Cecelia Ahern - If You Could See Me Now

Elizabeth’s heartbeat quickened. “Yes.” Her voice was husky. She couldn’t think of a better way to end the evening with him. She was longing to touch him, for him to hold her. Elizabeth made her way to the water’s edge and sat down on the cool sand. She felt Ivan padding behind her.

“You’re going to have to lie on your back for this to work,” he said loudly, looking down at her.

Elizabeth’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?” She wrapped the shawl protectively around her shoulders.

“If you don’t lie back, this just won’t work,” he repeated, putting his hands on his hips. “Look, like this.” He sat down beside her and laid his back down on the sand. “You have to be flat on your back, Elizabeth, it’s best this way.”

“Is it now?” Elizabeth stiffened and clambered to her feet. “Was all this”—she gestured around the cove—“just to get me flat on my back, as you so beautifully phrased it?” she asked, hurt.

Ivan stared up at her from the sand, eyes wide, with a flabbergasted look on his face. “Well . . .” He stalled, trying to think of an answer. “Actually, yes,” he squeaked. “It’s just that, it’s better when it peaks, for you to be flat on your back,” he stuttered.

“Ha!” Elizabeth spat and, putting her shoes back on, she struggled through the sand to get back to her car.

“Elizabeth, look!” Ivan shouted with excitement. “It’s peaked! Look!”

“Uugh,” Elizabeth grunted, climbing the small sand dune to her car. “You really are disgusting!”

“It’s not disgusting!” Ivan said, panic in his voice.

“That’s what they all say,” Elizabeth grumbled, fumbling in her bag for her car keys. Unable to see into her bag in the dark, she leaned it toward the moonlight and as she glanced up, her mouth dropped open. Above her in the black cloudless sky was a hive of activity. Stars glowed brighter than she had ever seen before, some darting across the sky.

Ivan lay on his back, staring up also.

“Oh,” Elizabeth said quietly, feeling foolish, glad that the darkness was hiding her skin, which was absorbing the color of her dress. She stumbled back down the sand dune, removed her shoes, allowed her feet to curl into the sand, and took a few steps closer to Ivan. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

“Well, it would be a lot more beautiful if you lay flat on your back like I told you to,” Ivan huffed, crossing his arms across his chest and staring up to the sky.

Elizabeth placed her hand across her mouth and tried not to laugh out loud. The sound was muffled.

“I don’t know what you’re laughing at, no one accused you of being disgusting,” he said smartly.

“I thought you were talking about something else.” Elizabeth giggled, sitting down on the sand beside him.

“Why else would I be asking you to lie flat on your back?” Ivan asked in a dull tone and then he turned to her, his voice raised a few octaves with mocking eyes. “Oh,” he sang.

“Shut up,” Elizabeth said harshly, throwing her purse at him, but letting her smile show. “Oh, look.” Elizabeth was distracted by a shooting star. “What’s going on up there tonight, I wonder.”

“It’s the Delta Aquarids,” Ivan said, as though that explained everything. Elizabeth’s silence made him continue. “They’re meteors that come from the constellation Aquarius, the normal dates are the fifteenth of July to the twentieth of August, but they peak on the twenty-ninth of July. That’s why I had to take you out tonight, to complete silence, away from streetlights.” He turned to look at her. “So yes, all of this was just to get you on your back.”

They studied each other’s faces in comfortable silence until more action above diverted their attention.

“Why don’t you make a wish?” Ivan asked her.

“No.” Elizabeth laughed softly. “I’m still waiting for my Jinny Joes wish to come true.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Ivan said seriously. “They just take a while to process, you won’t be waiting long.”

Elizabeth laughed and stared hopefully up into the sky.

A few minutes later, sensing her sister would be on her mind, Ivan asked, “Any word from Saoirse?”

Elizabeth gave a single shake of her head.

“She’ll be home,” Ivan said positively.

“Yes, but in what condition?” Elizabeth said uncertainly. “How is it other families manage to hold it together? And even when they’ve problems, how do they manage to keep it from the rest of the people in their neighborhoods?” she asked in confusion, thinking about all the whispers she had been hearing over the past few days about her father’s behavior and her sister’s disappearance. “What’s their secret?”

“See that cluster of stars right there?” Ivan asked, pointing upward.

Elizabeth followed his hand, embarrassed to have bored him with talk of her family so much that he’d changed the subject. She nodded.

“Most meteors from a common meteor shower are parallel to one another. They appear to emerge from the same point in the sky called ‘the radiant’ and they travel in all directions from this point.”

“Oh, I see,” Elizabeth said.

“No, you don’t see.” Ivan turned on his side to face her. “Stars are like people, Elizabeth. Just because they appear to emerge from the same point doesn’t mean that they do. This is an illusion of perspective created by distance.” And as if Elizabeth hadn’t quite understood the meaning, he added, “Not all families manage to hold it together, Elizabeth, everyone moves in different directions. That we all emerge from the same point is a misconception; to travel in different directions is the very nature of every being and every existing thing.”

Elizabeth turned her head and faced the sky again, trying to see if what he said was true. “Well, they could have fooled me,” she said quietly, watching more appear from the blackness every second.

Elizabeth shivered and wrapped her shawl around her tighter; the sand was getting cooler with each passing hour.

“Are you cold?” Ivan asked with concern.

“A little,” she admitted.

“Right, well the night isn’t over yet,” he said, jumping to his feet. “Time to warm up. Mind if I borrow the keys to your car?”

“Not unless you intend on driving away,” she joked, handing them over.

He retrieved something from under the table once again and brought it to the car. Moments later, music was softly drifting through the open door of the car.

Ivan began to dance.

Elizabeth giggled nervously. “Ivan, what are you doing?”

“Dancing!” he said, offended.

“What kind of dancing?” She laughed, taking his extended hand, and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

“It’s the soft-shoe shuffle,” Ivan announced, dancing expertly in circles around her on the sand. “Also called the sand dance, you’ll be interested to know, which means that your mother wasn’t so mad wanting to do the shuffle in the sand after all!”

Elizabeth’s hands flew to her mouth; tears filled her eyes with happiness as she realized he was fulfilling yet another of her and her mother’s intended activities.

“Why are you fulfilling all of my mother’s dreams?” she asked, studying his face and searching for answers.

“So you don’t run away like she did in search of them,” he replied, taking her hand. “Come on, join in!” he said, leaping around.

“I don’t know how!” Elizabeth laughed.

“Just copy me.” He turned his back and danced away from her, swinging his hips exaggeratedly.

Lifting her dress to above her knees, Elizabeth threw caution to the wind and joined in dancing the soft-shoe shuffle on the sand in the moonlight, laughing until her stomach was sore and she was out of breath.