It was mid-December and the perfect weather for lounging around the house watching Christmas movies. Lou was snuggled on one end of the couch in a fluffy blanket and fuzzy socks. Her eyes were locked on the extra-sappy and sweet scene on the screen. On the other end of the couch, her mom was wrapped in an oversized-sweater that was complete with pompoms and sewn on lights. Mrs. Hockhauser sipped from her mug of hot chocolate, which was more of a cold chocolate by then. Between the two of them was Lou's older brother, who had his Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer slippers kicked up on the coffee table between two emptied mugs.
"This movie's stupid," Billy, Lou's brother complained as he grabbed a handful of homemade kettle corn from the bowl in his lap.
Lou rolled her eyes and replied, "You've said that about every movie we've watched so far."
"Cause it's true," Billy said between munches. Crumbs fell onto his flannel shirt.
"Ew, you eat like Pignelope."
"Bacon doesn't need a name, Lou," Billy replied with more crumbs falling from his chin.
"You take that back!"
"Shh! Hush up, you two!" Mrs. Hockhauser shushed them as she waved her hand in their direction while keeping her eyes on the television. "They're about to kiss!"
"Gross," Billy mumbled, but he kept his eyes on the couple and the corner of his lip turned upward for the beginnings of a smile.
"Cute," Lou cooed as she watched the couple embrace. It was the third romantic holiday movie she had watched that day, but her reaction was still a goofy smile and a passing thought of the person she always tried hardest not to think about.
Heavy footsteps approached the back of the couch, and Lou looked up to see her father dusted with snow. Two of her younger brothers, who were also sprinkled with frost, ran up the stairs.
"Y'all still watching movies?" Mr. Hockhauser asked as he squinted at the screen. "Billy, what done happened?"
"Same 'ol," Billy replied in a bored tone as he grabbed more popcorn.
"Something more than that," Mr. Hockhauser encouraged as he ruffled Billy's messy hair.
"Aww, tell him, Billy," Mrs. Hockhauser said as she nudged her son's shoulder and smiled.
Lou knew why her parents wanted Billy to talk. They got that way every year around Christmas because that's when the incident with Hank had happened. When Billy was ten years old and Lou was eight, her dog bit off part of Billy's tongue on Christmas Eve. Hank had been a large, rough-housing pup when it had happened. Billy had to undergo surgery and would go through periods of time without much talking. Now, years later, Billy was no longer a kid and Hank had passed away last year.
"Just tell um about the movie so we can watch the next one," Lou demanded as she grabbed the bowl of kettle corn from his hands, making some popped kernels fall onto the couch.
"Naw, we're not watching another one of these mushy movies," Billy argued as he snatched the bowl back from her. More kernels fell. "We're watching Die Hard."
"No way! It's old and it's not even a Christmas movie." Lou took a handful of popcorn and tossed it at her brother. "We're watching Last Christmas."
Billy caught some of the kernels in his palm and tossed them back at her. "Why do we have to watch these lovey dovey movies cause you're lonelier than a barn owl in winter?"
Lou glared at her brother. She wanted to argue back that she wasn't lonely and that she didn't want her life to be like the cheesy movies they were watching, but she couldn't get the words out.
"I thought she had that boyfriend at camp?" Mr. Hockhauser said and Lou's eyes widened. "You know, that boy she's always talking about. The one who's Emma's brother."
"Ravi, dear," Mrs. Hockhauser said.
"Yep, that's him," her husband nodded.
"Ravi," Billy said in a teasing tone as he wiggled his eyebrows at Lou.
Lou felt her face heat up. She tossed another handful of popcorn at her brother and said in as calm a voice as she could muster, "He's not my boyfriend."
Mr. Hockhauser ignored his daughter's comment and laughed, "So is no one gonna tell me about the movie?"
Billy sighed dramatically and explained, "Some gal was in love with some dude and she wrote him a letter or something and then he reads it and they kiss. Oh yeah, and there was a Christmas tree."
"It was so romantic," Lou said above a whisper. An image of the postcard on her desk upstairs flashed in her mind, making her heart do a backflip. She quickly squashed the thought.
Mr. Hockhauser hummed and said, "Welp, I need a nap."
Billy got up from the couch and said, "I need a sandwich." He strolled toward the kitchen.
"I want a sandwich!" Lou called over her shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah," Billy hollered back.
Mrs. Hockhauser offered her nearly empty mug to her husband, who accepted it and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He smiled at his daughter and then walked out of the living room. Lou kicked off her fuzzy blanket and then started collecting the popcorn kernels she had spilled.
"That sure was a cute movie, huh, Lou Lou," Mrs. Hockhauser said as she plucked a few kernels from the couch cushions.
"Yup."
"It seemed familiar though...didn't it?"
Lou glanced at her mother, who was giving her a suspicious look. Lou was sure she knew where this was going. She propped the bowl on the table and dumped the collected kernels into an empty hot chocolate mug without answering her mom.
"We watched it the other night when your aunt came over," Mrs. Hockhauser said with an overly dramatic nod. "It was your pick that night. And you picked it again today."
Lou remained calm on the outside, although she was freaking out on the inside. She shrugged as she sank back into the couch cushions. "It's a cute movie about the mail. Who doesn't like the mail? And Christmas letters? What's taking Billy so long with that sandwich?"
Mrs. Hockhauser tapped her chin and leaned into the opposite end of the couch. She hummed and said, "Didn't I see you with a postcard yesterday?"
Lou felt her face heat up again. She had purchased the extra item at the market yesterday, but she hadn't thought that her mom had noticed the postcard.
"The woman in that movie wrote a letter to a special someone. Maybe you are gonna write a letter to a special someone?" Mrs. Hockhauser continued to push the subject, ignoring the embarrassment on her daughter's face. "A someone named Ravi?"
"What was that, Billy!" Lou shouted, hoping up from the couch. "I think he needs my help," she said to her mom before rushing out of the living room.
When Lou got to the kitchen she plopped down at the round table and settled her forehead on a plaid placemat. There were crayons and paper all over the table. Her youngest brother sat across from her working on a drawing. Billy carried over three plates with ham and cheese sandwiches.
Lou lifted her head and picked up her sandwich to break it in half. She looked at the clutter on the table as she bit into her lunch. Her eyes widened when they landed on a postcard near a pack of washable markers. She reached for it, but Billy had spotted it too and picked it up before she could.
"A postcard?" he said as he flipped it around. He asked his brother, "You make this?"
Their little brother shook his head no and continued his drawing of a penguin dragging a baseball bat. Lou plucked the postcard from Billy's hand and stood up from the table.
"It's mine. Thanks for the sandwich," Lou said quickly. She collected her plate and almost made it out of the kitchen. Almost.
"Oh! That's why you keeping watching that movie," Billy loudly said. He smirked. "You're gonna write a love note to that guy."
"Ravi Ross!" her youngest brother squealed and made kissy faces in her direction. "She talks to him on the phone!"
Lou wanted to sink into the kitchen floor. She argued, "I'm not writing anyone a love note. That's sillier than a moose in a clown costume!"
"You are!" Billy laughed. He turned to their little brother and added, "She is!"
"I'm not! And I don't like Ravi! He's just my friend." She narrowed her eyes at him. "And aren't you a little old to be picking on me, Billy?"
"We'll be eighty and I'm still gonna pick on you."
Lou rolled her eyes and left the kitchen. She went straight to her room, making sure to shut the door behind her. She balanced her plate on a stack of comic books on her desk and sat down with the postcard in her hand. It had a snowman holding up mistletoe with his twig arms and the snowflakes that fell around him were shaped like hearts. When she saw it at the market yesterday, the Christmas movie she had watched with her mom and aunt had popped into her mind immediately. She couldn't stop herself from buying it. But she knew there was no way she'd ever send it to Ravi. She couldn't even admit to herself that she…
Her door sprang open and her younger brothers ran into the room. Her mom stuck her head around the corner and smiled, saying, "It's flag football time!"
Flag football in the snow had been a Hockhauser family tradition for as long as she could remember. All of her relatives from around town would gather at her parents' farm and they would split up into two teams and play. It was supposed to be no-contact flag football, but it'd inevitably end up turning into a tackle game because everyone in her family was super competitive.
Lou rounded up her brothers and made sure everyone had on their coats, mittens, and hats. They ran out to the field behind the barn and met up with all her relatives. Her uncle already had a grill set up and the air smelled like grilled meat. Some of her cousins were stringing lights on the fence and loudly singing Christmas carols.
Lou was named captain of her team and strategically made her picks for players. Billy was captain of the other team. As always, it started off fun and silly and then escalated into an intense competition with the elderly adults shouting insults from the sidelines and the younger children laughing at all the chaos. Lou's team was ahead by several points and she made sure to remind her older brother every time she ran past him.
"Prepare to lose, Basement Boy," Lou taunted her brother as they got in position to start the next play.
"Hey, you know I'm only in the basement until my idea with toilet paper takes off!" Billy scoffed. He smirked and said, "Make sure you tell your boyfriend how badly you lost in this game when you write your little love note."
"Ooo, is it Ravi? She's always talking about him!" one of Lou's cousins commented, standing in a defense position on the field.
Lou narrowed her eyes at Billy. She said, "The doctors should've sewn your mouth shut instead of sewing your tongue back on."
"The doctors fixed my talking, but who's gonna fix you being a chicken?"
"That's it! You're going down."
There was a clash of relatives as the game resumed. Flags flew in the air and bodies hit the snow. Lou tried to focus on rushing through the cold December air with the football tucked in her arms, but a nagging feeling in her gut had her distracted. Why did everyone think she wanted to date Ravi? She refused to let anyone, including herself, think that she liked Ravi or that he liked her. She needed to rip up that postcard. She needed to bury whatever feeling had made her buy it in the first place. She needed to pay attention to the game.
But it was too late. She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Billy barreling toward her. Her breath caught in her throat as he tackled her. Both of her feet were airborne before she landed on her back in the snow.
Lou's eyes fluttered open to a view of her ceiling fan. She groaned as she twisted in her bed. Groggily, she scooted her sore back up against her headboard and looked around the room. Her stuffed woodchuck was on the dresser and her dirty laundry was in a pile by the closet. She wondered why there were no younger brothers digging through her desk supplies or her tool box.
"Boys!" she called out. She waited for giggling and the sound of feet rushing down the hallway but her call was only met with silence.
She glanced down at her clothes. Her winter coat had been removed and tossed onto the back of the chair by her desk. She was now wearing flannel pajamas instead of her outdoor gear.
"Ma!" she called out.
She crawled to the end of her bed and looked out the window. The night sky was grey. She leaned back on her heels and shouted, "Pa!"
Everything seemed too quiet to be December at the Hockhauser house. There should be screaming kids and laughing cousins and blaring televisions. She climbed out of bed and went to stand in front of the opened door of her bedroom.
"Y'all here?" she shouted from the doorway.
"I'm here."
Startled by the sound of an unfamiliar voice, Lou spun around and shrieked. Standing in the middle of her room was a faceless figure with a torso made of bright light. She sped out into the hallway and slammed the door shut behind her.
"What in the Sam Hill!"
Her back was pressed against the wall, which was colder than she'd ever remembered it being. It felt like being inside a freezer. She stared with wide eyes at the closed door. Her breaths were short and loud as they echoed in the dimly lit hallway. Beads of sweat made her hair stick to her forehead.
Knock knock knock.
Lou's stomach dropped to her toes at the sound of the three knocks on her door. She clenched her fists and asked in a shaky voice, "Who is it?" She shut her eyes and grimaced. She whispered to herself, "Am I seriously asking that?"
"Lou, you can come back in here."
Lou unclenched her fists. Confusion clouded her face as she took a step away from the wall. The voice was different this time. It sounded familiar. But it wasn't a voice she was used to hearing in the middle of winter. Lou cautiously stepped forward. Her heart pounded as she gripped the handle to the door. Slowly she opened it and stepped inside. There, standing in the middle of her bedroom, was Tiffany in a frilly, gold dress that sparkled like Christmas lights.
"Tiffany?" Lou asked with her voice full of disbelief. "What? What are you doing here? What's going on?"
"Sorry! I didn't mean to freak you out earlier. I forgot to change into something a little less ethereal. Is this better? I feel pretty like this."
Lou snatched Mr. Woodchuck from her dresser and held it up like a weapon. "Who are you!" she demanded.
"Right, formal introductions. Hello, I'm a soulmate spirit. There's no translation for my name in your human language, which by the way is so limiting. I don't know how you deal."
"A what?"
"A. Soulmate. Spirit."
Lou continued to clutch the woodchuck weapon. "Why do you look and sound like Tiffany?"
"To keep you from freaking out. Or trying to keep you from freaking out. Look, put down the stuffed rodent. We don't have a lot of time before the next soulmate spirit shows up."
Lou's shoulders were still tense, but she lowered the woodchuck slightly. She glanced at her mirror to make sure the person in front of her also showed up. Her disheveled reflection was there along with Spirit Tiffany's. She turned back and questioned, "What in the bumbling bee is a soulmate spirit?"
"We're the unsung cosmic heroes that make sure the stars born of true love are formed in the universe!" Spirit Tiffany said with pride.
"Huh?"
Spirit Tiffany sighed and explained, "We make sure soulmates don't make stupid mistakes that risk them losing each other. If soulmates don't end up together then certain stars in the universe don't form."
"That definitely doesn't sound like something that Tiffany would say," Lou mumbled.
"Look, I'm a soulmate spirit of the past, so I show up first. Next is a soulmate spirit of the present and then a soulmate spirit of the future. And all three are going to visit you tonight."
Lou lowered and hugged Mr. Woodchuck to her chest. "Great, my stupid brother made me clonk my head and now I'm in A Christmas Carol?" She frowned. "And I'm Ebenezer Scrooge in all this? Are the ghosts mad that I was about to win another family football game? I'd let him win, but it's just too dang fun winning!"
Spirit Tiffany facepalmed. "Are you not listening? I told you: I'm a soulmate spirit. This has nothing to do with your silly football game. We're talking about your happiness. Also, do not call me a ghost. I never died therefore I'm not a ghost."
"My bad," Lou apologized, loosening her grip on Mr. Woodchuck. "And you mentioned my happiness?"
Spirit Tiffany walked over to Lou's desk and flipped through a book. She said, "This is our busiest season of the year. Humans make a bunch of dumb mistakes during Christmastime."
"I'd be more offended if I wasn't still freaked out," Lou said as she watched Spirit Tiffany rummage through her stuff.
"Well, it's true. And it can end up costing people their soulmates. Which means no stars which means a less than perfect universe and who wants that?" Spirit Tiffany picked up the postcard on the desk and held it up. "That's why soulmate spirits exist. Our job is to keep you on the right path to your soulmate. So, like I said, tonight you'll be visited by three soulmate spirits. We will show you the past, the present, and the future in order to persuade you to send this postcard to Ravi."
Mr. Woodchuck hit the carpet with a thud when he dropped from Lou's arms. Her stare was wide and her mouth gaped. Spirit Tiffany hopped off the desk and waved her arms in front of Lou.
"Hello! Anyone home in there? Oh no! Did I break this one too?" She gasped.
Lou stammered, "This is crazy."
Spirit Tiffany let out a breath of relief. "Okay, good. You're still with me. This doesn't have to be difficult, you know. All you have to do is admit your true feelings for him; admit that he has feelings for you; and be willing to send the postcard. Easy! Soulmates united and true love prevails."
The dumbstruck look was erased from Lou's face and she narrowed her eyes at Tiffany. She huffed, "Ravi and I are not soulmates or true love or anything."
"So, not easy," Spirit Tiffany sighed. She tossed the postcard onto the desk. "To the past it is."
"I'm not going anywhere but downstairs for a cup of cocoa," Lou said with an attitude. "And maybe a sandwich."
She marched out of her room and into the hallway. Except her hallway was no longer her hallway. The air was warm and smelled like overgrown grass.
"What in the…" Lou muttered.
She spun around in the center of the Great Lawn at Camp Kikiwaka. The camp flag waved in the breeze on the flagpole. Campers tossed a ball back and forth by the picnic table. Counselors carried fishing poles and chatted as they walked past. Spirit Tiffany appeared beside Lou looking unbothered by the change.
"Welcome to the Camp Kikiwaka of your past! So, do you want to go ahead and admit that you have feelings for Ravi or do we have to go through a whole thing?"
Lou stopped looking around the Great Lawn to glare at Spirit Tiffany. She folded her arms and said, "I don't have feelings for…" She nervously glanced around at all the campers. She shuffled closer to Spirit Tiffany and whispered, "... that person you wrongly think is my soulmate."
Spirit Tiffany sighed and waved for Lou to follow her. She explained, "No one can hear or see you."
"Really? Am I a ghost too?" Lou asked as she followed closely behind. "Or spirit thing? Whatever you called yourself."
"You're not a ghost because you're not dead. But if you keep annoying me or call me a ghost again then I can change that," Spirit Tiffany warned. She walked through a camper as if he were air.
Lou scrunched her nose and replied, "Shesh. You're snappy like Tiffany."
"Then Tiffany must be a delight. And I'm happy to appear in her image."
Lou rolled her eyes. She followed Spirit Tiffany around the lake. There were a bunch of empty row boats pulled up to the dock and a couple of abandoned fishing poles on the shore. As they continued walking, some campers sauntered by wearing fishing hats and carrying bait.
"If this is the past… then we are when?" Lou asked.
Spirit Tiffany didn't answer. She continued down a path between some trees until they reached the quietest part of the lake. Lou gasped. In front of her, sitting at the edge of the lake, were herself and Ravi. It had been four days since the last time she had seen him during a video chat, so her heart couldn't help but smile at the sight of him. She squashed the feeling immediately.
"Two years ago. This is the day that you finally caught Big Whiskers," Spirit Tiffany said. She smirked at Lou and added, "And you started catching feelings."
"Did not," Lou muttered as she walked closer to herself and Ravi at the edge of the lake.
"Sorry that we didn't win," Lou said as she looked over at Ravi beside her. They had just walked over to their fishing spot after Gladys announced that there was no winner of the competition because Zuri and Tiffany had cheated.
Tossing a pebble into the lake, he sighed. "It's okay. You were right to let Big Whiskers go," he said of the gigantic catfish they had captured and released. He smiled at her and added, "Besides. I had a lot of fun with you today. Thanks for asking me to be your fishing partner."
"No problem," Lou grinned. "I had fun too."
Ravi picked up another pebble and looked down at it. "Uh, if you don't mind me asking...why did you want to be my fishing partner?"
Lou wiggled her fishing boots as her feet dangled over the grassy ledge. She watched a bird fly over the water. "I like hanging out with you."
He looked up at her and asked, "You do?"
"Yeah," Lou laughed. "Don't look so surprised."
"Sorry, I'm not used to hearing that from girls that I'm not related to. Or even the ones that I am related to."
"You're exaggerating," Lou chuckled.
"Only slightly," he said with a shrug. "And I like hanging out with you too. But you're not surprised by that. Everyone likes you."
"I've got a feeling we're gonna be friends for a really long time, Ravi."
"Me too," he replied with a smile. "So… I assume you go fishing often in your hometown?"
Lou nodded. "Oh, yeah, the Hockhausers are all about their fishing, football, and farming."
"I'm unfamiliar with all of those activities," Ravi admitted as he flipped the pebble over in his hand. "But perhaps we could do those things this summer? You did an excellent job showing me how to fish today."
"Except for the part when I went nuts and ate a bunch of flies unnecessarily?"
"I don't think that'll be a problem with football," Ravi chuckled. His face turned serious and he asked, "At least I don't think so."
Lou rolled her eyes, but she smiled.
He glanced at the time on his watch. "We better get back to the mess hall." Lou agreed and they both stood. He held out the pebble in his hand and said, "Here. You should keep this as a reminder of the day you finally caught Big Whiskers. I know he was important to you."
Her fingertips brushed against his as she took the pebble from his hand. Her face heated up and she smiled at him. "Thanks, Ravi."
Lou watched her past-self and past-Ravi walk back toward camp. She thought she had remembered everything about that day, but she hadn't realized that her face had lit up over the memento he had given her. She still kept that pebble in a jewelry box in her room.
"You see it. Don't you?" Spirit Tiffany said with a knowing look. "He gave you some random rock off the ground and then boom. Heart eyes."
"I did not give him heart eyes," Lou spluttered. She tugged on the long-sleeve of her pajamas and looked up at the blue sky. "I just appreciated the gesture...from one friend to another friend."
"Really," Spirit Tiffany said flatly. She moved closer along the grassy ledge and motioned for Lou to follow. "So, you won't admit that this is the day your crush started?"
"There's nothing to admit because there is no crush," Lou said stubbornly.
"Fibber!"
Lou yelped as Spirit Tiffany shoved her over the ledge. Lou braced herself for the splash and rush of water up her nose, but it never came. Instead, she landed softly in the wildflower field behind the Camp Kikiwaka library.
"Was that really necessary?" she looked up and asked Spirit Tiffany.
Spirit Tiffany shrugged. She was still in her frilly, golden dress, but now she was also wearing a crown of wildflowers.
Lou looked around the field. She spotted the past-versions of herself and Ravi among the flowers. She stood up and dusted off her flannel pajamas. "Why are we watching me pick flowers?" she asked.
"This is the day you go from crushing on him to being crazy about him," Spirit Tiffany explained as they walked closer to the past-version of Lou.
"I don't...there's no…" Lou stammered with embarrassment. She fiddled with her hair and wouldn't make eye-contact with Spirit Tiffany.
"Uh, huh. Just watch…"
Lou plucked a long stem with tiny, purple petals along it from the ground. "So, you feel bad about your terrible advice?" She asked without looking at Ravi beside her.
Ravi added a yellow flower to the bundle in his hand. He responded, "My advice was superb. I can't help it if Emma has no appreciation of fine art."
It was the day after the gift exchange between CITs and counselors. Lou and Emma had gone against their better judgement and followed Ravi's advice on what gifts to get each other. He had suggested that Emma give Lou a wild animal, which did not turn out well for Emma. It had escaped before she could even gift it to Lou. And Ravi had suggested that Lou give Emma an arts performance.
"That dance was terrible, Ravi! I mean, it was fun. But even I know it was horrible and I've never even seen an interpretive dance performance in my life!" She plucked another flower from the ground. "And after that I never want to."
"What? You were breathtaking, Lou! Not as good as your choreographer of course, but I've been doing performance art for years."
"Course you have," Lou said flatly. She inspected the bundle in her hand. She was going to need a lot of wildflowers to make the perfume she had decided to make as another attempt at a gift to give Emma.
He handed her the bundle of flowers in his own hands and said, "You were beautiful and your performance was inspiring."
"I was?" she asked and stared at him blankly. "I thought I looked stupid."
"Not to me," he said. He stared back at her. A bee buzzed by in the colorful field of wildflowers. Ravi blinked and then turned away to resume picking flowers. He said, "Emma has no taste. Which is why we must suffer through picking flowers for your perfume."
Lou let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding. She took a few steps away from him and plucked another flower from the ground. She said, "You don't have to help."
"I don't mind. I enjoy your company and it's way better than the alternative. Jorge had chili for breakfast and is currently butt blasting our cabin."
Lou chuckled and searched the grass for the basket she had abandoned earlier. She spotted it by a patch of pink flowers. "Hey, since I tried your interpretive dance thing, you should go to a pig race with me," she said as she packed the basket with flowers.
"You're kidding," Ravi said flatly as he shooed away an insect.
"There's a pig race in town next weekend. I might be able to get Gladys to let me take a couple of campers for a field trip. I could use your help as a CIT."
Ravi sighed and collected more flowers. "I suppose if you truly believe pig races are cultured then I may as well experience it for myself."
"You're going to love it!"
"I doubt it," he replied. He looked away from her, focusing on the flowers. "Plus, it's not like I'm going to turn down an opportunity to spend time with you."
Lou's felt her face heat up at his words. She looked at him longingly as he continued to collect flowers for her perfume. Her heart beat faster and the world looked more colorful than before.
"You actually stand there staring at him for like a full minute," Spirit Tiffany said. "Explain to me how this isn't proof that you know he's the one for you?"
Lou watched the past-version of Ravi pick flowers. She said quietly, "He's a nice guy. And he always seems to have time for me… even when it's stuff I know he has no interest in." She chuckled and said to Spirit Tiffany. "He hated that pig race. He even fell in the mud and whined about it for a week. But he still offered to go with me again."
"Great, now you're staring at him too," Spirit Tiffany said flatly. She snapped her fingers in Lou's face. "Earth to Lou! Are you ready to admit your feelings?"
Lou blinked and turned her attention to Spirit Tiffany. She hunched her shoulders and said, "Okay, maybe I have… a strong appreciation for him."
"No, Lou!"
"What's wrong with that?"
"You have to tell the truth! You have to admit how much you care about him so that you'll send him the postcard telling him how you feel and you don't lose your soulmate!"
Lou cringed at the word: soulmate. It was too much and too scary. Besides Xander, Ravi was the only guy that she wasn't related to that she cared strongly about. Ravi was her friend like Xander was her friend. Except that she didn't have to struggle to not think about Xander all of the time.
"I am telling the truth," Lou said sternly. "I just think of Ravi as a friend." She plopped down in the wildflower field. She laid back and frowned at the blue sky. She shut her eyes. "Take me home, Spirit Tiffany."
"Not until you open your eyes, Lou," Spirit Tiffany said.
Lou opened her eyes. Blue sky no longer stretched above her. She lifted her head from the mess hall table and sat up. There were Christmas decorations all over the Camp Kikiwaka mess hall.
"This isn't my room," Lou pouted.
"No, we're still in the past," Spirit Tiffany said from the table across from her. "And this one calls for some mood music." She stood up to reveal a golden violin. She began to play a beautiful melody.
Lou unhooked an ornament from the massive tree in the mess hall. It was shaped like an angel and glistened with gold glitter. She dropped it into the large box between her and Ravi. "When done good today," she said in a cheerful tone.
"Yes, we showed Griff the joys of Christmas and made a lot of other kids happy, too," Ravi replied. He dropped the handful of plastic candy canes that he had collected from the tree into the box. "As always, we make a fantastic team!"
"You know it!" She said, raising her hand for a high-five.
Their hands clapped and they both laughed. Ravi asked, "Do you remember what we were doing last year around this time?"
"Well, this is my first Christmas in July, so I don't think we were unloading all these ornaments from a tree," Lou said. She glanced around the empty mess hall. "How'd we get stuck being the only ones for clean-up duty?"
Ravi unhooked an ornament shaped like a manger from the tree and said, "Because we're the only ones that can actually clean."
"True. So, what were we doing last year?"
"Picking flowers for your perfume," Ravi answered cheerfully. "I hadn't made a perfume before. It was like a science project!"
"Oh, yeah! I remember that," Lou replied, nodding her head.
She looked at his bright eyes and then quickly shifted her gaze to the tree. She worked on untangling a bow from its branches as she reprimanded herself for nearly getting lost in his eyes again. Normally she would have an excuse for when he caught her doing so, but there would be no reason for her to be staring at him when they were supposed to be packing away decorations.
"See, we always make a great team," he said as he dropped more ornaments into the box.
Lou hummed in response. She hadn't forgotten last year. She never forgot anything they did together. But she didn't allow herself to dwell on why that was or admit that to him.
"Oh, look!" Ravi exclaimed suddenly.
Lou looked up to the object he was pointing at in the tree. It was higher up than the ornaments they were working on. Her breath caught in her throat once she saw the bundle of mistletoe in the branches.
"Mistletoe!" Ravi cheered.
He kissed her so quickly that she was almost sure that it hadn't happened. She would've been convinced that it had been her imagination if her face wasn't on fire from his kiss on her cheek. She chanced at look at him, but his attention had already returned to packing away the decorations. She glanced up at the mistletoe. Her pulse raced at the thought of him kissing her again. She was afraid he'd hear how loudly her heart was beating, so she turned to leave.
Spirit Tiffany lowered her violin and said, "Too bad you forgot that other box was there."
Lou and Spirit Tiffany watched the past-version of herself trip over a box of lights. The past-version of Ravi rushed over to help her, but she untangled herself from the lights, made up an excuse, and rushed out of the mess hall.
"And the evidence shows that your transformation was completed," Spirit Tiffany said. "You can tell this is the point where you realize the truth about your feelings because you run away. The thing is… you keep running. Why?"
Lou groaned and knocked her forehead against the wooden table of the mess hall. When she lifted her head, she was at the desk in her bedroom. She lifted her gaze to the collage of pictures on the wall by her desk. Many of them were photos of her and her friends at Camp Kikiwaka over the years. More than a few of them included her standing undeniably close to Ravi and beaming. Slowly, Lou turned in her chair to see Spirit Tiffany sitting on the edge of the bed.
"I'm scared," Lou admitted.
"Of what?"
"Of what having feelings for him means!" Lou stood from her seat and paced in front of the desk. "I've never liked anyone this much in this way before. So, you want me to admit it? Fine! I like him! He's the sugar to my lemonade. The butter to my biscuit. The everything to my everything!"
Lou winced at her own outburst. She had finally admitted out loud what she had been so afraid to think about. She said in a quiet tone, "You're right. I think he's the one for me." She frowned and her eyes were glossy. "But that doesn't mean he thinks I'm the one for him. Thanks for helping me be honest with myself. But you've got the rest of this wrong. He doesn't feel the same way about me. We're not soulmates."
Spirit Tiffany stood up and crossed her arms. "I'm not here for a pity party, I'm here to keep you from making a mistake that will cost you your happiness! You have to send him that postcard."
"No way!" Lou looked at Spirit Tiffany as if she were crazy. "I'm never telling him how I feel. Do you know how embarrassing that would be? And awkward? He's such a good friend that he'd feel guilty for not liking me back."
Spirit Tiffany shook her head and said in a frustrated tone, "Humans are so stupid! You just have to make everything difficult. He's your soulmate, Lou. Write that you like him on the dumb postcard so we can all move on with our lives! I've got twenty more cases and it's Friday!"
"We're not soulmates! And just because I like him it doesn't mean that he likes me. We've known each other for years and not once has he said anything about liking me," Lou argued.
"That's not true."
The new voice startled Lou. She turned to see Zuri seated at the desk behind her. She wore gold as well, but instead of a frilly dress she wore a gold romper.
"Zuri?" Lou asked in shock.
"Good, you're here," Spirit Tiffany said. She pointed her thumb at Lou. "You've got your work cut out for you with this one. She's way more stubborn than our last case. And that lady was a defense lawyer!"
Spirit Zuri stood up from the desk and shook her head at Lou. She said, "It's always the innocent looking ones that cause the most trouble. Alright, I've got it from here Past."
"See ya," Spirit Tiffany said and was gone in the blink of an eye.
"I don't think she liked me much," Lou said as she went to sit where Spirit Tiffany had once sat on the edge of the bed.
"Don't take it personally," Spirit Zuri said. "She hates everyone who gets in the way of her job. And since our job is keeping you on track…" She took an object that looked like a cell phone out of her pocket and scrolled through it. "Let's see…past, present, future...admit you like him… admit he likes you… send a postcard to lover boy." She tucked her phone away. "Alright, let's get this over with."
"Spirit Tiffany already took me to the past and bummed me out," Lou said as she rolled over onto the bed. She wrapped her blanket around herself and said, "Ravi doesn't have romantic feelings for me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch Netflix Christmas romances until my personal A Christmas Carol is over."
"No, we're not doing this," Spirit Zuri said as she yanked the blanket away from Lou.
"Hey!"
"I'm the soulmate spirit of the present, so we're going to the present."
Lou sat up on the bed with her hair all over the place. She asked, "Isn't this the present?"
"When I say present, it's more like a range. We're talking about events within the year," Spirit Zuri explained. She made a motion over Lou's head. "You might want to fix that before we go, though."
Lou pouted and ran her fingers through her messy hair. She climbed out of bed and walked over to her mirror to brush her hair. "What could you possibly show me that will prove I'm wrong about Ravi not having feelings for me?"
"I guess I'll be showing you how clueless you are," Spirit Zuri said matter-of-factly.
When Lou put down her brush and turned around, her bed was no longer behind her. She stood in front of Woodchuck cabin. The sky was orange from the setting sun. Spirit Zuri was beside her, tapping away on her cell phone.
"Are soulmate spirits supposed to be on their cell phones?" Lou asked, raising both eyebrows at Spirit Zuri.
Spirit Zuri looked up at Lou with a blank expression. She said, "Cell phone? Do not compare those overrated calculators you and your human buddies use to my sophisticated device."
"Sophisticated device? Ooo, let me see," Lou said as she reached for Spirit Zuri's device.
Spirit Zuri smacked Lou's hand and pointed her finger toward the cabin. She said, "You need to see that. Pay attention! This is the first day of camp this summer."
Ravi paced the porch outside of Woodchuck cabin. He muttered to himself, "Don't be weird." He stopped in front of the closed door and hovered his fist in front of it. "Just knock on the door…"
Several seconds passed by as he stood frozen in front of the door. Finally, he let out a breath through his nostrils and knocked. He took a step back and waited. When the door opened, his eyes lit up and he gave the greeter a goofy grin.
"Hey, Ravi," Lou greeted him. She leaned against the doorframe and smiled at him. "What's up?" She glanced around the lawn to see if anything was out of place. "Is something wrong? It's almost time for lights out."
"Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to say hello," Ravi said with a bit of nervousness in his voice. He tried to look casual and lean to the side, but he stumbled a bit.
Lou looked confused but said, "Oh… hi."
"You were so busy with everyone else earlier that I didn't get a chance to say hi. And it's our first day back at camp, so I wanted to say hi. So, hi." He gave her an awkward wave.
She waved back at him. She no longer looked confused as she smiled at him. They stood there in silence as the world continued around them. Some campers were rushing to their cabins for lights out. Fireflies were starting to blink around the bushes. Behind Lou, the woodchucks were chatting about their first day back.
"Okay, bye," he said suddenly.
He turned away before Lou could wave goodbye.
"Wow," Spirit Zuri said as she shook her head. "That was almost painful to watch."
"Nothing happened," Lou said as she watched herself stare longingly from the porch. "Except me looking like a lovesick puppy. Dang, was I really that obvious?"
"You're kidding, right?" Spirit Zuri said flatly. She interlocked her fingers and tucked them under her chin as she batted her eyelashes. "Hi. Hi. Awkward. Awkward. Okay, bye!" She said in a mocking tone. She chuckled, "That whole interaction screamed two idiots in love."
"It did not," Lou scoffed. She shuffled her feet and murmured, "I only saw one idiot."
"No, there's definitely two," Spirit Zuri said as she walked along the grassy path that led away from the cabins. "Think about it, Lou. The guy shows up at your door just to say hi for no reason?"
Lou fought back a smile. She cleared her throat and shrugged, "He's my friend. Everyone was excited to be back at camp and say hello to their pals."
"So, you're not going to admit that he wants to be your more than pal?"
"More than pals," Lou repeated.
She felt the flutter of butterflies in her stomach at the thought of him wanting to be more than just her friend. But she shooed them away. It was already challenging enough to admit to her own feelings. She didn't think she could handle him having feelings for her too. Besides, she felt it was doubtful that he liked her the way she liked him.
"Stop imagining it and make it happen," Spirit Zuri said. She stepped over a fallen branch. "Send him that postcard. Write that you're perfect for each other. Make this easier for all of us."
"I'm not imagining anything," Lou said as she looked up at the sky. Instead of getting darker with the night, it was getting brighter as if the sun was rising. "What makes you think I even want him to like me back?"
"Wow, you really are stubborn."
"Am not. All I'm saying is… there are worse things than me keeping my feelings to myself. We're fine the way we are now." The words had the texture of a lie and left a bad taste in her mouth.
"Are you?" Spirit Zuri asked. She stopped walking, having reached their destination. Daylight filled the forest. "This is the last day of camp this summer. Take a look at the Spot."
Griff walked up to the picnic blanket set up at the Spot. There sat Ravi with a bouquet of wildflowers in his hand. There was a tray of frosted cupcakes beside him. He was dressed up more than usual.
"This is sad. You actually planned a date for yourself?" Griff asked as he plopped down on the blanket.
"No," Ravi sighed. He added, "Though there's nothing wrong with planning a nice day for yourself. I take a spa day every month and treat myself to an exquisite artisan cheese platter."
Griff gave him a blank look. He said, "You're so weird."
Ravi rolled his eyes but didn't reply. He frowned down at the bouquet and began picking petals off the flowers.
Griff swiped a cupcake and bit into the vanilla frosting. "If it's not for you, then what's all this stuff for, dude?" He asked between munches.
"Lou," Ravi replied automatically. His eyes widened at his mistake. "I mean, um…" he stammered.
Griff raised an eyebrow at Ravi and said, "You already said her name. You can't back out now. Plus, it's like super obvious that you like her."
Ravi sighed again. His shoulders sagged and he tossed the flowers over his shoulder. "Guess not to her," he said. He handed Griff a napkin. "You've got frosting on your nose."
Griff took the napkin and said, "Why don't you just tell her, 'Hey, come to my girly picnic cause I have a massive crush on you and I stare at your face when you don't think I'm looking.'"
"Interesting wording," Ravi replied flatly. He sighed. "I asked her to join me for a surprise at the Spot but she hasn't shown up yet. I don't think she will. Maybe this was a mistake…" Ravi grabbed a cupcake and bit into it, getting frosting on his own nose. "She'd never go out with me."
Griff took the tray of cupcakes and moved them away from Ravi. He said, "Maybe I should take these. Emotions and sugar don't mix."
"Give me that tray!" Ravi demanded as he sprung forward for the treats.
Lou stood frozen. Happiness in its purest form made her heart beat wildly in her chest. She whispered, "He did all of this… for me?"
"And you ditched him," Spirit Zuri said as she held a cupcake in her hand. She bit into the frosting and hummed, "Strawberry!"
"I didn't ditch him. I just didn't know! And I was so busy getting everything ready for the end of summer." Lou watched Griff run away with the tray of cupcakes. Ravi continued to pout on the picnic blanket. "He got all dressed up. He's so cute."
"Ew, don't tell me that," Spirit Zuri said as she continued to munch on the cupcake. "Tell him. He's your soulmate. And he needs to be told. Look at the poor guy. He's pitiful."
Everything she heard Ravi tell Griff should've convinced Lou that he had feelings for her. But there was still something inside of her that wouldn't accept it.
"It's Ravi. He'd plan a date for anyone willing to go out with him," Lou said. She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. There was a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach and an ache in her heart. She hadn't meant what she said.
"Harsh," Spirit Zuri said as she gave Lou a look. "You've got some real issues to work through, huh?"
"Can I just go home now," Lou grumbled as she stared down at the forest floor.
"That's not how this works. You have to admit that he likes you too." Spirit Zuri grabbed a napkin from her pocket and wiped the frosting from her face. "And trust me. I won't this to be over just as much as you do. I have a party to get back to."
"Party?"
"Supernatural beings like to have fun too," Spirit Zuri said. "I collected the stardust from a soulmate star that allows you to open a pocket dimension where it rains ice cream. Can you say best party ever?"
"That thing Spirit Tiffany said was true? Soulmates ending up together creates stars?"
Spirit Zuri replied, "The key part of that is that they have to end up together…"
She nodded in the direction that she wanted Lou to look. They were no longer at the Spot. They were inside the Ross penthouse.
"This is the present. This is Ravi right now," Spirit Zuri said.
Ravi sat in the home theater wrapped up in a blanket and staring at the screen. There was a kettle of tea on the floor and chocolate wrappers were everywhere. The lights were dimmed and Christmas lights blinked along the walls. Luke walked into the room and shook his head.
"Dude, you're still moping around watching these lame Christmas movies?"
Ravi snuggled into the blanket and frowned. He replied, "They're not 'lame.' They're lies. Romance is as fictional as Santa Claus."
Luke rolled his eyes and dropped down in the recliner beside Ravi's. He said, "There are other girls, Ravi. Get yourself together, dude."
"I don't want other girls," he whined. He tipped over in the recliner so that his head landed on the armrest. "I only want one."
Luke lifted his brother by the shoulders and shook him. "Snap out of it!"
Ravi swatted Luke's hands away. "Go away!"
Luke yanked his brother out of the recliner. They wrestled until Luke had Ravi trapped in a headlock. He shouted, "Lou isn't into you! You're friends. That's all! Now let's go out and have fun and find a different girl for you to obsess over." He let his brother free and asked in a calmer tone, "Better?"
Ravi slouched on the ground and yelled, "No! You're terrible at this. Go get Emma!"
"No way. She'll feel all guilty because her best friend broke your heart. Does she even know how you feel about Lou?"
"Everyone knows how I feel about Lou," Ravi said as he grabbed the blanket from the recliner and cocooned himself again.
Luke gave his brother a sympathetic look. He sat down beside him and said gently, "Ravi, you have to let her go."
"Lou, you have to send the postcard. If he lets you go then that's it. You lose each other forever and there will always be something slightly off with the universe because you're not together," Spirit Zuri said.
Lou looked at Ravi slouched on the floor. The sadness in his eyes made her heart break. She knelt down beside him and reached out to touch his face. Her hand went through him as if he were air.
"Are you going to let that happen?" Spirit Zuri asked.
"Look at him," Lou said in a quiet tone. "He looks so sad…"
Lou could see it in his eyes. He really did care about her. She couldn't deny it anymore. But she realized the thing that was stopping her from admitting that she had feelings for him and that he had feelings for her was fear. Fear that she had never been in love before. Fear that he wouldn't love her back.
"I admit it. Ravi has feelings for me… He really does like me as much as I like him," Lou confessed in a sorrowful voice.
Spirit Zuri frowned. "That isn't the face of someone about to write a love note. That's the face of someone about to say something…"
"I can't send him that postcard. If I tell him how I feel then he will want to be together. But what if it doesn't work out, Spirit Zuri? He's my friend and I'd never want to hurt him."
The fear that Lou felt now was a fear of hurting someone she cared about. If Ravi looked this distraught without them being together, what would it be like if they broke up? She didn't want to be responsible for his heart. She was too afraid of breaking it. She'd much rather break her own and be without him.
"That's the face of someone about to say something stupid," Spirit Zuri continued. She gave an exasperated sigh and shouted, "I give up! This one's too dumb!"
"Wait one rooster crowing minute," Lou fussed as she stood up from the carpet. "How's it dumb to care about his feelings?"
"His feelings are that he wants to be your boyfriend. Stop making this more complicated than it has to be," Spirit Zuri said in frustration. She chucked her cell-phone-like device at Lou.
Lou ducked with her eyes shut. When she opened them, she and Spirit Zuri were back in her bedroom. Lou sighed and flopped face down on her bed. She screamed into her pillow.
"I want to scream too," Spirit Zuri snapped as she crossed her arms and flopped down on the end of the bed. "I'm missing an ice cream snowball fight for this dumpster fire."
Lou lifted her face from her pillow and glared at Spirit Zuri. "No one invited you to my dumpster fire! You and your little otherworldly pal started snooping around and unburying my feelings and ruining my December!"
Spirit Zuri yanked the pillow from Lou's arms and hit her with it. "Send the postcard!"
"Ow!"
"Whoa! What's going on here!" a voice shouted above Lou's yelp of pain.
Lou turned her attention to the doorway of her bedroom. Standing in a gold cropped top and shimmering pants was Emma. Without thinking, Lou sprang up from her bed and ran over to the newest guest. She wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tight.
"I know you're not her," Lou said, "But I could really use a hug from Emma right now."
Spirit Emma glanced down at Lou and then looked over at Spirit Zuri. Spirit Zuri rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"She's a lot," Spirit Zuri mouthed to the soulmate spirit of the future.
Spirit Emma nodded and watched Spirit Zuri disappear.
Spirit Emma gave Lou a moment before tapping her on the shoulder and asking, "Do you want to talk about why I'm here?"
Lou exhaled and let go of Spirit Emma. The two of them walked over to her desk. Lou sat in the chair and handed Spirit Emma the postcard.
"The snowman with the mistletoe is so cute," Spirit Emma cooed. "He would love this! He loves getting mail."
"I know," Lou said in a small voice. "I think that's part of the reason why I wanted to send him a postcard."
"And the other part?"
Lou's eyes watered as she looked up at Spirit Emma. "This is all because of some stupid movie I watched. There was this lady and she had been in love with her friend for so long until she couldn't help but confess her feelings. So, she sent him a letter, saying how she felt, and he actually ended up feeling the same way. Oh yeah, and it was Christmas."
Spirit Emma placed her hand on Lou's shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile. "And you wanted to be that lady for Ravi this Christmas?"
"I can't," Lou whispered. "It's too… I don't know. Risky? And I didn't even think about how the real you would feel about all of this."
"Lou, I'm the soulmate spirit of the future. I know it feels risky taking a chance on love, but you're risking so much more if you don't send that postcard."
Lou picked up the postcard and grimaced at it. "I really hate that I bought this. Why is this so important? It's just a postcard with a silly picture...I mean, it's a cute snowman and I love the heart snowflakes… But it's just a postcard. It doesn't lead anyone to their soulmate or make stars or anything else. It's paper."
"Paper?" Spirit Emma motioned for Lou to stand up. "Come with me."
Lou linked her arm with Spirit Emma's and followed her out the door. Again, Lou wasn't in the hallway outside her bedroom but instead inside a room she didn't recognize. The walls were covered in an ugly wallpaper. Frames were scattered on the wall with pictures of frowning faces. A frail Christmas tree stood barely decorated in the corner. Seated on a couch by the window was a woman that looked like an older version of Lou.
"Is that me?" Lou asked.
"Yep. But with much worse hair," Spirit Emma answered. "And frown lines. Yesh, and you're only in your forties here."
Lou unhooked her arm from Spirit Emma's and walked closer to her future self. She sat on the opposite end of the couch and stared at the woman. Future Lou wore a faded A line dress with long sleeves and her hair was in a messy knot. Her eyes looked tired and sad.
"Why do I look so awful?" Lou asked Spirit Emma.
Suddenly a door opened. Cold air and snow drifted in with a muscled man as he walked into the room. He wore a faded flannel and carried an axe on his shoulder. His beard was bushy and so were his eyebrows. Behind him walked in six school-aged children dusted with snow.
"Ma!" one of the little boys squealed happily at the sight of Lou.
For a moment, the woman's eyes lit up and the corner of her lips turned upward to a smile. But the muscled man shouted at the little boy and Lou frowned.
"Children only speak when spoken to," the man said gruffly.
"Yes, papa," all six children droned obediently.
Lou stood up stiffly from the couch. She kept her hands folded in front of her as she said, "Children can speak whenever they want."
Her husband narrowed his eyes at her. He said roughly, "Children are for doing chores and following orders. Now, go wash up for supper."
Lou watched her children march off to the bathrooms. When she was sure they were out of earshot she grumbled at her husband, "Do you always have to act like there's birchwood shoved up your bumhole?"
"Does this house always have to look like a pigsty when I get home?" He snapped back.
"I keep this house spotless and you know it," she said through her teeth. "Maybe you ought to try and clean a dish or pick up your own dirty laundry once in a while."
"That's a woman's work," he snorted. As he placed the axe on the ground. "It's not like I see you chopping wood."
Lou picked up the axe with ease and balanced it on her shoulder. "I'll have you know that I've skinned buck bigger than you, Rick."
"So you say," Rick replied, rolling his eyes. "And yet you're here teaching our kids to be wimps and back talkers."
Lou lowered the axe and scoffed, "We're their parents, not their drill sergeants! They're allowed to be happy to see us and speak without being spoken to first. And making sure they know how to read isn't making them 'wimps.' They should have a choice about what they want their futures to be."
"I always knew you weren't actually old fashioned. You're no better than that city girl you yammer on the phone with. I should've married Mary Ella May when I had the chance," Rick said as took the axe and walked back out of the house.
"You're not the only one with regrets, Rick!"
Lou watched the scene in horror. She gripped the edge of the wall and said, "This can't be my life."
"By not sending the postcard, you never start a relationship with Ravi. Instead, you struggle with your feelings for years until you decide to settle for the first guy that buys you coffee. You graduate college and come home to visit your mom when you meet Rick at a diner. He buys you coffee and talks about old-fashioned values. You ignore all the red flags because he's got muscles and he couldn't be any more opposite than who you're really in love with, so you date him. Then you marry him. And then… this," Spirit Emma explained.
"Wait," Lou said as she let go of the wall and furrowed her brows. "I never get over Ravi?"
Spirit Emma linked her arm with Lou's and walked her over to the frames on the wall. She pointed a well-manicured finger at a picture of Future Lou and Future Ravi with all of Lou's children.
"This picture was taken two years ago. That was the last time Ravi was here. He used to visit you and your kids every year. But Rick's jealousy finally reached a boiling point," Spirit Emma said.
Lou searched the frames on the wall before settling her gaze on the picture that Spirit Emma had pointed out. She said, "It's the only picture where I'm smiling. Heck, it's the only picture where the kids are smiling. Are we all really that unhappy?"
"The soulmate spirits warned you, Lou. This isn't just about stars forming or our jobs. Your happiness is at stake when you don't end up with your soulmate."
Lou looked over her shoulder at her future self. The woman was beside the frail Christmas tree. She picked an ornament off the tree and smiled down at it. It was a bundle of mistletoe. Lou quickly turned away. She ignored the stinging sensation in her eyes.
"Is it Christmastime?" Lou asked, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering. "Why's the house look so… not Christmas?"
"Rick thinks Christmas is an overindulgence. You argued for days to get that sad little tree in here," Spirit Emma said.
"I married someone who hates kids and Christmas?" Lou gasped.
"You're not the only one," Spirit Emma said as she walked out the front door and into the snow.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Lou asked as she rushed after Spirit Emma.
Flurries melted along the windows of the airplane. Lou sat beside Spirit Emma in a first-class seat on a small plane. She looked to her right and saw a man that looked like an older version of Ravi. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Good thing they can't see us, cause you're practically drooling," Spirit Emma said with a smirk.
"Am not," Lou muttered. She glanced at the woman beside Future Ravi and asked, "Who's that?"
"That's the reason why you should tell Ravi how you feel," Spirit Emma replied.
Ravi munched on a cheddar square from the cheese plate he had ordered on the flight.
"Do you have to chew so loudly," his wife scowled. "It's bad enough that your breath is going to smell like cheese for the next three hours."
"Sorry, dear," Ravi said in monotone as he dropped the cheddar square to his plate. He covered the food with a plastic lid and sighed. "Guess I'll eat in three hours."
"Don't be ridiculous. We won't have time to eat. This jeweler is very exclusive and we must keep our appointment."
"Must we, Aria? It's Christmas. There's got to be things more important to you than diamonds during this time of the year," Ravi said. "Like love?"
"Love? Ravi, you know not to annoy me on long flights. Save your nonsense until we get to the resort. You can bore and blather to the wait staff."
"Christmas isn't about the resort, Aria. Isn't there anything else you care about during this time of year?"
"I also like cash and getting a good deal on a winter foreclosure," Aria said without a hint of sarcasm.
Ravi frowned. "I was thinking more along the lines of new traditions and family and cheer," he explained. With each example his expression brightened. "I talked to the resort about having a Santa for the children this year."
"Why? We don't have any icky brats?"
"No... but other families do! And I think it will make the children there happy. "He smiled at her and excitedly asked, "What was your favorite memory of Christmas as a child?"
Aria gave him an annoyed look. "We're not children, Ravi. If you're going to ask trivial questions, I'd rather you shut your mouth with that odorous cheese." She put in her earbuds and stared out the window.
Ravi couldn't hide the hurt on his face. He slouched in his first-class seat and stared ahead.
"What a jerk," Lou said angrily as she glared at Aria. Her eyes softened when they landed on the man beside her. "And poor Ravi. Why'd he marry someone so awful?"
Spirit Emma took a sip of sparkling water from a glass and sighed. "The postcard. You never sent it to Ravi. So, he never felt special by getting mail from his crush or learning that his feelings for you weren't unrequited. He let Luke drag him from party to party all his adult life. He dated one trashy person after the other until he finally proposed to the first woman that hinted at a diamond ring."
"That's terrible," Lou exclaimed. She reached out to hold Future Ravi's hand, but it passed right through as if he were air. She turned back to Spirit Emma. "I don't understand why he would settle for such a bad wife."
"The same way you settled for such a bad husband. Lou, we keep telling you that you and Ravi are soulmates. It's impossible for you to be truly happy without each other. Even if he didn't marry Aria and you didn't marry Rick, you two would live less than perfect lives without each other."
"But what if I tell him how I feel and we don't work out?" Lou asked as she slouched in her first-class seat. "Why do the movies make this look so easy?"
"Because it is easy, Lou! Look at Ravi's face. Look! He's miserable. All he wants to do is get on the next flight back to you and make you and your kids smile. Don't you think that's confusing for him? That deep down he knows that you're the one for him. And the worst part is that he's not wrong."
Lou kept her gaze on him. He looked in her direction and time froze for her. She saw the same eyes that she always got lost in at Camp Kikiwaka. She saw the Ravi that went fishing with her and picked wildflowers with her and stopped by her cabin just to say hello.
"I'll send the postcard," Lou whispered. She quickly turned back to Spirit Emma and said with more confidence, "I'll send the postcard!"
Lou's eyes fluttered open to the grey sky above. Cold air filled her lungs. Her gaze shifted from one worried family member to another. Her mom breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Lou tight. Billy looked guilty as he hoisted her off the ground and helped her walk to the car that was already idling in the driveway.
She answered the doctor's questions and followed their instructions in the emergency room as they checked for a concussion from the tackle. She assured her parents and aunts and uncles and cousins that she was fine. She let Billy coddle her without getting annoyed with him for treating her like a child. But through it all, she mostly thought of Ravi.
She didn't get a moment of peace until two days later.
"Alright, everyone, listen up," Lou said from the stairs. "I've got something important to do, so…"
"What was that, Lou?" her uncle shouted from in front of the television.
"I said," Lou started again.
"Huh? What'd she say? Matthew, stop throwing the dang thing! Lou's saying something," her aunt shouted.
"I need to write a…"
"Honey! Where's the cutting board? The one shaped like a reindeer? Honey!"
Lou folded her lips and shook her head. "Never mind," she said to herself. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and quietly shut the door. She sat down at her desk and grabbed a pen and the postcard. She smiled at the picture of the snowman holding the mistletoe with his twig arms and the snowflake hearts that fell around him.
"Here goes," she said to herself.
Before the pen could touch the postcard, her door flung open. Billy, Mrs. Hockhauser, and Mr. Hockhauser all sauntered in and piled around her desk. Lou smiled to herself.
"I've got stamps," Billy said as he tossed a sheet of stamps onto Lou's desk. There were dinosaurs on them.
"I've got perfume," Mrs. Hockhauser said as she spritzed some from the glass bottle. It smelled like roses. "Spray a little of this on the postcard and he'll know things are serious."
"I didn't bring gifts. I'll be moral support," Mr. Hockhauser said.
Lou smiled at her family. "Thanks, guys." She turned back to the postcard and said, "How do I say everything that I need to say on this tiny card?"
Lou couldn't stomach another Christmas romance movie while she waited for a response to the postcard. Her days felt long and her nights felt longer as she waited for some sign that Ravi had received her message. Over and over again she saw the seven words that she wrote flash in her mind.
You're my soulmate. Can I be yours?
On the fifth day after she sent the letter, she was snuggled on the couch and reading a comic book when her phone rang. His name was on the screen. Nervousness and fear gripped her and she almost let it go to voicemail.
"Um, hello," she stammered into the phone.
This was the moment she had been waiting for all week. Her heart filled with hope and her hands shook slightly as she held the phone to her ear. This moment could change her life.
"You already were," Ravi said.
Lou blinked, not understanding what he was saying. She was about to ask more questions, but his next words made her speechless.
"...My soulmate," he said. "You already were my soulmate. I've been afraid that I wasn't yours… that's why I haven't said anything. But, Lou, I like you so much. You're… everything to me."
Lou grinned as she gripped the phone to her ear. Everything was right in the universe. She knew no movie could compare to her real-life moment.