Soulmate Search 2000

“So tell me.  Tell me everything you know.  Don’t leave anything out.”  They walk along without speaking for a time as Dug considers how to reply.  “Arana, your dream comes from the life you and I and Melvin formerly shared.  In that life, you were my daughter, and Melvin was your brother.”  He pauses to let that sink in, and when she does not respond, he goes on.  “In that life, you and Melvin were very close.  He loved you more than anyone.  When you were just fifteen, you went on a boating trip with some friends, and by some freak accident, you fell from the boat, bumped your head and drowned before they could save you.  We were all devastated, your mother, me, but Melvin the most.  He was inconsolable.”  Dug pauses again, hoping for some response from Arana, but there is none.  She walks on, staring straight ahead in trance-like silence.  To fill the void, Dug continues his story.  “I was a professor at a university, a rationalist, and I had taught Melvin that faith in any kind of mystical afterlife, or soul, or anything like that was rubbish.  He had not hope of ever seeing you again.  Some years later, when I died and found myself in the condition I am in now, I went looking for you.  You had already been reborn into a new life, and someone else had already been assigned as your guardian, so I was only allowed to visit your new life on occasion.  But I never forgot you.  You’ve always been my little girl.”  He pauses again, hoping she will speak, but she continues silent, looking determinedly forward.  “I was so happy when I found you here, and then learned that Melvin would be coming here, too.  But I was afraid that because of the bitterness you have both held on to that you were going to become enemies.  Isn’t it great how everything is working out, though?  You and Melvin have become friends, and...”