Love Lost in Time

Suppose you had been born in a world of soulmates, where everyone had a timer on their wrist. If you meet your soulmate, your timer runs out and turns to a green zero; sparks fly and you understand what love means. However, if your soulmate dies before you can find them, your number stays at a red zero; but you can still marry, find love, and live a happy life without your soulmate.

Alice had been born in this world of soulmates. Nobody could tell her why, but she had been born with a negative number. Not a zero, but a negative number. All the research her parents did gave her no help. So they hid part of her number with makeup or long sleeves.

As Alice grew up, the growing number on her wrist made her wonder why people put so much work into finding their soulmates. It seemed to her there must be more to life than that. Keeping her number a secret, she joined support groups and wrote articles about finding yourself without a soulmate.

She had made quite a name for herself and, for the most part, was happy. She, however, wasn’t the only one who had become somewhat well-known for their unique view on soulmates. There was a man named Joey who seemed to make it his life mission to help people who lost their soulmates find peace.

Many articles had been written pinning the two against one another, because of their seemingly different views on soulmates. In truth, the two had never met and didn’t hold hard feelings against one another, so when they were asked to do an interview together they gladly accepted.

A few weeks later, she flew to the big city to film the interview. She sat across from the two hosts, and a man who looked to be about her age sat next to her. "Hi! I'm Alice."

"Nice to meet you, Alice. I'm Joey. I'm looking forward to hearing more about your approach - I've read some of your articles."

"Hi Joey, I’ve heard good things about the Council Hearts Foundation. Some of the people who come to my seminars have spoken of your work."

"Thanks! I've been helping people for about as long as you have. Even recommend your seminars to a few people." His eyes flicked to her wrist. She noticed and felt self-conscious, and started fidgeting with her bracelet. Then she observed that he wore a watch over his timer. She couldn't help but wonder why.

Before they could talk more, the camera crew started the countdown - "Three, two, one…." With a point of the finger, the hosts began the show.

"Good morning, Viewers!” The host Dani started. “Today we have two special guests here! They have two different approaches to life without soulmates."

"Yes, and I for one am so excited to see the difference. Why don't we start with you, Alice? Tell us about your approach.” The other host Andi gave her the floor.

"Thank you.” Alice smiled and told her well-rehearsed story, the one she’d been telling for years. “My soulmate died shortly after I was born. Being in a small town, I quickly got tired of all the sad looks. So I hid my timer and made a point to live my life to the fullest and never let my lack of sparks stop me from sharing love with those around me. I didn't plan on making it my brand. It just kinda happened.” She shrugged.

"So your choice is to sort of forget about your soulmate altogether?" Dani asked.

Alice touched her bracelet. "When you grow up in a small town and lose a soulmate so young, kids can be quite mean. So rather than fighting the bullies, I lived like soulmates didn't exist, and was happier for it. So I encourage people to find love outside of a countdown. Whether that is singleness or finding love on their own. It's freeing."

"Joey, I assume you disagree?" Andi brought him into the conversation.

"Well, ‘disagree' is too strong. I also lost my soulmate young, and I wondered if there'd be a benefit to meeting my soulmate's family. But I never did anything with that thought. Then one day my best friend lost his soulmate before they met. So I became determined to find them for him.

“I'd become quite good at random research. My friend had experienced some pain when his soulmate died, so I had a date. And I learned that most death records hold the number that the timer stopped at. So using what I could, I started digging. And even though lots of people die in a day, you have facts that help shrink that number. Eventually, I found a match for my friend, I had the family send me information to bring their child's soulmate peace." Joey took a breath.

"Seeing the peace that it brought my friend when I handed him a photo of her - it was amazing. And the red of his runout timmer faded, looking more like an old couple that left at different times. He got to feel the spark and could move on. So I encourage people to have faith in finding their soulmate's family and then they can find the freedom that comes with that."

Dani smiled. "Seems like two different views of the same side of the coin, if you ask me. We'd love to hear the story about you finding your soulmate Joey, but I'm afraid we are out of time! See ya next time on the Morning Minute Show!" With that, the show ended. Alice and Joey were thanked and the two headed off.

As they left the building, Joey stopped her. "Hey, we know that some of our clients end up using both of our services…. Would you like to go out for coffee and discuss a partnership?"

She paused. "That would be great." They found a coffee shop and soon sat down with drinks in hand. "So, did you find your soulmate? I don't think I've ever heard that story…?"

"Oh, I couldn't. My parents didn't catch the day or time I lost mine.” He fidgeted with his watch. "But hey, as a way to announce our partnership, I could find your soulmate, and we could do a story and air it on the Morning Minute."

"I don't think you could." She fidgeted with her bracelet.

"Oh ya? Try me." He seemed confident. So she slipped off her bracelet and showed her -136 timer. Joey nearly dropped his coffee. "No way."

"I know, it's strange; that’s why I hide my number." Alice went to put her bracelet back on.

"Wait, you don't understand." He pulled his watch off. "Look." His wrist had the same number as hers.

"How is this possible?" She looked at his number, "I didn't think...."

"I know, me neither, but maybe together we can find them." She saw his wheels turning.

"How? It was forever ago…." She didn’t think it was possible.

"Well, it's true that was a long time ago. And we don’t have an exact date, but in all my years of doing this, I've learned some patterns in soulmates. One: they tend to be geographical, so odds are our soulmates lived in our geographical area. Two: we have the same number so odds are it was the same tragedy that took them." He seemed to get excited.

"So you're saying there's a chance they knew each other or at least lived in the same town?" She couldn't believe all this.

"It's a possibility. It couldn't hurt to look, right? It could give us closure and maybe a reason as to why this happened." He gave her a small smile.

She took a deep breath. "Alright, let's give this a try."

Joey and Alice became quite close over the next few months, helping each other with their clients. They learned they only lived about an hour apart, so they started spending Saturdays together, researching their hopeful soulmates’ location.

They looked into different tragedies and natural disasters that happened in the year 1886. They really only had one option to go off of - the Great Vancouver Fire. It only killed about 30 people but it wiped out the buildings of the town. There was a small history museum just outside what was now a major city. Seeing it as their best shot, they took a road trip together.

As they drove, Alice voiced a question she'd had since they planned this road trip. "What happens to us if we find them?"

Joey took a breath. "Well, I'd hoped we would keep meeting up as we have been, but…." he offered his hand to her. "But, as more than just friends."

She smiled and placed her hand in his. "I'd like that. I've enjoyed the last few months a lot and we make a good team." They drove in silence for a while. "What if we are wrong?"

"Then we are wrong, and we choose whether to keep looking or to let it go and move on. Still a good story." He gave her a smile.

Soon they pulled up to a little museum that they would have missed had they not been looking for it. They got out, joined hands, took a breath, and walked in.

"Why, hello! Welcome to my little museum,” an older woman greeted them with a smile. “Its main focus is the Great Vancouver Fire."

"We're so glad we found this place! I almost missed it." Alice dropped their donation in the box.

"Ya, most people breeze by my little museum. What brings you two here?" she paused. "You're not big city folk, so you made my little museum a stopping point?"

Joey took this one. "Research project. This is the only museum that gives extensive notes on the fire. We were hoping you had info on the people who died. There were only 30 or so, correct?"

"Yes, that's true, and I have names, pictures and a few momentos from all of them. Their family members gave them to my mother when she started the museum."

"Why did your mother start the museum?" Alice was hopeful they had the right place.

"To tell my great grandmother's story. She and my great-grandfather have a love story to rival all others. But I'll let that story tell itself." She handed them a guide.

They walked through, learning about this family, its ties to Vancouver, and the role they had played…but then they found what they were looking for. On a wall near the back of the little museum, there was a display called ‘Two People Without A Soul?’ There they found out about a different Alice and Joey who had been born with timers over 100. Alice of the past had put an ad in the paper looking to find someone else whose number was that high. Joey from the next town over come to show her his number; they were the same.

Knowing they would never meet their soulmates, they planned to wed. Some people were livid, believing they should have stayed single. The two even had to petition the local government to let them marry.

"Wow, can you believe how much has changed?" Sure, Alice hadn't planned on getting married, but having to get her local government to let her marry was crazy to imagine

"Ya, that would be hard." They kept reading the wall. "They did get married, they had 3 kids before the fire," Joey pointed out.

"Do you think there was a mix-up or somethi…." Alice paused. "Joey, look at this." Displayed along the wall in a glass case were letters to soulmates. Alice and Joey from the past had written them letters.

"We should read them, I guess." Joey looked over the letter that Alice from the past had written.

Alice took a breath and read the one that Joey of the past had written her.

My Dearest,

I know we will never meet and at times that breaks my heart, but then I look at my beautiful Alice and my heart hurts less. I may never get that Spark I've learned so much about, but I will die knowing what love means because I have her. Don't give up on love, my dear. Search for it, and when you find it doesn't let love go."

Alice looked at present-day Joey with deep joy in her heart. She couldn't wait to see what would come next.