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Answers

June quietly closed the door to her room so Laura could sleep. She walked into the kitchen and started another pot of coffee. Jackson sat on the couch, dazed at what just happened to them. June finished in the small kitchen and came back to the living room. Her place was so small when more than herself was there. It was just a few steps from room to room. This place was perfect for her, but it could get crowded when friends came over. She sat down across from Jackson, so she could see his face as she explained their experience.

“What just happened?” Jackson almost begged this question before she even had a chance to get comfortable. “June, there is no gate there. It is only a wall, all the way around. I walked that path before you met me. Then, when we turned around and went back, there was a gate that wasn’t there before. I used a stick and found that spot, but there was no gate, just where one used to be. It was there, but covered so thick in Ivy you couldn’t possibly open that door. June, I hope you know what just happened”

June let Jackson get everything out, then she calmly started to speak. Jackson, the names on those gravestones are your family. Every one of them are your ancestors. I remember one time you telling me when we first met that you used to have family in this area. I think we have been destined to meet, and this is why. I have seen that gate for years. Ever since I started walking to work. Every day it was the same thing, the same sounds, the same feelings. Then, recently, well actually since we met, things started to change. The sound of a crying child, the dark smoke, the strong desire to walk through that gate and see what was on the other side.

“At first, I only saw weeds. Then, as I went into the gate, I started seeing the headstones. And you do know time stopped while we were in there. That is why our phones didn’t work. I really don’t know how it happened, but it did. And also, those headstones, they aren’t there either. This land had been vacant for so many years. But your family is buried there. Your mother wanted you to find them again. And this is how it happened, through me.

I know that property was for sale many years ago. But no one bought it. I think it may have been abandoned.” June got up during this conversation and poured coffee into a carafe and brought it into the living room. She poured coffee for herself and Jackson and continued talking. The whole time, Jackson sat and listened, stunned at what he was hearing. He didn’t know what to say.

June sat back in her chair and sipped her coffee as she calmly explained her story and what she felt it meant. “Your mother wanted you to find your family. You lived on the other side of town, and had no reason to come over here. Then you went with your friends to that little bar where we met. You had no intentions of meeting anyone, and neither did I. We both felt we were just fine in our lives the way we were. We were both solid and didn’t need another person to make us whole. We didn’t know it then, but we did need each other, but not to make us whole. You needed me to show what I saw, and I needed to show you.

June went on as calmly as if she was talking about a shopping list. It felt good to finally get this out of her system. “I think I can find out who owns that property. We can get into it and replace those headstones. I know where every one of them belong and what they look like. I will never forget that site. I don’t know if it is still for sale, we will find that out also.”

This went on into the night. Laura woke up and the whole story was repeated to her. Together, they made a plan to buy the property if it was still available and return it to its proper state of respect. June didn’t know why she was they only one who could see that gate. She didn’t know that no one else could see the gate until she was finally told.

Jackson remembered putting the small metal sign in his pocket. It was rusted and almost unreadable. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, but it wasn’t the same rusted sign. The rust was gone now and he could clearly read the warning sign. It was bent on the corner and had blood on it. “That is what I cut my foot on. I was wondering what happened to it. It just disappeared. I looked for it when we went back, but it was gone.”

June hoped this would end the strange feelings she got as she walked to work each day. This is what it was all about. She had to get Jackson back to his family. Now she was strangely connected to his family. But she liked it and wanted it to stay that way.

I hope this answers a few questions I left open and hanging. If not let me know and they can be fixed too.