The Reunion

Tegan anxiously read the email before her. Hello Tegan, My name is Annie Walker, and I believe I am the person you’ve been looking for. I happen to be living not too far from you in a smallish town outside of San Francisco. While you’re welcome to reply to this message, it would be wonderful to hear your voice and to get reacquainted by phone, so please feel free to call me collect anytime after 5 PM. I’m very much looking forward to hearing from you! Fondly, Annie Tegan waited until after 5 PM and then excitedly dialed Annie’s number. “Hello,” a woman said a few seconds later. “Annie?” “Yes.” “Annie, it’s Tegan.” “Oh, hi, Tegan! How are you?” “I’m wonderful. How are you?” “Just fine, just fine.” After a moment of silence, Tegan said, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m talking to you. I’ve tried for years to find you so I could thank you for your kindness.” “Well, I’m glad you finally found me.” The two didn’t speak for long, agreeing it would be easier to keep in touch by email, and definitely less expensive, and so that’s just what they did. Tegan learned that Annie lived alone and was a supervisor at a private school. She also liked to paint in her spare time. When the subject of their sexuality came up, neither one seemed all that surprised to learn the other was a lesbian. They just didn’t care. Eventually, Tegan entrusted Annie with the link to her online journal. The link wasn’t exactly a secret anyway. It was her signature link that she posted on most of the sites she frequented that would allow her to do so. A few weeks later, Annie agreed to drive up to where Tegan was living, about 100 miles away, saying she was due for some vacation time anyway. Tegan waited in the warm sunshine, dressed in a floral sleeveless dress, her hair down and loose. Her pulse sped up when she heard a vehicle enter the clearing. When the car came to a stop, and the woman got out of it, Tegan froze. She studied the woman intently. Something was off. “Hi, Tegan,” the woman said softly, emotion evident in her eyes. “Hi.” “Am I what you expected?” Tegan shook her head. “Why is that?” “I don’t know.” Annie held out her arms for a hug. Tegan hesitated for a moment, then accepted it. When she pulled back, she said, “I just would’ve thought you’d be somewhere in your fifties, but you look late thirties, early forties.” Annie smiled. “I also thought the real Annie Walker, if that’s really her name, had dark hair and eyes.” Annie’s expression turned to one that was a mixture of seriousness and concern, as if she were afraid of rejection or something. Tegan studied Annie some more. The woman was dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt. The biggest throw-off was the blond hair and light blue-gray eyes. But the woman was beautiful just the same. Shyly, eyes cast downward, Annie spoke. “If I confessed to stumbling across your journal after stumbling across your profile on Facebook, and then stumbling across your post about your search for the woman from camp after stumbling upon the link to the post in your journal, would you hate me and want to turn me away?” Tegan didn’t know how to react or what to say. She simply stood there, jaw slightly slack, head shaking faintly. She’d been brutally betrayed. Clearly, this woman was not the woman she’d been looking for. This was just a woman who’d read about her life, including the post regarding the woman at camp, and who obviously had a crush on her and had used it as a means of contact. At least that’s what now appeared to be the case. If it was really a crazed obsession, she did not yet know. “Why didn’t you just come out and tell me?” she asked. Annie didn’t seem to have an answer for that. “I know I should have. I guess I just figured I’d have a better chance of you accepting me if we met in person.” “So let me get this straight. You find me by accident, realize you have a crush on me, then decide to bullshit me so you have a better chance of inserting yourself into my life?” Annie shrugged. “I know it was wrong. Very wrong. But I’m alone, you’re alone, and well, I’d really like to make it up to you somehow.” “I don’t know that you ever could,” said Tegan. Annie leaned against her car, arms folded in front of her. She was truly lovely. Of that much, Tegan knew she couldn’t deny. “I guess you’re either going to give me a chance or send me on my way,” Annie said, a hint of resignation in her voice. “Well, so far you’ve proven to be a very dishonest and manipulative person. So can I even trust you to give an honest answer if I asked what you hoped to achieve in meeting me?” “I just wanted someone like you in my life,” Annie said. “At 100 miles away? Why me anyway? You don’t even know me. There are so many other fish in the sea, Annie, and in this day and age, it’s very easy for gays and lesbians to meet. Why wouldn’t you want to meet someone in your area?” “I guess you were just too beautiful to pass up for convenience. Your pictures—the way you poured your heart out in your writing—just had a way of tugging at my heart like nothing else ever has. I’m sorry, Tegan. Really, I am.” Tegan hesitated. The woman had lied to her. Yet her curiosity about who would drive 100 miles to meet someone based on online photos and a journal was getting the better of her. Finally, she said, “I’m going to search your car and everything in it, and then I’ll give you my decision.” Annie looked surprised for a moment, then she chuckled. “OK, search away.” “Let’s start with you yourself,” Tegan said, checking the pockets of Annie’s jeans. Spare change, hard candy, and convenience store receipts—nothing unusual. “Please open your trunk.” She spent the next few minutes searching Annie’s car. Then she shut the doors and trunk and approached Annie. “OK, no drugs or weapons. Come on, you liar.” Annie laughed and said, “OK,” and followed Tegan into the trailer. Tegan showed Annie around the small trailer. She didn’t seem to mind the rat. They soon sat at the table and ate the ham and cheese sandwiches Tegan fixed for them. “You better not bullshit me again,” Tegan warned after a minute or two of silence. “I won’t,” said Annie. They ate quietly for a moment. “Hey, Tegan?” “Yes?” “You missed something.” “What’s that?” Annie reached for the hem of her jeans and pulled it upward, exposing the knife she had holstered around her ankle. Tegan froze. Knowing she was alone in the woods with a strange woman who had a knife was beyond chilling. “Relax,” Annie said. “It’s only for protection. I always have it when I travel. I’ll go put it in my trunk.” Tegan watched through the window as Annie went out to her car and threw the knife into her trunk, unsure if she should lock the door and run to call the police before Annie could return. Instead, she let Annie back inside, and they had passionate sex for hours and hours. The light soon faded to darkness. They left few bases uncovered. Exhausted, they finally fell asleep in each other’s arms late that night. Tegan awoke with a start the following day. She scurried out of bed and into the living room. Then she glanced outside. Annie was gone. Just gone. No note, no nothing. Tegan wondered why she would leave without leaving a note, or if she would ever see her again. And then she later learned, when she saw Annie being led by police in handcuffs on the evening news after being picked up on suspicion of murdering four other women, that no, they would never see each other again.