Title: The Present Implies Presence I recognized that I was floating between then and now. That I had failed in something important, that I had forgotten something important was not a new feeling for me. Change had occurred; time passed. I felt I was still stuck in some time warp, forever out of sorts with my environment. The man in the reflective surface of the shop window was almost a stranger. Yet he was so familiar and his feelings were not strange in his mind. I knew, as did this stranger in the mirror, that I had to find her, make sure she was surviving. Her apartment was different, in her place, a stranger. Where do I go from here? My three friends seemed to have disappeared and I don't dare return to the office. Of all of the places I looked to find her, I never expected the Yellow Pages. Her house is a small, two story affair with a dormer window in the center. I can picture her sitting there, gazing at her neighborhood. I work up the courage to walk to the front door and ring the bell. I didn't expect a brown-haired,blue-eyed child to answer. I ask for her by name and the girl calls for her mother up the stairs. I hear her slow steps on the stair. As she comes into view, I see the changes time has etched on her. Her hair is longer, trapped in a bun at the nape of her neck and more creases mar her lovely face. But it's still the face I longed for. She approaches the door and looks at me in the doorway. I see her blanch at my presence. The girl rushes to her side and calls out the name Will. The boy looks so much like the girl. She looks at me and says what I had longed to hear ever since my world changed: "Mulder?" FINIS Continues in Joyful are the Waterdrops by kim1013
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