Lost at Dawn

It was an autumn morning, somewhere around six, when I awoke to the sound of a passing train in the distance. After wiping the sleep from my eyes I went and took a quick shower, got dressed, threw on a jacket and took off on my walk. As usual I was going to take my daily walk through town and to the park. Like every morning I expected it to be pretty much uneventful. But that wasn't exactly the case this time.

So I walked to the park and, as expected, the streets on the way were empty as they would be in any small town. All was pretty much silent. Sure, there was the random person driving off to work but, other than that, this place had the same old small town feel off emptiness to it. As I finally made my way to the park I walked down to the track, near the bleachers, and noticed someone was sitting there alone. It was sort of strange but I made nothing of it since this was a public place. Then, as I was beginning to walk around the track, I heard her call my name.

"Brian," She said.

It was freaky enough to see a person sitting out here alone but then to hear them call my name. Especially given the time of day made it even stranger. Plus she was someone, looking around the age of seventeen, whom I've never met before. Not exactly the age of people I hung out with.

"Do I know you?" I asked.
"No, not really. But I want to ask you something." At that moment I became a bit nervous yet cautiously walked up to her.
That's when I noticed she was soaking wet even though the weather had been clear all night long.

For a few short moments I felt really tense and everything seemed even more surreal. She then spoke up again and proceeded to tell me how she was looking for her brother. She then asked where she was. I told her where and she just gave a slight nod without saying much as if that wasn't the answer she wanted.

Details are a bit fuzzy but I remembering getting up and walking around the track, as I planned to do when I first arrived, a few times. Each time I passed she was still there sitting on those worn bleachers under the shelter. She'd done a little bit of pacing but never left from that area. Nearly half an hour passed and the light of the sun was beginning to illuminate from below the horizon off to the east.

That's when I stopped walking around the track and walked towards the girl to ask her a question. "Do you want me to drop you off somewhere to call your family?"
She replied with nothing more than a simple, "No thanks."

As she said that a little boy, who looked around eight, came walking up towards her from behind me. He too was soaking wet. I remember both of them having a similar and solemn look on their face like they were lost. Except his face was a bit pale and I actually became visibly freaked out for a moment. Then again I asked if she wanted me to drive her somewhere to a phone and yet again she declined the offer. I turned around and started to walk off to leave the whole strange situation behind and then felt a strong feeling come over me. Only it didn't feel like it was my own sadness but from the atmosphere itself within the strong scent of moisture of evaporating dew in the air. I got a feeling that I needed to rush back to where the two of them had been. I caught a last glimpse of them as they were walking off and fading out into thin air just before the shallow nearby stream. I ran over to where they just were, not more than two-hundred feet away, and saw no sign of them. Of course, I took it as my eyes playing tricks on me but not completely. There was no sign of them whatsoever and the only thing I heard now was that flow of that stream.

That's when I looked down and noticed a piece of paper. I suspected that she'd left behind the simple, now water-soaked note that said, "Thank You" written in a cursive with a blue pen. A thank you despite the fact that I'd not done a thing for them.
Or so I thought.

In my mind I began to rewind over all the small talk we had and the little things she said. She mentioned a few times on how she was, "trying to make it" while gesturing towards the west side of the park. I also remember how the sadness stood out in her eyes the whole time. Which, in itself, gave me a shiver. That's also when the letter of her first name came to me. It started with an "E". Then another detail I remembered was that the air had a strange flowery scent on top of the damp smell. Even though there were no flowers planted anywhere in the park. Plus, given the season, all the flowers were dead anyway.

A few weeks passed as I did research, when I had the time, about the event and the two I'd seen. Over those weeks strange events kept occurring. Or, at least, I kept thinking things felt strange. Many things began to feel like they'd happened before. Deja Vu if you will. Then, one day, I was walking into Wal-Mart when I saw one of the workers removing a missing person's sign from a display case. It was the same boy and girl I'd seen at the park not even a month earlier who obviously must've been found in one way or another. I took a glance at their names and wrote them down.

When I got home I did a quick search on google and a site turned up information that they'd been in an accident and their car had flipped off the side of an old bridge while dodging a deer. The car went off the edge and landed roof down into the water below. Which led to the two of them drowning and no one could see the car due to the area being surrounded by trees. That area was on the other side of the stream right before the small dam. The car and their bodies were discovered by a fisherman.

As I thought harder I remember. I found her brother behind the store walking up towards the train tracks behind the place as a train was coming closer. I grabbed him, took him by hand and brought him back to where he said his sister was. When i got there she was flipping car keys in her hand hardly paying attention still. That's when I overhead that she didn't have enough money to pay for all of the fuel she put into her car. A dollar if I remember correctly. I then told her about spotting her brother walking up towards the train tracks. Now, as the train passed. i offered to pay the the remaining amount of the cost of the fuel. That's when I found out her name was Elizabeth and also when I told her mine.

She smiled, gave me a hug and said a simple, "Thank you". Then she got into the car with her brother and drove off.

That moment would've been only minutes later when her and her brother got into the accident. Right before the sun rose over the valley to fade the fog.

I'll never forget that her last act of affection and contact in this world was with me, twice, and woke me up to the world beyond this one.