From Sunrise To Sunset

Surrender 4

Cassandra

"Nicholas!" I say, looking down at the picture of Jonathan and then back at him. "How... how? How is this possible?"

"I've been asking myself the same question ever since I discovered it," he says

"Does that mean that Margaret... Does it mean that she looks exactly like...like me?"

He gestures towards the sheets of paper in my hand. "Why don't you see for yourself."

I separate the papers and see the picture of Margaret. "How?... How is this possible?" I ask again almost in a whisper as I look back and forth between the two pictures.

Goosebumps begin to appear all over my body, and the memories of my dreams about them flash in my mind rapidly. Every emotion I felt in those dreams run through my heart all over again and tears stream down my cheeks without any real effort from me. I already knew that they shared similar features with us, but I never imagined that they would be so exact. They look precisely like us. I stare at the picture of Margaret, and it feels like she's staring back at me. Something tells me we share the same soul, that I was once her, and she is now me. I read the words below Margaret's picture.

Margaret Capland

Born: September 25th, 1900 Byron Central Hospital Australia

Died: September 30th, 1922

"Are you okay?" Nicholas asks, placing his left hand on my right."

I wipe my tears with my free hand. "How long?... How long have you known this?" I ask, lifting my head from the sheets of paper to look at him.

"The day after we met. I tried telling you the last time we were here together."

"The night I asked you to stay away..." I say with regret as he nods his head. "This is... it's um..." I say, putting my focus on the sheets of paper again.

"I know.." he says "It's a lot to take in."

"It is but it is also amazing. After dreaming of them for so long I am finally beginning to understand why... It's because they were us and we are now them." I look at him again.

He nods his head in response. "It's the only logical explanation."

I look down at their pictures again, this time taking in the details of Margaret's picture, and I notice something very familiar written on the wall behind her. I read the words to myself and put my right hand on my mouth immediately after reading them.

"What is it?" Nicholas asks, looking down at the paper, then back up at me.

"Look," I say, pointing to the background of Margaret's picture.

He removes the box of pizza and bottle of wine between us and moves closer to me. "What is it?"

"I can confirm that this picture was taken in Margaret's room," I explain through tears. "I recognize it because these exact words were written on the wall in my dream. I could see them in the back of the room while staring into the mirror. I must have read them a thousand times." Tears begin to stream down my eyes once more.

"It's barely visible," he says. "What exactly does it say?"

I read the words out loud."The truth is we are all just souls waiting to inhabit a body....we will never know who we are until we do."'

As I finish reading we stare into each other's eyes, knowing exactly what these words mean. I never believed it when Nicholas said it before, but now it makes so much sense. Nicholas and I, once Jonathan and Margaret. All this time our souls were waiting to inhabit bodies in hopes that we would find each other, and fall in love again just as we did before. For whatever reason, the universe broke the rule of one soul to one body so that they could finally be together once more... so WE could finally be together once more. We may not have the memories but we were them in a past life. The proof is staring us straight in the face. Margaret's last words; "Until you find me." play in my head. Nicholas had indeed found me and surrendering to him was the best thing I ever did.

Nicholas puts his arm around me and I rest my head on his left shoulder as he kisses me on my forehead.

"Do you think we'll ever get back our memories of the past life?" I ask.

"Only the universe knows," he says. "We can only hope that we do and if we don't maybe we'll have other dreams."

We both stare at the ocean for a moment lost in our thoughts. I wish I hadn't left him alone to deal with the knowledge of knowing that Margaret and Jonathan once existed. I wish I had not been adamant in my decision to not fall in love. I wish I had surrendered to him the day we met.

"Cassandra..." he says, interrupting my thoughts. "Do you remember the song that played the night we danced at the ball?"

"What? Why are you asking me this now?" I ask, lifting my head to look at him.

"If you answer the question I'll tell you."

"Yes, how could I forget?" I blushed. "It's been playing in my head since that night at the ball. It was POV by Ariana Grande."

He chuckles. "I'm glad you remembered...Would you like to finish our dance with me?"

"Finish our dance with you?" I ask, suddenly becoming shy.

"Well, we didn't get to finish it at the ball, so why don't we do it now?" he says.

He smiles and removes his phone from his pocket. He taps on it a few times and the song begins to play. He places his phone on the pizza box, stands and stretches his right hand towards me.

"May I have this dance?" he says.

"Right here?" I ask, looking around.

"Right here," he says. "Don't worry, no one's watching, and even if they are... who cares?

I smile shyly and stand, placing my left hand into his so he helps me stand. He slides his hands around my waist and looks into my eyes.

"Promise you won't run this time?" he teases.

"I promise," I say, holding my bottom lip between my teeth as I place my hands around his neck.

He pulls me in closer and we begin swaying to the beat of the music.

"You know, this is now our song, right?" he asks.

I smile and rest my head against his shoulder as we continue to sway to the beat of the music with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

"You're mine Cassandra... and I am yours!" he whispers. "I've waited my whole life for you and now I will never let you go."

I lift my head from his chest and look into his eyes. "I will never again ask you to."

He smiles and brings his lips slowly down to mine until they both collide.