Part 6

                                    

                                          
      Christmas came and went. For David the waiting was agonising. Then on the last day of the year a large envelope arrived in the mail. It was from the family history centre in Melbourne. With trembling hands he tore it open and spread the contents on the table. There was a covering letter and several photocopied documents including birth certificate and school records. He quickly looked through them. Were there any photos? Yes, two small black and white photographs. One was a school photo and the other was a family photo. He studied them carefully, then reached for the phone.
Paul arrived twenty minutes later, and David showed him the photos.
"The school photo isn't very clear," Paul noted, "This blonde girl could be anyone. The family photo is better. Mother, father, two brothers and Elizabeth." He looked at David. "It sure looks like Angie. Her hair is longer than Angie's, but she's a close resemblance."
"That's what I thought," David agreed, "It must be true then, everything she told me that night." He picked up the letter which came with the photos. "The history centre says in this letter that Elizabeth never married and had no children. Her parents and older brother are no longer living, but her younger brother is still alive, He's retired and living at the Gold Coast. Paul, how would you and Rachel like to come on a drive with me tomorrow?"
Paul's wife Rachel had taken some convincing, but after she was shown the photos, she was intrigued enough by the mystery to join in the search. She and Angela had been good friends.
At ten thirty in the morning of new year's day they pulled up outside a small house in the Gold Coast suburb of Nerang.
"His name is Drew and he's seventy six," David explained. "I rang him this morning and told him we're historians doing research on random families who lived in Melbourne during the second world war."
An elderly man with a neat grey beard and sparkling eyes invited them in and offered them tea. As they sat down in the living room David asked him about his family, and added "You had an older sister didn't you?"
Drew's eyes lit up as he recollected memories from over fifty years ago. "Yes, Elizabeth or Liz as we called her. She was a wonderful girl. Always happy, always laughing, everyone loved her. She had plenty of boyfriends, but she never married. I think she was being particular and waiting for the 'right' man. We used to tease her about being a spinster."
"How did she die?" David asked.
"Very sad that. She was the healthiest person I knew. Never caught anything worse than a cold. Then one day out of the blue she got really sick. We took her to hospital, they gave her drugs, but two days later we lost her. Pneumonia it was. The doctors were puzzled as to why the drugs didn't work."
"Did she ever talk about living another life?"
 "Another life? What do you mean?"
 "I know it's a strange question," David continued, "but did she ever talk about living as someone else in another lifetime.
 "Well that is a strange question, young man. Not that I can recall, but I do remember her telling us about a recurring dream or nightmare she used to have. She was riding a horse at night, the horse stumbled and she fell to the ground. As she was lying there paralysed she could see bright lights moving across the sky and a man ran up to her crying, calling her Mary."
 He paused for a moment with a puzzled look on this face, then he muttered, "Lights in the sky. It just occurred to me. On the night of the afternoon Liz died I remember seeing lights in the sky. I think they called it a meteor shower at the time. That's a strange coincidence. But why are you asking me all these questions about my sister?"
David decided not to push the subject any further. They had enough anyway. Drew had described Elizabeth's character and told them how she died, and maybe also how she died in her previous life by a fall from a horse. More confirmation.
They thanked Drew and drove back up the highway towards Brisbane.
As they made their way through the heavy holiday traffic Rachel said, "One thing I don't understand, David. Angie told you that when she was eighteen in her next life she would try to find you, that she would have her memories from her previous life as Angela. Well by now she would be nearly nineteen. Why hasn't she come looking for you? You're in the phone book and you still work in the same place.
"I know," answered David, "I've been wondering about that too. Maybe something is preventing her."
 "Okay well I think I can help you find those other two girls who were born on the night Angie died," Paul said, "I have a friend who works in I.T. in a government office. He has access to that kind of information. He's been away on holidays for the last month but he's back tomorrow. If I bribe him with a carton of beer I think he'll help us. I'll call him tomorrow."
 "Thanks, Paul. But now we have another mystery. Drew said there were lights in the sky, or meteors, on the night Elizabeth died. And in her dream about dying when she was Mary she saw lights in the sky. I had almost forgotten, but just before Angela was hit by the car we were both looking at meteors in the sky."
 "That is rather weird," Paul said, "but how could a shower of meteors in the night sky have anything to do with these three women's deaths? I mean it's not like they were directly hit by one."
 They drove on in silence until they reached the suburbs of Brisbane.

That night David had the dream again. This time he was walking by the river with Angela, and again the car came at them, and Angela faded away calling to him to find her. The dream woke him and he lay in bed for two hours wondering, could he actually find his beloved Angela again? She would be twenty nine years younger than him, but he didn't care. Who was she? Sarah Jacobs in Broken Hill or Kristin Hayward in Canberra? Or maybe someone else? The computer record of the times of births may have been wrong. Maybe a girl was born at five thirty but had been entered at a different time by mistake. With all these thoughts swirling around in his head he finally drifted off into a restless sleep.

It was a long wait. Paul's friend didn't come up with any information until a week later. Finally Paul rang David with the news he had been waiting for. He sounded excited. "Dave, sit down at your computer. Mark just sent me the addresses of those two girls, and a bonus. He hacked into the RTA computer and guess what? Both these girls have their driver's licence, so he got their photos as well."
"Did you look at them?" David asked breathlessly.
"Yes, but I want you to see for yourself. I'm emailing you the addresses and photos now. Turn your computer on. Ring me back in a few minutes."
"Okay." He hung up the phone. His computer was already on. It seemed to take an eternity, but two minutes later the computer beeped at him that he had mail. There were two files from Paul. He opened the first one. It was for Sarah Jacobs and she was now living in Sydney. The girl in the accompanying photo had short dark hair. It wasn't Angie. 
 He was trembling as he opened the second file for Kristin Hayward. She still lived in Canberra, but at a different address from her birth record. He clicked on the icon for the photo, and sat there numb with disbelief or shock, or was it joy. The girl smiling in the photo was Angela. There could be no doubt, she had the same blonde hair almost the same length Angie had worn hers and in the same style. And the smile, that was Angie's smile. She looked a little younger, of course, but she was only eighteen in this photo. 
 This confirmed everything Angie had told him. She had indeed been born again into a new life at the time she had died back in 1986. It was a miracle! How could such a thing happen? He didn't care. It was a miracle which he hoped would give him a second chance with the woman he loved.

 There were tears in his eyes as he called Paul and told him he would buy Paul's friend Mark a case of beer or anything he wanted.
"What are you going to do now?" Paul asked.
"I'm on the first plane to Canberra tomorrow."
"David this is wonderful news, Rachel and I really hope you find Angie, I mean Kristin. Keep in touch with your mobile. We want to know what happens."
David went back to the computer and booked himself onto the midday flight the next day to Canberra. That night as he was preparing to get into bed, he reset the clock radio to wake him early. As he was adjusting the radio's volume Dolly and Kenny came on singing their song. He almost didn't believe it. He lay in bed in the dark singing along softly with the song, singing along with Angie's song.

Will David find Angela when he goes to Canberra?
Read on to find out, but please vote first :)