The Second Time Around Ch. 05

"Who are you?"

Adriano's head snapped away from his sandwich as he stared at Gina. She had entered the kitchen twenty minutes ago and had been scrutinizing him for the last fifteen out of those twenty minutes.

"Excuse me?"

"You're not Adriano, are you? I'm starting to think that you never were," she said, slowly pushing her black hair behind her shoulders, her eyes becoming even more focused. "Don't get me wrong, the doctors said that most amnesia patients would exhibit behavior that was completely different from the way they used to be, but you, Adriano..."

"You what?" he asked swallowing the bite of sandwich in his mouth that no longer had taste. His heart was pounding out of his chest and if he wasn't being crazy, he would have admitted that he was experience a bit of the fight or flight mechanism as his legs twitched to run.

"You're not him," Gina simply said. "It's not that you're doing anything strangely that would have caught the average person's attention, but I should warn you that I'm kind of a medium, I can contact the spiritual world and communicate with lost souls; not that I really want to," she added that last tidbit with a sense of shame that made her stare at her feet.

"What's your name?"

"Caid," Caid replied truthfully. Gina's neck almost broke from the whiplash as her bright blue eyes opened wider than saucers.

"No," she told him in disbelief. "If this is some kind of joke, then it's not funny."

"Yes, it's true and no, it's not a joke. My name is Caid Harrison," he told her with an air of seriousness.

"That—that can't be," she stuttered. "He's dead."

"Caid Harrison, born: November 12, 1987, Social Security Number: 075-98-6032 (because my mother lived in Manhattan at the time of my birth). Parents: Olivia and Charles Harrison both born in 1963, one on April first the other on June twenty third. One older brother, Corey Harrison, born January 5, 1984, who passed away from cancer—"

"Stop!" Gina interrupted with a hand up. She looked absolutely freaked out and unwilling to believe the words that were coming out of Caid's mouth.

"Why should I believe a word that you say? You could probably be making this all up to fuck with me. Adriano would do something like that."

Caid laughed, shaking his head then told her about everything from his parents' threats to harm Brigitte to how he ended up in the hospital and what he saw while his body was "in between worlds." "Your brother died a little after I did," he said with remorse before apologizing.

"Then why are you here instead?" she gritted as tears came to her eyes. For the past five months, they have been living with a complete stranger and what scared her the most was that she had had her suspicions from the very start, but had been too chicken shit to say anything.

"Don't you think that I would love to know the answer to that question as well?" Caid replied dropping his barely touched sandwich into the trash bin.

"Then if you were so concerned about stealing someone else's body, why didn't you say anything to us?"

"Really Gina?" he asked in disbelief. "If I had seriously came to any of you, after waking up out of a coma, and said that my name is Caid Harrison and somehow I was placed inside of the wrong body, how do you think the three of you would have reacted? You would have put me in a mental institution!"

His statement made logical sense to Gina, but she was still in too much shock to really think it through. "You lied to us!" she accused standing to her feet.

"I did," Caid readily agreed while leaning back against the counter. "So what now? Are you going to tell Mamma and Dante?"

Gina's head snapped back in his direction, allowing him to read the anger, pain, and uncertainty in her eyes.

"I know that you must be going through a lot right now, but I assure you that I don't know what's going on as much as you do. For the past three months, I've been trying to figure out how to make this right. But I don't understand the spiritual world neither do I understand how God thinks. All I can say is that I'm terribly sorry. If things were different, I wouldn't have walked out on her. We probably would have been married by now and Adriano would still be here with his family. Nevertheless, I feel as if our accident was meant to happen for a reason. I just don't know what."

"I've had this ability since I was fifteen," Gina slowly began while absentmindedly toyed with her silver necklace. "I just never wanted it so I learned to suppress it...at least most of the time. Then your accident occurred and all of a sudden I couldn't keep it quiet." Her head slowly lifted so that she could look at him then she began to cry as she took in the features of her baby brother. Her baby brother was dead, but his body was still there, staring her back in the face.

"I know that I'm experiencing shock, but my gut—at least my abilities—are telling me that you're not lying. I think that you were purposefully sent to our family so that I could help you and send you off where you need to be. I'll see to it that it gets done."

"And in the meantime?" Caid asked.

"Don't worry; I won't say a word to the others. Mamma would have a heart attack and I don't even know how Dante will react. He might just kill you and make sure that you die this time. I guess that your secret is safe with me." She turned to leave the kitchen, but Caid still had one last question.

"How did you know, Gina?"

"In the hospital, the first question you asked us, when we saw you, was about Caid Harrison—about yourself. At the time I thought that it was only possible that you knew of his existence because the doctor's had told you, but that one time when I took you to his gravesite during your rehab, I swore that I saw into your soul and your soul wasn't my brother's."

"What?" he asked slightly confused.

"Every soul has an aura, Caid—Adriano," she corrected herself just in case her brother or her mother were to walk in on their conversation. "Our aura comes from our experiences, what life has to bring us, our strength. The Comito aura is green. We're wealthy, we know how to make money and keep it coming or we wouldn't be the Comitos."

"What about mine?"

"Blue," she said eyeing him as if she was literally looking at his soul, hell, she probably was. "With a slight mixture of green. Right now it's looking cloudy. Your thoughts are affecting your aura and it's hard for me to read it."

"What does blue represent?" Caid asked interested in finding out more about this...stuff. He didn't really know what to call it except stuff. Yes, he believed in God, but he wasn't really a spiritual person; not after the way life had let him down. Maybe he should think about getting back in touch with that side of himself.

"Creativity and intelligence and it embodies strength, wisdom, trust, and loyalty. I could clearly see that your aura had been broken yet you were still able to hold yourself strong. You are not one who is easily defeated." She exited the kitchen, her heels echoing on the polished marble as she slowly retreated.

"Aren't you worried now that you know my secret?" Caid called out after her.

"No, remember I did say that one of the things blue symbolizes is loyalty. I expect you to know that you can trust me as well."

Caid was finally able to start breathing easily now that such a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. This also meant that he would soon get the answers he had been searching for in vain, which also included bringing Brigitte back into his life permanently.