THEN SOME MORE STUFF HAPPENS

ED BECOMES ACQUAINTED AND THEN INFATUATED WITH FELLOW PATHLIGHT GROUP MEMBER JACKIE WHO SEEMS TO UNDERSTAND HIM BETTER THAN HE UNDERSTANDS HIMSELF AT TIMES. WE DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT JACKIE AND WHY SHE IS THERE, BUT WE DON’T NEED TO BECAUSE THIS IS NOT HER STORY EITHER. EDWARD JOINS JACKIE FOR A SMOKE BREAK OUTSIDE OF PATHLIGHT. EVEN THOUGH HE DOESN’T SMOKE, HE ACCEPTS HER OFFER OF A CIGARETTE AND LIGHTS UP ALONGSIDE HER. 

JACKIE: Do you believe in past lives?

ED: I’m not sure. I guess I’ve never thought much about it. What about you?

JACKIE: Oh, I don’t just believe in past lives – I remember some of mine.

ED: Do you now?

JACKIE: Oh yes. In fact, you and I have met before.

ED: Have we really?

JACKIE: I’m not sure why that is so hard for you to believe. We’ve only just met an hour ago, but it already feels like we truly know each other. I can anticipate what you are going to say in group to me and the other members. It seems to me that you get the same feeling when I start speaking too.

ED: I suppose there might be some truth to that.

JACKIE: You can be as skeptical as you like, but I know in my bones we’ve met before.

ED: Then tell me where and that might jog my memory.

JACKIE: The place I remember you from is full of mist. I am standing on a rocky surface surrounded by the sound of whooshing water rushing all around me. I can feel the spray of it on my skin.

ED: Go on.

JACKIE: I am wearing a dark green dress that is soaked with my sweat and the mist. Then the mist parts long enough for me to see you down below. 

ED: And then what happens.

JACKIE: I begin to cry. My eyes swell up with these fat sorrow-laden tears. I’ve only ever cried like that in this lifetime when I have lost someone that I love quite deeply. 

ED: Mmmhmmm.

JACKIE: So I see you… and then I jump. I can’t be sure if I jumped because I saw you or if I had planned to jump all along. I don’t think that part matters.

ED: Why wouldn’t that matter? 

JACKIE: Because what matters most is what you do – sorry, what you DID next. The fall I had was not far and I would have survived it if not for what you did. 

ED: And what did I do in this past life of ours?

JACKIE: You caused my death.

ED: Now why would I do that?

JACKIE: I don’t know… but I do think it has something to do with fate bringing us back together now. Maybe you need to answer for what you’ve done to me. Or maybe you need to explain yourself. 

ED: I’m not really good at either of those things.

JACKIE: If you weren’t ready for it then you wouldn’t be here.

ED: Yeah. Sure.