to walk it off. They strolled down to the water’s edge gazing up at the moon which was full and radiant. The ocean was beneath a dome of dazzling stars.

So absorbed in reconstructing their story, Kate didn’t notice how far they’d hiked, though Jack lagged behind and had little to say. Kate was engrossed by Sarah’s descriptions of life with someone crazy enough to abduct her and pretend she was her mom.

Sarah
had managed to gain a pretty good understanding of Lillie though, at a painfully young age; she’d gone to great lengths to handle her too. Lillie was blinded by her monstrously selfish needs. She believed at her very core that she was the kindest, sweetest, most compassionate mother, and that for Sarah — she was a true blessing.

Pretending
Lillie was her mother was the only thing that had worked for poor Sarah; it had brought the rewards of forgiveness, generosity and even a pseudo-love — which was better than nothing. The woman must have been convincing because young Sarah had abandoned all hope of reuniting with her real family. That’s when she stopped contacting Kate. But she overcame her depression eventually and got on with her new life the best she could.

Finally, realizing how far they’d gone
, Kate plopped down in the sand and the other two followed. They gazed out at the ocean, quiet for a while, gripped by so many thoughts.

“So peaceful here, isn't it?” Kate
sighed. “It's hard to believe anything ever went wrong with the world in a place like this.”

“I
t’s beautiful,” Sarah whispered.

“I’m so glad you’re here Sarah,” Kate
murmured, glancing over at her.

Sarah chuckled.
“It’s odd to hear that name. She called me Haley all these years.”

“
But, why didn't you come back to us, when you were old enough to run away?” Kate requested, observing the starkness of Sarah’s incredibly green eyes in the moonlight.

“
Stockholm syndrome?” Sarah shrugged almost cynically and then hung her head. “It’s awfully complicated Katie. If ever anyone needed me it was Lillie.”

“We missed you so much. Our poor
mother, it pretty well destroyed her.”

“I'm so sorry
,” Sarah whispered.

“
No… I didn’t mean — Sarah, I hope you don’t think it was your fault. Mom never stopped blaming herself, and it
was
her mistake after all, wasn’t it? She left us alone in the car that day. But I forgive her for it, now.” Kate had a strange shaky feeling inside her stomach. She took a deep breath and lay back in the sand suddenly realizing her skin was beaded in sweat.

Then after a moment she spoke again. “
It… It was also just plain bad luck. Kids got left alone all the time. Didn’t they Sarah? I guess we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s all.”

“
I missed out on knowing her,” Sarah said, lowering her head.

“
She died only three years later. Mom and Dad separated a year before she got sick and I went to live with him. She didn't last long at all after that.”

Sarah was lying back in the sand now too.
“It must have been horrible,” she whispered.

Kate turned her head to gaze over at her sister.
“Well, I never felt complete without you. But it had to have been a worse nightmare for you. Was Lillie awful?”

Sarah took in a deep breath and paused before she spoke.
“It isn't easy living with someone like that. I was home-schooled… if you can call it that. And I never had a dad. She felt like my family though. I guess I was brainwashed. Later I — I guess I came awfully close to turning her in. But I didn't want to get her in trouble; I just couldn't.”

Jack
, who was sitting beside her, was way too quiet through all of this. Kate sat up and took his hand, slipped her arm around his back and nuzzled against him.

“There's a body over there trapped on the log,” Jack said quietly. Rocking in the water with the tide, the moonlight bounced from its distended flesh.

“Ugh, I really hate seeing that,” Kate shuddered. “
Well, I suppose that's our cue that it's time to get back. I'm bushed anyway,” Kate sighed.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked
, glancing at her with a true look of concern.

She smiled. “
I’m wonderful darling. How about you?”

The next morning Kate woke late, ran outside and threw up. Sarah rushed out after her.

“
Must have been something I ate yesterday,” Kate moaned. Pale and tired, she plodded into the living room and flung herself down on the couch. “Where is Jack?” she asked.

“I haven't seen him all morning, and I've been up a couple of hours
,” Sarah said.

“Hmm
… He must have gone for his swim. We usually go early; seems he wanted to let me sleep,” she sighed, closing her eyes. In a moment she got up and went into the bathroom.

She came out
feeling better and went over to the window to see if she could spot Jack. “It's getting hot again. After my cereal I’m heading down to the beach Sarah. Are you up for a swim?”

Sarah
rose from the easy chair and put down the book she’d started. “I was just about to get my bathing suit from the car. Guess I’ll finish unpacking after lunch.”

Out on
the veranda Kate put on her sunglasses and waited for Sarah to come outside. She could see Jack sitting not far from the shore on his towel. Sarah appeared a moment later in a scant, red bikini. They slipped flip-flops between their toes — the sand was burning hot — and headed down.

They were
laughing as they plunked their beach bags beside Jack’s towel. Sarah continued toward the water. “Join me when you’re ready,” she called.