The last dancing class for the day had been over for twenty minutes. Anita was making her rounds down the corridor for the final check before locking up the studio for the night. As she approached the end of the hall, she heard music playing faintly and thought Nathaniel was there putting together a dance composition. But instead, she was surprised to see Annabelle inside the room all by herself. The little girl was practicing her dance moves with great diligence on her prosthetic leg.
Anita quietly watched the little ballerina for a good five minutes and was deeply touched by the child’s persistency. So, she entered the room and turned the music louder and joined Annabelle. They danced about happily, doing a lot of demi plies. When she held the child’s hand, Annabelle was able to do the grand plié. When she let go of Annabelle’s hand and tried to do the Arabesque, Anita fumbled over her left leg and fell to the floor. Instantly, resentment set in, followed by frustration as she tried to choke back her tears.
Ethan saw the entire scene from the time Anita started dancing with Annabelle to her fumbling down onto the floor. He was about to enter the room to help Anita but was pulled back by Nathaniel who had also been quietly watching.
Annabelle crouched beside Anita and took hold of her hand. “Don’t worry, Ballerina Anita. I fell down many times before too!”
Anita found comfort in the child’s sweet voice and started to smile. With help from Annabelle, she got herself back to a standing position.
“Watch me!” Annabelle performed an arabesque for Anita. “I couldn’t do this before, but Grandma told me not to give up. She always believed I could do it one day. Watch me again!”
The child did another arabesque to proof her point. Then Annabelle took Anita’s hand and they both started dancing again. “One day, you can do this by yourself. I know you can!”
A few weeks later, Derek and his team were wrapping up a homicide investigation by the waterfront. Just when they were leaving, Ethan’s attention was captured by a toddler who was climbing out from his baby cart that was parked very close to the boardwalk by the water’s edge. The toddler’s very young nanny was busy chit-chatting with her friend. When the nanny realized what was happening, she made a loud cry and quickly lunged forward to catch the child. But her cry had spooked the child, thus, causing him to tumble over the railing and fell into the open harbor. Though it happened in a matter of seconds, Ethan wasted no time in running towards the scene and jumped into the water to rescue the boy.
Derek and the rest of the team heard the loud cry from the nanny. When they turned around, they watched as Ethan dived into the water. They didn’t know what was happening until they ran up to the railing and watched as Ethan resurfaced with the toddler. A crowd of people had gathered around to watch the spectacle as well.
“Erica, call an ambulance!” Derek commanded when he saw Ethan treading the water with the unconscious boy.
Mark surveyed the area and saw a barge about twenty feet away. “Ethan! Over there!”
Ethan looked up and saw where Mark was pointing and started swimming towards the barge. The crowd followed to where Mark was going, and they stood watching while several team members pulled the toddler out of the water onto the barge.
Many of them gasped and held their breath in prayers as Ethan performed artificial respiration on the unconscious boy. When the resuscitation was accomplished, the cry of the toddler brought on cheers and applause from the bystanders who witnessed the entire scene.
Mark placed his jacket around the boy and carried him up the steps just as the ambulance attendees were making their way through the crowd with a gurney.
Ethan remained on the barge and took off his jacket to wring off the excess water. He was glad the weather was warming up as summer was approaching. Before leaving, he turned around and took in the view of the busy harbor and wondered to himself how many times he would need to shower to decontaminate himself from being soaked in this polluted water. At the same time, he was trying really, really hard to tell his brain not to think about the smell on his body at that precise moment.
As Ethan turned his head to the direction where Erica was calling him, something in the water caught the corner of his eyes. It was a glistening light. He turned back to look at the spot where the sparkle came from and noticed a soda can was hitting the side of the seawall embankment. The metal can was about three feet away from the barge and the noon sun was causing something on top of the can to glitter.
Ethan walked towards the edge of the barge and squinted his eyes. He leaned slightly forward to get a better view; then he blinked a few times to make certain he was not imagining what he was seeing. When he was still in doubt, he called Erica and Derek down so they could take a look as well.
“What’s the matter?” Erica stood next to him and wondered what Ethan was looking at.
“Do you see a ring stuck to that pop can?” Ethan pointed to the element that was about two and a half feet away now. However, the object of interest was now submerged in the water.
“A ring?” Erica glanced at the spot where Ethan was pointing to. “Where?”
Then the top of the pop-can emerged from the water and emitted another sparkle.
When Erica and Derek confirmed there was indeed a ring stuck to the opening of the can, Ethan dived back into the water and grabbed hold of the can. He looked at the ring that was stuck to the opening of the can and his heart pounded hard against his chest. He recognized the ring right away. He was certain it was the same ring that he had placed on Gillian’s finger twice. He held it tight and pulled himself out of the water.
Standing on the barge, he showed Erica and Derek the ring and told them it was the engagement ring that Gillian had lost last year. The same one she had accidentally dropped into the harbour around the same time when Anita was rescued from her abductor last year.
That very night, Ethan found the courage to finally pick up the phone and called Gillian. However, when he kept getting her voicemail, he decided he would try again in the morning before going to the bank to put the ring into his safety deposit box. Then he went to sleep with dreamy eyes and woke up with a glowing smile.
After securing the diamond ring in his safety deposit box, Ethan was exiting the bank when he happened to take notice of a woman from across the street. To Ethan, the woman looked very much like Gillian. He silently bid the woman to turn around slightly so he could take a better look to confirm if she was truly Gillian.
And when the woman lifted her head for a quick glance towards his directions, Ethan had a sense of déjà vu and realized he saw this moment in his dream last night. Now it all made perfect sense why Gillian didn’t answer his calls from last night and why she had not returned his call from this morning when he left her a message on the answering machine.
In a matter of split seconds, Gillian spotted someone she knew and started walking away. Ethan’s heart practically raced to the top of his throat, charging up every muscle in his body to chase after her. Without thinking, he called out her name and dashed unto the busy street with moving cars.
Suddenly, the shout of her name, mixed with the sound of brakes screeching, horns honking, and pedestrians screaming, caused Gillian to turn around. At precisely that moment, she watched as a man was being bumped into the open air from across the street towards her direction. She thought the voice sounded very much like Ethan’s, but then thought herself silly as the man landed unto the sidewalk and was immediately swallowed up by a whirlpool of pedestrians.
Curious, and wanting very much to prove her own imaginative mind wrong; she took a few steps to where the man landed. When she realized it was Ethan lying on the ground, she hurled to his side and called out his name.
Out of panic, she wanted so much to shake him so he would wake up. But her professionalism acted first and she took his wrist to check his pulse instead. While she was still trying to find his pulse, Ethan gained consciousness and opened his eyes. “Gillian?”
“Ethan!” Gillian called out.
He met her weary eyes. “Is that really you?”
Ethan felt rather disoriented at that moment, and he looked confused when the face of a Caucasian man appeared in his peripheral vision.
“What happened, Gillian?” The man asked and lowered himself next to Gillian. That was when Ethan closed his eyes and became unconscious again.
The man immediately reached over and performed a routine medical check on Ethan. He pulled his eyelids and checked his pulse.
“I think he was hit by a car.” Gillian replied with stammering voice when Ethan did not wake to her calling his name again. She reached into her purse to search for her phone. “I’ll call an ambulance!”
Someone in the crowd told Gillian that one was already on its way. The Caucasian man continued to examine Ethan’s neck and skull. “Neck is okay, no cracks in the skull. That’s a good sign, right?”
He gave Gillian a grin which brought a look of relief to her face. Then the man went on to examiner the rest of Ethan’s body starting with his limply arms. When he was done, he turned to Gillian and asked how she was holding up. Gillian nodded her response, but her anxiousness was obvious as she held on to Ethan’s unresponsive hand.
“Would you like me to give him mouth to mouth?” With a twinkle in his eyes, the man teased. “Or would you prefer to do that yourself?”
Gillian’s smile finally broke through this time and the fear in her eyes vanished. She knew Ethan would be fine. She knew that because he was just examined by one of the world’s renowned neurosurgeons, who also happened to be her boss and mentor from John Hopkins University.