Ghost Story

Chapter 3

The next day was Friday. When her alarm clock rang at exactly 6:00, Kari was still shaken over the day before. For the first time ever, Kari called in sick to work. She felt she deserved a sick day; after all, she had been only a second away from death by speeding truck.

She spent the morning in bed, mostly nursing her hangover and deciding that finishing the bottle of wine had been a very poor decision. It had definitely helped to take her mind off the constant replay of the accident in her head though. Strangely, it really wasn't the truck that was bothering her – it was the blond man. It was possible that she might've recognized him from the hospital, or as one of Don's clients, or even from her weekend excursions in the park across the street. Maybe he lived in her building, she thought, or frequented her gym. There were a thousand different places she could've seen him before yesterday, yet it still bothered her.

At 1:00 her phone rang. Answering it, she was not surprised to hear Don's voice on the other end.

"Hi, Kari, I just wanted to call and see if you're feeling any better."

"Oh, yes," she told him, desperate to hang up the phone. "I slept in this morning and am now feeling much better." She thought it best not to mention the wine headache.

"Great! Are we still on for tomorrow night, then?"

Kari couldn't explain why she wanted to say no. "Yep, see you at eight."

"Okay, get some more rest and drink lots of water. See you tomorrow!"

Kari felt much relief when he hung up. Deciding that it was time, she forced herself to get out of bed. Slowly, she completed her morning rituals despite the later hour. Instead of dressing for work, however, she threw on a comfy pair of blue jean shorts, a pink tank top, and a pair of rubber flip-flop sandals. She finished the look with her silver bracelet that she donned every morning, her only connection to her past life.

She definitely needed some fresh air. It looked like a beautiful, warm summer day outside her bedroom window so she thought she'd take an afternoon walk through the park.

It, of course, turned out much differently than she planned.

Kari had barely taken a step outside the front door onto the sidewalk when she saw him. He was standing on the other side of the road facing into the park with his back to Kari and the street. Once again she was flooded with an overwhelming sensation of familiarity.

Kari paused where she was standing, just staring at him. Her suspicions that she knew him were confirmed as she gazed at his back. Kari knew him, she knew him better than she knew Joanie or Don. She couldn't explain it. She knew that he was just the right height that her face would perfectly into the curve of his neck. She knew what his torso would feel like if she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. She knew what his silky hair would feel like in her fingers.

The light turned red above the busy street and the crosswalk flashed that it was safe to walk across.

"Hey!" Kari yelled, trying to get his attention as she made her way across the street toward him.

"Hey!" she yelled again. This time she could've sworn she saw his face turn, just a fraction of an inch toward her voice. Before she could call again, he was moving.

All of a sudden, he took off at a run into the park. Kari swore to herself before she ran the rest of the way across the street to follow him. Once into the park she could barely make out the sun glinting off his blond hair through the trees. Wishing she had worn tennis shoes instead of sandals, Kari struggled to keep up. His legs were far longer than hers and built for speed. Great, Kari thought to herself, it was just her luck that he'd be an athlete.

She turned a corner around a bend of thick trees, sure that this was where she'd seen him turn and paused. He was gone again. Nope, there was definitely no sign of him anywhere in this portion of the park.

What she did find there, however, made her stop running immediately.

Panting to catch her breath, Kari stared amazingly at the sight before her. She had no clue what it was, though was certain she had never seen anything like it in the park before. It looked, Kari thought, almost like a window. A huge round window. Through it she could see huge grey trees with wide bluish colored leaves and dark stormy skies.

She approached it cautiously, circling it. It looked exactly the same from both the front and back. From the sides, though, it was a thin, two-dimensional line. Breathing normally now, she moved so she was standing directly in front of it. Reaching up, she inched her arm gently into it.

Inside she could feel a cool breeze absent in the sunny park. She peered around the back of the window expecting to see her arm reaching through it, but there was nothing on the other side but a flat surface.

Shocked, she jerked her arm out, prepared to walk away, when she saw a flash of movement among the flora in the window. She couldn't tell if it was the man, but she was determined to find out.

Kari took a deep breath and stepped through the window.

She felt the cool breeze immediately, stirred by the heavy storm clouds building in the sky above her. Goose bumps spread down her arms and legs as she hurried down the narrow path. She was surrounded on all sides by a thick forest with no signs of the city or park she'd just left. Far behind her stood a large window like the one she'd just passed through except through it she could see the sunny park.

There was a flash of lightning. The forest around her was illuminated for a split second but what startled Kari more was that everything around her seemed to flicker like a bad television reception. When the world around her clarified once more, Kari saw a rustle in the underbrush a short distance in front of her. She paused, straining her eyes for any sign of golden-blond hair. Disappointingly, she saw nothing.

She took a few more hesitating steps when a new idea occurred to her. What if he meant to lead her here? What if this is some sort of trap or ambush? She pushed those thoughts away quickly. The park was usually very safe and why would anyone want to hurt her? Except, she reminded herself, that this place was definitely not her familiar park.

Cautiously, she moved forward so she was positioned just opposite of the spot where she had seen movement.

The lightning flickered again and Kari leapt backward in she had been expecting to see the blue-eyed boy, instead, she found two very large green eyes gazing out of the brush at her.

"Kari!" a purring voice cried.

Something small, white, and furry flew out from behind the bushes and attached itself firmly around Kari's waist.

"I can't believe you're here! There's been so many glitches lately, Izzy and Gennai are going crazy trying to figure out everything that's going on with the digital world."

Kari was pretty much frozen to the spot.

"Digital world?" she managed to ask when she regained control of her voice box.

Her attacker released her waist and took a step back to look up at her. Kari tried unsuccessfully to hide the surprise that she was facing a large, white, talking cat.

"What are you?" Kari asked, taking in the purple striped tail and lime green gloves. The cat was staring open-mouthed and horror stricken up at her. "And how do you know my name?"

"What do you mean, Kari? I'm Gatomon. I'm your digimon and your friend. I live here in the digital world. Don't you remember?"

Kari felt sure that talking cats were something she'd remember, but shook her head no to the cat's last question.

"Do you remember anything?" Gatomon asked, looking so sad and disappointed that Kari felt like crying.
Kari could tell she was becoming more upset over her memory loss so she decided to change the subject. "I came here following someone. Have you seen him anywhere? He's pretty tall with blond hair and blue eyes…"

Gatomon frowned. "You saw him in your world?"

"You know him, then?"

But Gatomon only looked down at the ground, avoiding Kari's eyes and looking very troubled.

"Kari, you don't remember what happened?"

Kari was about to shake her head no again when she realized to what the cat was probably referring.

"You know what happened to me," Kari whispered, lowering to a crouch so she was now on eye-level with the digimon.

Tears welled in Gatomon's eyes as she nodded. She didn't bother to wipe them away as she said, "I'm so sorry, Kari! It's all my fault! I should've been there in time! I could've stopped him!"

Stopped who? Kari meant to say but didn't get the chance as she was interrupted by another bolt of the strange flickering lightning. It was much more intense than before; Gatomon seemed to blur right in front of Kari's eyes like she was a projection on a screen and not a solid object.

Gatomon stopped crying at once. "Oh no! You have to go back now! The portal is closing!"

She lunged for Kari's hand, which was difficult as there was another flicker making Gatomon's paw slide right through Kari. Kari understood the gesture though, following Gatomon at a run back down the path to the window.

The sky above them was almost black and heavy raindrops were splattering all around them. The lightning flashes were almost continuous now. Ahead of her, Kari could see the bright blue sky and lush green grass in the park. Gatomon paused at the border between the two places to give Kari one last flickering attempt at a hug before Kari stumbled back through the now disintegrating portal.

Just in time, Kari turned to watch the blackened skies, strange trees and two large green eyes vanish to reveal only the park she knew.

It took Kari a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to the blinding sunlight and a couple of shaky steps for her to notice how out of place her rain soaked clothes and wind blown hair must look. The fearful looks she was getting from picnickers didn't seem to faze her as she tried to recover form the shock of what she had just experienced.

Before she was quite back to real life, a familiar voice jolted her from her contemplation.

"Kari?"

She looked up to see Joanie strolling across the grass toward her.

"I was just on my way to your apartment," she said. "Don said you were sick. What are you doing here? You should be at home resting…Kari?" She had reached Kari now and stopped to take in her frazzled appearance. "Why are you all wet? Did you fall in the fountain or something?"

Kari looked down as if just realizing she was dripping rainwater onto the dry grass.

"Joanie," Kari whispered excitingly. "I remembered something!"

Joanie's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. She was about to reply when Kari began shivering in her wet clothes. Joanie grabbed Kari's hand pulled her out of the park back toward the street.

"I want to know everything," she said. "But not until we save you from catching pneumonia or something."

She led Kari down several blocks until they reached Joanie's apartment building. Once inside Joanie practically shoved Kari into her bathroom with a spare pair of sweat pants and a clean t-shirt. When Kari emerged, she was only somewhat surprised to find Joanie staring blankly into her bedroom closet.

"What are you looking for?" Kari asked her.

"Something for you to wear on your date tomorrow," Joanie replied, turning around to give Kari a wide smile.

"Oh, yeah," Kari said, remembering what she had promised Don. It felt like ages ago that she had agreed to go out with him. "Did Don tell you?"

"He didn't have to, the whole office is talking about it."

"Oh," was all Kari could say, not nearly as excited about the event as Joanie seemed to be.

She grabbed a handful of items from their hangers and pushed Kari back into the bathroom. "Try these on while you tell me what's been going on with you."

Kari rolled her eyes behind the bathroom door and dutifully pulled on the first of Joanie's frilly dresses. As she did so, she began telling Joanie about her past twenty-four hours beginning with seeing the man on the sidewalk right before the accident.

Joanie was not a patient audience. When Kari described almost being hit by the truck, Joanie screamed and threw open the bathroom door despite Kari being only half dressed.

"Are you okay? Did it hit you? How come you didn't call me? Why am I just now hearing about this?"
"Joanie, relax. No, it didn't hit me. I'm perfectly fine. Although, if I hadn't stopped when I saw that man I would've walked right in front of the truck. So, in a way, I think he saved my life."

Joanie didn't say anything, but Kari saw her jaw muscles visibly tighten as Kari went on with her story. When she was finished Joanie was very uncharacteristically quiet.

"You really think you know him?" she asked.

"Yes," Kari said confidently. "More than that, Joanie. I think I loved him."

"What if you're wrong? No, seriously, just listen. Have you considered that you might be wrong? What if you haven't ever met this guy? Maybe you just think you know him. Or maybe…"

Joanie avoided Kari's eyes.

"What?" Kari asked, not sure if she wanted her friend to go on.

"Please don't get mad," Joanie begged, "but what if you're just imagining him. Maybe he was someone you knew or loved. But Kari, if he's here, why isn't he trying to find you?"

"I don't know. Maybe I am going crazy. I just want to understand what happened to me."

Joanie smiled and hugged her tightly. "Maybe you can try some of those mental memory exercises the doctors recommended. I really think it's important that you figure out who this guy is. If he can help you figure out what happened then you can finally accept it and move on."

Kari nodded, letting her tears fall freely onto her friend's shoulder.

"And in the meantime," Joanie continued, "I really think you should wear the pink dress." She gestured to the pastel pink satin monstrosity that Kari had squeezed herself into while telling her story. Joanie angled her in front of the mirror and Kari was surprised to see that despite the puffy eyes and red nose, she didn't look half bad in the dress.

After Kari's clothes had dried, Joanie took her out to dinner where she pretended to laugh about all the scenarios in which Kari could have known the blond-haired man. As much as Kari enjoyed her friend's company, she couldn't find any humor in the situation especially after how upset Gatomon had been when Kari had asked about him. And something Joanie had said earlier really stuck with her. Why wasn't he looking for her? Did he recognize her in the intersection and again outside the park? Kari was sure there was a reason he hadn't been with her in the hospital, and she was slightly terrified to learn what that reason was.