“Reincarnation.”
“Reincarnation?”
“Yeah, you know what that is, right?” he asks.
“Of course I do. I’m not dumb. I’m just wondering what that has to do with us.”
“Well, my theory is that we were married in some past life. Maybe I was a great king and you were my queen and we were killed by an angry mob.”
“What did we do to make the mob so angry that they wanted to kill us?” I tease.
Luke laughs and continues. “All right, forget that. Maybe we were just average people living sometime, someplace. Just elsewhere.”
“Elsetime.”
“That’s not even a word,” he says, sidetracked.
“I know. I just made it up. Go on.”
“Okay, fine, we were married elsetime. Anyway, we died of whatever you die from, let’s say natural causes. But we were in love, so our souls keep finding each other in whatever forms our bodies take.”
“Are you Hindu or something?” I ask, avoiding the fact that my stomach is in knots from hearing his beautiful theory.
“No, we used to be Catholic. But I did have a religion class at my last school that exposed us to different ideas. I think the concept of reincarnation is a good one.”
“If you’re Catholic, shouldn’t you believe in heaven and hell and all that?”
“I said I used to be Catholic,” he replies.
“No heaven then, huh?” I press on.
“Who knows until we experience it? I think that heaven and reincarnation are both ways of making us feel better about what happens to people’s souls after death. I hope at least one of them is true. I don’t like to think about being worm food.”
>I feel the safest I will feel in years as this stranger eases his mother’s minivan off the gravel and drives slowly across the prairie to the edge of a small hill.
Luke parks directly in front of a NO TRESPASSING sign on the barbed-wire fence that keeps us from driving off the incline. He kills the engine and the headlights along with it. I take in the twinkling, scattered town below, sprawling across more than twenty miles of land, just because it can.
“Cool,” I say.
“Yeah, I thought so,” he says, eyes straight ahead. I like that he likes this town. It’s not for everyone, but it will always be a little part of me.
“So, you’ve never been up here before?”
Good question, I think. “Um, no,” I reply. “In fact, I have no idea where we are.”
Luke takes his eyes off the landscape for the first time and settles on me. His hands are still resting lightly on the steering wheel. “You’re pretty trusting, you know. I could be a murderer.”
“Yes, you could be, but I doubt it.” I say, transfixed by his pale eyes. “I feel too safe with you.”
“You are,” he says sweetly. He pauses for a few moments and I think he might lean over and kiss me, but he doesn’t.
“Okay,” he says louder, hitting his hands lightly on the steering wheel. “Let’s get this party started. You hungry?”
“Yes, but I don’t think anyone delivers out here,” I say, scanning the barren land around us.
“Never fear, I’ve got it covered. Just a minute.” Luke pops the back door, gets out, and disappears behind the van. I turn around to see what he’s doing and realize that the middle row of seats is missing. On the third row, there are two throw pillows that look like they were taken from someone’s couch; a soft knitted blanket folded neatly on the seat; and a small cooler on top of the blanket.
Luke spies me checking out his setup and smiles sheepishly when our eyes meet. My stomach spins at the sight of the dimple on his right cheek.