Before we met, p.1
Before We Met, page 1
Before We Met
Kristen Roche
Copyright © 2018 Kristen Roche
All rights reserved.
Prologue
It was mid-January and the wind whipped around the biting cold New York storm. A young girl braved the storm, sixteen and both brave and scared. Outside the sounds of the storm, the city was unusually quiet, and the young girl barely passed a single soul as she wandered off the subway, making her way through Chinatown.
The girl walked past the storefront twice before noticing it. She double checked the address written on a scrap piece of paper before letting herself in.
A bell chimed as she opened the door, the wind from outside causing the door to slam shut behind her. The young girl loosened her hand-knit scarf and took in her surroundings. The small shop was full of odds and ends, tchotchkes of all shapes and sizes. Everything from figurines to crystal balls to tarot cards and dream catchers.
“Can I help you?” an older woman asked, causing the girl to jump slightly in surprise.
The girl looked around until she finally caught sight of the eccentric-looking woman standing behind the counter. “Uhm, yeah,” she muttered. “I have an appointment?”
“Of course!” the woman nodded. She lifted up her arms and gestured for the younger girl to follow her into the back room.
The girl hesitantly followed, her ‘stranger danger’ instincts begging for her to turn around and leave, but the flutter in her stomach begged her to stay. So she listened to the growing form and followed the woman to the back of the store, where she found herself in a warmly lit room.
She took a seat opposite the older woman, and after only a brief moment of silence, the older woman spoke. “You aren’t here for yourself, are you?”
The girl didn’t respond, instead, she folded her hands over the slight bulge of her stomach.
“She’s going to be great,” the eccentric woman offered the younger girl a reassuring smile.
At the sound of the pronoun used, the pregnant girl’s face lit up. “It’s a girl?” she asked hopefully. The woman nodded. “I’m not sure what to do. I can’t keep her. I’m only sixteen.”
“You’ll make the right decision.”
“How do you know?”
“Do you mind?” the woman asked as she stood up and knelt beside the girl, gesturing to her stomach.
The girl shrugged out of her heavy winter coat, showing off the slight bump. She gestured to it and allowed the other woman to place her warm hands over her thin sweater on the bump.
“Your girl will know great loss,” the woman spoke, causing the girl to intake slightly. Not deterred, the woman continued with her prophesying. “She is strong though. Strong of will and soul. She is a fighter.”
The girl shifted her gaze from the woman to her stomach. “Will she be happy?”
“There will be both times of hardship and times of happiness. There is one thing though, that will bring your daughter nothing but happiness. Not a thing though, no." The woman paused for a moment as if waiting for a clearer sight of the future. "A girl. A girl whose soul is already entangled with hers. Their paths will cross countless times. They will know each other their entire lives, but not meet until the time is right. A soulmate can be either a curse or a blessing. For both your daughter and her soulmate, they will be each other’s blessings.”
“I don’t understand, she’ll know her for her entire life, but not meet her?”
“Not immediately."
“I understand,” the girl nodded.
“Would you like to hear anything about yourself?” the woman asked. “I see some things of great importance in your future.”
“No!” the girl interrupted vehemently. “I don’t want to know what my future entails. I don’t want that burden.”
“But knowing your daughter’s fortune is different?”
“Yes,” she nodded assuredly. “I won’t be able to see her grow up, so I want something to hold on to.”
The woman’s look softened and she prepared to offer the girl one last ounce of knowledge. “Her parents will name her Catherine. She will be called Cat. But her soulmate? The girl whose life path she is so entangled with? She will call her something that no one else ever will.”
“And what’s that?” the girl asked, her eyes alight in anticipation.
“I’m not sure,” the woman answered honestly with a shake of her head. “I can’t see that. Whatever it is though, it’ll change everything for your girl.”
Chapter One
Jake Collins was a worrier. This, of course, was a fact that he vehemently denied whenever his wife, Alice, brought it up. Jake’s worrying nature could be best explained by his actions on July 1st, 1993.His wife was 41 weeks pregnant and after days of asking her how she felt every hour and being told to “stop worrying, I’m a doctor, just trust me,” she finally announced to him that it was time. Their baby was coming. Alice, the more calm and composed half of the couple, insisted that she be the one who drove them to the hospital after watching Jake’s hands shake as he picked up the hospital bag from the front hall. Jake didn’t try and fight his wife on the matter.
It wasn’t until Alice was settled into a hospital bed just under an hour later that the complications started to arise. There were four other women in labor on the floor at the same time as Alice and only one OB-GYN on call. Luckily though, it was Alice’s doctor and friend from medical school - Callie Salazar.
Alice’s labor progressed normally until exactly eight pm, around two hours after being admitted. It was at that point that her baby’s heartbeat began to falter. Something was wrong. Dr. Salazar had just finished delivering a baby boy across the hall and had immediately assessed the situation with Alice Collins. It was quickly decided that Alice would have to have an emergency c-section.
Nurses were pulling Alice’s hospital bed into the hallway when Jake, in his stressed and worried state, somehow tripped over the cord to the fetal heart monitor machine, landing with his weight entirely on his left wrist. Even in the chaotic room, nearly everyone heard it crack.
“I’m fine! I’m fine!” Jake announced as he stood up, gingerly cradling his wrist. “Let’s go to the operating - okay shit that really hurt. Fuck. Yeah, I’m in a bit of pain.”
Jake glanced at his wife who was looking at him in a way that reminded him that she was about to go into surgery to bring their child into the world.
Dr. Salazar sighed, never having understood why Alice had married the engineer in the first place. “Nurse Miller, will you take Mr. Collins down to ortho while I get Mrs. Collins to the OR?”
The nurse nodded and gestured for Jake to follow him.
“I need to be there for my wife though!” he insisted.
“I’ll be fine Jake,” Alice responded. “You need to make sure you get that wrist set and in a cast so that you can help with this baby once I get out of surgery.”
Jake frowned but nodded in agreement.
Half an hour later, Jake returned to the waiting area outside the surgical ward of the maternity floor, wearing a brand new cast. He had just sat down on an uncomfortable, plastic chair when Dr. Salazar ran out of the operating room.
“Callie!” Jake exclaimed, dropping the title on his wife’s doctor’s name. “What’s going on?”
Callie whipped her head around but was unable to answer Jake’s question before a hospital bed came wheeling its way between them at an alarming speed. Lying on the bed was a brunette who couldn’t have been much older than sixteen, drenched in sweat and quickly losing consciousness. Her stomach protruded from her frail, thin body. Though it took up most of the girl’s frame, it still seemed smaller than Alice’s was and any passerby could tell that something was wrong.
Jake quickly took a step back and let Dr. Salazar approach the teen in the bed, listening as the nurses spoke words that even Jake understood, “six weeks early” “parents not responding” “baby’s father unknown” “adoptive parents arriving shortly”. It wasn’t until the hospital bed was halfway through the doors to the operating ward that Jake heard the word, “She’s crashing! If we don’t get this baby out of her, we’ll lose them both.”
Jake always considered himself to be more spiritual than religious, but at that moment, it was his Catholic upbringing that reared its head in him. He offered a silent prayer for the safety young girl and her child along with his wife and child.
Shortly after the young girl and Dr. Carwig disappeared, a large man with an impressive beard joined Jake in the waiting area.
“Is this the waiting area for maternity?” the man asked.
“Yes,” Jake nodded. Jake noticed the tell-tale signs of a father-to-be in the man, knowing he was exhibiting nervousness himself, so he decided to strike up a conversation. “So is this your first?” he asked.
The man jerked his head up, surprised to find Jake addressing him. He nodded. “I was just in the middle of painting the baby’s room when I got the call. My partner and I are adopting, but our birth mom wasn’t due for another six weeks.”
Jake immediately matched the young girl losing consciousness on the hospital bed to the man sitting distraught across from him.
“Is anyone ever ready to become a parent?” Jake teased, hoping a bit of humor would help the man across from him.
“She was the first birthmother who even looked twice at our file. Most women don’t exactly want to give their kid up to two men,” he shrugged, wringing his hands together. “And of course we want this baby more than anything, but she’s a good gir l too, the last thing I want is for anything bad to happen to her either. And my partner is stuck in traffic on his way here from work and I have no idea when he’ll be here.”
Jake took a deep breath and as he did so, he noticed a television above his head. A baseball game was playing. He stood up and crossed the room, taking the empty seat beside the man. This man needed to take his mind off of what he couldn’t control and so did Jake.
“Jake Collins, Yankees fan,” he introduced himself, nodding his head towards the game playing opposite them.
“Greg Scott, Mets fan,” the man responded with a slight chuckle.
Jake Collins and Greg Scott sat beside each other, talking about a sports game neither would care about in a few hours. They were each other’s distraction while they waited for the news that would change both of their lives entirely, and for the better. Little did they know at the time, that their happenstance meeting would not be their last.
On July 1st, 1993, Dr. Callie Salazar delivered five children; three boys and two girls. She performed two c-sections that day. The c-sections were performed in rooms across the hall from each other, Dr. Salazar alternating between the two rooms.
Catherine Rosslyn Scott was born at 9:31 pm that night. Her adoption paperwork signed by Greg and Ryan Scott the next morning. She spent her first two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit and went home with her fathers immediately after.
Barrett Elizabeth Collins was born at 9:47 pm that night. Her parents, Jake and Alice Collins took her home the next afternoon.
∞∞∞
Barrett Collins lived the first five years of her life on the Upper East Side of New York City until her parents finally decided to move to the suburbs, moving their family to Westchester County where Alice was hired as a general surgery attending surgeon. Barrett was quickly enrolled into a co-ed prep school where she met the son of the state’s governor, Malakai Reeves.
Starting from the first day of kindergarten, Barrett Collins and Caleb Reeves were inseparable. The Reeves and Collins families would often joke that when the two kids reached puberty they’d either decide that the other had cooties and they couldn’t be friends anymore, or they’d end up becoming childhood sweethearts, eventually falling in love and getting married.
Barrett and Caleb were seven when Jake first taught them how to play chess. They were immediately hooked. The two best friends were the only second graders in the chess club normally reserved for fourth and fifth graders. And they were the best.
When other kids their age were out riding bikes or smacking their ankles with their Razor scooters, Caleb and Barrett were inside playing chess or watching football with Malakai and Jake. They never felt left out when the rest of their peers had birthday parties at bowling alleys or laser tag and didn’t invite them because they had each other and they were best friends. That’s all that mattered.
Barrett’s best friend’s life changed their second week of third grade on a day that changed not just his life and not just Barrett’s, but the entire nation’s.
It was a Tuesday when Barrett heard her and Caleb’s names called over the loudspeaker, telling them to head to the front office, that they were getting picked up early. Barrett didn’t know what to think, but she secretly hoped their parents were taking them on a surprise trip to Disney World. Caleb was upset that they were going to miss minute madness for their multiplication tables.
Jake picked the two friends up and took them back to the Collins' house. It wasn’t until they walked inside that Jake broke the news to them. Alice was waiting on standby at the hospital in case they transferred patients to Connecticut and Malakai was at the state capitol, waiting to hear anything.
What Jake hadn’t realized was that while he sat Barrett and Caleb down at the kitchen table to tell them why he had pulled them out of school early, the television was on behind him. The news was playing on the channel Jake had been watching before he picked the kids up.
“Daddy!” Barrett exclaimed just as Jake was about to tell them what was happening so close to them. She pointed behind him at the television. Jake turned around just in time to see the first tower crumble to the ground, the same tower where Caleb’ mother had been working for four years.
Barrett held her best friend’s hand throughout the entirety of his mother’s funeral. She promised to never let go. Because that’s what best friends are for.
Caleb’s mother had been like a second mother to Barrett, but she held her head high and let Caleb cry for the both of them because that’s what best friends do. They stand silently beside their friend in pain and protect them from whatever they can.
They were in fourth grade when their teacher announced that they would be receiving pen pals with nine-year-olds like them, but nine-year-olds from Hong Kong. Their pen pals were attending an English speaking school in Hong Kong, many of whom were international students who had already moved around a lot in their lives and were used to writing letters to friends.
They picked names out of a hat to write to. Both teachers on opposite sides of the world had decided to have each of their students pick a nickname. It was the first year of the pen pal program and for safety reasons they didn’t want the kids to use their real names. Just in case.
“Who’d you get?” Barrett asked, leaning over to look at the piece of paper Caleb was unfolding on his desk beside him.
“Someone named Goggles. That’s a dumb nickname,” he laughed.
“So is King,” Barrett retorted.
“The king is the most important chess piece.”
“I think the Queen is more important,” Barrett insisted, bringing up an often fought debate between the two friends.
“Whatever, so who did you get?” Caleb asked.
“Scat,” Barrett read from her slip of paper. “That’s a weird name. I wonder if it’s a boy or a girl.”
Caleb shrugged and pulled out two pieces of looseleaf, handing one to Barrett. You can ask in your letter.
Barrett nodded and wrote her letter to her pen pal in slightly messy handwriting.
Scat,
Hi! My name is Grandmaster. Well, not really, but it’s the nickname I chose. Do you know what it means? Well, it is the highest level of chess player. I want to be a chess grandmaster one day. Or an artist. Or a doctor like my mom. What do you want to be when you grow up? What is Hong Kong like? Do you speak Chinese?
Grandmaster
PS: are you a boy or a girl?
∞∞∞
By the time Cat Scott was ten, she’d lived in four different countries. She was born in New York and moved to England before she learned to walk. She lived there for two years before she moved to Canada. Cat's family lived in Canada for eight months before moving to The Netherlands. At age six she moved to Hong Kong. It was in Hong Kong that she met the Ivy Brandt.
Like the Scott family, the Brandts moved around a lot. Ryan Scott was an ambassador, causing his constant traveling while Jane Brandt, Ivy’s mother, was a businesswoman who worked for a highly successful computer company.
Ivy was two years older than Cat, but they became instant friends. Ivy very much enjoyed the way Cat would follow her around and listen to all her worldly wisdom.
So when Cat received a letter from her pen pal in fourth grade, telling her about how she was a chess player, Cat immediately went to Ivy.
“Can you teach me how to play chess?” Cat asked the older girl.
“Chess is lame,” the eleven-year-old retorted. “How about I teach you how to fence instead?
Cat nodded and agreed, but secretly asked her fathers later that night how to play. She found the game interesting, but it was fencing with Ivy that Cat fell in love with.
Every day after school, Ivy and Cat would fence together in one of the empty dance studios at their international school. Greg would pick both Ivy and Cat up after they practiced. He would drop Ivy off, then take Cat home.
Cat would spend her evenings doing homework, then would have a family dinner with her dads. Cat loved Hong Kong and her life there was perfect.
The week before fourth grade ended, however, Greg and Ryan broke the news to Cat that they would be moving back to the United States, likely permanently. Cat took the news as well as any near ten-year-old who was being forced to move away from the place she'd loved for the past four years.
