At Dusk

Convergence

She walked up to the entrance with unsure steps.

Ambulances drove by with their sirens on and people moved in and out of the sliding doors in groups of two, three, or four. She heard a helicopter nearby.

Angela was in one of the rooms. Why was she in Londrina? Maybe she came after you, something whispered in her ear. She dismissed it. That mystery would have to wait.  She needed to focus if she wanted to help.

She walked up to the nearest counter and tried asking. Everyone seemed too busy to pay attention to her, to answer her questions. There were no idle nurses. 

She started walking along the central corridor up to the lift. As she was going to press the button and randomly select a floor to try and finds her sister, it opened and the people inside it left. Amongst them was a familiar face; the man she saw helping Angela in the rain. She decided that following him was her best option. 

He was going the wrong way, though. Perhaps going home, she thought. Perhaps going to get some coffee. She hoped against hope for the last. She followed him until he stopped at a vending machine, grabbed a soda and some chips, and sat down at a whitish round table. 

He took his phone from a pocket in his jacket and spent some time staring at it. Who was he? What was his connection with his sister? Another mystery for another time. She was running out of patience and he was not moving. 

That was when an idea came to her. His actual presence was not necessary, she could retrace his steps, going back through the timelayers of that space he had traded in; the elevator and then probably another corridor. And that reversed path she started following until she saw which floor he came from, and which corridor and which room. 

45. There she was, resting on a bed. 

Laura walked into the room as silently as possible and stood by the bed. Her sister was sleeping peacefully, but she noticed there was something different, something very wrong. Her body was swollen and... she was pregnant, she gasped when she realized.  

Angela opened her eyes and turned to her, certainly expecting to see someone else. Her sister also gasped. 

"You... what..."

"It's ok. I'm here."

"Is this real?"

"I came to see you," she said as she gently touched her sister's hand. 

"How? I thought you had died..."

"I'll explain everything later, I promise. What matters is that I'm here now."

"I came here to find you... this city," Angela was still arguing.

"Funny thing I found you first then," she smiled as she said, enjoying the long-lost familiarity of talking to her twin sister. 

"Laura, you don't understand," Angela half stood on the bed, supporting her weight with her elbows. "I saw you in a vision, you weren't well. You needed help."

"When was this?"

"A few months ago. I had to speak with Isabel to find out where you lived and when I got here you were gone..."

"I had some things that I needed to take care of, outside... the city. It just wasn't the right time for us."

Angela said nothing, just kept staring at her. She went on: "But I am well, I assure you. Never better."

"I see that now," her sister said, a tinge of anger in her voice. 

"What is it, Angy?"

"Angy?" She retorted. "Only you and Mathias call me that." Laura just stared at her.