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Tim is babysitting his younger sister Genny while their mom is at a Parent – Teacher conference. Their dad is… well, he doesn’t want to think about where their dad is. Honestly, as long as he isn’t around, the better things are for everyone.
He has agreed to play a couple of silly board games with Genny in the hopes that eventually she’ll get bored with needing his attention and want to watch a movie instead. At first he didn’t fight her of her choice of game even though playing with a Quija board has to be the dumbest game of all. There is no strategy. Nothing to win. What would winning even mean? Because ghosts aren’t real. So attempting to communicate with them is pointless.
After the first ten questions, he got tired of pushing the planchette around to amuse himself while Genny believes it to be real. She has asked twenty more questions since then. Half the responses didn’t even make sense. Random letters and a number thrown in occasionally. “Are you done asking your questions? Can we move on to something else? Like monopoly?” She’ll be sure to want to quit halfway through. They’ve never finished a game once.
“Why don’t you ask a question?” She’s insistent, and he’ll never get out of this if he doesn’t humor her.
“Fine. What’s two plus two?”
“You can’t ask questions like that!”
“Why not? Does the ghost that’s not really here not know math?” If the little plastic toy actually moved to the four, he’d be more surprise than anything else the board has supposedly told them tonight.
Genny huffs and rolls eyes, an expression he’s pretty sure she’s learned from him. “You’re supposed to ask questions not everyone can answer for you. That’s the magic, Timmy.”
Right, the magic of a toy they bought at Walmart. “What’s the meaning of the universe?”
“No! It still has to be a question that can be answered.”
He knows for certain she learned to roll her eyes from him because he’s the one rolling his own eyes now. “This is a lot of rules for a board game supposedly ruled by magic.”
“If you’re not going to take this seriously, then I’m going to ask a question for you.” She sounds very adamant. Older than any ten year old should sound. But then they’ve both had to grow up too fast. He feels guilty. He should be glad she’s held onto her beliefs for this long despite everything. He should indulge her before all thoughts of magic disappear into reality.
“All right. Let me think of a question.” He thinks for a few minutes. Some kind of question that will please Genny, but one which he doesn’t expect an actual answer. Something he couldn’t possibly know. Something he doesn’t even really believe in. “Who is my soulmate?”
He keeps his fingers lightly placed on top of the heart-shaped indicator. Doesn’t make any movement himself. He is giving into the magic of the game. At least as far as Genny is concerned. Figures if it moves at all, it will be her doing.
Within seconds of asking the toy begins moving across the board. Landing on an L. Genny is so excited she takes a hand away to start writing down the answer on a notepad she has been keeping nearby for answers to her own questions.
The oracle keeps moving across the board, and Tim is grateful that whatever name Genny has picked, at least she has chosen a short one. They only stop at seven more letters. Eight in total. Genny happily writing down each one. She hands the piece of paper to him in triumph. He’d only been half paying attention.
But here in Genny’s handwriting in block lettering style are the letters “L U C Y C H E N”.
“Lucy Chen. Who is Lucy Chen?” He figured Genny would pick the name of some Disney Channel star or a classmate.
“I don’t know. She’s your soulmate. Do you know her?”
“No. I’ve never heard the name.” Maybe Genny heard the name randomly, or she is messing with him because she’s still mad that he hasn’t been taking this whole thing seriously. Probably the latter.
Genny takes the paper back from him. “We’ll save the paper, and when you meet her, then you’ll know that the Ouija board is magic.”She puts the paper in an envelope, writes ‘Tim’s Soulmate’ on the outside, and seals the envelope. She even goes so far as to write today’s date across the back of the seal.
“But what if it takes years to meet her? Or what if I never meet her?” He doubts his sister has thought this through.
“You will. You have to trust the magic, Timmy. That’s what will help you find your soulmate.”
He has to put trust in a piece of board and plastic? When he can’t even trust a parent who is supposed to love him unconditionally and treat him well? Not going to happen.
***
Within weeks Tim has forgotten all about the answer from the Ouija board. He doesn’t remember the name of his supposed soulmate. Not while he dates girls in high school. Not when he dates women during his time in the army. Not when he meets Isabel, falls in love, and marries her. The concept of a soulmate is completely voided from his mind when Isabel leaves him in the middle of the night.
And still he doesn’t remember a year later when he begins training his newest hot shot rookie. Lucy is there when Isabel drops back into his life. She’s there to pull him out of the line of fire. She challenges him. She accepts him when he tries to keep her at arms’ length. She waits with him as he fears a virus will take his life.
And yet the idea of his soulmate doesn’t re-enter his mind when he pulls Lucy from the ground. Or when he breathes life back into her lungs. And the memory isn’t there when he stays by Lucy’s side in the hospital all through the night.
They finish her training. He’s there as she grieves her best friend. She’s proud as he takes the well earned promotion that she helped him achieve. And they agree to work together again. Though he’ll likely never admit it, he did miss her during the time they weren’t patrolling together. He has never felt a need for a partner until Lucy.
But the memory of a possible soulmate doesn’t begin to return until Genny stops by work one day.
***
“Lucy Chen… why does your name sound familiar?” Genny asks from the backseat of their shop.
“Oh, has Tim mentioned me to you?” Lucy asks with a little too much eagerness for Tim’s liking.
The truth is he has. Not a lot. And not every time Genny calls. Which is the only time when the two siblings do talk. When Genny makes the effort. But they have spoken more recently than Genny would have anyone believe. After all, he told her he is a sergeant now. And he mentioned working with Lucy again when he did.
“Yes, he’s mentioned you as Officer Chen and as Lucy. I guess I never put the two together until now. But I don’t know. It feels like I’ve heard your name before. Before you and Tim started working together. Kind of like deja vu.”
Lucy thinks about Genny’s musings. “Maybe we met in a previous life.”
At that, Tim scoffs. “A previous life where you happen to have the exact same name?”
“It could happen. We could have all known each other in different lifetimes,” Lucy insists as she stares him down.
“One lifetime with you is enough,” he quips.
“You don’t mean that,” Lucy smiles because she knows he doesn’t. And she’s right. He doesn’t believe in past lives; but if he did, he’d like to know Lucy was there for every one of them.
Still, he thinks it strange that Lucy believes in reincarnation, cleansing houses of bad vibes, and probably even soulmates. At least she doesn’t believe in ghosts. He has to deal with enough of that from Angela.
Luckily or unluckily, depending on how one looks at it, the topic of conversation moves on. By the end of the day, he has taken Lucy’s advice to help Genny with renovating their childhood home. He’s not thrilled by the idea, but he wants to be there for Genny. He’s not sure if it was by his, Genny’s, or Lucy’s insistence that Lucy ends up helping them.
Before that day, he wouldn’t have said it was fate.
But after… after he is willing to believe.
***
Since Genny moved their father into hospice care, her and her husband have been to the old house several times to remove various items and furniture. Tim helped Genny clear out the rest last weekend. All that’s left is a few remaining boxes from the attic. Lucy has been helping the siblings sort everything into piles that will be donated or thrown away if Genny doesn’t take them with her. Tim doesn’t want anything from this place.
Genny is outside loading a few boxes into her car. Leaving Tim and Lucy alone in the living room.
“Whoa. A Ouija board?!” Lucy pulls the game from a box filled with other board games and toys.
“That’s Genny’s.”
“Yeah, somehow I figured not even young Tim Bradford believed he could talk to spirits,” Lucy laughs.
“You don’t believe in ghosts either.”
“Not now. But I did when I was a kid. Not that my parents would let me have a Ouija board anyway. They said it was impractical. I only got to play with them at sleepovers.” Lucy appears wistful.
“Well, you can have it. Relive your childhood.” God knows he doesn’t want to relive his.
“Nah. Tamara is already concerned that we live in an apartment building where a lot of murders occurred. I don’t want to come home to find her holding a séance.”
“Especially when she finds out one murder happened in your apartment.” If ghosts were real, Lucy’s place would be ground zero for them.
“Don’t you dare tell her.” Lucy looks over the box. “If Genny doesn’t want this, you can donate it or sell it on Ebay.”
“Who would buy that when you can still buy new ones in stores?”
“It’s vintage!” Lucy exclaims like that explains everything.
“It bothers me that you think the ‘90s are vintage.” He’s only ten years older than her.
“Whatever.” Lucy rolls her eyes at him. “Let me check it still has everything.” Like they could have managed to lose both parts over the years. “Hey, what’s this?… Tim’s soulmate?” He can hear the teasing in her voice as she holds up an envelope with those two words written across.
And in a flash a very clear memory of him and Genny playing with the Ouija board springs back into his mind. The question he asked. The letters Genny had written down. It doesn’t make any sense, but he knows what name Lucy will find if she opens that envelope.
He snatches the envelope away from her before she has a chance to tear open the seal. “It’s nothing. It’s just a joke Genny played on me when we were kids. She wrote down the name of a girl I had a crush on.”
“Awww, let me see it. I want to know who you crushed on.” She tries reaching for the envelope, but all Tim has to do is hold it over his head so she doesn’t stand a chance.
“Why? So you can look her up on social media?” He’s too worried at the moment to recall any names of the girls he crushed on in middle and high school. Doubts Lucy will even take the bait without seeing the name for herself.
“No.” He manages to give her a look of disbelief. “Okay, yes. But is it a crime to want to know more about you? About your past? About the good things if that’s all you want to share?” Lucy asks sincerely.
“Why do you want to know?” Why does she care?
“Because you’re important to me.” She somehow manages to answer the question Tim couldn’t bring himself to ask. He almost considers handing over the envelope, but luckily Genny walks back into the house. The subject is dropped as Tim puts the envelope in the back pocket of his jeans.
***
He manages to forget about it for a little while as they start tearing down a wall to make an open floor plan. Then they find a gun, investigate a murder, and he confronts his father. And through it all Lucy is there for Tim.
She helps him see the truth beyond what he wanted to believe. When he confronts his father one last time, he doesn’t ask her to come along. He doesn’t have to. She goes willingly but not forcefully. She knows he needs her as much as he knows he wants her with him. And when it’s done, she’s waiting for him with words of comfort and a hug he desperately needed. One he has needed for years.
It’s not a moment of happiness or joy. Those emotions can never happen in situations like this. Even in the best possible outcome. But it’s as close to closure as he can get. And in Lucy’s arms, he feels something like peace. Calm. Contentment. That whatever happens from here on out will be okay as long as Lucy is there.
Only when Tim is ready to leave does Lucy let go of the hug. They silently walk back to his truck. Neither says much as he drives her to her apartment. Before she gets out of the truck she asks if he needs her. Doesn’t specify how. As someone to talk with. To sit with. To avoid going back to his home alone. He knows any of those options are open to him. He assures he’ll be fine, and he’ll talk to her tomorrow. Watches as she walks to the door of her apartment building and waits until she is safely inside.
But he doesn’t start to drive away just yet. Instead, he pulls out the envelope from before. Reads the words “Tim’s Soulmate” written across the top. He doesn’t need to open it to confirm the name inside. He’s only amazed that a board game could accurately predict that he would meet Lucy. Let alone know she would be his soulmate.
Because there is no doubt in his mind that she is.
Lucy is the one person with whom he feels most comfortable being vulnerable. When he allows himself to be. The one person he can talk to about anything. Even the difficult subjects. Especially the difficult ones.
No one will ever mean more to him than her.
And one day when they are both ready, he’ll tell her. He’ll give her this envelope. Explain the whole story. Let her see it for herself.
But she deserves the chance to come to her own realizations. To find out if Tim is her soulmate on her own.
And he’ll wait. Because he believes.
Not in a piece of board and plastic.
Not even in magic. Or fate. Or destiny.
Tim’s belief is much stronger than all of that.
He believes in Lucy Chen.