Seeking Sara Summers by Susan Gabriel

totally at peace in her surroundings.”
    Sara couldn’t imagine being that peaceful. They sat on the bench across from the fountain. The fountain trickled a steady accompaniment to their silence.
    “This is an amazing garden,” Sara said finally. “The only thing I grow really well in my garden at home is weeds.” Her half-hearted laugh died quickly.
    “I had a dream about you the other day,” Julia said.
    “Really?” Sara said. This intrigued her.
    “It had something to do with this fountain.” Julia paused as if to retrieve the details.
    “You were sitting right over there, at the Virgin’s feet.” She pointed and then smiled as if remembering more.
    “I love that you dreamed about me here.” Sara walked over to the edge of the fountain near where Julia had seen her in the dream and dropped to her knees. She let her fingertips fall into the water. Her hand swept the gentle currents as water rippled outward. “Several times since I’ve been here,” Sara said. “I’ve felt like I’ve dreamed it before. Kind of like déjà vu. Do you believe that’s possible?”
    “It seems as plausible as anything else,” Julia said.
    For several seconds they watched the fountain. Then Julia turned to watch her. “You’re so beautiful sitting there,” Julia said to Sara. “It’s like you and the woman in the fountain belong together.”
    Sara turned away, hiding the pleasure she felt by this remark. Did Julia call her beautiful?
    “I guess I do believe in déjà vu,” Julia continued, “because the scene is almost exactly what I dreamed. The only difference was that in the dream, you took a handful of water and poured it over your head, like you were baptizing yourself.”
    “Well, let’s do this right, then,” Sara said. She raised her face to the woman in stone and scooped up a handful of water. Then she tilted her head back and let the droplets fall on her forehead. “Like this?” she asked. She would have done anything for Julia at that moment.
    When Sara turned back to see if Julia approved, the expression on Julia’s face was one she had never seen before. She looked both curious and pleased, as if she was seeing Sara for the first time.
    Yet something about the look made Sara feel uncomfortable. She was used to being invisible; now Julia had seen her. At the same time something about this moment made everything she had been through in the last year feel worthwhile and she would have been willing to go through it all again if it meant she would end up in this same place.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER TEN
     
    Sara wiped the water from her face and then wiped her hands on her pants. “Grady would think I’ve gone nuts,” she said, wondering why she would choose to bring up Grady at that moment, except that the thought of him was guaranteed to sober her.
    “Grady always was a little too predictable for me,” Julia said. “Sorry,” she added, as though she realized she was talking about Sara’s husband.
    “No, it’s true,” Sara said. “He’s still like that. But what’s sad is that I’ve been that predictable too, Jules.”
    “I haven’t heard that name in thirty years.”
    “Sorry,” she said.
    “No, I love it. It’s the only nickname I’ve ever had.”
    A bird flew in and sat on one of the open arms of the statue. Sara thought again of the sparrows in the home improvement store. She was one of them and she had gotten away.
    “I wonder if she finds us humorous,” Julia said, looking up at the Madonna. “We worry about such trivial things.”
    “Like noses,” Sara said, running a finger along the slight crook. “I hate to think of how much time I’ve wasted hating my nose.”
    “You have a great nose,” Julia said.
    “You’ve always said that. But best friends lie, don’t they?”
    “Not about the important things.” They laughed with the lightness of girls.  
    “You’re different somehow, from when you first arrived,” Julia said.
    “Because I’m