Ping - From the Apocalypse by Susan Lowry Page B

with a terrible feeling that his time was running out.

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