Fall.

The air always swayed differently around this time. It wasn't still like summer, it was constantly moving and brushing against my skin and hugging me and leaving me as if it were always in a hurry. The air never liked to stay by my side like it did in the summer. In the summer it was warm sticking to me and rising and falling. But now, the fall, as the leaves darkened and crumpled to the ground, the air felt a change in pace. It felt the need to come and go and never stay long. But I liked the wind, as it created a soothing barrier around me as it decided to leave. I wanted to hug the wind, if it only it wanted to stay.

After a long morning of tending the fields and feeding the animals, I walked back into my home to the permeating sound of the phone ringing. Surprised, I reached over for it and picked it up, trying to think about who could be on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Chelsea?" the familiar voice said.

I managed to breathe a smile. "Hi, Sophia!"

"Oh, Chels! How is it all over there? Has anyone said anything to you yet?"

Should I tell her about Mark? "Nope, everything has been fine on this end. No one knows a thing." Oops.

"Wow, that's phenomenal! Look at that, my sissy, the actress. You'll win awards one day for the things you've done."

"Yeah yeah," I murmured. "So why'd you call?"

"I just wanted to check in, is that so bad?"

"Well, you haven't checked in all summer."

She paused for a second.

I sighed, "You want to tell me how your trip is so far, don't you?"

She squealed in joy on the other side of the line. "Yeee you know me so well! It's soooo ah-maaaazinggg. The boat is absolutely adorable but it's so large! And Tina and I have been going to bars every night and you would not believe how many numbers I've collected in a single night. Go on, guess. It's a new record!"

"I dunno, eleven?" I leaned against the wall, uninterested.

"Seventeen!" she screamed.

"And you're not going to do anything with any of those, right?" I raised an eyebrow at her. I did know her incredibly well, didn't I?

"Not true, love," she said cheerfully. "I called back three of them. Two of them just to say that I wasn't interested and one of them Tina and I are meeting tonight!"

"Wait, both of you?" I was curious now.

"Ya huh! You see, the man was always curious how a three—"

"Stop," I shook the thoughts out of my head. "I think I've heard enough. Besides the guys you're meeting at the bars, how are the sites you're seeing? Are they pretty?"

"Oh my Chelsea you'd be having a field day over here. It's all up your alley; they have beautiful buildings and the architecture is so vintage-y and even the little vehicles they all drive around are so petite!"

How I would kill to be there at this moment.

"I'm glad you're having such a fun time, Soph," I said half-heartedly.

"Thank you thank you!" she squeaked. "However, I better get running. I also sent you a picture in the mail. I think you'll get a kick out of it; I found it in my suitcase and I figured you'd enjoy it a lot more than I would. It might come within the next few days, so treasure it with your life, okay?"

I smiled. "Of course, Sophia."

"Welp, I better get running. The boat's about to leave the dock, meaning I'm going to have to get off the phone. I'll call you again soon, okay darling? Love you lots!"

And she quickly hung up the phone before I could get in a goodbye.

I stood by the phone for a few minutes and pondered on the conversation I just had with my sister. It was strange hearing her voice since I hadn't for such a long time, also considering the fact that I've been playing off as her. But she said she sent me something in the mail and I was pretty eager to receive it. I couldn't totally think what she could've possibly have found in that suitcase. Within that moment, I started punching a familiar number into the number pad and waited as the phone rung on the other end.

I kept the phone in between my ear and my shoulder, tapping my fingers against the wall and looking across and out the window. Finally, a soothing voice eased through the receiver.

"Hello?" my mother's sweet voice cooed.

"Hi Mom," I said happily.

"Chelsea, is that you?" she wondered. "Where have you been?! I haven't heard from you in so long and you had me worried sick!"

"I'm sorry Mom," I sighed, "that was completely my own fault. Things just took control over here."

"What is Sophia making you do over there?" she was persistent.

"Mom…" I slid down the wall, sitting on the floor. I pressed my free hand on my forehead. "I'm gonna be here for awhile."

"Chelsea, what is going on? Put your sister on the phone right now."

"I can't exactly do that."

"What do you mean?" she was growing angry.

I hit my head against the wall. It was a small pain that I easily ignored. "Sophia's on a cruise with Tina for the rest of the year. I'm here pretending to be her."

"What?!"

"Mom, don't be mad. I willingly did it. And I actually really like it here. The people are really nice."

"But…"

"Mom," I tried to relax her. She could get angry very quickly; especially knowing that Sophia was behind the madness. She loved both of us equally; she just knew that Sophia was destined for trouble. I tried to soothe her as best as possible over the phone, and she quieted down.

"Mom," I started again, "I'm okay with this. I mean, I wasn't originally, but I am now. The people are being really nice to me, and I'm enjoying this time to just live off on my own for once. I'm taking this experience as a good thing. I've made some close friends within the past season, and if you don't mind, I'd like to take Soph's offer and stay here until next summer."

She sighed over the phone. I waited impatiently as I guarantee she was thinking about it deeply. Over and over she was hearing the same words in her head, pondering in a circle all of the positives and negatives and the consequences and outcomes of this. Within that moment, there was a knock on the door. I covered my hand on the receiver and shouted, "It's open!" and continued to wait for my mom to finish talking.

I expected it to be Mark or Julia, but Vaughn ended up passing through the door. He glimpsed over at me for a second. He noticed the phone in my hand, and he politely sat himself down at my kitchen table. He patiently waited for me as I waited for my mother to speak. He placed something down on the table, and I was curious to see what it was, but my mother began speaking again.

"Chelsea, I really don't think this is a good idea," she finally said.

I hoped she wasn't too loud on the phone. Sometimes she had a loud voice and other people could hear her on the phone from the other side of the room. I just hoped today wasn't one of those times.

"It's fine, Mom," I reassured her. "I'm not complaining, and I'm happy. Will you be happy for me?"

She paused once more. I couldn't help but give a frustrated sigh as I waited for her.

"I suppose I can try to accept it," she mumbled. "But you'll be home within a year's time?"

"First day of summer, Mom," I smiled. I knew she couldn't see it, but I hope she could feel it from over the phone. "Everything will be okay. But I have someone here, so can I call you back later?"

"That's fine," she said. "Don't leave me hanging for an entire season without knowing what's happening, okay? You had me so worried."

"Won't happen again," I laughed. "Bye Mom."

"Bye, darling."

And with that, we both hung up. I looked at the phone on the receiver for a second, and then finally brought my attention back to the guest sitting in my home. When I looked over at him, he was looking at me. He actually had two things out on the table in front of him. One was the last dose of medicine Pearl was going to be getting. And the other was a package. It wasn't in a box, but it was wrapped up in a blue and white paper and you could tell there was bubble wrap on the inside. It was rectangular and pretty small.

"What was the phone call about?" he wondered. Never had he really started a conversation first with me. It was an interesting feeling, especially since he was asking me about my life.

"It was just my mom," I laughed, "being motherly and whatnot. Just getting nervous for me and silly things like that. No big deal."

I tried to draw the conversation away from the phone call since there was no way I could truly talk about it with him without exposing myself. Instead, I just pointed to the packaged that he was playing with with his left hand. "What's that package for?"

"I found it on your front stoop as I was walking up," he said. He picked it up and handed it to me. "Here."

I took it from him. There was no return address, just Sophia's name scribbled in sharpie on the top and the address of Sunshine Islands. Just by the way "Sophia" was signed, I knew it was my sister. And this must've been the thing she was talking about on the phone. I wasn't expecting it to be here today, but I guess she must've sent it out a few days ago. I quickly tore it open, and my heart sunk to the ground.

It was a beautiful wooden frame. It was painted black along the edges, but overall it was a musky dark brown wood. It stooped inward toward the picture, and the picture made me smile. It was an old picture from a disposable camera from a few years ago, back when Sophia and I were both living back home and we were in high school. We had a bonfire set up in our backyard. It was something we always did the start of every summer. She was sitting down in a fold up chair, a fuzzy, dark red blanket draped over her legs. I was over her, and I had my arms wrapped around her chest. Our heads were nuzzled into each other, my cheek right against her hair. We looked identical. She brought one of her hands up to hold my arm and we smiled as my mom took the picture of us. It was a tradition the three of us did when the three of us were all around. I couldn't explain how it got in the suitcase, I can't remember which summer that was and why it was being carried around. But Sophia decided to send it back to me. And I couldn't be happier.

"A picture?" he asked.

I nodded, and gave it to him to look at. "Me and my sister."

He took it, as he furrowed his eyebrows. "I wasn't aware that you had a sister."

My eyes widened for a second, my heart stopping. I played it off as if it were nothing, though. "Yeah, I don't bring it up much."

He stared down at it, as I watched the expression on his face change. "Twins. You're twins."

"Yeah," I said. "That's me, and that's her." I was pointing to the picture. But this time I honestly pointed to myself. "H-her name is Chelsea."

"You've never mentioned her," he said again.

"I know," I sighed. "I've just never had a reason to bring her up. So… I didn't."

Wow, making lies for Sophia is so difficult sometimes. It kinda hurt that she never mentioned me, either…

He shrugged. He stood up, and said, "Let's go give your horse her last bit of medicine" and made his way toward the door. And I couldn't help but scurry right behind him as we made the way towards the barn.

We walked in and I had never seen Pearl look as happy as she did right now. She looked like she wasn't sick, but of course, she needed to take her last dose of medicine to ensure that it doesn't come back any time soon. We both walked up to her, and the look in her eyes was nothing shy of glad.

"You should feed her the medicine today," Vaughn said.

"What?" I looked at him. "No, I couldn't—"

"She is your horse," he said. "You should do it this time so she can trust you more."

I nodded, and took the medicine from his hand. I looked at Pearl, and held my hand out. She sniffed it, and I fed it to her, petting her snout and calming her as she ingested it. I knew she hated it, it was awful, and it was obvious after every time eating it. But she calmed down a lot quicker this time, as I pet her snout and hushed her and stroked her hair. Within a few minutes, everything was okay. She was okay. I was okay. And this was over.

"All done," I said. I looked at Vaughn, giving him a smile. I tried my best not to make it a sad smile. I had to be honest; I was going to miss our encounters. I was going to miss him coming ever Monday. It almost gave us a reason to talk. I felt like after today, when he walked off my property that was going to be it. Pearl was the one reason why he would come here and talk to me, and listen to me, and converse with me. I didn't care if it was forced; I enjoyed it. I appreciated his company.

"Thanks for this, Vaughn," I sighed. "It means a lot that you came here every week to help heal Pearl."

"It's my job," he said flatly. "I have to go, though." He looked urgent.

"Is something wrong?" I wondered.

"Julia's just sick. She has a really high fever. I need to be there for her and Mirabelle."

"Julia?" I said. "I have to come with you!"

"You don't…"

"It's Julia. I need to be there for her."

He sighed, but he wouldn't argue with me. So we walked down in silence back to Mirabelle's and when I opened the door, I immediately made my way past Vaughn and went into the back bedroom to look for Julia.

She was in bed, the blankets tucked right beneath her chin. It looked as if she were strapped into the bed, a wet cloth draped over her forehead. She had her eyes partially closed due to fatigue. She was sweating, yet she was shivering at the same time. I looked into her baby blue eyes as I approached her and it was obvious she was weak. I knelt by her bedside. She gave me a faint smile, trying to show she was happy as I was here.

"Mirabelle," I called for her. She was on the other side of the bed and I didn't even realize. "What does she have?"

"We're not positive," Mirabelle replied softly. "It seems a bit worse than a normal cold or fever so we called in a doctor early this morning. He said he'd be here shortly."

I looked at Mirabelle with wide eyes. "How early this morning?"

Mirabelle thought about it for a second or two before saying, "I wanna say around five this morning? Julia woke up around 4:30 feeling ill, and after about a half hour of not being able to tell what it was, we called the doctor. He should bere here soon…"

And within that instant, there was a knock on the door.

I froze in place. I knew who was on the other side. I felt the world around me freeze as I was paused in a trance of time. I knew which doctor it was. We made a meeting the very first time I came this way towards Sunshine Islands. He was handsome, with hair as dark as midnight and a smile that glowed like the moon. He was enchanting. He was charming in every aspect of the word. He knew both Sophia and Chelsea. He knew us separately.

I cautiously knelt on the ground as I watched Mirabelle scamper around the bed and in the other room to answer the door. My mind was fuzzy and my fingers were trembling and my stomach had sunk into the wooden floor beneath me. I felt my face grow warm and my eyes continue to widen like saucers.

"Sophia, are you okay?" Vaughn looked down at me, narrowing his eyes on me.

But I couldn't answer. I couldn't. Dr. Trent was here and I was stuck dry onto the floor beneath me and all I could do was wonder in fear.